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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
Z' " Y
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
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tf&E SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL. Atlanta. Ga.
The Treaty’s JJ 7 ell-IPishers
And If hat They Advise.
• HAT the great majority of well
wishers of the Treaty of Peace
think of its present entanglement
w
and what, in their judgment, should be done
to relieve the insufferable situation, is ad
mirably voiced in an editorial from the New
York World, which we reproduce elsewhere
on this page with earnest commendation to
the truth-seeking reader. It is a special.y
significant expression in that' it comes from
the nation's leading Democratic newspaper
and a staunch friend to the Wilson Admin
istration. We are pleased to observe, more
over, that it virtually coincides with the
position already taken by The Journal.
The World cuts to the vitals of the prob
lem! when it says that the Treaty and the
League are “not a personal issue between
President Wilson and Senator Lodge,” but
that “there are one hundred million other
Americans who have a direct stake in this
controversy, and there are hundreds of mil
lions of people in other countries whose in
terest is no less important.” It was a sorry
day when this momentous matter, involving
the welfare of the entire nation and of the
wide world as well, was made a bone of par
tisan contention between Republicans and
Democrats, and a tug of war between a Senate
leader and the White House. It would have
been as reasonable in the summer of 1918 to
have drawn party lines on the question of sup
porting our fighters at the front as it would
be to draw them at this equally critical junc
ture pn the question of establishing "a just and
durable peace. Whatever obstructs this now
ail-important aim, whether political prejudice
or personal animus, should be put aside and
forgotten in the great service on which
America and mankind are anxiously waiting.
Far from thrusting the Treaty deeper into
politics by making' it an issue in the next
Presidential campaign, all friends to the prin
ciples of that noble covenant Should co
operate for its non-partisan and speedy ratifi
cation. The notion of a referendeum is im
practicable and altogether undesirable, for in
the very nature of the case such an adventure
would lead only to a bitter war of words,
ending in hopeless confusion. The Senate
should not and cannot escape its Constitu
tional responsibility by passing this question
on to an election which is some ten months
away and which at the earliest could bear no
real fruitage for considerably more than a
year from the present troubled time.
Meanwhile the vagueness and instability of
our foreign relations would wax more and
more inimical both to our own and to the
world’s welfare. Months ago the President
admonished the Senate that all the processes
of readjustment so needful in our passage
from war to peace were being retarded by
delay on-the Treaty. “Every element of nor
mal life among us,” said he, addressing the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee last Au
gust, “depends upon and awaits the ratifica
tion of the Treaty of Peace;” and he went on
to specify problem after problem of the
weightiest economic and human concern
which could not be solved until a stabilizing
compact should go into effect. This consider
ation is even more cogent now than last sum
mer. As we value prosperity and are mindful
of the nation’s honor and duty, we dare not
procrastinate on a matter that so vitally
touches our foreign trade, our industrial
security, our cost of living, and our sacred
obligtaions to the cause of international
peace and justice.
The only safe course and the only right
course, is pointed out by the World when it
says:
“Tbe President’s hope of an unquali
fied ratification of the Treaty cannot be
realized, much to our regret. Senator
Lodge’s reservations have been decisive
ly beaten, much to our delight. But
, there is left a great middle ground of
compromise, and it is the business of the
two factions to reach an agreement for
which sixty-four Senators can vote, mind
ful of- their responsbility. . . . When
the Senate has done its duty the respon
sibility again rests -with the President.
He can Refuse to exchange ratifications if
he believes that in effect the Treaty has
been rewritten and its great aims and
objects perverted, but no President
would take s?.sh a step for light and
trivial reasons.”
,The fact of immediate and pressing impor
tance is that the Senate has not yet done its
duty, and will not have done its duty until it
agrees upon a ratifying resolution which,
while taking cognizance of the conscientious
scruples ot the so-called “mild” or reasonable
reservationists, leaves the substance and
spirit of the compact unimpaired.
Such aetjon wil deserve and in all likeli
hood will receive the President’s concurrence.
It will clear the way for sorely needed read
justment in our national and international
affairs. It will save America from a sad blot
in her ’scutcheon and will put fresh heart into
all the world’s reconstructive labors. This
happy achievement waits only upon the aban
donment of partisanship and opinionated
pride. Surely, there are sixty-four Senators
who will cast aside those impediments and
make common cause for the good of their
,< county and their kind!
Too late now to rail against the spring
poet. He is just now preparing copy for the
Christmas magazines.
Move is on foot to reduce the percentages
of silver in the dollar. Increasing the buying
power might be suggested as a compensation.
A Scientist's Vision of
The Resourceful South.
■ryrHEX a scientist of the attainments
V-V/ and the distinction of Dr. Arthur D.
Little, of Boston, falls to talking on
a subject which he has surveyed, the entire
country can well afford to listen. Never did
this masterly chemist speak more impressive
ly than in a recent address on the natural
treasures of the South. Highly conservative
as he is, he declared, concerning the figures
which set forth these resources, that no one
capable of understanding their significance
can review them “without first being over
whelmed, and soon thereafter filled with the
vision of their stupendous possibilities.” This
is no rhetorical flourish; it is the reasoned
conclusion of a trained and deeply learned
observer.
Some regions of America are wondrously
rich in minerals, others in agriculture, and
others in water power. But the South is
superlatively rich in them all. Says Dr. Lit
tle- “She has more than half the iron ore
in the United States, and seventy-five per
cent of all the coking coal; great stores of
lignite, natural gas and oil. Here is the
purest salt which occurs in nature, the
cheapest and purest sulphur, clays endless
in variety and extent bauxite for aluminum
and for abrasives, limestone adjacent to
coal and iron, phosphate rock, gypsum,
barytes, shale and quartz, ores of zinc and
manganese, lead and nickel, titanium and
tin.” Moreover, there is enough wood waste
in the South “to supply the country’s need
for paper.” With the important and diversi
fied uses of cotton we are fairly familiar, but
it is enlightening to hear that the value of
the South’s corn crop now “approximately
equals that of cotton, and affords a basis for
great corn product industries.” In other
fields of food production and also in animal
husbandry the South’s measureless resources
are being developed apace. Add the poten
tialities of five million horse-power available
in Southern streams, and we have a sketchy
outline of the basic materials and forces for
what Dr. Little calls “the development of
great groups of co-ordinated industries . . .
on a scale incomparably more vast than any
thing yet known.”
With so marvelous a foundation in nature,
should not the South be the wealthiest part
of America? Should not her universities and
colleges be of all most plenteously en
dowed, and her common schools most liber
ally maintained? Yet, strangely enough,
we find the facts to be just the con
trary.* Massachusetts alone, for example, has
invested in institutions of learning more
than have all the Southern States combined.
Pondering the significance of this, we shall
not be astonished upon going a step farther
to see that the taxable property of Massa
chusetts exceeds by more than a billion dol
lars that,of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mis?
sissippi, Louisiana and Arkansas all together.
The conclusion is inescapable that prosperity
depends first upon the development of man
power through education. Elsewise a nook
of New England, whose natural treasure in
no way compares with the South’s imperial
resources, would not show so enormous a
superiority in point of taxable values. But
given natural treasure plus educational de
velopment, how will the South tower and
shine among the highest peaklands of pros
perity! If it be said that weihave not had
the wealth required for large educational
gifts and endowments, the answer is that we
must have the endowments to get the wealth.
Herein lie the richest and loftiest reaches of
that vision which the scientist beholds in our
“stupendous possibilities.” And here, too,
lies the way of surest service for every loyal
son and daughter of Dixie.
A Georgia Issue Passes.
T is refreshing to turn from what Mr.
Pickwick would call the “mutations and
vicissitudes” of a troubled world to those
I
rather numerous Georgia counties now re
joicing in their “Fence” law’s which became
operative with the new year. The object of
this statute, we' learn from the Dublin Cou
rier Herald, is “to relieve farmers of the
necessity of fencing in their large tracts of
Land, by keeping their live stock penned up
or within properly fenced areas.” Our Lau
rens county contemporary interestingly
adds:
“A large amount of live stock, particu
larly hogs, calves and also poultry, an
nually falls victim to autoists, frequently
without fault of the driver, as some of
the Piney Woods rooters often evince a
persistence, worthy of better things,
in not getting out of the middle of the
road, even when a car is only slowly ap
proaching. With the new law effective,
autoists may no longer be held respon
sible for live stock killed in the road.”
Commendable though it doubtless is for
the counties to have taken this step, we can
but regret the passing of an issue that has
furnished ground for so many a picturesque
and valiant controversy. Never did Capulet
war more doughtily against Montague, or
Guelph against Ghibelline, than the opposed
ranks of the “Fence” and “No Fence” law.
It was a tug between the idyllic past and the
progressive present; between the romanticist
who joyed in the spectacle of a sow and her
nine farrow wandering odorously along the
village ways, and the stern realist who had
no relish for such sights and waftures. The
good old times are stealing to oblivion; no
more logs on the fire; no more julep for the
mint; no more pigs in the road.
The Frontier.
?PORTUNITIES rich beyond measure,
I for the country as a whole as well as
for the South, are bound up in the
o
proposed reclamation of swamp and cut
over lands through a system of financial
aid from the national Government. Millions
of such acres await development in Georgia,
and neighboring states. Though now until
lable, they are wondrously fertile, and at
relatively small expense could be converted
into farm sites of rare promise. They are
indeed among America’s most valuable re
sources, howsoever lightly they now may be
appraised by the unthinking and unin
formed; for they constitute a reserve of pro
ductivity which some day, and that perhaps
nearer than we imagine, will be priceless in
its worth to public welfare.
At a conference on the subject, held this
week in Washington, Dr. Clarence J. Owens,
director of the Southern Commercial con
gress, aptly pointed out that this nation’s
mightiest strides to wealth and power “were
made upon our Western frontier through the
utilization of the hundreds of millions of
acres of free, ready-to-crop land, upon
which have been established nearly five mil
lion farm homes.” Without that pioneering
and development, there never would have
been an America capable of turning the tide
of history’s greatest war and of shouldering
like a benevolent Atlas the economic burdens
of a world. But next to nothing of that vast
free domain is now left. If agriculture is to
expand in the future—and expand it must
j to keep the nation strong and secure—it
; must turn toward regions like the sw,amp and
cut-over lands of the South.
Here lies the frontier of America today.
Here lie the opportunities for initiative and
fruitful enterprise. There is no worthier
afield to whicfiFthe Government's constructive
interests can be directed.
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA. FRIDAY, JAWAi.V Hi, ILL.O.
A PACK OF BALD EAGLES—By Frederic J. Haskin
WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 10.—High up
in western mountain ranges, far from rail
roads, wagon roads and even trails, there is
great wealth in gold, silver and other precious
metals Much of it is undiscovered, because
no prospector would waste his time hunting
for gold mines in situations from which the
gold could never be brought out. But some
of these deposits are well known, and some
of them miners have tried again and again
to reach. Recently in the Olympic mountains
dozens of horses were killed in a vain at
tempt to carry a hydraulic outfit to one of
these inaccessible bonanzas. The horses
slipped and fell into a deep canyon, killing
and maiming themselves and smashing the
machinery with which they were loaded. Old
prospectors, discussing these lodes of unat
tainable wealth, are wont to remark:
“The stuff is there, all right, but you would
need a pack of bald eagles to bring it out.”
Well, the pack of freight-carrying eagles,
of which the old-timers used longingly to
dream, has become a reality. Man has made
himself mechanical birds that fly faster and
higher and lift more weight than the lustiest
eagle that ever flew. Why cannot airplanes
or dirigibles fly to these inaccessibe deposits
of wealth, carrying the machinery in, bit by
bit, and the metal out?
This idea is not merely the pipe dream of
a reporter. It originated with a mining ex
pert of high scientific attainments, who holds
an important government position. He knows
a great deal about gold mines and something
about airplanes. He expressed the opinion
thht in all probability some man who com
bines imagination with practical ability will
astonish the world and enact one more great
industrial romance by bringing gold and sil
ver and possibly radium down from the
mountain tops in flying machines.
When this mining expert was confronted
by a newspaper reporter who had heard of
his idea, he was immediately seized with that
acute panic which so often afflicts the scien
tific man when he encounters a representa
tive of the press. The average scientist is
just as spontaneously -afraid of a newspaper
man as a" cat is afraid of a bull dog. The
minute his natural enemy comes in sight he
gets flustered, and asually goes up a high
tree of non-committal language, where he
remains until the brute goes away. It may be
CURRENT EVENTS OF INTEREST
Duchess Eleonara D’Arenberg, of Belgian
origin, who died recently at Montreux, Swit
zerland, left a large estate in Belgium which
the Germans had sequestrated. She also left
an interesting memorandum, saying that her
son was completely Prussianized, that he held
a major’s commission in the German army
and was a close friend of the former Em
peror.
Three months before the outbreak of the
war, she says in the memorandum, the Em
the recent “no license” referendum, New Zea
peror informed her son that Germany short
ly would start hostilities and to withdraw
his fortune from Belgium, and the son trans
ferred his belongings and bank account from
Belgium to Berlin. The Duchess said she re
fused to take her son’s advice and do like
wise. The Swiss newspapers suggest that th*
claims made in the memorandum be investi
gated if former Emperor William is to be
Russia’s losses during the war in killed
and wounded aggregated 3,500,000, accord
ing to statistics of the Kolchak government.
Twenty-five deserters who reached Swit
zerland during the war have formed a unique
league, the object of which is stated by its
founders to be “defense of our interests.” The
members are chiefly from the Central Pow
ers, none of them being American or British.
The Swiss authorities say they would be glad
to get rid of all the deserters, some of whom
served as spies. Several would be shot if they
were expelled from Switzerland and com
pelled to return home.
The Swiss newspapers remark that al
though English and American troops were
on leave near the Swiss frontier, not one de
serted. One American blundered into Swit
zerland in 1916, having lost his way. He
complained that Europe was so small that
its. frontiers could be crossed in a day’s
walk.
The Tail Goes With the Hide
By Dr. Frank Crane
_Jn this world you can’t get what you want
without getting a whole lot you don’t want.
Desire may be pure'and unmixed, but the
gratification thereof is spotted.
When you get married, all you wanted was
the girl. Did you get her, alone, only and
nothing else? You did not. You got a moth
er-in-law; also a mixed assortment of other
relatives; likewise some more impedimenta
that we will not say any more about.
You went to school. Did you get the train
ing you were after? Oh, yes; and much more
you were not after and didn’t want. You
discovered that a college does not exist to
train you, but to be “true to its traditions,”
which means teaching a deal of superfluities.
In order to be an automobile salesman you
had to learn all about the Greek enclitics,
and Latin ablative absolutes, and the influ
ences of Aryan jimfritzes upon the Romance
thingumbobs.
You enter a beanery. Do you get the carbo
hydrates and proteins and fats you need?
Yea, verily. Plus. You also buy jazz, and the
courtesy of the waiter and the smile of the
hat-girl.
When you attend church you may get a
nickel’s worth of inspiration and light, but it
comes along with seven dollars and a half’s
worth of what you don’t like, don’t need
and can’t use.
If you go to a hotel you pay not only for
your bed and food, but for spacious halls,
obsequious bell-hops, and expensive rugs,
chandeliers, and gewgaws.
You have a house to live in. But to have
the few simple necessities you must have
several tons of truck that is only good to
stumble over. v
This is a grand and glorious government,
and long may it wave. But besides keeping
the peace, which you appreciate, it does forty
things you do not care for.
To obtain the news you seek in the news
papers you must search through columns of
clamorous advertisements.
To get the story in a novel you must read
through boundless Saharas of “literature.”
To get the point in a lawyer’s speech you
must listen to four hours of verbal spray.
When a man comes into your office to tell
you something he lias to tell you first about
75 other things.
When you buy a house you buy—neigh
bors.
When the lawyer makes your contract you
find he has put into it not only what you and
the other fellow agree to do, but everything
else but the kitchen stove.
When you get drunk you not only obtain
the desired hilarity but an assortment of
pink lions and blue giraffes.
So don’t complain. Everything on this
globe is attended by everything else. There’s
a bushel of chaff to every handful of wheat,
liberty is surrounded by blatherskites, prog
ress has its retinue of crazy loons, virtue has
its hypocrites, you have to take prohibition
and woman suffrage along with the constitu
tion. and the league along with the treaty.
Cheer up! ’ <
The tail goes with the hide:
(Copyright, 1920, by Frank Crane)
f that the scientist, like the cat. is partly jus
tified in his conduct by experience.
At any rate, this scientist was genuinely
and deeply alarmed at the idea that his rep
utation for conservatism, or that of the gov
ernment department with which he is con
nected, should be exposed to injury by the
publication of a sensational story to the ef
fect that mining by airplane is a practicable
thing. Nevertheless, when he had been prom
ised that his name would not be used, he ad
mitted that it did look practicable to him.
The possibilities of the airplane as a
means of carrying freight have been pretty
well canvassed. It has been said that it costs
about as much to carry a pound by airplane
as it does to carry a ton the same distance
by rail. In a word, the cost is prohibitive.
That is why, so far, the airplane has been
used for carrying nothing heavier than mail.
In the second place, an airplane must have
a safe and adequate landing field before it
can operate al all. At present, when the
United States air service is asked to land a
plane anywhere, it stipultes that there must
be a level field at least 1,800 feet square.
Now it might be hard to clear a field that
large on some of the mountain tops where
the rich mines are located. But the air serv
ice officials have also officially predicted that
within a year or two they will be able to land
on a field 200 feet square with comparative
safety. They are learning more about the
landing business every day. It is understood
that the development of a reversible propel
ler has much to do with this official optim
ism about the landing business. And it would
seem that a landing field 200 feet square
could be arranged on most mountain tops.
Os course, an airplane can carry only a
few hundred pounds of freight. It wouldt
hardly be practicable to ship out crude ore
by airplane. But gold and silver are usually
reduced at the mine. The procedure would
presumably be to carry to the mountain top
all the machinery for a stamp mill and a re
duction plant by airplane, piece by piece.
This would be expensive, but it would only
have to be done once. Then the metal in bars
worth thousands of dollars each would be
carried out by airplane, and they would be
far safer from robbery than most gold in
transport away from railroads is nowadays.
So much for gold mining by airplane. The
idea is offered, without royalty charge, to
anyone who wants to try it.
The immediate formation of a National
Party, including the Unionists and t-he retn
nant of the Lioeral organization, to present
an effective front to the Laborites, is sug
gested by Lord Chancellor Birkenhead in an
article printed in The Weekly Dispatch of
London.
The Lord Chancellor believes the recent
by-election in Spen Valley, Yorkshire, result
ed as it did principally from the absence of
an organized party capable of exposing the
weaknesses of labor's armor. He says the
Coalition Government is “hopelessly inverte
bral and Ineffective to fight English com
munists.”
Brazil is entering the suffrage race, accord
ing to reports reaching this country. A bill,
the prpuose of which is to grant the right
of suffrage to the women of Brazil, has been
introduced into the senate of that country.
This Ipill provides that suffrage should be
granted to women twenty-one years of age
or ovet.
land will remain wet and the present license
system will continue. The official vote
showed that for continuance of the licensing
system 240,998 votes were cast; for State
purchases an I control of liquors, 32,148, and
for prohibition 270,178.
The prohibitionists, therefore, were 2,968
votes short of the absolute majority required
to carry any issue. The votes of 508 soldiers
who are returning on troop ships cannot af
fect the result.
By reason of the failure of the prohibi
tionists to secure a majority of the votes in
brought to trial.
INCOME TAX FACTS
YOU SHOULD KNOW
No. 3
In making out his income-tax return the
taxpayer is required to show both gross and
net income. Gross income includes practi
cally every dollar the taxpayer received dur
ing the year 1919. In arriving at net in
come, upon which the tax is assessed, he is
allowed certain deductions, which will be
explained later, plus the amount of his ex
emption.
Incomes below $5,000 are exempt from
surtax. The single man with no depend
ents and an income for 1919 of $2,000 will
pay a tax of S4O instead of S6O as for 1918,
and a married man with an income of $2,500
and no dependents except his wife will pay
S2O instead of S3O.
Surtax Rates
The surtax rate is 1 per cent on the
net income in excess of $5,000 and not
over $6,000, and increases by steps of 1 per
cent for each $2,000 of net income up to and
including 4 8 per cent on net income in ex
cess of $98,000 and not over SIOO,OOO. From
this point the rates run as follows: Fifty-two
per cent on net income over SIOO,OOO and not
over $150,000, 56 per cent on net income
over $150,000 and not over $200,000, 60
per cent on net income over $200,000 and
not over $300,000, 63 per cent on net income
over $300,000 and not over $500,000, 64
per cent on net income over $500,000 and not
over $1,000,000, and 65 per cent on net
income over $1,000,000.
How to Compute Taxes
The following illustration will show the
average taxpayer whose net income was more
than $5,000 how to compute his tax:
A single man had a net income for 1919
of $6,000. First he deducts his personal
exemption of SI,OOO, leaving a balance of
$5,000. On the first $4,000 he pays at the
normal rate of 8 per cent, SBO. In addition
he pays a surtax of $lO, 1 per cent on the
amount of his net income between $5,000
and $6,000. His total tax is $250, as com
pared with $370 for 1918.
4Rate For Married Men
A married man with two dependents had
a net income for 1919 for $7,500. From this
he deducts his personal exemption of $2,000,
plus S2OO for each dependent. On the first
$4,000 of the balance of $5,100 he pays,
at the normal rate of 4 per cent, $l6O. On
the remaining $l,lOO he will pay, at the nor
mal rate of 8 per cent, SBB. On the amount
of his income between $5,000 and $6,000 he
pays a surtax of 1 per cent or $lO. On the
amount of his income between $6,000 and
$7,500 he pays a surtax of 2 per cent. The
total, normal and surtax, is S2BB as com
pared with $412 for 1918.
Husband and wife whose combined het
income for 1919 equalled or exceeded $2,000
must file a return, either separate or joint
asLdesired. A widow, a woman living apart
from her husband, or a maid must file a
return if her net income equaled or exceeded
SI,OOO. A minor whose income for 1919
was SI,OOO or more must make a return. If
the minor's income was less than SI,OOO,
it must be included in the return of the
parent.
■ THE SEMI-WEEKLY EDITORIAL DIGEST
A National and Non-Partisan Summary of Leading Press Opinion on Current
Questions and Events <
“The people are begun.ing to think that both
old parties are up to their hubs in ihe nfre
and sinking deeper, declares the BRIDGEPORT
POST (Ind.), and “those vdio feel that we ought
to have a business executiv need not look
beyond Herbert Hoove . Moreover,” the POST
adds, “he could be elected on ar.y ticket.” He
is becoming a “serious presidentia l possibility,”
according to the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL find.),
“not because he is a good bepublica’- or a good
Democrat, but because he is a real man,” and
“is not the property of any party, but of all
the people.”
“If Hoover is nominated,” the GREENSBORO
DAILY NEWS (Ind.), 'ay:., it “will not be be
cause Hoover has turned Democrat or Repub
lican, but because Democracy or Republicanism
has turned Hooverite.” The same paper speaks
of the “extraordinary dominance over the im
aginations of his fellow citizens” which Mr.
Hoover has obtained. “More and more, in
places scattered far and wide,’ the SACRA
MENTO UNION (Dem.) relnarks, “the people
have said to themselves: Here is the man we
want; the m-n who would represent not party
but principle; the man whose life and deeds
have proved his worth, his abilitv and his re
gard for the welfare of mankind.”
The fact that Mr. Hoover has declared him
self “emphatically not a candidate” does not
discourage those who regard him as a possi
ble choice of one of the big parties. In fact,
it is regarded by many as a soiree of strength.
So also, it is thought, is the fact that his pol
itics is unknown, and that many people be
lieve him equally available as a candidate of
either party.
The HARTFORD COURANT (Rep.), however,
thinks his status is clea He i. a Democrat.
Referring to a “leading Republican as saying
that, if we only knew where Hoover stood, the
party would do well tc nominate him,” the
COURANT reminds us that “when Woodrow
Wilson appealed to the people to elect a
Democratic congress if they wanted the war to
end . . . Mr. Hoover, who had no political
job. and had no call to butt in, added his ap
peal to the people to vote the Democratic
ticket.” The PORTLAND OREGONIAN (Ind.
Rep.) likewise regards him as a possibility only
from the Democratic side, for while “he may
not be a Democrat, anyway he ic no Republi
can.” The OREGONIAN thinks even the Dem
ocrats! would not nominate him this year, with
his “unpartisan record,” except that “desperate
cases try desperate remedies,” and it looks like
a case of “my kingdom for a winner.” But
the OREGONIAN is not convinced that we want
a “business man’ for ores'dent, snee “states
manship, and not mere organizing or money
making genius, is indisrensible in a capable
chief executive.”
The NEW YORK ?* • BE (Ind.) frankly ex 4
presses its admiration of Mr. Hoover and poin.s
out that the next preside - 1 will have to exe
cute the terms of the peace treaty, in what
ever form it may be ratified. Mr. Hoover, it
believes, “could make even the Lodge program
a basis for playing a whole-hearted part in the
affairs of the league.” Many other opinions
point to the broad experience gained by Her
bert Hoover as administrator of Belgium, . nd,
since the armistice, in the plans for provis
ioning Central :. “Wherever in the old
world they know hunger and shiver from ex
posure,”’ says the PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC
LEDGER (Ind.), “they call on the name of
Hoover and no one else for succor.” The SAT
URDAY EVENING POST, under the same
ownership as the LEDGER, is clamoring strong
ly for a “business executive,” and simulta
neously “playing up” Mr. Hoover in prose and
pictures. His recent statement opposing gov
ernment loans to Europe but favoring commer
cial credits for food nd other necessities, is
widely commented no, and generally with favor.
But can he be induced to permit his name
to go before a -.invention? “Mr. Hoover has
bought a Washington paper,” as the ROCHES
TER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE (Rep.)
points out, “but the people will require further
evidence before assuming that he is seriously
in the field as a presidential candidate.” The
paper in question (the HERALD) has, since :ts
purchase, become remarkably silent on moot po
litical questions, and these who hoped to gain
from it a “line’ on Mr. Hoover’s political
sentiments have been disappointed.
Yet the talk continues, for while no “profes
sional president-maker” seems to favor him, vhe
NEBRASKA STATE JOURNAL (Ind. Rep.) says
“a demand for Hoover keeps appearing her? and
there, especially in Washington, where Hoover
is best known.” The JOU°CAL continues:
“His lack of a party tag is explained by a
Democratic politician b v the statement that
‘Hoover is—just Hooker.’ There are a lot of
people in .America now who are that way, peo
ple who wear no labels, but are just thim
selves. Maybe that L .he source of the per
sistent Hoover talk. That, and perhaps a wide
spread feeling that for g quzdrennium whose
problems are going to be economic rather than
political or military, a president will be needed
whose mind runs to economics rather than to
politics or war.” 1
But “elusive Hoover” is what the NEW OR
LEANS ITEM (Ind.) calls him. He “would be
an enlivening interest in the campaign,” - d
“would bring into it a new set of enconiums
and arouse a new host of enmities. Bi t enither
party is able to decide • hether it should throw
bouquets or brickbats.”
PRESIDENT SHOULD W1 LCOME RESERVA
TIONS
Mr. Wilson’s language cannot be constru'd
as advice to his party to take the treaty into
the campaign. That cannot be his wish or his
hope. It is not, for the whole weight of his
appeal and argument supports interpretative res
ervations. “I have endeavored to make it
plain,” he says, “that if the senate wishes to
say what the undouted meaning of the league
is I shall have no objection.” But he adds,
“there shu-ld le no reasonable object to
interpretations accompanying the act of ratifi
cation itself. ’ That sentence might better have
been omitted from the presidents letter, for it
is too late to indulge th hope of interpretations
merely “accompanying” the act. The situation
that confronts the president and the country is
that the senate will not ratify the treaty save
wih reservations made a part of the ratifying
act. A numerous and influential group of sen
ators on the Republican siHe are loyally striv
ing to reach an agreement with their own
leaders and with the Democrats upon a form
of reservations whuh the president can accept.
—NEW YORK TIMES (Ind. Deni.).
HAS BRYAN SPLIT HIS PARTY?
Mr. William J. Bryan made a dramatic en
trance into national politics at tht Jackson Day
dinner in Washington last night. He split open
the Demorcratic party. He threw down the
gauntlet to President Wilson on the proper
course for the Democratic party to pursue
in the matter of the peace treaty with the cov
enant of the League of Nations attached.
Thus the Democratic party finds itself split
in twain on the one issue created by President
Wilson. Two conspicuous figures loom up on
the stage of Democratic politics. Two factions
are at the parting of the ways. Which will
pi evail?
Nothing could more spectacularly stage the
desperate condition of one faction and the no
less desperate condition of the other. Presi
dent Wilson is meeting a party foe worthy of
his steel. Who will win?—NEW YORK HER
ALD (Ind.).
OUTLAWING A POLITICAL /LATFORM
There can be but one opinion concerning the
action of the assembly at Albany yesterday in
suspending its five Socialist members. The
EVENING POST cannot be suspected of sym
pathy for the unpractical ideals of Socialism
when it declares that the assembly’s action is a
sinister threat against the fundamentals of de
mocracy and representative government. Unlike
Victor Berger, who wars expelled from congress
on his individual record, the Socialist assem-
1/ ho if ants Hoover?
blymen were not barred as individuals but as
adherents of a definite political party and creed.
This party at one time polled nearly a million
votes for its presidential candidate. It polled
145,000 votes for its mayoralty candidate in
New York in 1917 and nearly 130,000 votes for
its candidate for president of the board of ai
dermen last November. In outlawing a polit
ica’. “platform” the assembly has done two
things. It has arrogated the right to interpret
a statement of principles into an attack again:*
the public welfare, and it has made all sub
scribers to these principles ipso facto violators
of the law. If this stands, no minority is secure
in the future against excommunication on the
ground that it is “inimical” to the public in
terest.—NEW YORK EVENING POST (Ind.).
WILSON AND BRYAN
In straightforward fashion the president
satisfied one phase of the public’s legitimate
curiousity—that of his attitude toward the
treaty and the senate. On the other phase,
that of a third term and his possible candi
dacy, he left them still in the dark. By no
word did he intimate what is in his mind
on that subject. He leaves himself abso
lutely free for the developments of the cam
paign, which may be regarded as formally
inaugurated. The decision, if his own mind
wavers as to the course which duty dictates,
may turn on the manner on which the re
spective views of himself and the man* who
must now be considered his avowed dppo
aent are received by the people.
As to Bryan—he may not be even a po
tential candidate for the presidential nomina
tion, but there is a ring to his address, a
keynpte quality, a hint of platform-making
that will lead to a conviction that he still
aspires, if not to White House occupancy at
least to a resumption of party leadership;
and with public sentiment so nicely bal
anced between a desire to support the presi
dent in his struggle for a national and in
ternational ideal, and a wish for immediate
peace, who at this early day can foretell the
result? RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
(Dem.)
WHY SPAIN KEPT OUT OF WAR
Os no great moment to anybody except
professional historians is the controversy
which has broken out among ihe military
authorities as to the reasons why Spain
kept out of the war. The truth seems to be
that Spain was in no condition to go to war.
She could not have entered the general
European mixup without precipitating a
civil war, which would have taxed all her
resources and left her none to contribute to
the Central powers, with whom official Spain
sympathized. Spain’s republicans, socialists,
labo v ltes, the working classes and masses and
the agricultural element were pro-ally. They
lacked arms and leaders. The internal sit
uation in Spain was so delicate that no
cabinet dared to break openly tjie neutral
ity that stood as the one barrier against the
horrors of civil war, the downfall of the
reigning dynasty and chaos. These are the
true reasons for Spain’s neutrality.—ANA
CONDA STANDARD (Dem.)
ROOSEVELT’S TRUST POLICY VS.
PALMER’S
Attorney General Palmer now says the
unscrambling of the packers will not result
in any immediate lowering of prices to the
food-buying public. He has made the dis
covery that “great concerns with their effi
ciency methods do handle business with less
expense thank many small units.”
But he entertains hopes. He says:
“We shall have to depend on getting re
sults in this direction from competition, and
if they are not obtained, then our whole
theory of efficiency gained by democratic
competition is wrong.”
Just what he means by “democratic com
petition” we do not know unless it be the
Democratic policy of enforcing competition
contrary to economic tendency to eliminate
friction and substitute co-operation. If this
be his meaning we can tell him without wait
ing for further experiment that his whole
theory is wrong.
Roosevelt’s policy of regulating trusts and
combines and compelling them to pay for
the right of combination by better service
to the public was the wise policy. We are
outgrowing th ecompetitive era, and sooner
will we abandon foolish efforts to make the
business life of today wear the clothes of a
half century ago.—CHICAGO POST (Ind.)
THE WORK CURE
—•—
H
who are men and women witli no partic
ular occupation. It is a story from real life,
and its beginnings hark back to a statement
once made to me by a personal friend. •
“Long ago,” he sail, '1 made up my mind
that, if 1 could afford to do so, i would retire
from business at the age of fifty. Next year
I shall be fifty. I have made all the money
I need, and 1 intend to retire.”
“Don’t do it,” 1 warned him. “Let down a
bit in your work, if you like. But don’t quit
entirely. You’d only regre* it.”
He laughed at my warning, and the conver
sation shifted to something else 1 did not
See him again for nearly a year.
Then I saw him only because I heard that
he was seriously and mysteriously ill. I found
him able to be up and about, but walking
with difficulty because of unaccountable mus
cular pain and stiffness.
‘lt’s some kind of rheumatism,” he ex
plained, “but a queer kind. It’s not due to
teeth and it’s not due t< tonsils. The doctors
seem stumped, and 1 certainly don’t know
what’s the matter with me.”
For months my frien dragged along. Then,
as unexpectedly at they had come, his pains
and aches left him, coirtftdel with his deciding
that the financial strain imposed by the war
made it advisable ior him to go into business
once more.
The coincidence, I am sure, was more than
a coincidence. It was an impressive illustra
tion of the eally curative value of work as a
remedy for some functional nervous ills.
When I learned of my friend’s recovery I was
reminded of the sage observation of another
friend, a medical man of wide experience with
neivous patients:
“The physician often has patients who have
been in affluence, but after a financial panic
are in straitened circumstances. It is inter
esting to note what an excellent topic effect—
in young people always, in older people often—
the change of 'ife has on these chronic value
tudinarians.
“Sometimes this is attributed to the sim
pler life when poorer, occasionally to the lack
of responsibility, or other similar reason. Near
ly always it is easy to see that the real
cause of their improvement in health is the
occupation of mind with serious interests out
side of self.”
Oh, that people everywhere, people in all
classes of society, woul. only appreciate the
supreme importance of work in their live.<u
We should then hear no longer the clamoring
for less work, for ever less work. People
would account idleness what it really is—a
curse, not a privilege.
And also the world wo'uld contain far fewer
nervous invalids. For nervous invalidism,
though its victims know it not, is often nothing
mbre than a sign of mental weariness at a life
spent without aim and without self-satisfying
effort.
(Copyright, 1920, by The Associated News-<
papers.)
By H. Addington Bruce
LRE is a little story that 1 commend es
pecially to those among the nervously ill