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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNA
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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta, Ga.
The Way oj Right and Reason
Between Two Absurd Extremes
irfTf HE moderation and practicality of
I Senator Smith’s stand on the Peace
•*- Treaty, as distinguished from the ex
treme and really destructive positions rep
resented in the candidacies of Attorney Gen
eral Palmer on the one hand, and Senator
Reed on the'other, is in line with the best
balanced thought, both of America and of
the Allied countries. It is virtually the
same position held, on this side of the wa
ter, by such men as Herbert Hoover, Presi
dent Lowell, of Harvard, William Howard
Taft, William Jennings Bryan and by twen
ty-three Democratic. Senators, all earnest ad
vocates of a League of Nations; and on the
other side of the water by such leaders as
Lord Grey, the great exponent of English
liberalism, and by the foremost statesmen
of France. As between the judicious coun
sel of thinkers like these and the radical
cry of those who either denounce the pro
posed League covenant as wholly evil or
praise its every word and letter as too
sacred for a single change, the majority
off common-sensed people, we imagine, will
have little hesitancy in choosing.
- It is much to be regretted that petty
politics ever brought about a situation in
,vhich the Democrats of Georgia would have
been forced to vote for one or the other
of these extremes, or else forego their suf
frage rights in the Presidential primary.
All that the rank and file of citizens wished
was a fair opportunity to choose their own
candidate and express their own will at the
pedis. But that simple right was denied
them. They were told, not in so many
wejds. but in the more emphatic form of
anX>rbitiary and autocratic act, that they
must choose between certain committee
censored candidates or not choose at all.
sxtch a restriction would have been unjust
ret any circumstances, but it was particular
ly so in this instance because, as matters
actually worked out, it reduced the peo
ple to an alternative that was truly pre
posterous. It left them only two candidates
to,choose between, one of whom stood un
qualifiedly against everything the present
Administration has done, partlcr' 1 wi I ' l
reference to the war and its consequent
issues, nd the other of whom stood un
qualifiedly for everythin" Aclm’Mstration
has done, even to the deplorable policy of
letting the Peace Treaty be wrecked rather
tjfiKre accept unavoidable reservations. Some
there are who approve the radical position
thus taken by Senator Reed, and some
who approve the oppositely radical stand
of Attoriey General Palmer. These few
(for it is inconceivable that they constitute
more than a minority) would have had op
portunity to vote a real preference if the
contest had been limited, as certain poli
ticians sought to limit it, to Reed and Pal-
Ser. But what of the thousands and tens
thousands who are not extremists on
e£thi?r side and who believe in a League of
Nations so deeply and so broadly that they
are willing to a sacrifice of all partisan
or personal pride in order that the prin
ciple itself may win out and the great safe
guard of peace be established?
This practical-minded majority would have
been virtually disfranchised if their right
of selection had been limited to Attorney
General Palmer and Senator Reed, and the
primary would have been little more than
a politicians’ farce. All who believed, as
The Journal did, that the people were en
titled to pass on Herbert Hoover- would
have been disfranchised. All who believe
that the Administration’s great achievements
should be approved but that its manifest er
rors should not be servilely sanctioned and
repeated, would have been disfranchised.
All who believe that- it is better to save
the Treaty and the League covenant with
reservations than to lose them forever by
unbending pride and partisanship would
have been disfranchised.
.It is highly regrettable, we say, that gen
tlemen who hoped to manipulate the pri
mavy to suit their own plans ever attci d
to thrust this Injustice upon the people of
Georgia. But the unfair situation having
lieen forced and the rights of Demo
cratic suffrage having been threatened, it
was not to be imagined for a moment that
men born to freedom would supinely ac
cept so flagrant a wrong. It was inevita
’ ble that some way of expression for the
thousands whose appeals were ignored
Sl24 3 whose rights were overridden would be
sopght and would be found. It so happens,
as the result of a movement initiated by the
Democrats of Hall county, that Senator
Jfoke Smith has been persuaded to enter
the primary for this purpose. His candi
dacy thus becomes, not a personal matter,
but a matter of principle, a means of as
sertion and vindication for the ideas and
the ideals so vitally involved, ideals which
have been graven for a long ane on Geor
gia’s own shield—“ Wisdom, Justice and
Moderation.” For surely it would be the re
verse of wisdom to drag the grave and
delicate issues of peace through a long
drawn-out and bitterly partisan campaign
rather than accept needful reservations to
the League covenant and so make possible
the Treaty’s ratification. Surely it would
be the reverse of justice to compel Georgia
Democrats to choose between two candi
dates, neither of whom they approved, or
cast no ballot at all. And surely it would
tie the reverse of moderation to tie ‘he
pacey’s or the country’s fortunes either to
a radical antagonist or to a mere imitator
THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL.
of all that the present Administration rep
represents.
1 Senator Smith makes plain’his motive and
intent ~aen he says in his announcement:
"I would greatly appreciate the indorse
ment of my State and would not seek to
hold the delegation pledged to me should
a situation develop which, in their opinion,
made it advisable for them to vote for some
one else. I would in that event release
them from any obligation to me and enable
them to freely choose in connection with the
other delegates that candidate who was
considered most available on the principles
announced and who most truly represented
the fundamental doctrines on which the
Democratic party has rested since its founda
tion. I would, in no sense, seek or wish
to control their choice.”
This puts his candidacy on a purely im
personal plane and makes it the champion
ship of a principle and a right. As for
The Journal, it is in the principle and the
right of the situation, and in them alone,
that we ever have been or are now inter
ested. Let them be vindicated and our ut
termost wish is satisfied. That they will
be decisively vindicated, we earnestly and
confidently trust.
The Farmer s Share
THE discrepancy between the cost of
raw materials and manufactured
products justifies the conclusion that
the producer receives relatively a small
share of the price that the ultimate con
sumer pays for articles made of cotton cloth.
A recent inquiry by a Senate committee ex
ploded as fallacious the popular impression
that the high price of cotton accounts for
the ever-increasing cost of cotton goods.
The raw cotton entering into the manu
facture of a handkerchief selling for twenty
five cents costs less than one and a half
cents, according to the facts developed at
the Senate inquiry. A piece of gingham that
retails for four dollars and fifty cents con
tains cotton that sold to the mills for twen
ty-five cents at the prevailing market price
of forty cents a pound for cotton; a piece
of voile that sells for three dollars and
forty-eight cents was made of cotton that;
cost only nineteen and a half cents, and two
pair of socks were knitted of cotton yarn
that cost four and a half cents, although
the socks retailed for seventy-five cents.
The raw cotton is the finished product of
the farmer; that is to say, when the staple
is sold in the market at forty or forty
three cents per pound, the price represents
the gross returns the farmer receives for
his article. Included in the market price is
the cost of the labor required to plant and
cultivate the cotton, the cost of picking and
ginning and hauling and baling it. The profit
of the producer is represented by the mar
gin of difference between all these costs and
the price he finally receives for his product.
The cotton passes through many hands
after it leaves the farmer and before the
manufactured product reaches the consumer.
First, there is the matter of transportation
charges from the farm to the mill; the
cotton broker’s commission adds to the
mill’s cost, in some instances. Then there is
the cost of spinning the cotton and weaving
the cloth, with a reasonable profit to the
mill.
After the cotton goods leaves the mill it
passes through several hands before it final
ly reaches the consumer, and, of course,
every person who handles it makes a profit,
which is passed along through the retailer
to the public.
Notwithstanding all these charges, which
add to the ultimate cost, the conclusion is
inevitable that the discrepancy between the
price of the raw material and the manufac
tured product is out of all proportion, and
that the farmer is not getting his propor
tionate share of the ultimate price.
When the farmer receives only nineteen
and a half cents as his gross price for cot
ton, which is manufactured and sold to the
public for three dollars and forty-eight cents,
it becomes apparent that somewhere along
the line some one is making an excessive
profit, which eventually comes out of the
pocket of the consumer.
Corruption and Radicalism.
GORRUPT politics and firebrand radi
calism are yoke-fellows after all, de
spite the fact that superficially they
are kickers one against the other. Both are
unscrupulous and unpatriotic, both are de
structive of a nation’s best traditions and
best hopes. One bribes its way, and one
bullies; but each is the enemy of the people
and, in a land like America, is brought at
last to book.
Witness the recent convictions of Truman
H. Newberry and Victor Berger, the money
made Senator and the bolshevist congress
man. “Social extremes,” says the Louisville
Courier-Journal byway of describing them,
and goes on: “Berger before the war was
champion of a class opposed to the social
order existing, and during the war champion
of a class which was disloyal and damned
the war as a capitalistic enterprise. New
berry made his race as a champion of the
existing social order, a conservative, a kid
glove statesman;” but, “a genuine and a
great triumph of clean Americanism is reg
istered in the conviction of these tw’o aspi
rants for a part in the making of the na
tion’s laws.”
“Extremes” they are on the surface; but
at heart what matters it whether the foe of
law and freedom goes suavely and with sol
emn salutations to the flag, or in bawling
defiance of things worthy to be honored and
revered? The only difference is that the for
mer is the more hypocritical and the more
insidiously dangerous. Radicalism will sting
its own scorpion death, but corruption preys
upon the very vitals of government if left
unchecked.
It augurs well for America in these trou
bled days that public sentiment is so set and
sharpened against both these ills; for with
clean hands and a clear head, a nation can
grapple the stubbornest problems.
+
Sugar in the Southeast.
Particularly interesting among recent
projects for sugar production in the South
east is the acquisition of some seventy thou
sand acres of Florida Everglades land in
the region of Miami, by a company of Penn
sylvania capitalists. They are planting, to
begin with, four hundred acres of cane for
seed, reports the Manufacturers’ Record, the
tract for this purpose being laid out in one
acre plots so that a wide variety of experi
ments in growing may be conducted. It is
expected that by next autumn at least five
thousand acres will be prepared and a con
venient sugar mill in operation. Eventually
the entire expanse will be cultivated and mills
established to take care of the output.
So extensive an investment by business
men who have had ample experience in the
sugar industry should call forth similar en
terprises, not only in Florida but in adjacent
States as well. Parts of Georgia are superla
tively suited to sugar cane growing, and
doubtless would develop into large producers
if a substantial beginning once was made
and adequate facilities for grinding and re
fining were provided.
It is not to be wondered that foresighted
capital is attracted to this industry when one
observes how rapidly in recent years the
world’s demand for sugar has increased and
at the same time how pronouncedly the sup
ply has failed to keep pace. Authorities pre
dict that whatever readjustment of present
prices there may be, the market for many
years to come will be such as to assure the
efficient grower and manufacturer goodly
rewards.
CURRENT EVENTS OF INTEREST
A quarter of a million women in Kentucky
will vote in the November election for presi
dent. This was made certain when the house
of representatives in the general assembly
passed an enabling bill.
It now goes to the senate, where prompt
favorable action is certain and then to Gov
ernor Alorrow for his signature.
Legislation to stimulate development of land
adjacent to the Alaskan Railroad was urged
by Acting Secretary of the Interior Vogelsang,
Washington, D. C., in a letter to the senate.
The department, he said, is without funds to
advise farmers and other settlers of opportu
nities along the railroad, although 1,000,000 acres
of agricultural land near the railroad have
been surveyed and townsites laid out. Leases
also are being offered in coal districts topped
by the railroad.
New York state registered 571,662 motor ve
hicles in 1919, and leads all states in the coun
try in the number of its cars, Secretary of
State Francis M. Hugo reported recently, in
announcing that the state’s automobile receipts
for the year approximated $6,000,000.
There were 107,904 more cars regisered in
1919 than in 1918, Mr. Hugo said, and the
state has an automobile for every sixteen
residents.
There are 181,632 chauffeurs and 2,681 auto
mobile dealers in the state, according to the
report.
Various pieces of jewelry and other arti
cles, alleged to have been stolen from the
Royal Palace of Petrograd, after Czar Nich
olas had been dethroned, smuggled into the
country on May 11, 1918, by Montefiere
Kahn, of Elberton, N. J., were sold at auc
tion in the United States marshal's office in
the Federal building, New York City. Kahn,
who at the time of his return to the country
represented the firm of Herman & Herman,
Inc., has since been convicted in New Jer
sey on a charge of violating the custom
laws. The sale was attended by about 150
buyers, the majority represtning jewelry
houses.
There were also half a dozen women
among the buyers. The bidding was spirit
ed, and the articles of jewelry, which had
been valued at $27,210 by the customs au
thorities, netted $31,600.
Among the principal articles offered was
a cigarette case, alleged to have belonged
to the Czar. Bidding on the cigarette case
opened at $75, and ijt was finally knocked
down at $225. A solitaire diamond ring,
valued at $1,480, brought $3,250.
A committee of three members of the house
is to be appointed to investigate charges that
the Talbot county branch of the Anti-Saloon
League violated the Maryland corrupt prac
tices act.
This action was taken after Delegate Col
lins had introduced a memorial submitted
by the Anti-Prohibition League, composed of
more than “450 white citizens and taxpayers,
farmers, clergymen, professional and business
men” of the county.
The memorial stated that it has.become
a matter of general comment that the polit
ical activities and methods of the Anti-Saloon
League “are such as properly to make it sub
ject to a thorough and searching investiga
tion.”
According to a statement from Paris,
the treason trial of former Premier Joseph
Caillaux probably will be considerably
shortened by the decision of the high court
of justice to eliminate matters referring
to the pre-war period. This also makes it
unnecessary to hold a secret session of court
to consider the death warning Caillaux is
said to have sent to King Alphonso of Spain
during the Agadir crisis.
The spectators thus will be cheated of
their opportunity to hear testimony bearing
upon the killing of Gaston Calmette, edi
tor of Le Figaro, by Mme. Caillaux, a few’
months before the war began. M. Herbaux,
who prosecuted Mme. Caillaux, will not be
called.
Caillaux, before the resumption of the
trial, expressed gratification over the de
cision of the court. “It only would have
stirred up tragic memories that I have been
trying to forget,” he said.
THE MORALITY OF TRAVEL
By Dr. Frank Crane
Mothers dread for their children to go out
into the world. Travel is supposed to be
loosening to morals. Staying at home and
walking the daily treadmill has a reputation
of being the best way to stay good.
As a matter of fact, the only real good
thing in the world is humanity; all of it.
Goodness is a quality that inheres in the
general mass. When you fence off a section
of folks and fancy you are going to raise
the moral tone, you are mistaken. By and
by somebody always has to break down the
fence and rescue the elect to keep them from
cutting one another’s throat.
One reason, perhaps the main reason, why
the medieval world was so bloody and harsh
was that it was utterly provincial. They had
in those days few means of travel. Each com
munity lived to itself, had its own customs,
costumes, and cussedness. Hence, first, they
were dirty. They were brutal. Their only
outlet for enthusiasm was war, which was
carried on as a steady business, of which the
king or duke was ‘general manager. They
drove the sick and insane out into the
woods. The sport of the nobility was to rav
age among the common people. They tor
tured witnesses in court and roasted heretics
before the church door. They were naturally
visited with terrible pests. Cholera, red death,
and black death raged. People died like
flies.
They were ignorant. They were supersti
tious. They not only did not know the things
that are true, but they knew an ocean of
things that are not true.
What has cured all this has been, largely,
travel. Giving the Reformation, the Renais
sance, and the rise of science full credit for
their share in the work of bettering the
race, still the principal causes were steam
and printing.
Railroads have done more to break down
not only the physical but the moral bar
riers between men than any other single
agency. World-wide commerce is a surer
guaranty of world-wide disarmament than
all the peace conferences and pacts. It is
the ocean liner that has rendered pirates im
possible and flooded Europe with American
ideas.
Add to this the printing press, which
brings libraries and newspapers and the
thoughts of all past ages and of all far coun
tries home to the smallest hamlet.
This unifying of all humankind softens,
! refines, elevates each part. There is no sal-
I ration for any one individual nor for any one
nation. The only possible salvation is for the
whole w'orld.
Whoever made this human race intended
to make any sort of dog-in-the-manger cul
ture, religion or health impossible.
Steamboats and locomotives are the shut
tles weaving the ethics of the future that
shall depend on no church, no class, nor sect,
nor any segment of humanity, but upon the
wide, universal instincts and emotions and
thoughts of all.
Missionaries going to China and Chinese
students coming to American schools are
building wiser than they know. !i
The steam and roar and rattle, the many
“The Great Tree,” on Boston common, and
“The Green Tree Hotel,” at Le Claire, lowa,
the most famous tree on the Mississippi river,
were nominated recently for a place in the
“Hall of Fame for Trees,’ being compiled
by the American Forestry Association.
The great tree on Boston common is nomi
nated by J. Collins Warren, of Boston, who
sends a complete history of the tree which
was blown down in a storm February 15, 1918.
The colonists gathered around this tree, he
said, before starting for Lexington to give
battle to the British.
“The Green Tree Hotel” at Le Claire, lowa,
is nominated by J. B. Barnes, who as a boy
played leap frog beneath its branches with one
W'llie Cody, afterward known to fame as
“Buffalo Bill.” The historic elm is well known
on the Mississippi river, because to the river
men, reports Mr. Barnes. It is the waiting
place of men out of a job and looking for
a trip. Therefore they give it the name of the
“Green Hotel.”
Other nominations for the Hall of Fame in
clude the De Soto Oak at Tampa, Fla., from
which De Soto started for the Mississippi and
the West; the Octupus Tree in Charles Ci(y
County, Virginia, nominated as the largest arid
oldest tree in the state; the two oaks at
Marlintown, W. Va., marked in 1751 by Gen-
eral Andrew Lewis.
Four D. H.-4 army airplanes have been or-
dered converted into airplane hospital ambu
lances and A. V. McCookfield, Dayton, Ohio,
has completed a design for the model the
war department has announced.
Each machine will be equipped with two
basket litters for patients, and accommoda
tions for a pilot. Need of this type of plane,
the department said, has been demonstrated
by the Mexican border patrol work.
By a decree of the Venezuelan government,
the pearl fisheries off the islands of Mar
garita, Coche, Cubague and the other neigh
boring islands, together with the Peninsula
of Araya and the Gulf of Cariaco, have been
opened for exploitation.
High cost of liquor for medicinal pur
poses took a tumble in Rhode Island when,
the federal fair price commissioner, Addison
P. Munroe, notified all retail druggists they
must not sell whisky, brandy, gin or rum
for more than $2.75 a pint, $1.50 a half pint
or 90 cents for four ounces, and that they
must not charge more than $1.50 a pint for
alcohol. The druggists cannot charge extra
for the bottle.
Dozens of complaints had been filed with
the commissioner that druggists had charged
$5 a pint and in some instances as much as
$2.25 for four ounces.
British manufacturers are not losing any
time in renewing trade with the Germans,
Trade Commissioner Dresel at Berlin has re
ported to the department of commerce at
Washington. The better class mercantile es
tablishments at Berlin are showing varied
lines of British-made goods, particularly
woolens and leather, the report said. The
British have made shoe contracts for the
next two years and will obtain handsome prof
its because of the exchange situation. There
is no reason why American dealers can’t ar
range for the supply of materials on a large
scale for their own profit and for the assist
ance of German industry during the period
necessary for construction, it was stated.
Important negotiations are going on at
present, and have been in progress for some
time, between Allied representatives and the
neutral governments of Switzerland, Holland
and the Scandinavian countries with the view
of participation by these states in a scheme
of credits under discussion, the object of
which is to procure the financial and eco
nomic rehabilitation of Austria and other cen
tral European states, it was learned re
cently.
The serious financial, economic and social
conditions ip these countries have been rec
ognized, and the neutral governments are de
clared to be keenly alive to the fact that the
collapse of these countries would necessarily
have effects which could not possibly be con
fined to their own frontiers or finances.
It is understood that a representative of
the United States government will participate
in these conferences.
IF YOU ARE MAIMED
By H. Addington Bruce
THE other day I saw a one-armed beggar
on the street. His empty sleeve was a
pathetic appeal for help. More pathetic
was the anxious, strained expression on his
drawn features.
Yet most pathetic of all, to my way of think
ing, was the evident fact that this poor fellow,
still young in years, had abandoned all thought
of self-support.
The loss of his arm no doubt had deprived
him of a means of livelihood to which he had
been trained. But surely he could train him
self—or be trained—to some other gainful oc
cupation. y
I remember in substance the words of a
friend, himself a cripple, who had actually con
trived to make his life a more useful one after
his crippling than it had ever been before.
“Why say that because a man has lost an
arm he is no good? Why not give him a job
for which only one arm is required, thereby
saving the waste of using a man with two arms
for work which requires only one?
“We have millions of individuals in our in
stitutions who, though unfitted to do a normal
day’s work, have enormous possibility in lines
unaffected by their disease or disability. By
the reclamation of even a small percentage of
these patients not only would society be
largely recompensed, but individuals themselves
would be much benefited.”
This, of course, is a plea for an organized
social effort looking to the reclamation of the
disabled. Indorsing it, 1 would also urge the
disabled not to wait for society to act, but to
make an effort to reclaim themselves.
Even when a crippling accident comes late in
life, it is wrong and foolish to jump to the
conclusion:
“My days of usefulness are done. I cannot
continue at my regular work, and I am too old
to learn anything new.’'
But learning is possible at almost any age
—provided one has a sincere desire to learn.
To the maimed it should always be a question
not of supinely surrendering to fate, but of
courageously and calmly ascertaining what work
can still be done despite the maiming—then
learning how to do that work.
By such a course diseases and accidents that
cripple would be robbed of half their terrors.
Peace of mind would be retained, the joy
of accomplishment, the content of self-reliance.
And the physically as well as mentally wasting
effects of illness would be thwarted.
Take this to yourself if you are among the
disabled and have already begun to think that
the future holds nothing for you in the way of
gainful, productive work. Talk with your doc
tor about what activity is yet available for you.
Ask the advice of friends.
Depend upon it, there is something useful
you can do. It will be infinitely worth your
while *o find it and to do it.
(Copyright, 1920, by the Associated Newspapers.)
cargoes on the seven seas, the scream of rac
ing express trains, the snowstorms of paper
from the unwearied presses—all are busy at
the gigantic moral and spiritual enterprise
of getting humanity together.
(Copyright, 1920, by Frank Crane.)
SATURDAY, MAIN 21 27, 1920.
THE TRI-WEEKLY EDITORIAL DIGEST
A National and Non-Partisan Summary of Leading Press Opinion on Current
Questions and Events
The sudden overthrow of the Ebert gov
ernment by monarchist rebels and its equally
sudden restoration to power demonstrate
clearly that Germany is in a state of ex
ceedingly unstable equilibrium. The present
regime is balancing delicately on a high
fence. On one side is William Hohenzol
lern, with old traditions of world-empire,
and on the other side is Nikolai Lenine with
his hopes of spreading revolution through
out the world. Both are -watching Herr
Ebert and his “moderates,” ready to take
advantage of any sign of weakness or wob
bling.
The attempted monarchist coup, though
beaten, was not altogether a failure. As the
PITTSBURG SUN (Dem.) points out, it dem
onstrated “that the Ebert administration can
be overthrown with comparative Impunity,”
and “created mistrust among the German
people of the stability of a government that
can be forced from its capital overnight.”
The SUN regrets that “Ebert was not able to
put down the Von Kapp coup with blood and
iron,” and thinks “his unconvincing victory
leaves the door open for further intrigues.”
But as Ebert was unable to oust the mon
archists by force of arms, he resorted to a
general strike, which paralyzed industry and
transportation. In so do.ing the IDAHO
STATESMAN (Rep.) declares that he was
“playing with fire,” and the SALT LAKE
TRIBUNE (Rep.) expands the same thought
thus:
“There is grave danger that the very
weapon invoked by the Ebert government to
defeat the military conspirators in Prussia
will be used in other directions. Already there
are symptoms of sinister movements in
German industrial centers. Here and there
a soviet has been proclaimed; Ebert and
Bauer and Noske may crush the militarists
in Prussia only to find that they must reckon
with a new and equally grave peril—that of
a proletariat determined to make an end to
all systems of government which do not fit
in with sovietism.”
“What happened in Russia is likely to re
peat itself in Germany,’’ observes the CHI
CAGO TRIBUNE (Ind. Rep.), for “it is plain
the prestige of the Ebert regime is gravely
shaken and the extremists have been stimu
lated to renewed activity,” while the FORT
WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM (Ind. Dem.) be
lieves that “in invoking the general strike to
fight the reactionary movement, Ebert has
set in motion forces which he and his asso
ciates may find it difficult to control.”
“The man who invokes the strike as a
political weapon,” the STAR-TELEGRAM
continues, “is paving the way to Bolshevisb.
no matter how good the purpose he intends
to serve. Germany may escape Bolshevism,
to be sure, but that it faces such a danger
now is apparent, even to the reactionaries.”
“Should the reds win control,” the ST.
LOUIS POST-DISPATCH (Ind.) points out,
“their first fury would be directed against
the persons and property of the lawless Pan-
Germans. Who could say that they would
get more than they deserve?” The MEM
PHIS NEWS-SCIMITAR (Ind.) regards the
Bolshevists as “certain of themselves, be
cause E'bert has shown himself stronger than
Kapp,” and that therefore “Germany is
henceforth regarded as a profitable field
for cultivation by the Bolshevists.” On the
other hand, the LOS ANGELES TIMES (Ind.
Rep.) thinks the “stage setting is arranged
for a test of strength between the Father
land party, supported by the army, and radi
cal Socialists, using as their weapon the gen
eral strike.”
However, the SPRINGFIELD UNION
(Rep.) among others, does not take threats
of a Bolshevized Germany seriously. It says:
“The soviet system is a Russian product,
suited to Russia psychology and conditions,
and hardly suited to the German social and
political line. Lenine did not establish the
soviets in Russia, according to the best ac
counts. They were already therte, and he
simply took advantage of their existence to
develop in them his communist ideas and
methods. . . . Though the German Sparta
ciets may be imitators, it is hardly probable
that they could develop a government of
Germany on such a basis, and their success
would require what apparently they do not
have—a military backing.”
DEFENDING THE POOR—B) Frederic J. Haskin
NEW YORK, March 23—Suppose that one
'day, while you were partaking of an in
nocent stew in the midst of your assem
bled family, a detective suddenly appeared on
the scene and arrested you on the charge of
having shot and probably fatally wounded a
man. Suppose that this revelation came as a
complete surprise to you, but that upon being
dragged to the hospital where the injured man
lay, you were identified by him as the guilty
party. Suppose, then, that your only alibi was
the word of your family, with whom you were
quietly playing checkers at the time the man
was shot, and that this alibi was not considered
sufficient by the guardians of justice. What
would you do?
This is what happened to a young workman
here, not long ago, and he found that he could
do practically nothing. If he had possessed a
large bank account, there would have been sev
eral favorable courses open to him, but his
possessions consisted only of a wife and three
young children.
The wife did what she could, however. Ac
companied by her children, she went to the
nearest branch of the New York Legal Aid
society, and told her story to one of its at
torneys. The attorney made her tell it several
times, and, at last convinced that she spoke the
truth and that her husband was innocent, he
decided to take the case. It proved to be a
difficult one. The injured man had told his
story, and he intended to stick to i':, but after
a desperate fight, the society’s attorney was
able to pick sufficient flaws in it to convince
the jury that the workman was not guilty.
Fortunately for who are unable to af
ford the advice and assistance of expert at
torneys, a very efficient Legal Aid society ex
ists here, which handles thousands of such
cases every year. Begun as a German society
for helping German immigrants secure justice,
in 1876, it has since grown into, a large or
ganization, with five branches in various sec
tions of the city and a sixth one in Brooklyn,
which recently had to be closed for lack of
funds. For the society, of course, is a philan
thropic affair. It does the best it can as long
as private subscriptions last, but its activities
must cease immediately as soon as these are
exhausted.
Unlike most charitable organizations, the
offices of. the New York Legal Aid society are
dingy, poverty-stricken suites in the most in
expensive buildings the locations possess. The
headquarters on lower Broadway consists of
about three small rooms, crowded with moth
eaten furniture, legal documents, attorneys, in
vestigators and clerks, all getting in each oth
er’s way, while the reception room provided for
the clients in a space five feet by four con
taining two ancient and battle-scarred benches,
which are usually crowded with forlorn-looking
applicants for justice.
The other day, the first applicant summoned
for consultation by the attorney in charge was
a widow in somewhat tarnished mourning, who
burst into loud sobbing as she attempted to
repeat her story. The attorney already knew
a part of it. She had been in the office a few
mornings before to complain that her husband’s
family would not let her attend his funeral.
Germany's Balancing Feat
Many see a greater danger from the mili
tarist side, however, than from the reds,
“No one must assume,” declares the NEW
ORLEANS STATES (Dem.), “that the capit
ulation of Von Kapp means the end of con
spiracies to put the old gang back in power.
. . . The junkers have only nominally called
off their game. . . . They still believe and
will continue to believe that Germany must
have a monarchy back, and when the time
seems propitious they will strike again.”
And “if William 11, his methods and his
gang,” says the EL PASO HERALD (Ind.),
“are to be restored, then it is the whole
world’s business.” The SAN FRANCISCO
CHRONICLLE (Ind.) thinks that “the Al
lies would at once occupy Germany should
a Hohenzollern be recalled,” though it doubts
“that this country would send another army
overseas —or could get one by voluntary en
listment if it tried.” Likewise the PORT
LAND TELEGRAM (Ind. Rep.) is convinced
that “against the restoration of military au
tocracy, with William II as the autocrat,
the civilized world will oppose itself.”
It occurs to the SALT LAKE HERALD
(Rep.) to regard the whole mix-up as “a
conspiracy to deceive the Entente and secure
,new terms of peace of a less exacting charac
ter,” and the SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS (Ind.
Dem.) also speaks of the “clever camou
flage” of these political developments, which
it regards as “nothing more than a cover for
monarchist machinations,” and it frankly
supports the “employment of the mailed fist
to execute the treaty terms.” All of which
causes the SPOKANE SPOKESMAN-RE
VIEW (Ind. Rep.) to fear that “the Allies
will have reason to regret their leniency in
calling off the victorious legions of Foch be
fore they had dealt the impending knockout
blow,” since we “are dealing with a sullen
and slippery antagonist who is bent upon
evading the painful penalties of the treaty.”
There is no doubt that most American
opinions hope for the stability of the present
moderate regime in Germany. The DES
MOINES CAPITAL (Rep.) is inclined to ex
cuse the instability of Germany, pointing out
that “it has taken France about a hundred
years to adjust herself to a republic” and
that the “hardest lesson for a republic to
learn is to submit to the result of an elec
tion. THE ATLANTA JOURNAL (Dem.) ex
presses the general sentiment when It de
clares that “the present authorities . . .
represent the nation’s likeliest prospect in
foreign affairs as well as its steadiest sup
port in things domestic.”
THE LEGION AND THE BONUS
The American Legion ought never to have
been asked by the congress to put itself on*
record as favoring any forms of relief. The
congress ought to have proceeded speedily to
give that relief as an expression of the gen
uine gratitude owed by the country to those
who made the greatest sacrifices In war.
But the congress saw fit to “pass the buck,”
and the national executive committee of the
legion was right in countering back promptly
at the congress with recommendations that
the former soldier be given his option of four
forms, viz.: farm loan, home-huilding aid,
vocational education or adjusted cash com
pensation
It is gratifying to see the stand of the
national executive committee of the legion
so unmistakably supported by the local post
of the organization in two decisive votes.
There ought to be no further effort to con
fuse the issue, or afford the congress reason
for doubting the attitude of former feervlce
men.
It has been said that the congress is only
looking for an excuse to kill the soldier re
lief legislation. It is said that the proposed
legislation is already slated for defeat. In
that event, service men who suffered serious
financial embarrassment as a result cf the
war will have to wait still longer for relief.
But they can wait confidently, for America
is a grateful country. She will finally ex
press herself, if not through the present con
gress. then through a succeeding one, and
her expression, when it comes, will be full,
generous and unconditional. —ARKANSAS
DEMOCRAT (Dem.).
He had died at his mother’s house, and the
mother-in-law who had not been on good terms
with the wife for some time, refused to let her '
come to the house. Now, however, she was
in receipt of a bill for the funeral expenses,
which the mother-in-law was quite willing for
her to pay.
“The undertaker, he want his money, and
he make a row,” she told the attorney. “What
shall 1 do?”
“Nothing,” said the attorney briefly. “If he
sues, just come to us. Next case, please.”
The tearful widow was ushered out, and the
next applicant, a small boy of twelve, wearing
entirely too worried an expression for a boy
of his age, faced the attorney with a courageous
attempt at a smile.
“How’d it come out?” he asked, striving to
keep his voice steady.
“All rgiht, Tony, all right,” said the attorney
reassuringly. “You can stay right on with your
grandmother.”
Tony, the attorney later explained, is a
young mariner whose great-grandfather kept a '
boathouse on the Harlem river; and for the
past four or five years the boy has managed
both. Somewhere in the offing Tony had a
father who made, his existence known by oc
casional grumblings, but the storm did not break
until the ancient keeper of the boathouse died
and Tony and his great-grandmother were left
in sole possession. Then the father suddenly
appeared on the scene with a writ of habeas
corpus for his son. The Legal Aid society was
consulted in regard to the case by a customer
of Tony’s, and its attorney was on hand to
speak for the great-grandmother at the hearing
before the judge. But it was really Tony him
self who settled the ca»e. After listening pa
tiently to the learned discourse of his father’s
counsel on the common law rights of a father,
Tony said in a weary voice, “Ask the "judge
if he ever heard of . a great-grandmother run
ning a boathousel ” The judge looked at the
helpless, excited old woman seated beside Tony,
and decided that if he ever did, a great-grand
son would be needed to help her.
The cases handled by the society rarely en
tail the collection of large sums of money, but •
the attorneys realize that to the poor a small
sum is as precious as a large amount is to th*
rich, and they will haggle just as valiantly for
ten or fifteen dollars, as an uptown attorney
argues for a thousand.’ As all but about one
tenth of the total number of cases are settled
out of court, most of this haggling is done in
the offices of the society. One of the most
desperate bouts of this sort occurred the other
day in the society’s Harlem branch when “Sam,”
a tailor, appeared to contest the complaint of a
young woman who declared that he had ruined
a new evening dress, purchased with the savings
of many months, by scorching it in several
places. Other customers of Sam’s also appeared
to make similar charges concerning their wear
ing apparel entrusted to his care. Sam’s indig
nant defense collapsed when the young lady s
dress was brought into the office, marked with ->♦
several large burns the shape of a tailor’s flat
iron, but it took the attorney over two hours
to get him to agree to a fair settlement, which
was to cover up the scorched area with
material.