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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta, Ga.
Issues That Point Forward,
Not Backward, Are Supreme
the average Georgia Democrat,
interested in principles rather than
in the personalities of politics,
A"
considers the forthcoming Presidential pri
mary he sees quite clearly that the issuee with
which the party and the country are now
most concerned point forward, not back
ward. He sees with reference to the Peace
Treaty, for example, that the all-important
question is not what ought to have been done
a year ago, but what ought to be done now;
. not a regretful “what might have been,” but
a resolute facing of facts with a view to
discovering the best course for the future.
~ Only thus can the party win, and only thus
will'it deserve to win. For any organization
or any man that thinks more of the water
which has passed under the bridge than of
the living currents of present duty and right
’’ will fail in service and in leadership.
This is a truth of capital importance to i
Georgia voters because it is the pivotal point
in the contest which the April primary is to
decide. That contest is essentially one of
ideas rather than of men. There will
be heady partisans, of course, who will seek
to make it otherwise, appealing to preju
dice and factionalism, forgetting large issues
in little personalities, losing sight of what
is involved for Democracy and for America,
and losing, alas, the good temper and good
sense of their normal selves. But these, The
Journal earnestly trusts and believes, will
be but a handful amongst the thousands
who will think the issues calmly out for
themselves, vote as their -judgment directs,
and go on living as neighborly human beings
with no desire to imitate the cats of Kil
kenny.
But the very fact that it is ideas rather
than men, ideas of national and world-wide
import, that are pitted one against the other
makes the contest all the more sharply de
fined and all the weightier in the respon
sibilities it brings to the voter. For if one
of these ideas should prevail—that one which
binds the Democratic party to dogmatic in
sistence upon the Peace Treaty’s being ac
cepted precisely as the President first sub
mitted it, or not at all —It would foredoom
the Democratic party to defeat. Or, if we
can strain imagination to the point of con
ceiving the election of a Presidential candi
date on such a platform, it would mean still
further delay and confusion in the establish
ment of peace, and a death blow to our hopes
for the League of Nations. The simplest
consideration of public opinion and national
needs will show that no candidate could
win with a policy like this—not even so
highly esteemed a gentleman as Hon. A.
Mitchell Palmer.
The American public is no respecter of per
sons when common sense and conscience con
vince them that a leader, howsoever exalted
and beloved he may be, is on a mistaken
, L and dangerous course. Mr. Wilson himself,
whose constructive achievements have lost
not a jot of the people’s admiration, could
not carry the public with him to the point of
letting the Treaty and the League be wrecked,
rather than concede certain needful reserva- ;
tions.’ The fact is he did not carry the ma
jority of his own party in the Senate when
this question came to a crucial test; and it
is peculiarly significant that not one Demo
cratic Senator from a doubtful State —a
State, that is to say, where there is a con
siderable independent vote—took the posi
tion that peace should be indefinitely de
ferred and the League covenant rejected al
together, rather than accept the modifica
* tions necessary to secure a ratifying major
ity. Twenty-one Democratic Senators,
voted for the Treaty in the only form in
which it stood a chance of passing, voted for
a speedy and honorable peace, voted for well
advised international co-operation to prevent
future wars, voted for the best interests of
their country and of the w’orld.
We do not mean to imply that they con
sidered these reservations in every instance
essential or well advised. But they knew
that without reservations, there would be,
in so far as America was concerned, no
Treaty, no League, no peace, no return to
normal conditions, no co-working to repair
the war’s dark ravages and heal its grievous
wounds. Moreover, they were assured that
these reservations would be accepted by the
Allied Governments, Lord Grey having
spoken unmistakably to that effect; and well
aware they were that their own country’s
broadest thinkers, men like Mr. Taft, Mr.
Hoover, Mr. Bryan, the presidents of the
leading universities and publicists generally,
.. including the stanchest friends of the
League of Nations, urged the passage of the
Treaty upon these, the only procurable,
terms. Were those Democrats wise or un
wise in facing realities instead of burying
their heads in the ostrich sands of pride and
partisanship? Were they right or wrong in
looking futureward to the issues with which
Democracy will have to deal and to the prob
lems which America will have to grapple,
instead of backward to designs and theories
which events had proved impossible of ac
complishment?
To answer this is to decide the chief issue
in the Georgia Presidential primary, and to
determine to an important extent what poli
cies shall prevail in the San Francisco con
vention.
A Chicago paper assures us that “the 25-
cent sock is again on the market.’’ Men
with only one leg may be interested in this
Announcement.—Portland (Ore.) Telegram.
THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL.
Our Increasing Farm Falues.
ILATING on the fact that Georgia
I farm lands have more than dou
bled in value in the last five
D
years despite the boll weevil invasion, the
Augusta Chronicle truly says that if cotton
had remained the only money crop this
goodly increase would not have come. “One
other crop as good as cotton would have
held the Georgia farm at its old production
value; but the Georgia farmer has proved to
the world (and, what was harder, to him
self) that he can make as much money out
of any one or two or three or half a dozen
other crops as he can make from cotton.
In that fact undoubtedly lies the basic
reason for the enhanced valuation which the
last five years have brought and also for
their waxing prosperity. So long as Georgia
was regarded as an all-cotton region, the
market for her farm lands was naturally
restricted. Many rural homeseekers in the
North and the West who would have come
to this State had they known how varied and
abundant were the resources awaiting de
velopment, could not be interested because
they took it for granted that only a cotton
farmer could prosper here. Mistaken as that
notion was, our old one-gallowsed plan of
agriculture made it the almost inevitable
inference of those who judged from afar.
Seeing that with all our plenteous acres and
long growing season we nevertheless spent
millions of dollars in buying foodstuffs from
distant quarters, they could but conclude
that we did so as a matter of necessity.
But when the record began to change, when
the news went forth that Georgia was com
ing to be one of the country’s bountiful corn
producers, that her vegetables were among
the earliest and most highly prized in the
great markets, that her production of swine
was exceeded by only two States, while in
all fields of animal husbandry she was forg
ing swiftly forward—when these and divers
other evidences of her rich resources for
crops other than cotton kept coming to the
country’s attention, something of the real
worth of her farm lands dawned upon inves
tors far and wide, and upon her own peo
ple as well.
There have been other factors, it is true,
in this remarkable increase of Georgia farm
values. The mounting prices of agricultu
ral products, especially foodstuffs, and the
mounting costs of production have played
a considerable part. The fact, too, that most
of the arable lands in the public domain
have been disposed of, thus reducing the
available supply of cheap agricultural sites,
has had its effect. But it is chiefly to crop
diversification, with its opening of fresh
and wonderful opportunities, its employment
of sound and scientific methods, its improve
ment in the fundamentals of our agricultu
ral life —it is chiefly to this that we owe
the doubled valuation, together with the
prosperity and independence which recent
years have brought to pass.
Macon-Brunswick Highway
I
■yHE meeting at Hazlehurst of the State
Highway commission was an oc-
• casion of more than usual interest to
the progressive citizenry of Southeast
Georgia who have united in promoting the
construction of the so-called Macon-to-Bruns
wick highway. Hazlehurst is about midway
between Macon and Brunswick, along the
line of the proposed highway, and the meet
ing of the commission there enabled its
members to get first-hand information re
specting the strength of the sentiment that
has been developed by the Macon-Brunswick
Highway association, which recently was or
ganized at Brunswick.
The Macon-Brunswick Highway association
originated at a joint conference of the
Brunswick Board of Trade and the Glynn
county commissioners. The organization
committed itself to labor unceasingly for the
construction of a modern highway between
Macon and Brunswick via Hawkinsville,
Eastman, Mcßae, Lumber City, Hazlehurst,
Baxley and Jesup.
The State Highway Commission, in a
commendable spirit of co-operation, agreed
to meet with the members of the association
at Hazlehurst, and the joint conference was
the result of this agreement. The counties
along the route of the proposed highway
were well represented at the conference, and
it may be accepted as certain that the move
ment will receive a stimulus and encourage
ment that will be well deserved.
The proposed highway is entirely feasible
and conforms with the provisions of the state
highway law, which recognizes the county
seat to county-seat plan for Georgia’s sys
tem of highways. Practically the entire
route of the highway is within the Eleventh
congressional district, which, under the ap
portionment of highway funds, will receive
half a million dollars for its share during the
current year.
Truman Newberry s Course
Truman H. Newberry heeds the ad
vice and respects the wishes of his
Republican colleagues he will resign
I
his seat in the United States senate, and re
tire to an inconspicuous place in private life
pending his appeal to the higher courts on
his conviction at Grand Rapids of con
spiracy to violate the election laws. The
general public is not so much interested n
Newberry’s course as are the leaders of
the Republican party, who regard him a
distinct liability in this presidential year.
Republican senators are more respectful
and considerate of Newberry than House
members were of Victor Berger, whose con
viction was accepted as sufficient reason
for his immediate expulsion. Members ~>f
the House gave no thought to deferrt-- ac
tion against Berger pending the result of
his appeal. The verdict of the jury that
convicted him, coupled with his defiant at
titude, furnished all the grounds required
to result in an overwhelming vote for his
expulsion.
Newberry faces a prison term because
he has been convicted of conspiracy in con
nection with his election to the Senate.
Berger was not charged with any election ir
regularities or frauds, but was convicted
of espionage.
At the present time, a committee of the
Senate has under investigation charges
against Newberry which involve the alleged
practices that have been declared criminal
by a jury at Grand Rapids. The commit
tee has shown no disposition to expedite its
investigation, and it is unlikely that the
inquiry can be concluded before the presi
dential and congressional elections next fall
If Newberry persists In his announced de
termination to retain his seat, his Repub
lican colleagues apprehend that his course
will prove a political liabilty in the elec
tion, and they are therefore anxious for
him to retire gracefully.
PUNGENT PARAGRAPHS
Sims says Berlin knew of troop sailings be
fore they started. It also heard from the
troops after they got there.—Columbus Citi
zen.
Census figures showing Milwaukee has
grown 22.3 per cent need cause no alarm.
They refer to population only, not to alco
holic content.—Memphis News-Scimitar.
CURRENT EVENTS OF INTEREST
Poetoffice clerks and federal employes at a
meeting in Chicago which was addressed by
Federal Judge K. M. Landis voted to send a
petition to congress urging restoration of the
$240 bonus in effect during the war and also
asking that an additional bonus of $240 be
granted to employes whose salaries are less
than $2,500 a year.
Judge Landis told the men that the aboli
tion of the $240 a year bonus was a “rank
injustice.” He advised them to get out of
public service if they could, and said, “as long
as you remain a federal employe you will be
served with every form of injustice. There
are some gentlemen, and I’m not criticising
congress, who think it is economy to keep
the wages of federal employes at the lowest
possible point. That’s not economy—it's in
sanity.”
Other speakers declared federal employes
had received no wage increase since 1914,
except an ’inadequate bonus” of $240 a year.
The Peking government has instructed the
Chinese minister at Washington to notify the
American state department that the policy
of China is to reconcile the north and south
factions in China by negotiating with Japan
on the Shantung question, according to a
Tokio wireless message picked up here by
the Japanese cruiser Yakumo.
The Peking government considers the unity
of China a more important question than the
immediate settlement of the Shantung ques
tion.
According to a dispatch from London blame
for the troubles in settling the Turkish prob
lem was laid to the United States by Lord
Curzon, foreign secretary, in explaining the
peace conference’s negotiations to the house
of lords, “The difficulty in framing the treaty
is largely due to delay. And America is re
sponsible for the delay,” he said.
Lord Curzon is quoted as adding, however,
that the peace conference hoped that when the
new states were set up in Asia Minor the Unit
ed States “would help materially in assisting
the new Armenia.”
Moore troops and Royal Irish constabu
lary have been sent to Cork, Ireland, and
empty houses at strategic points have been
occupied by the military and police forces.
The Sinn Fein organization is maintaining
secret watches and guards to protect its lead
ers, some of whom are reported to have re
ceived threatening letters similar to one de
livered to Thomas Mac Curtain, lord mayor
of the city. The inquest on the body of
the murdered Lord Mayor Mac Curtain was
resumed immediately. There was a large
police guard. It was announced on behalf of
the attorney general that all facilities would
be given for the fullest investigation.
President Wilson and officials of the
State and War Departments at Washington
have under consideration possible steps to
be taken by Major Gen. Henry T. J. Allen,
commander of the American Army of Occu
pation in the Coblenz area, in connection
with the British and French commanders,
in the event that present disorders, in the
neutral zone beyond the occupiied area do
not cease.
Secretary of State Colby said that this
matter was under consideration, but he was
not prepared to make any announcement.
Gen. Allen is operating under the provi
sions of the armistice, while the British and
French commanders are governed by the
terms of the Versailles Treaty. The neutral
zone, however, was created under the arm
istice, and under certain conditions Gen.
Allen would have authority to advance into
that region. So far as known here no dis
orders have occurred in the neutral zone
opposite the American occupied area.
According to a report from Oruro, Bolivia,
there was a great demonstration here
against Peru. The escutcheon of the Peru
vian consulate was dragged through the
streets and demonstrations were carried out
before the homes of Peruvians and also be
fore the offices of La Patrla, a pro-Peruvian
newspaper.
SAILORS’ SNUG HARBOR—By Frederic J. Haskin
NEW YORK, March 25. —After you
have visited Grant’s Tomb; inspected
the tombstones of Trinity church
yard; bought several expensive articles you
didn’t want, and never will want in Green
wich Village; dined at Fraunces’ Tavern,
and gazed dizzily at the island of Manhattan
from the supreme heights of the Woolworth
building, you must negotiate Sailors’ Snug
Harbor.
You may not wish to, but your friends,
who, being New Yorkers, have never seen
it themselves, insist upon it. No New York
sightseeing debauch is complete without it,
they assert, and so glowing are their ac
counts of its remarkability that your curios
ity is fully aroused and prepared for
anything by the time you embark for Staten
Island at the South Ferry.
Riding on a New York ferry, especially
at this season of the year, is always an ex
perience in itself. The day which the re
porter chose was warm and sunny, so that
there was a mad rush for camp stools on
the forecastle (if a ferry may be said to
possess a forecastle, and everyone settled
down for a nice, sunny view of the harbor,
which is ever-inspiring. Two Italian moth
ers spread a lunch on a couple of camp
stools, coveted by other passengers, and
gathered their numerous offspring about
them, prepared to have a pleasant picnic,
while a fat, florid gentleman motioned to the
inevitable boot-black to come and shine his
wide, shapeless shoes for him, as he leaned
languidly back against the side rail.
No sooner had the ferry started and turn
ed in her course, however, than most of the
passengers rose to their feet, a look of
amazed discomfiture on their face, and de
parted, shivering and indignant, to the warm
interior of the cabin. “Thought it’d be too
cool for ye,” muttered the bootblack at the
back of his retiring customer, as he stopped
to rescue a remnant of the Italian lunch,
which had been swept from its moorings by
an icy blast. By this time the Italian pic
nic had moved to a sheltered' nook on the
other side of the boat, and was showeri g
cordial greetings on the Statue of Liberty’,
now plainly in view.
“See the Lady?’’ cooed one of the Italian
mothers to the small infant in her lap.
“That’s the Statchu of Liberty. Wave your
hanny to the Lady, like a good boy.”
In view of the widely heralded sight-see
ing charm of Sailors’ Snug Harbor, the re
porter expected to have most of the passen
gers of the ferry with him on his trip, since
there was a wide scattering of cameras
among them, but upon alighting from the
street car, which carried him from the ferry
to his destination, he was the sole applicant
for admission to its gates. This is obtained
from an old tar with a battered nose, who
sits on the small house attached to the front
gate and sees that each visitor writes his
name in the Harbor’s register.
“Go right up the walk to the Central
Hall,’’ directed this ancient seaman affably,
“and a guide will take you through.”
A whole guide for one lone visitor seem
ed an extravagance, but economy is not a
necessity in this home for aged sailors. It
has plenty of money. The visitor had been
promised beforehand that he would find the
inmates receiving their food from silver
platters, and even the hogs provided with
News of the death in Honolulu, of Colo
nel Samuel Parker, former prime minister of
Queen Liliuokalani, was received by cable
here, from San Francisco. Colonel Parker
bon vivant and courtier of the old Hawaiian
monarchy, was widely known throughout
the United States, having spent much time
in Washington and having attended several
Republican national conventions as delegate
from Hawaii.
He was first married to a princess of the
royal family of Hawaii. He was often re
ferred to as the “King of Hawaii.”
He leaves a large estate, the principal
heir of the Parker estate is Richard Smart,
a six-year-old great grandchild, now being
educated in San Francisco, for whom the
$6,000,000 Parker ranch of the Hawaiian
Islands is being held in trust. The resi
dence of the estate, valued at millions will
go to five children of Colonel Parker, now
living in Honolulu.
Word reached here from London that
Mrs. Humphrey Ward, the novelist, died in
that city very recently. Mrs. Ward, w'ho
won her fame and wealth by her writings,
existed in a literary atmosphere. She was
a granddaughter of Dr. Arnold, of Rugby,
a niece of Matthew Arnold,, and the wife
of a man who was a tutor at Oxford, an art
critic, a leader writer for the London
Times and the editor of “Ward’s English
Poets.’’ Born in 1851 she moved always in
a sphere of intellectual distinction. The
works which flowed from her ready pen
were, “The Marriage of William Ashe,”
“The Mating of Lydia,” and others. The
world war inspired her to write “Eng
land’s Mission.” “Towards the Goal,’’ and
“Missing.”
President Wilson, made his first trip out
of Washington recently, since he was taken
ill last fall. Accompanied by Mrs. Wilson,
and Rear Admiral Grayson, his physician,
he drove into Virginia as far as Alexandria.
No etops were made, and the president was
away from the White House less than two
hours.
A poll just taken to test sentiment of
twenty-six murderers in Sing Sing prison,
according to prison attaches, found everj’ con
demned man in favor of abolition of capital
punishment, but all opposed to remedial leg
islation proposed to punish first degree mur
der.
The slayers are all bitterly opposed to life
punishment in solitary confinement, they
said. This was suggested as a substitute
for killing murderers, at the legislative hear
ing on the bill to abolish the electric chair.
“We’d rather walk to the chair and be
burned,” said one, “than stay in solitary for
life.”
Frank Kelley, who killed Katherine Dunn
in Brooklyn; John Flannigan, the Manhattan
bandit, and other prisoners approved the re
mark and denounced solitary confinement.
Whate every slayer in the deathhouse fa
vors, instead of the chair, for a capital of
fense, iea sentence of from twenty years to lite
in prison without the obnoxious isolation.
This would free a slayer who behaved and
performed his work properly, in fifteen years.
Report from London states the house of
lords, by a vote of 93 to 45, passed the sec
ond reading of a bill introduced by Baron
Buckmaster, proposing important divorce
reforms.
The bill, which is based on the majority
report of a royal commission, extends the
grounds for divorce to cover, among others,
three years, desertion, habitual drunkenness
and cases in which a sentence of death has
been commuted to life imprisonment.
After a powerful and impassioned speech
by Baron Birkenhead, the lord chancellor,
who supported the measure in behalf of the
government, the second reading was carried
despite the opposition of the Episcopal bench,
the Catholic peers and the high Anglican
church peers.
The bill has not yet appeared in the house
of commons, but is said to be almost cer
tain of being carried when it gets there.
copper-lined troughs, and, while he was
grievously disappointed on these points, the
extraordinary comfort and expert equipment
of the institution almost made up for these
lacks.
The front view of the Harbor shows eight
large buildings of a sort of weatherbeaten
yellow brick, the Central Hall being distin
guished from the others by an impressive
white-pillared portico, above which flies a
particularly clean American flag. These,
however, are only the beginning of an in
stitution, which is entirely self-supporting,
from its bakeshop to its power plant, and
from its laundry to its farm.
The guide who volunteered to show the
reporter over the huge estate was a tall,
slightly bent old seaman, who spoke with a
delightful Irish brogue. He wore the blue
uniform and cap of a sea captain, which is
the uniform worn by all the inmates, and
he carried in his hand a long, thin, nervous
cane. With his coattails flapping in the
still March breeze, and with this cane, held
firmly in the middle and pointed authorita
tively toward some distant spot, he looked
very much like the great figure he painted
himself to be in the remote days of his
youth, when he had “bossed’’ his own sail
ing vessel.
The eight main buildings of the Harbor
are all connected, so that, as the guide
pointed out with some pleasure, it was un
necessary to go out-of-doors to pass from
one to the other, but for the same reason
it was hopelessly confusing to the sight
seer. Somewhere in this vast connected
men congregate by the hundreds (there are
large and very good assortment of books;
huge living room, with a great fireplace and
comfortable leather easy chairs, where the
men congregate by the hundreds there ire
seven hundred altogether in the Harbor)
smoking theii 1 seaman’s pipes and reading
their newspapers, and a dining room, con
taining long, narrow mess tables, set with
fine linen and thick white chinaware. At
tached to this is a serving room, in which
the food is received by elevator from the
kitchens below and placed in huge contain
ers on a steam table. On the floor of this
room, also, are tremendous tea and coffee
urns, which look as if they might be the cap
tured loot of Jack, the Giant Killer. The
capacity of these urns is taxed several times
a day, because ancient seamen consume cof
fee almost as often as babies consume milk.
Besides the kitchen on the lower floor,
there are numerous workrooms, where many
of the inmates have their private workshops,
spending their time in making tennis nets,
weaving curious foreign-looking baskets, and
doing odd carpenter jobs. One man’s busi
ness is to restore all of the crumbling chairs
of the institution, for instance. The men
are not required to do any work at all;
their activities are entirely voluntary, and
their products are bought by the Harbor
for the same price that would be paid to
outsiders. The only requirements of the
Harbor are that a seaman must be sixty
years old upon his entrance to the institu
tion, and that he must have sailed at leat
five years in an American ship. All he has
to do, after he is once in there, is to attend
the chapel services occasionally, and the rest
of the time enjoy the many comforts and
luxuries bequeathed to him by the founder
of the Harbor, Robert Richard Randall.
TLES DAI, MARCH 30, 1920.
THE TRI-WEEKLY EDITORIAL DIGEST
A National and Non-Partisan Summary of Leading Press Opinion on Current
Questions and Events
THE DEMAND FOR SIMPLER TAXES
“Not one man in a hundred can sit down
and intelligently fill out his income tax blank
without consulting an expert,” declares the
WHEELING REGISTER (Dem.), and there
are thousands of people in the United States
who will be glad to indorse this testimony.
Consequently the recommendations of Secre
tary of the Treasury Houston that our system
of federal taxation be simplified, meet with
general approval, though there is disagree
ment as to the precise methods to be sub
stituted.
One of Mr. Houston’s most important rec
ommendations is to remove the excess profits
tax altogether and to establish in its place
a flat tax of 20 per cent on undistributed
earnings. Furthermore, the same rate of
taxation would apply to corporations, part
nerships and individuals indiscriminately.
“One well known partnership,” the NEW
YORK TIMES (Ind. Dem.) quotes Mr. Hous
ton as saying, “paid $1,125,000 more taxes
that it would have paid if the business had
been incorporated, and there are many ex
amples of the reverse effect in burdens on
corporations.” Mr. Houston, then, would
make it Impossible for a business to affect its
taxation status by incorporating, or refusing
to incorporate.
“If we can’t have lower taxes, at least let
us have a simpler taxes and less objection
able taxes,” urges the ARIZONA GAZETTE
(Ind. Dem.), but there are many that be
lieve a reduction is possible at the same time.
The WHEELING INTELLIGENCER (Rep.),
calling attention to the striking fact that
“the head of every family is paying, directly
or indirectly, $550 annually in taxes,” be
lieves that "rigid economy at Washington
can reduce at least a portion of this,” and
the FLORIDA TIMES-DEMOCRAT (Dem.)
says:
“The important thing is not a reduction of
taxes, but a reduction of expenditures. It
would be the height of folly to reduce taxes
until the expenditures of the government
are cut to a reasonable figure. . . . What
changes hav<e occurred in conditions that
make it necessary for the United States to
spend more money than it spent six years
ago? The war is ended; its activities are
finished—why keep on the payrolls of the
government men and women whose services
were needed while the struggle was in prog
ress, but are not needed now?”
The NEW YORK TRIBUNE (Rep.) agrees
that “the immediate and fundamental need
at Washington is to eliminate deficits and
balance the government’s accounts. It will
be time thereafter to simply and reduce taxa
tion or to consider proper additions to oui
normal peace expenditure.” But in the face
of the demand to reduce taxes by issuing
more bonds, the FARGO COURIER-NEWS
(Non-Part. League) prefers “not to decrease
taxes, but to increase them to a point where
they will meet expenditures,” since a bond
issue “increases still further the inflation of
the currency, raises a little higher all prices
and makes more probable a final financial
crash.”
Yet one measure for increasing taxes
seems to be unpopular. That is the proposal
of Chairman Fordney, of the ways and means
committee, to remove the exemption of
$2,000 allowed to heads of families on their
income computations. “It ie doubtful,” says
the NEW YORK GLOBE (Ind.), “if such a
measure will be tolerated by public opinion.”
For, says the GLOBE;
“The principle that great wealth should
pay not only a greater sum, but at a greater
rate than small wealth is fixed in the law
and in the popular consciousness. It is no
argument against the principle that it tends,
though ever so slightly, to equalize wealth.
The income tax may, in fact, be used, if oc
casion ever arises, to prevent that dangerous
accumulation of Wealth in a few hands that
has ruined more than one Demcoratlc state.
. . . It is a weapon that in ordinary times
should be used sparingly, but one that should
be kept intact for all emergencies.”
The WICHITA EAGLE (Ind.) calls the
suggestion the “rawest taxation proposal ever
put into words in all the history of taxation.”
It means, says the EAGLE, “if a man makes
only $75 a month and has a family of eight,
tax him exactly the same proportion of his
income as you levy against Henry T. Doherty,
billionaire bachelor bank merchant.” And
the CANTON NEWS (Ind. Dem.) adds:
HAPPINESS
By H. Addington Bruce
(Copyright, 1920, by the Associated News
papers.)
CHANCING to pass a millionaire’s pal
ace you perhaps whisper to yoruself:
“I know I should ne happy if I
were rich enough to have a homp like that.”
Or, reading in the newspapers of the
coming of some celebrity from distant shores,
the thought may occur to you:
“To be as famous as this man would sure
ly bring happiness to anybody.”
Yet again, as the telegraph sends far and
wide tidings of the election of a candidate
to high office, the idea may intrude:
“How happy it would make me to have
the power that will be his:”
If fancies such as these do beset your
mind, I urge you to dismiss them as decep
tive. Riches, fame, power, never iof them
selves bring happiness.
They may, indeed, be productive of un
happiness. They are certain to be thus pro
ductive if gained ignobly or put to unworthy
uses.
For then, no matter what satisfaction the
consciousness of wealth, of renown, of in
fluence, may give, there will be a gnawing
discontent. In every man there is an in
stinctive urge, a ‘‘categorical imperative,” to
ideal behavior. The reward of obedience to
.his urge is happiness. And happiness can
be won in no other way.
Recall Hamerton’s saying:
“The happiest life is that which constantly
exercises and educates what is best in us.”
And ponder with this the words of a more
recent philosopher, Frank Constable, as
found in his curiously difficult yet spiritually
most stimulating book, myself and
Dreams.”
“Happiness refuses to be caught. When
pursued it cries, ‘I am not to be caught; 1
am a servant of duty; I follow duty. You
catch duty, then I will serve you.’ ”
Or, more concretely, again from Consta
ble:
“World conquerors have had their hours
of glorious life when success has crowned
rheir personal ambition. But these hours
ire not worth the conquerors’ past ages of
ratal conquest, if all have been passed in
■ife for personal success.
"Such men are not happy even in the mo
‘ e"' victory. Or, if sense of victory can
be read as happiness, the happiness is
evanescent. It begins and ends in personal
achievement and its crowded hour of glory.
“The soldier, on the other hand, who, un
known to fame, has fought for duty and re
turned home maimed perhaps for life, carries
with him for all his future on earth a higher
level of happiness from the undying feeling
of duty fulfilled.”
Herein, assuredly, the secret of happiness
lies. Thus alone may happiness be attained.
Poverty, obscurity, even ill health cannot
defraud of happiness the man or woman who
follows duty’s urge. But neither can riches,
“If members of the house want to know
just how much attention the people are pay
ing to their deliberations in Washington,
they may be able to learn something by ad
vocating the removal of the $2,000 exemp
tion on incomes. It will create a political
issue that will be understood by practically
every voter who is earning his own living.”
Nevertheless, such papers as the PHILA
DELPHIA RECORD (Ind. Dem.) declare the
“chief reason” for the complicated na
ture of our taxes “is that the provision of
a revenue is not the only purpose of the tax
laws,” but that they were designed “to pen
alize wealth and secure a more equitable dis
tribution of property. . . . The prime pur
pose of the tax laws should be to provide the
necessary revenue, and not to accomplish
certain sociological ends.” But actually it
hasn’t worked that way, says the LOUIS
VILLE POST (Ind.), for “this war taxation
in time of peace works directly in the interest
of the large taxpayers, and it adds enor
mously to the cost of living. The time has
come to curtail, if not to abandon, the ex
cess profits tax.”
Whether any tax revision can be under
taken during the current session of congress
is doubtful. “Many members are anxious to
go home, especially as this is a campaign
year,” observes the NEW YORK JOURNAL
OF COMMERCE (Ind.), “and they do not wish
to work for several months upon an amend
ment of the taxing law,” and the SIOUX
CITY TRIBUNE (Ind.) notes that “both par
ties consider taxation changes a subject
loaded with dynamite, and the politicians
don’t care to play with explosives on the eve
of a national election.” But “the time to
act is now,” declares the CHICAGO DAILY
NEWS (Ind.); “obstacles will not melt away
of their own accord.” Furthermore, if our
legislators do not act before June, the FORT
WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM (Ind. Dem.)
thinks “the president can be depended on
to call them back in special session in the
very midst of the national campaign. He
is not going to permit the solution of impor
tant problems to lie over until after the elec
tions if he can help it.”
FROM FARM TO CITY
Inquiries by the federal department of
agriculture go to show that in this state
within the last year 35>,000 men and boys
left the farms for work in the cities, while
the reverse movement was only about
11,000.
The recent federal census indicates, it is
said, a general shifting of population from
west to east in the past ten years, as well
as a general movement from country to city
more rapid than theretofore. After more
than a century of progress westward, the
center of population is now turning back
eastward.
These are facts of extraordinary import.
The country for many decades has had an
increasing proportion of population living
in cities. But this has proceeded slowly 1 and
broadly and largely out of scientific progress
in agriculture by which a given amount of
labor applied to the land has been made
vastly more productive. Lately, however, it
has apparently been proceeding with un
paralleled rapidity and on so sweeping a
scale as even to affect the urban populations
of the west in favor of the east.
It is not a natural tendency. Its causes
are of an arbitrary character. It is a prod
uct of the war and of those inter
ferences with t)ie competitive control of In
dustry growing out of the economic neces
sities of the wjr and of government action
compelled by those necessities.
But It is here now in the fulness of its
consequences, and the problems it imposes
as affecting a tolerable life in the cities and
their feeding are now beginning to impress
themselves with overwhelming weight in
many directions.
Immediate remedies will have to be found
as the sheer force of circumstance compels.
But no general and effective remedy can be
found short of removal of restraints upon
competitive industry imposed by w> con
ditions, whether imposed by government or
by capitalistic combinations or by an undue
growth in the power and exactions of or
ganized labor in the cities. —NEW YORK
WORLD (Dem.)
THE WORST KIND OF INFIDEL
By Dr. Frank Crane
(Copyright, 1920, by Frank Crane.)
As far back as Solomon men who under
stood know that the worst thing that can
happen a bad man, a cheat, a sneak, or a
rogue is to succeed.
It is well to remember that the end of
every hog is the slaughter house. Sooner
or later the butcher gets him.
The worst kind of an infidel is the man
who loses his belief in the value of being
straight, clean, true, and kind. You may
doubt the New Jerusalem and the bad place,
you may be a skeptic about Gabriel and
Jonah and Mrs. Eddy and Our Lady of
Lourdes, and possibly you may worry along
and be a tolerably decent sort of man; but
if you fall into a belief in the omnipotence
of skulldruggery, chicanery, and bluster,
you’re sure tn a bad way.
Put away all this manner of talk. It’s
bad. It’s worse than bad,i it’s , weak.
“There’s no use being honest; it’s the
smooth rascal that gets there. If you want
to get on in this world you must bluff. The
fellows who do good work are not those
who hand out the con. Life’s a confidence
game. The bunco man is king.”
In a sense there’s some truth in that.
But success is not everything. A man has
his life to live. He has to keep a face
that he is not ashamed to look at in the
glass while he is shaving. He has to keep
a mind and a memory that will let him
sleep. He has to keep a mouth fit to kiss
his wife with. And, most important of all,
he has to keep eyes that are not afraid to
look in to the eyes of his children.
And, more than that, he wants to feel
glad while he’s doing it. The half of hon
esty is lost if it doesn’t make you feel good.
“Godliness with contentment is great
gain,’’ says the good book. And the fact
is that discontented godliness is half rotten.
When you sit down to a game of cards, or
of chess, or of dominoes, in order really to
enjoy yourself you want to resolve two
things—first, to try your best to win, and
second, to look pleasant, act pleasant, and,
as near as human frailty will permit, to
feel pleasant, if you should lose.
And the game of life and love and busi
ness needs about the same attitude of mind.
Go in to win! Get to the head of the
class; sell more goods than any other sales
man; .make more money than any of your
relations; marry the girl you want!
But suppose you lose? It is then you are
discovered. If you sulk and are sore, if you
begin to give reasons why you reaMy were
the one that should have succeeded, if you
decry the winner, why, you are small. That’s
all—just petty and mean. But if you bob
up smiling, bear no malice, wish the best
man luck, and don’t pout, then, ten to one,
you are a better man than the victor. *
fame, nor power bring happiness if life has
been a doding of duty, a defying of the dic
tates of the soul. A