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THE TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
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THE TRI-WEEKLY'JOURN AL, Atlanta, Ga.
Giving a Great Georgian
Due Credit and Fair Play
WHEN a State’s most distinguished
public servant appears before the
people of his home city to give an
account of his stewardship and a reason for
the faith that is in him he is entitled, to
say the least, to an open-minded and liberal
hearing. It was to be expected, then, that
Senator Hoke Smith would be greeted by a
large audience at the Auditorium Thursday
evening and listened to with peculiarly keen
interest. And that expectation was abundant
ly fulfilled. For however one may regard his
present candidacy, whether with ftW or
disapproval, with settled or uncertain opin
ion, none will gainsay that a citizen who has
done as much for his Commonwealth —its
business, agricultural and educational inter
ests —as Senator Smith as done for Georgia
has b. right to be heard in answer to his
critics and in exposition of any phase of his
record which may have been called into
question. Particularly is this true when po
litical spite and slander go to the extremes
they are now going in onslaughts against a
Georgian who has given his best years and
labors in service to his people.
Let it be said at the outset that many who
stand with Senator Smith on the policies
which he represents at this crulcial juncture
of the party’s and the nation’s affairs have
differed with him on previous occasions,
and count themselves entirely free to differ
with him again. But was there ever a man
who grappled public problems and issues for
more than a quarter of a century with whom
divers elements of his constituency did not
differ from time to time? If it were by
occasional disagreements rather than by the
larger standards of service and dependability
that public men were measured, there would
never have been the life work of a Wash
ingtorr.or a Jefferson, a John B. Gordon or
a Benjamin H. Hill.
Judged by these larger standards, Sena*-
tor Smith’s record attests him one of the
most useful Georgians of his generation and
one of the ablest Americans of his time.
The facts of his career speak so plainly and
so splendidly that all the calumny which
malice rains against him can never obscure
or tarnish them. His traducers can concoct
all manner of falsehoods, just as they did
against Woodrow Wilson in the Georgia
Presidential primary of 1912. (And the
public can hardly have failed to notice that
the bitterest slanderers of Hoke Smith now
were the bitterest slanderers of Mr. Wilson
then.) But they can point to no act of his
in substantiation of their blanket indictment.
They can specify no vote of his, no in
stance of omission or commission, to show
that he did not work unreservedly, whole
heartedly and with a patriot’s tireless zeal
for the triumph of American arms and
American ideals in the World war.
What military or diplomatic measure did
he fail to support? Was it the resolution,
passed while we were yet at peace with Ger
many, providing for the arming of our mer
chant vessels against U-boat attacks and pro
claiming every American’s right to travel the
high' seas unmolested? For that measure
Hoke Smith did more than vote; in the open
Senate he pleaded for its passage, and with
such warmth that he came near having a
personal difficulty with Senator La Follette,
who led the opposition. Was it the declara
tion of war or the army and navy bills im
mediately following? The recprd shows not
only,that Senator Smith supported them all,
but* that long before the emergency came he
urged full-sinewed preparation, foreseeing
as he did the inevitable crisis. Was it the
Selective Service bill? His detainers know
well enough, if they have taken any pains to
inquire, that he was urging the passage of
that measure when some of their own num
ber were approaching it as timid apologists
or standing sheepishly non-commital. They
know that while Democratic leaders like
Speaker Clark end Congressman Kitchin, to
gether with a number of Senators, were work
ing vehemently against the Selective Service
bill, Hoke Smith was working earnestly for
it, although he had good rehson to suspect
that in so doing he was hazarding his po
lit’cal life. Yet, today we hear envious
babblers, who were hiding in a no-man’s
and when that supreme question was at
issue, denouncing Georgia’s senior Senator
as disloyal ’ and “un-American ’’
If there is anything which the people of
this Commonwealth detest more deeply than
either unfairness or cowardice, it is unfair
ness and cowardice combined. Just such is
the combination of the slanderous onset
now directed against Georgia’s senior Sena
tor. Let those who oppose him as foemen of
honor use their weapons as they will. But
no opponent with a spark of good sports
manship will deny the Senator’s rich services
to his State; and none with a spark of mor
al courage will seek to assassinate his char
acter under cover of a political campaign.
Hoke Smith has done more for Georgia
through any one of the great agricultural or
educational bills which he has pressed to
anactment than the entire clique of his de
tainers could accomplish in a life-time. He
did more toward winning the war through
a single month of his activity as member of
the Military Affairs Committee and through
a single day of fearless advocacy of the Se
lective Service act than the whole tribe of
his traducers ever dreamed of undertaking.
They know, if they have so much as glanced
at the record, that he supported every war
measure, most of them in their original form,
some with clarifying amendments, but all
in their essential principle and purpose. He
THE ATLANTA TRI-WEEKLY JOURNAL.
urged certain modifications in the Food Con
trol bill as it first came before the Senate.
Many of us urged at the time that the meas
ure be rushed to enactment unchanged. But
candor compels us now to admit that the ob
jections which Senator Smith raised were all
in the interest of the Southern farmer, and
that the bill which finally passed and which
he heartily supported accomplished the ends
for which the original draft was designed.
As for his position on the now all-impor
tant question of peace, he is sustained by the
leading liberal thought of America and of
the Allied countries as well. When politi
cians denounce him for voting for the Peace
Treaty with reservations, which was the only
ground upon which it could secure a ratify
ing majority, they denounce the rank and
silo of the Treaty’s stanchest and wisest
friends. For with the exception ''*of a few
echoing voices statesmen and publicists who
believe in a League of Nations and who rea
lize the imperative need of restoring our
own and the world’s affairs to a normal ba
sis, have urged and still are urging that the
Treaty be ratified with reservations and be
accepted by the Executive Department. If it
be disloyal to stand for that policy, then the
majority of the United States Senate, Demo
crats and Republicans alike, are disloyal;
the American press, almost in its entirely, is
disloyal; men like President Lowell, of Har
vard; William Jennings Bryan. William How
ard Taft, Herbert Hoover and Robert Lans
ing until recently Secretary of State, are all
disloval; indeed, every American and every
Georgian who prefers a prompt peace and a
workable League of Nations to prolonged un
certainty and no League at all, is disloyal.
The fact is, of course, the political in
triguers who are loudest in libeling Sena
tor Smith are utterly indifferent to the great
issues of the hour, and at heart are no more
loyal to Woodrow Wilson today than when
they were defaming him in a Georgia pri
mary eight years gone by. They are clamor
ing for the League covenant precisely as it
came from Versailles, simply because Sena
tor Smith stands for needful reservations.
If he by chance were opposing all reserva
tions, these enemies of his would be up
roariously for them. It is an altogether cyn
ical role thev are playing, and a desperate
one. In efforts to destroy the usefulness of
a Georgian who has served his people with
extraordinary distinction and effectiveness,
they have taken a gentleman from Pennsyl
vania (an able and highly regarded gentle
man, it is true, but obviously not to be con
sidered for the Presidency) and have made
him their pretended candidate in Georgia.
Upon the pretext of supporting him, they are
assailing their own State’s senior Senator
with unexampled viciousness. The situation
is one which, when seen in its true lighj,
cannot fail to arouse resentment and dis
gust in every lover of fair play.
It is in these circumstances, and in cham
pionship of a great principle and a great
cause, that Senator Smith speaks in Atlanta
Thursday night. His home city, we are sure,
will hear him with enthusiasm.
The Georgia Spirit.
THE THOMASVILLE TIMES-ENTER
PRISE aptly defineg “the Georgia
spirit’’ as one that is “worthy of the
great State we live in and of the opportuni
ties which it presents for development and
advancement.” It is forward-looking and in
tensely dynamic, is this spirit, responding to
every occasion for constructive service and
welcoming every chance for fraternal co-op
eration; only give it right-of-way, and there
will be no measuring the Commonwealth’s
prosperity and progress.
But let none imagine that he can hold this
generous attitude and be animated by this
upbuilding purpose unless he rises above lit
tle jealousies and prejudices and strives
shoulder to shoulder with others for the gen
eral good. As the Times-Enterprise well
phrases it: “If Georgians threw aside their
petty factional and sectional differences and
went to work to develop the State, the har
vest would be big enough for every one of
the three millions of us to reap wonderful
profits.” Bringing the principle home to its
own district, our contemporary exhorts:
Let’s develop some of that get-together
Georgia spirit down here. We have the
favored section of the state, the section
that most needs development. If we
haven’t the grit and determination to put
it to work we are inane and useless ten
ants of the soil. If we will work and
with our energy contribute our share to
the Georgia spirit we will give something
to the co-ordination of our resources and
possibilities so that they may count not
for personal gain -so much as general
commmunity and state progress and ad
vancement. When we shall have accom
plished that we will gain enough to have
made it more than worth while.
This is a doctrine which every region and
county of Georgia will do well to ponder
and practice. Not by churlish provincialism
and selfish pulling-apart can communities
serve their best individual interests, but by
working liberally together for their common
cause. This is the true Georgia spirit.
8
Better Than Cotton.
Byway of illustrating the remarkable
gains of food-crop values in Georgia and the
south, the Lyons Progress presents some
meaty figures on peanut production.
Not until three years ago, it points out,
did the peanut harvest in this section amount
to much outside of certain parts of North
Carolina and Virginia. In 1917 peanuts
were planted rather extensively as a substi
tute “money crop” for cotton, which was
then in the troublous tides of the boll weevil
invasion. Notwithstanding that markets for
the new product had to be established and
developed, the records show that even in that
experimental year “the money value of the
crop was thirty-nine dollars an acre, while
doHa«“n IJr ° ug,lt '°rty-n in e
But now see what occurs three years later.
“In 1919,” says our contemporary, “the crop
showed a value of one hundred and thirty
nine dollars and sixty cents an acre, while
the value of cotton was sixty-nine dollars
and seventy cents an acre.” Divers other
food crops show a 'correspondingly rapid and
substantial increase over the once dominant
and well-nigh exclusive staple.
No longer is there a shadow of need or
excuse for a Southern State’s adhering to the
all-cotton system.
♦—
QUIPS AND QUIDDITIES
Vice President Marshall, when still a strug
gling lawyer in Indiana, was sitting in his lit
tle office when a genial book agent entered
and undertook to sell him a new edition of
the Bible, “full morocco, annotated,” etc. Be
fore the agent was through with his descrip
tion of the merits of the new volume Marshall
interrupted him to ask who the author was.
“W-h-y, this is the Bible,” explained the
agent. “I am fully aware of that,” answered
Marshall, in full soberness, “but, I ask again,
who is the author?” Again the salesman ex
plained that he was offering the Bible. Again
Marshall demanded the name of the author,
and the demand and the explanation were re
peated in varying forms again and again.
Finally the man of the books gathered up his
samples, retreated to the door, and then, with
one hand on the knob, turned around and
shouted: “You pinheaded fool and blithering
idiot, it’s the Bible.”
GOING UP IN SAFETY—By Frederic J. Haskin
WASHINGTON, D. C., April s.—Danger
in elevator travel will be practically
eliminated for this city, and an ex
ample set for oYher parts of the country, if
a bill now in congress becomes a law.
We ride in elevators so freely and frequent
ly that we seldom realize either the hazards
or convenience of vertical transportation.
Passenger elevators are far safer now than
when they were first introduced, but still it
is estimated that about 1,300 persons are
killed or injured in them every year in this
country. This may not seem an alarming
number of casualties, but it should be taken
into account that most elevator accidents are
fatal or result in serious disabilities.
At least eighty per cent of the accidents
are caused by people stepping into open shaft*
ways, or by the car starting before the passen
ger is safely in or out. This eighty per cent
of the accidents is unnecessary, elevator ex
perts say, as devices are on the market which
prevent a car from moving until both car and
shaft doors are locked. Once the elevator
starts on a trip, the doors cannot be opened
until it reaches a landing.
The safety devices are not altogether new,
and Washington is not the first city to pro
pose compulsory use of them. Heretofore,
however, many experts have held that to de
pend on mechanical or electric safety appa
ratus would put a premium on carelessness on
the part of the operator. Efficiency in man
aging the car they believed to be the best pre
caution against accidents. But in time the
safety devices were improved, people con
tinued to get killed in unprotected elevators,
and inspectors gave up hope of more careful
operators.
Mr. W. J. Evans, chief inspector of eleva
tors in Washington, was one of those who for
a long time had visions of the perfect elevator
chaueffeur.
“Lately,” he says, “I have come to see that
we can never have much better service than
we get now, because no one can pay operators
enough to insure it. Before the war, SSO a
month was the average pay for operators.
Now it is around $75. In big office buildings,
of course, SIOO or more is sometimes paid.
But there is no chance for advancement, and
men take up the work only because it is easy,
or temporarily, while they fit themselves for
something else. Operators usually prefer to
work in office buildings, as they can some
times ingratiate themselves in some business
man’s favor and be given a chance in his
office.”
Women, according to Mr. Evans, are more
satisfactory operators than men, as they take
the work more seriously. In the war days,
women ran seventy per cent of the elevators
in Washington. Now this percentage is cut
almost in half, not by lack of women willing
to work, but because the men returned to
their old jobs. Women like elevator work,
Mr. Evans says, because it is less irksome and
more interesting than domestic service. If
there is any difference in the number of acci
dents, there are fewer with women employes.
The elevator safety bill is expected to be
passed with little opposition. Such bills have
failed before, but this year the memory of a
tragedy that shocked Washington is still fresh
in the minds of most congressmen. This acci
dent occurred several months ago, when a
woman prominent in official society stumbled
as she entered an apartment house elevator.
She clutched at the operator and the brake
was accidentally shifted, so that the car start
ed up. The woman was crushed and died ten
minutes later. This sort of thing—a typical
elevator accident —would be impossible in a
ca.r that could start only when the doors were
locked.
The pending bill is similar to ordinances in
some other cities. The owner of an elevator
must install some safety locking device
(which will cost about SSO a floor) and have
it approved by the elevatdr inspectors. If he
fails to comply with the law by a certain date,
he must pay a fine of $25 for every day the
car is run without the attachment.
Washington residences contain more auto
matic cars than those of any other city in the
United States in proportion to population.
There are certain sections where scarcely a
home is without an elevator system, some
even having separate cars for servants.
THE EVERLASTING NO
By Dr. Frank Crane
What did Carrlyle mean by The Everlast-,
Ing No?
I think he meant that the source of moral
power is a sober, conscientious indifference.
This is a statement very easily misunder
stood. There isn’t any truth that is vital
and dynamic that the captious and argumen
tative cannot deny. But I think what Car
lyle had in mind is as follows:
The right thing is a jealous thing; so long
as a man loves father or mother or wife or
children, yea, or his own life, more than it.
he is not worthy of it.
He must reach the center of indifference
—that point where he chooses to do that
thing, or say that word, nt/ matter if the
heavens fall, or the devil offers him all the
kingdoms of this world, or the church of
fers him all the bliss of the next world
if he will only change.
This indifference has been called many
hard names, such as heretic, pig-headed,
stubborn, egotistic, conceited; it has been
cursed by mankind with bell, book, and can
dle, yet it is the backbone of any real mor
als.
Husband and wife should love each other
above all flesh; they should bend, yield, sac
rifice, give way a hundred times a week;
yet no woman soul ever truly respected a
man soul except she felt that somewhere
within him was a spot that would not yield,
a piece of human granite that her tears
could not soften, her nails could not scratch,
her smiles could not melt. Inside his true
care for her is a little place that does not
care for her, for heaven, nor for hell.
Likewise no man ever made an utter con
quest of a woman’s heart, ever proved to
himself that he could make her do any
thing, but that he retired from his victory*
with a sense of contempt. In her inner
shrine a woman, who is worth loving is
unconquerable.
This trait is not to be confounded with
petty obstinacy. The difference between lit
tle stubbornness, dumb reasonableness, and
the grandeur of true moral indifference is
just the difference between a jackass and a
hero. There is no majesty in a mule, and
there is no mulishness in majesty.
Take success, real success. You will
never reach it until you come to the place
where you do not give a rap whether you
reach it or not. It is the man who cares
too much to be mayor who ought not to be
mayor, the man who cares too much to be
rich that ought not to be rich, and it is the
woman who cares too much to be beautiful
that cannot be truly beautiful.
A person can never be sure of happiness
until he learns this secret of inner indiffer
ence to the universe, until he learns the self
sufficiency of his own resources. Then he
will not let little things, nor big things, wor
ry him; then he will have a healthy body
and a sane mind; then he will laugh at
misfortune and not be drunk with success;
then his friendship will be the loyal forth
putting of a strong nature that clings
through good and evil; then his love for
i woman will be the passion and homage of a
| worth-while man and not the sickly longing
•of broken will; then his religion will not
be a thing of fear nor favor, but a deep
joining of his soul to absolute right.
(Copyright, 1920, by Frank Crane.)
The automatic type of car, worked by press
buttons, and used in most residences, is one
of the safest known. The electric witch pre
vents the current from being established
while the doors are open. When the car is in
motion it cannot be called by another person
wishing to use it. If a passenger pushes a
button to go to a certain floor, and changes
his mind, he informs the car by pressing the
emergency button, and then the button of
the desired floor. The automatic electric ele
vator responds to you desires in away that is
almost human.
Electric elevators have taken the place of
the old hydraulic cars almost everywhere, for
passenger service. “Old,” in speaking of ele
vators, refers to no date farther back than
1870. Before that, a six-story building was
a towering monstrosity, too high for every
day use. The new invention made possible
twelve-story structures, but New* York’s forty
story skyscrapers were still in the air castle
stage.
This was partly b.ecause the hydraulic con
veyor depends on water pressure, usually
forced by a plunger —a long piston under the
car. This plunger has to be as long as the
elevator shaft,, which means that for a two
hundred-foot building, a hole two hundred
feet deep has to be dug to hold the plungei
when the elevator is down. To dig one toot
costs about SIOO, so that the plunger elevator
is anything but inexpensive in a tall structure.
When the electric elevator was invented,
buildings began to shoot skyward, especially
in New York, where elbow room was no
longer to be had at any price.
seem to have reached their limit when the
Woolworth building—the worlds tallest—
was built in 1914. This 785-foot structure
has fifty-four floors. Its elevatois attain a
speed of nearly 800 feet a minute on express
trips.
For some years the Washington monument
was the tallest building in this country at
555 feet. Its elevator makes the run to the
top in five minutes, a low rate of speed being
necessary because of the cosmopolitan charac
ter of the visitors. That is, in the Woolworth
or Singer buildings, office workers demand
high speed and rapid elevator service, but all
sorts of persons visit the monument and some
of them become nervous as they look up the
unbroken line of wall to the top. The slow,
steady trip up the monument is far more
nerve-racking, to many persons, than the one
minute run to the top of a New York sky
scraper There is so much time to imagine
how you would look if you dropped four or
five hundred feet to the ground. As a matter
of fact the monument elevator is one of the
most reliable anywhere. Its ropes are the
largest in the city, and rules of safety are
carefully observed.
The newest type of elevator is the electric
traction. A single high-powered car of this
kind with all new devices costs as much as
$20,000. These elevators are absolutely safe,
but their cost is prohibitive in many cases,
and they are not capable of attaining full
efficiency in a building less than twenty
stories high. The cars are capable of travel
ing 800 feet a minute, biii this speed cannot
even be approached when stops must be made
every twenty feet to let passengers on or off.
The head of a fire department said recent
ly that a large percentage of fires are caused
by trash in elevator shaftways, becoming
ignited. As it is against the law everywhere
to dump papers or other refuse in such places
there is no excuse for these fires. An elevator
inspector says that he often finds hatchways
in which paper and rags are piled three feet
deep until they are level with the floor.
Before this is cleaned out, some man gets
into the elevator with a cigai* or cigarette,
and finding women present, he gallantly flicks
his smoke through the grating. Sometimes
it goes out. More often a fire is started, and
while most shafts are made as fireproof as
possible by solid iron and glass enclosures,
still all elevator shafts are smoke pipes in
is obviously that if you find y ourself in an
case of fire. The moral for elevator habitues
is obviously that if you find yourself in an
elevator with ladies and a cigar you should
hold your weed unobtrusively- instead of care
lessly lighting a fire with it.
EDUCATION FOR LIFE .
By H. Addington Bruce
IT is a splendid thing to educate a boy
so that in later years he shall be able
to earn a good living. Bvt it is a
miserable thing to educate him so that he
shall be able to do little else than earn his
living.
Which is something many of us seem to
be forgetting in these days of vociferous de
mand for “vocational education.”
Education for life is the great need, not
education merely for a livelihood. And edu
cation for life involves education for self
control, education for social adaptability and
responsibility, education for altruism, educa
tion for the wise use of leisure.
Take a vocationally educated boy who is
not also educated for life, and what kind of
a man do you get? You know well enough,
for you meet his kind every day.
He may be a marvel of efficiency in his
chosen occupation—-though he is not likely to
be even that. Outside his occupation he is
singularly inferior.
His conversation is limited to “small talk,
the smallest of the small. One sometimes
is tempted to describe him as feeble-minded
apart from business?
Certainly he knows next to nothing of lit
erature, of art, of music, of science, of the
wonders and beauties of nature. He cannot
converse intelligently about political prob
lems or social movements of importance. He
has never been enough interested in these
things really to think about them.
And because he is destitude of worth-while
interests outside of business, leisure is a ter
rible bore to him. He is utterly, almost pa
thetically, at a loss if cast upon his own re
sources for entertainment.
“Let’s go to a show,” he implores. Or,
“Let’s play cards.” Or, “What do you say
to a game of billiards?” Anything will do,
so long as it enables him to “kill time” agree
ably until business once more demands his
attention.
Withal, he is apt to be abnormally self
opinionated, self-assertive, self-centered.
If naturally of a kind disposition he may
be generous to an extreme when the needs
of others are called to his attention. But he
is apt to look upon the needy as essentially
his inferiors. Worshiping the god of world
ly success, he is impatient with any who have
to confess to worldly failure.
Yet there are moments when he himself
has misgivings about the wisdom of his man
agement of life.
There are times when, restless and dis
contented, he knows not w r hy, he confesses
to unhappiness, perhaps rushes to his doctor
for something that will “steady his nerves”
and “make him sleep better.”
No; education for livelihood is never
enough. There must also and always be edu
cation for life. And the sooner this is gen
erally appreciated the better for human wel
fare.
(Copyright, 1920, by the Associated News
papers.)
“John,” said her husband’s wife, “I don’t
believe you have smoked one of those lovely
cigars 1 gave you at Christmas.”
“No, my dear, I haven’t.” replied his wife’s
husband. “As a matter of fact, I intend to
keep them tlntil our little Willie grows up
and wants to learn to smoke.”
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1920.
THE TRI-WEEKLY EDITORIAL DIGEST
A National and Non-Partisan Summary of Leading Press Opinion on Current
Questions and Events
“In urging the new home rule bill as a
settlement of the Irish question the Lloyd
George government returns to a hopeless
task,” declares the NEW YORK WORLD
(Dem.). “The measure meets with strong
favor in no quarter and bitter opposition
from every side. The stand taken by the
government itself is almost apologetic.”
“A situation that for the sake of all parties
calls for speedy correction,” the WORLD
continues, “presents insoluble difficulties,
not less through the inability of the Irish
people to come to an agreement on a work
able plan of self-government for united Ire
land than through the conflict of opinions
and interests at Westminster.
The ALBANY TIMES-UNION (Dem.) gives
the following summary of the measure:
“Each division of Ireland (north and
south) will have its parliament of 52 and
128 members, respectively; each parliament
will be charged with the preliminary duty
of naming twenty persons, in any way it de
sires, to form with a representative of the
British crown the council of Ireland, and this
council will have power, whenever it can
agree on the subject, to establish a united
parliament for Ireland, fixing the number of
members, the manner of election and the lim
its of the constituencies.”
But there are strict limits to the power of
such a body—
“ Neither parliament nor the united parlia
ment (in the improbable event that one is
obtained) may make laws respecting the
crown, international relations, army and
navy, extra-territorial trade, coinage, cables,
wireless, aerial navigation, lighthouses, buoys
and beacons, trade marks, patent rights and
so forth; acts of any Irish parliament are
void if they conflict with acts of the parlia
ment of the United Kingdom; and any act
of an Irish parliament is void unless it re
ceives the royal approval within a year.
Since the British crown is but another name
in legislative matters for the ruling majority
in th ehouse of commons it is plain that Ire
land will have home rule only to the extent
that it is desired by the majority in the
commons. At the same time Irish repre
sentation at Westminster is reduced from 103
to 42. There is nothing in this act to pre
vent the London government from imposing
martial law whenever it deems it expedient.”
So, comments the TIMES-UNION, “the sole
resemblance to home rule that this plan
offers lies merely in the name.” The measure
“has few warm supporters in any quarter,”
says the SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN
(Ind.), which regards it as “doubtful that in
its present form it will ever be carried into
effect,” while the NEW YORK GLOBE (Ind.)
holds that “undoubtedly the most serious
mistake that Mr. Lloyd George is making in
pressing the present bill is his failure to
realize that a discontented Ireland Is politi
cally, as well as geographically, a perpetual
barrier between the two countries (England
and America).”
The British premier’s resentment at Amer
ican propaganda for Ireland was'expressed in
sharp language during his defense of the bill
in the commons. He compared the Ireland of
today to the southern states in 1861-65, and
said: “We claim nothing more than the
United States claimed for themselves, and
we will stand no less.” In reply to this the
PHILADELPHIA RECCRD (Ind. Dem.) re
calls “how malign and how meddlesome was
England’s behavior during those trying four
years. British statesmen did all they could
to widen the breach between the two sec
tions, for they knew that two American re
publics would be much easier to deal with
than one.”
A COMPOSITE HISTORY OF THE WAR
So great was the scope of the labors of
the peace conference that many important
questions were perforce omitted from its de
liberations. Mr. Herbert Satterlee, formerly
assistant secretary of the navy, submitted to
CURRENT EVENTS OF INTEREST
Reports from Leipsic to the effect that
American shoe salesmen were in evidence
at the annual fair of the shoe and leather
trade recently held there, and that their
wares were quickly snapped up by German
buyers at prices ranging from 600 to 1,600
marks per pair, roused the wrath of the
Frankfurter Zeitung to such an extent that
it devoted considerable space in its issue of
March 4 to denouncing the German business
men who were thus helping depress the al
ready almost worthless mark. The Frank
furter Zeitung, which generally speaks for
important German business interests, con
cluded its criticism as follows:
“For months we, and all Germans who
think about economics, have been waiting
for the decree resting in the bosom of the
federal council which is to put into effect
the long overdue regulation of imports, and
with the help of which such dense and
thoughtless persons must finally be com
pelled by force and punishments to cease
their anti-social activities. Even though
these American shoes, which cost 1,600
marks and more wholesale, may reach to
the knees, they ought not to find any women
in Germany who would wear them and thus
stride along, regardless of want and misery.”
The waitresses of the Watson hotel, Hunt
ington, W. Va., struck recently when the man
agement issued an edict that they must not
use powder and paint while on duty. Girls
employed in the kitchen were included and all
quit work. The dining rooms were crowded
when the order became known, but that was
nothing to them once they had read the fol
lowing order posted in the kitchen.
“Waitresses shall not paint or powder their
faces while serving in the dining room or they
must not sit down during business hours. Io
employe shall consume more than 50 cents
worth of food at one meal.”
Ching Ming, the day on which, according to
custom, food, flowers and incense are laid
upon the graves of departed relatives was ob
served in Chinatown, New York, recently. About
100 Chinese in carriages and automobiles made
a pilgrimage to Evergreen and Cypress Hills
cemeteries, in Brooklyn, where many of their
race are buried.
With the modernization of China the cere
mony of Ching Ming has been modified. Be
fore the republic it was usual for the ortho
dox Chinese to offer a chicken, a piece of pork
or some other delicacy to his deceased rela
tives. Now only flower are used.
Ching Ming usually falls in the third month
of the Chinese year, corresponding to our May.
This year it was the seventeenth day of the
second month, year te nos the republic. The
Chinese calendar is rapidly being superseded by
the European, except for the observance of the
old religious holidays.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, newspaper of that
city, announces the engagement of Miss Helen
Herron Taft, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William
Howard Taft, to Mr. Fredrick U. Manning, an
instructor at Yale. The wedding, it is said, will
take place in July at the Taft summer home,
Murray Bay, Que. When in Cincinnati recently
on her way to California from Washington,
Miss Taft confided to relatives the news of
her approaching marriage, it is said.
Irish Self-Determination
the conference a proposal for a historical
commission comprised of representatives of
each of the Allies, who would be delegated
to write a history of the great war, in which
a fair share of credit would be assigned to
each participant, but the proposal was not
acted upon.
It would seem that this omission of th*
conference need not prevent the writing r
such'a composite history. There are many
reasons why such a commission as proposed
would-confer a lasting benefit on the world.
Biased histories, taught in schools, can make
more mischief in international relations than
the cleverest diplomacy can ever unravel.
Our school histories for generations fostered
an anti-British feeling in this country. In
Germany the mischievous possibilities of
prejudiced history taught to school children
were consciously and purposely used to the
limit.
Such a history would once and for all
shatter the popular illusion, common to each
one of the Allies, to wit: “We won the war.”
France knows she stopped the German - ood,
England is certain her navy did the whole
job, Belgium has been acclaimed the world’s
savior elsewhere than within her own bound
aries, and every doughboy can vouch that
just in the nick of time we arrived on the
scene to achieve victory. How bitter it would
be for soapbox orators to be faced by school
children who can fairly assign to each nation
its part in the world war!
But a just appraisal of the deeds of other
nations, taught in the public schools of all
the Allies, will cement bonds of friendship
between the nations and will go far in ful
filling the purposes for which war was
fought. It will tend to create in the children
an understanding of the.worth and nobility
to be found in other nations besides their
own and will inculcate a proportionate re
spect for the rights of other peoples.—ST.
JOSEPH NEWS-PRESS (Ind.)
AN EXPLOIT IN FRENCH MILITARISM
The French threat to occupy the cities of
Frankfort, Darmstadt, Homburg and Hanau
on the right bank of the Rhine is a far more
serious menace to the peace of Europe than
the use of troops by the German govern
ment to suppress internal disorders in the
Ruhr district.
Technically the treaty of Versailles ad
mits of the construction which the French
government has given to it. By its terms
the German government is forbidden to
maintain or assemble armed forces, “either
permanently or temporarily” in the zone
“west of a line drawn fifty kilometers to
the east of the Rhine.” “In case Germany
vioilates in any manner whatever” the provi
sions of this article “she shall be regarded
as committing a hostile act against the pow
ers signatory to the present treaty and as
calculated to disturb the peace of the
world.”
That this restriction, however, was in
tended to prevent the German government
from employing troops in the neutral zone
east of the Rhine to preserve order and put
down rebellion is contrary to common sense.
No government could survive under such
restrictions. Neither Great Britain nor Italy
regards the action as a violation of the
treaty, nor does the government of the
United States.
In spite of the hysterical utterances of
an inspired French press, it may be doubted
if the French government itself is gravely
concerned with the presence of German
troops in the neutral zone in view of all the
circumstances, or believes that 40,000 Ger
man soldiers engaged in maintaining public
order and in protecting life and property are
a danger to the security of France. What
the French government is most concerned
about is the growing demand for a revision
of the peace treaty and the reluctance of
Great Britain to Interpret it literally.—NEW
YORK "WORLD (Dem.)
Workers have takqp over control in town*
and cities of lower Saxony, but there is an
impression their ascendancy will be short
lived, as they are not sufficiently organized
in a military way to resist pressure success
fully.
In this little town of Falkenstein, tucked
away in a pretty valley fifteen miles from
Plauen, Max Hoelz, whose regular job is lec
turer in a moving picture theater, is direct
ing affairs. It is asserted there is no soviet
here. The burgomaster fled when the up
heaval came two weeks ago ,and workers
have since been co-operating with the other
town officials, none of whom has been re
moved. The principal task of the workers is
policing the town.
Hoelz has established headquarters in the
castle of Freiherr Falkenstein, who has fled
from this region. The red flag waves from
the tower.
Hoelz said: “The time is not ripee for the
establishment of a soviet form of govern
ment. The agriculturists would not approve
of it, and we would be quickly starved out.
Former Premier Asquith, in a speech at
the National Liberal club in London, re
plied to Premier Lloyd George’s declaration
that all the old parties should unite against
the Labor party to prevent bolshevism. Mr.
Asquith said the appeal was for class cleav
age and the most mischievous thing that has
been done.
“1 am glad we are approaching the close
of a tranc.’e’.: era of organized insincerity,”
Mr. Asquith said, adding that the free lib
erals would not “be harnessed to the wheels
of the Tory chariot.”
He branded the Irish bill “a most fantas
tic and impracticable scheme and the greatest
travesty of self-government ever offered a
nation.”
The significance of Mr. Asquith’s speech is
that it registers the formal split in the Lib
eral party and begins a new chapter in Brit
ish politics. It is pointed out that all Liberals
will now have to choose whether they will
support the Coalition party of Lloyd George
or give their adherence to Mr. Asquith, who
claims to be the leader of the legitimate Lib
eral party. The Coalition government until
recently claimed to be nothing more than a
temporary arrangement, but it is now looked
on as having become an organized party, with
the Labor party indicated as its chief oppo
nent.
The Social Democratic League of America,
which is composed of Socialists who left tho 4 '
party because of its stand against Americar.
participation in the war, issued an appeal foi
amnesty for political prisoners and denounced
the ousting of the Socialist Assemblymen 2k
Albany. The league asked for support in a
fight for free speech. Concerning Eugene
Debs, the appeal said:
“To Americans who care for the soul of their
country it is intolerable that the government
should imprison a man like Debs, whose whole
life has been devoted to his conception of the
cause of human brotherhood and whose heart
is as pure and as gentle as that of Lincoln
himself.” __ _ _