Evening Star Newspaper, September 12, 1926, Page 45

EDITOR IAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPEC Part 2—16 Pages COST OF SIN IN AMERICA PLACED AT $13,000,000,000 Estimate Much Too of Figure—Would Put It at $40,000, J. BALLINGER. America’s para problem? It is the of colossal waste that is eating| away like hungry moths, into the fabric of individual health | and welfare. We waste in production of necessary goods. We waste in the production of needless and poisonous articles The cost runs into billions | and hillions annually, | Our annual cost of sinning - the money we spend to wreck ourselves physically and morally —is put 3 thirteen billlons annually, and this is | an estimate by a sober business man'! who has sat on great directorate bhoards and has the cons ative, bus. ‘ iness way. of looking at things. A | great American editor ays that th estimate is much too little and tha the figure should be in the neighbor- hood of forty billions * our annual | sin bill. Some of us think particular disgrace But that is just its be terrible blood disease it has contam- | fnated the whole hody politic, and it is beginning to take its frightful toll in moral depravity ebleness’ of body and all the approaching appear- | ances of a national coma ! Wants Disease Stopped Now. Stop the disease now. is the counsel of -Harry Elmer Barnes, famous so ciologist, who has been making an ex- haustive study of thix sockal disease of waste. When we talk about our terrible crime waves, our drunken ness and finsanity, the poverty of some parts of our population, we are talking about the manifestations of | this waste. They are the branches | that are nourished by the trunk of | the tree of waste. We produce drugs, | and drugs make criminals. We pro’ duce things that are of no real ben- | efit to anybody instead of turning | out a greater supply « useful and necessary things so that poverty might be eliminated. i Dr. Barnes remarked, crisply: Senator Borah has well said great forces of destruction against which governments and civilizitions | must be on guard constantly come often unannounced and unknown. In the moisture of lethargy the germs | of disease thrive powerfully.” What | we must do is to sound the toesin of | national alarm. Wake the people up | to this condition. Make Paul Revere vides into sleeping hamlets and arouse them to the enemy within our bor ders who is sniping at us from be hind walls of ignorance and lassitude “We must get across to the peo ple a picture of how bad the whole fleld of waste is in America. Today too many people have only partial glimpses of the complete picture. Some people’ think that waste is the “lusive province of government and of some form of government fed eral, state or local. BY WILLI HAT mount problem a waste is at | of waste as the of government. | ginning. Like a | Waste Reverses Fortune. “Radicals pick at industries and aim their scorn on particular conditions Now is the time to piece the whole | picture together. It ix an old saving in the world of inherited wealth. | “Three generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves.” Waste does that for individuals. It is also possible for a nation to go from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves, and that is what we will do if we don’t wake up.” Dr. Barnes. 1 began, let's take an orderly stock of this waste in America. let's parade the facts out. Perhaps those many heralded harbingers of our present prosperity are jn reality vul- tures ciustering about the diseased body of American welfare. 1fe an swered: ‘Mona fell Democracy may One is just as effe human happiness as the other. Let's hegin with government. Let's clarify the general notion that exists that gov ernment is wasteful—particuarly dem- ocratic government, about which it has been sald that no other form of government brings so many ‘snouts’ to the public trough. “Let me just reel off facts. They tell a story completely in themselves, From 1791 to 1800, the first decade of our national existence, the cost of government averaged $13 per individ- ual. From 1911 to 1920 the individual oost of government had soared to $4 per person. Costs Mount Rapidly. “In one vear. 1922, Federal expendi tures were approximately $34 per in dividual. The cost of one Vear was| mora than twice the individual bur dens of ‘government for the whole first decade of our history. “Since the Civil War we have an nually thrown away $30,000,000 for| dredging useless streams and rivulets That was our ‘pork barrel’ curse that | is just as much alive today as it was 30 vears ago. Added to it has been an increasingly alarming amount an nually appropriated for building elab. orate Federal bufldings in places where such elaborateness was unneces- sary. From 1902 to 1919 appropria tions for Federal office buildings were | four times as great as they were for | the whole 113 years preceding. “We have bestowed elaborate granite | or brick structures adequate for the | needs of a thriving city of 100.000 upon petty hamlets where post office needs could have been amply cared for in a corner of a drug store. Prof. Maxey, in making a recent study of this timuous evil, reports in Rasin, Wyo.. with a popula was given an appropriation that vear for a post office costing $36,000; Fallon, Nev.. with a_population of 741, a $35 000 palace: Big Stone Gap. W. V. with 2,590 souls, a $100.000 castle; Jel- lico. Tenn.. with 1.862, an $80.000 edi fica. Those were only a few places nentioned by Prof. Maxey | Sees Waste in Pel “Think of the waste in the Pension | Office in Washington. especially since | 1805® From 1908 to 1916, 50 per cent more special pensions were gy anted than In the whole 47 vears preceding— from 1861 to 1908 And vet we all ve member the public scandals of Pres dent Harrison’s administration. when Corp. Tanner depleted the Federal Treasury by his pension lavishness. | “Prof. Maxey says on this point: “When we read of the deserters, the bounty jumpers. the unpensionable | widows, the remote relatives spring- ing up over night. the post-bellum recruits and the various other species | of undeserving scoundrels who have | had their names inscribed on our pension rolls. we wond whether ry “omnibus” Bl i net a tissue of venality and corruption ‘In 19 < ompared 65. and ~ Civil of our greatest military “Think of the waste ~mployes—the horde that tically llves off of the earnings of from tyranny. fall from waste. tive in destroving hy s THO00. as S16.328 000 with only . Car was eds in 1 {have been anywhere néar u ! for’ their extravagance. ITAL FEATURES Little, Says Editor 000,600. real bread earners. One well known writer puts it thus: In 1821 there were 8211 Federal employes, or one Federal employe for every 425 per- sons gainfully employed at that tim In March, 1923, one out of every 7 American bread winners had a hoof ! in the Federal trough. That means that our Federal army of job holders 1A grown five times as fast as our population . Expense of Elections. “Reflect a moment on our terrible cost of politics—the printing of bal lots. the paying of election judsy the registering of vot for our farcically numerous elections, and our ridiculous numbers and droves of public officials. A cost of a single primary election in New York State is nearly $2,000,000. That is just for payving judges at polling booths, regis- tering voters and printing ballots, “Phink of the $20.000.000 estimated as the cos ingle presidential election. Consider how in every cf in America, of which there are abou 10,000, there is at least one primar; and one general election and in some as many as four genel ‘tions in a single year. W must ) throw into the picture of waste | the appalling sums used to ofl up Jlitical machines—untold amounts lost In the secrecy of hribery “Pause for a moment on the mili tary budget—the annual $500,000.000 used to prepare for destruction. This waste in war preparation is a mill stone about prosperity’s neck. It should be gotten rid of as soon as possible. “Of course. everybody knows thut we waste in public printing, in creat- ing fat sinecures in the form of obsolete forts and military posts. in making a show of maintaining Indian schools so far off the reservation that the employes have nothing to do but keep faith with thelr pelitical backers. Comparison of Expenditures. al | | are not large in haps more amus if they do | 1 These wastes bulk. They are p ing than important, even embody expenditures far in excess of what Congress appropriates for educa- tional, scientific and cultural pur {in the fruits of EDITORIAL SECTION The Sunday Stw WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 12, 1926. EDITOR'S NOTE—T'he views erpressed in'the following ariicle are Mr. Simonds’ oiwn.” The Siar gives then space in ils columns becouse it believes he is one of thie best “informed American iwriters on FEuropenn conditions. aud for the further reason that the debt question is so. vitally imposant that il is'a newspapers duty " the public to present fuirly the argu ments on hoth' sides BY FRANK H. SIMOND! ANY times in recent days I have been asked by readers of my newspaper articles for atement of my own as to allied debts the question has been ou believe in cancella ew of these various in 1 have thought it per-| while to set down here the opinion which is the result of rly close following of the subject since the war itself. 1 believe it would be the policy of wisdom and statesmanship to cancet the allied debts, as a detail in the | concomitant cancellation of repara tions, in the main as has been pro- posed by my friend Col. Buna-Varilla, for the following reasons: 1n the first place, I do not regard as exact the attempted analogy between debts which were incurred during war in which we were a co-belligerent and the debts of ordinury commercial life. The money which we advanced to our associates during that war | would have been lost had -Germany won the war. It was not an invest ment in the proper sense of the word, it was rather a speculation. so far as it had any commercial aspect. It en titled us, not to the return of our money, but to a proportionate share victory. X ox X But at Paris, following the victor: we procluimed that we did not desire any share in German reparations. We thus resigned deliberately our share in what were they real frults of vic- tory, save as we took the German ships which had been in our harbors and were seized at the outbreak of our dwn hostilities. In place of any material return for our investments, our representatives at Paris demanded certain definite things, the first and most consider- able of which was the creation of the League of Natlons and the combina- tion of the provisions of the league with the balance of the terms of peace. At the same time we demanded the Tright to regulate according to our own notions certain purely European issues, Particularly asked: Do tion?” In vi terrogations, haps worth poses. “That fs (ure of the of these abuses rather incomplete pic- ederal Government. All re duplicated i triplicated 1o an even more dis- | tressing and vulg degree in eur State and local Governments. The Federal Congress is infinitely above the average State Legislature. while the average State Legisiature is iu finitely above the average board of aldermen in intelligence, honesty and | conomy. i “That is an amazing picture of governmental waste. 1 am sure that the old regime in IFrance could not waste: | their heads What other | forms of waste are there? “Waste in government not unigue in our It is a par-! ticular aspect of the general social wastage prevalent in every phase of our modern life. When considered quantitatively, the wastes of gov ernment are insignificant when com- | pared with the economic and social | waste involved in modern industrial | production and consumption. Views of an Authorit: “Stewart Chase, an authority, wrote the ‘Tragedy of Waste' and he said: “An airplane view of America would | disclose a very large fraction of the available man power workless on any given ing day: would disclose | another large fraction making and distributing things which are of 1o real use to anybody, and a third fraction taking two hours to do a job which engineers have found can be done in one—and which some men are actually doing in one. Lquipped with a sort of X-ray, the observer would see water invading | priceless oil sands, mountains com- ! ing in" on the coal measures—and above ground the gusher giving off its gas to the air and its oil to the surrounding landscape, the rush of millions of horsepower down unyoked rivers, the glare of forest fires, the| vefuse piles charged with unclaimed chemical riches.” " You said something to me some | time back about the cost of sin in| the United States. Tell me some- | thing more dabout that “L. F. Barrows. an eminent ican business executive—one had handled great financial prob- lems all his life—wrote not so long ago ‘The Economic Waste of Sin. This was an estimate of the total! annual cost of sin in the United States—what it costs the American people in ‘hard cash’ to ‘be happy | in this world and ved hot in the next By careful nd conservative -alculations, Barrows put the amount at $8,743 a year. H. L.| Mencken, the noted American editor, | thus commented on Barrow’s compu- tation: ! Only Half Ground Covered. | I accept what he says, but prompt- | Iv fle a caveat. Barrow's figures| cover only half the ground. For in-| stance, he has sald nothing about clgarette making. 1f anything has heen well established by moral sclen- tists, it is that cigarette smoking is an | immense and crying evil—responsible t least one-half of all current de- bauchery among the youn, part in the etiology of practically every form of crime—a drfig that destroys the | mind and palsies the frame. Mr. Bar- | row has said nothing about tobac chewing. Nor joy riding. Nor use of cosmetics, Nor bobbing of hair. Nor gambling. For rouges, lipsticks and | air dyes, American white women | spend $73,000,000 annually. Colored women throw in $15,000,000 more to ! get their hair straightened out H “:One professor at Yale estimated | that if cigarette smoking could be cut out at that university. it would save ! ale $1.500,000 a vear, and Yale is but one of 37.432 schools in this country. ! Joy riding, killed and 43 ful, and yet they lost wor Amer- | who with its roll of 77,000 500 wutilated every | vear, has heen omitted from the srn\ll‘ of accounts. Huge Cost of Sin. | *‘Sin costs the people of the x'nned[ States not thirteen billlons a year, buti forty billions.’ What is the remedy for this canker ous disease of waste in America, Dr. Barn I asked as a final parting Guery. We must have the cooperation of inte'lizent sclentists. We must get th victure of the evil of waste across the masses. We must get other e nac understood likewise. We | must strive to put it at the front of | now parasi- | our civilization and in command of P the intelligent.” 3 i should have neither I steer !the lghting sy {of adequate lighting facilities if the | of which the Franco-German frontier was one. We insisted that France the left bank of the Rhine nor permancnt title to the vre Basin, Ina word. we demanded a variety of concessions from our as- Ssociates which, we insisted, should come to us since we had not taken reparations or territor: We were entitled—I think this is clear—to our share in the proceeds of victory, not to the return of our money: bee: e, as the event proved, the war was a losing investment for everyhody, victor and vanquished alike, But we refused this share with a very grand gesture. just as, when we, were lending the money, our repre- sentatives in Congress, ou our public opinion described thismoney as our contribution pending the ar- arrival of our troops. * ok Kk ok The coilection of the war debis wius an afterthought. when Mr. Wilson's | policies, his league and his treaty of peace had been rejected by the Senate and by public opinion. It was a result of a profound reaction of public | ment. who defended France or Belgium will Collecting War Debts From Europe Declared Unsound Policy for America sentiment for which, in no small part, to be sure, the handling of the post- war conditions of our associates were responsible. And it was an after- thought which came much too late, when the profits, such as they were, had been divided, with our consent and following our refusal to participate. Bat the question of the equity of our claim is not, in my judgment, more important than others. Thus the second reason for cancellation seems 1o me to be that the debts are in reality uncollectible, and that the effort to coilect them, while failing in the long run to harvest much money, Will earn us not merely world-wide detestation but will inevitably drive the Furopean debtor nation to take such action, collectively as well as individually, as must prove enor- mously perilous to us, even if the disagreeable consequences are eco- nomic and not political. To have the millions of men and women of France, Germany, Britain and Italy taught for two generations that the reason why their eonditions of life ave difficult, their taxes high, their standard of living low, is be. cause the rich and remorseless Amer ican creditor, although alone emerging from the war prosperous and solvent, has demanded payment of war-time debts, seems to me a prospect which is more than unpleasant, and may be dangerous. 5 | ok | When the World War is as remote | a circumstance as the Civil War is to day, nations of Europe will still be held to pay us vast sums—sums which have been so adjusted that the more distant the war the larger the pay- The grandchildren of the men till be taxed on the basis of the debt settlements to pay our grandchildren, although at the present rate of do- mestic repayment our own debt will long ago have been extinguished and we shall be drawing money from Eu- | rope to pay debts which in reality we shall ourselves probably see disposed of. I have been a good deal in Furope | | first and last since the end of the war | |and have had a fafr opportunity to see the development of European public opinion with respect of m: country. And I must say frankly that the extent and intensity to which resentment of our course in the mat- | ter of the debts had developed in | the past five years is little less than | appalling. It'Is not the case of one people, it is not even the case of | | these countries which are divectly in | our debt, it is the general European | sense that the United States is pur- | suing a policy caleulated to impov erish a whole continent and designed to_reduce it to a state of vassalage. It is true that we are rich, strong, <o far as one can see secure against any Kuropean reprisal. but hatred such as urope, the European masses. now cherish toward us, and must feel with greater intensity when the debt payments have reached their maximum yield, is something the consequences of which no man can calculate and the menace of | which is enduring. Of course, as 1 have said. I do mnot believe Europe will continue to pay beyond the point | where it hagpbtained those loans and | that eredit which are essential to its | present _rehabilitation, but we shall | be saddled with the duty to collect. B e | All our relations with Europe, not only while payments are being made. but when, for one reason or another, European countries fail to keep the | taken full | which | anism . existing contracts, will be poisoned by this question. It is not a question of one payment or ten payments, it is a question of a contract running 62 years, which the debtor has already inlicated he regards as without moral justification and no more than the exercise of a power which our strength and his weakness have be- stowed upon us. Finally, the third re for cancellation is tl ment, we shall lose in collect in debts. In point of fact we shall probably lose more, because in the end if Europe is driven into a close economic combination, our trade will be cut while at the same moment our debt collections are abolished. But laying aside this aspect, it is common testimony of most economists and financiers alike that not only will Europe in the end have to pay us in goods, but also that during pay- ment the most drastic forms of re- striction of imports, and particularly of American imports. will take place. We have made debt settlements with Belgium and Italy, and already Belglum and Italy have returned to war bread. What will be the effect upon the price of wheat if this ex- ample is followed all over Furope? We have made a debt settlement with the British, and they have already by manipulation of rubber prices toll of us. The more we collect from Europe the less Furope will buy of us and the mure Furope will seek to crowd our markets with their products’ dumped here at prices permit them to endure any tariff levy. e our Government should come forward with the pro- posal for a general cancellation of debts and the abolition of reparations, the whole world market would be swept clear of the vast incubus of deadwood which is the main barrier If by contrast im the restoration of normal commer- cial and industrial life. We should sell more in every Kuropean country, we should face less danger from the combination of our debiors to exclude us from their markets and to invade ours. > Political interference with economic questions has been a curse from the beginning. The best single example perhaps is the Britlsh course with German shipping. The British took from the Germans to replace tonnage lost to the submarines practicaily all the German merchant marine. But what happened? In the first plac the world freight diminished in vol ume, in the second place British ship- building was practically paralyzed, because with the German bottoms British shippers had all and more tor nage than they needed. But the Ge man shipyards entered on a new pe- riod of activity, because they had to | replace the lost tonnage, and while British shippers struggle with ships becoming obsolete, the Germans are pidly acquiring a modern fleet. Thus German shipyards arve busy. while British are idle, German workers are occupled while British are unemployed and the new German fleet will be able to compete more economically with the obsolescent British. In all the various proposals to make the Germans pay for the war there has proved to be a hitch. he- cause there is no known way of transferring vast wealth from one country to another without upsetting all the rather nicely adjusted mech- of International trade and commerce. You can take provinces from a nation, vou can take gold IMACCRACKEN CHARTING COURSE OF NATION’S CI New Ass Out Lighting Sys Air Mail BY WILL P. KENNEDY. Like an ocean explorer who must chart his own course, William P. MacCracken, the recently appointed assistant secretary of Commerce in charge of aviation, tackles a new job in the Federal service, and is one of the busiest men in the Capital. He has no precedents to guide him, no predecessors to coach him, and only the limits of the general law enacted by Congress at the last session to by, | r the time being Secretary Mac- is devoting the principal | hix energy to working out | stem for the contract afr mail routes, one of which is the line from Boston to New York. The experience of the Post Office Depart- ment in operating the transconti- nental route proved the importance | F Cracken part of air men were to travel across coun- try safely, efficiently and speedily. Lighting Need Is Urgent. ' The present plans of the depart- | ment call for the lighting of the con- tract air mall routes within 90 days. This is as quick, it is believed, as it 1s possible to do this, for the reason that the equipment is not on hand and has to be ordered from various contractors. ‘The need is all the| more urgent on account of the ap- progch of Winter. when the hours of daylight are fewer and the hours | of darkness longer. The Lighthouse Bureau will have general charge of | the care of these lights and the men to do this work will be assigned from the land offices of the bureau. The policy, of course, will be laid down by Secretary MacCracken. Another activity that has been en- gaging the Assistant Secretary’s attention is the preparation of air maps. This work will be given to the Coast and Geo- detic Survey, which funtions as part of the Department of Commerce. Maps and air charts are highly im- portant for civil as well as military and naval aviation, and the Coast and Géodetic Survey has the men and the equipment to enable it to do this piece of work in a manner that | ought to be satisfactory to all airmen. Radio Beacon Perfected. Another similar activity is connect- ed with the work of the Bureau of sStandards, -which is responsible for all the tests that the Department of Commerce must make under the law. Experts of the Government have recently perfected a radio bea- con. which it is hoped will help atr- planes to keep their direction and lo- cate themselves Al of weather. This radio-bescon will goon receive its practical test thing proves satisfactory the Depart ment of Commerce will put these bea tant to Commerce Secretary Now Workin, I the products of our airplane factories. and if every-; VILIAN AVIATION/ | | tem for Contract Route: been active In formulating the rules of air traffic. This is a field in which he is really an expert, for he was for long one of the air law experts of the Amerfcan Bar Association. These rules will be based in good part on the laws and rules which European coun- tries have put into operation. Offi- cials of the department have already made a pretty complete study of the rules in operation in the principal nations of Europe. Tt is hoped that by the time American rules are per- fected we will have enough knowl- edge to draw.up a code that will put us ahead of any Kuropean country. There are several other activities which have engaged Secretary Mat-| Cracken's attention. One of these is ihe report on weather conditions which the Department of Agriculture, through the Weather Bureau, must hereafter make for the benefit of fivers. Several hitches have so far prevented the working out of a com- prehensive plan for distributing these reports but the Secretary hopes that it will soon be clear sailing. Would Increase Exports. Another matter 1§ the encourage- ment of air exports—ghat Is, of air equipment, machinery and planes. Throughout the world today compe- tition is keen in the matter of inter- national trade in air equipment. And one of the best ways of stimulating the domestlc industry is through the development of overseas markets for Secretary MacCracken hopes soon to be able to increase considerably the | existing markets abroad. Still another matter is the location of municipal landing flelds. Some cities, such as Boston, have already established landing flelds, or airports, as they are sometimes known. Others, and these include some of the largest cities, have made no such provision. The location of a landing field is de- pendent, of tourse, upon air traffic conditions. A small town might need a larger fleld than a good sized ci! if lit is a junction point for several im- | portant” alr lines, Here the advice of experts of the Department of Com- merce will prove of great value to city officials. Uniform Rate Urged. An important suggestion recently made has been the establishment of !a uniform air mall postage rate. Present rates vary greatly and the air mail would be helped and the pub- lic benefited if a uniform rate were laid down regardless of the distance that the letter was to be carried. It | only costs 2 cents to send a lettei froni New York to Manila and it costs ? cents also to send a letter from one house to another. A s®and avdization of the rates, it is argued, {would he u great hoon to the public, and it is not unlikely that the Govern- | Il i ons on the ground at various pivotal oints. / Secretary MacCracken has also ° ment will shortly take steps to bring this about. o JAPANESE PEOPLE SEEK PEACE AS MEANS TO ATTAIN PROSPERITY Consul General S and Empire Is Engendered by Political Jingoists and Ignorant Classes. BY HIROSI SAITO, Coneul General of Japan. Japan’s chief concern now and in the future is to effect her cultural ad- vancement with a fair measure of eco- nomic prosperity. And it is the con. viction of the people that they can do it and can do it only In peace. There are, indeed, sporadic talks of war between Japan and the United States. But they are either born of idle dreams of professional chauvin- ists having their own axes to grind, or imspired by the”unwarranted fear on the part of the unthinking portion of both nations that one is actually planning to prance upon the other with armed forces at the slightest provocation. A study of acts wi readily disclose that there are no seri- ous clashes of interests between the two countries, either across the Pa- cific or on the continent of Asla; in the question of immigration we are not disagreeing in the principle of reasonable restrictions, and with China and other Asiatic countries we trade mostly in different classes of commodities. Much less is there any mepace of national safety or existence from one to the other. In such cir- cumstances wars do not prosper, and if only from the point of view of the economic interpretation of diplomacy, the traditional friendship between our two nations bids fair eot only to be maintained, but to be greatly strengthened in the years to come. “Mental Disarmament” Shown. At the time of the Washington con- ference of 1922 the phrase ‘‘mental disarmament” wa% frequently used. Our two nations offered a case of com- plete mental disarmament against each other in -the conviction of the thinking portjon of the people. The American_ attitude was well demon- strated by the calling of the Wash- ington conference itself. Japan, for her part, was very happy to come in as soon as the real intentions of the United States were made clear. It was only before the American invi- tation came in definite terms that there was a cry heard in Japan, “A national calamity has come!” Simple- minded patriots acted ag though the United States were ta to frustrate Japan's legitimate aspira- | tions. Now Japan can forget war. No longer Western warships hover menac- ingly in Japanese waters, practicing occasional bombardments, as in the opening years of her foreign_inter- course. No longer China or Russia descends upon Korea bent upon gob- bling up that peninsula, often likened to “a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan.” The situation created intervention of Germany, Russia and France at the end of the Chino- Japanese War, partially nullifying the vesult of Japan's victory, has heen set aright through the Russo-Japanese War and the World War. Having reached this stage, Japan reposes -confidence in her national ys Antagonism Between America security. ing measures | ¢ the | and jewels and all forms of movable wealth. But if yon take locomotives. for example, your locomotive works will be idle, while his will be busy making new, and his machine will be in better shape to compete in the world market than yours, which has become disorganized. *x k X % But the more you take of wealth from your defeated antagonist, the less he has to spend in your products, the more your market is restricted. He makes things for you that your own workingmen would otherwis make. He does not get money for these, so he cannot buy your goods, but in the swing around the circle vour industries go idle and his con- tinue. At the same time, because he is working for you for nothing he has to tighten his belt and go without. He suffers, but you lose If we insist upon collecting $400,- 000,000 a year from Europe annually, Burope will try to meet the demand, so long as it is in a paying mood, by selling us more and buying less of us. In the long run we shall get only about so much out of Burope; we may get it in trade or we may get ft in payment of war debts. But even the payment will be temporary, because we cannot make Kurope pay. and presently Europe will be able to repudiate its obligations, which it holds immoral and usurious. hecause it will not need us any more. In sum, I favor cancellation b cause, In the first place, 1 do not share} .the prevailing and official view that there is anything sacred about the war debts. They were our investment in a war. an investment which would have been lost had the war been lost. They are an investment we should not | have had to make and had we been ready, as we might have been, to par ticipate in the war on the. military | side when we entered. Finally they did represent, to be sure, our claim for | a share of the fruits of victory, but we resigned them openly when we refused reparations or territory. * % %+ Secondly, 1 belleve In cuncellation | hecause, however legal the claim may be. viewed in the abstract, the effort to enforce it means the collection of | { a harvest of hatred which can become a cause for very grave peril to (hw'1 United States and must in any event | be a grave discomfort for two generi- tions, were the coutracts to remain in | force that long. | Finally. T believe in cancellation be | cause T know that. however much} | governments in distress may consent | T muke contracts to get ready money. | | the people of the next generation will not consent to fulfill them, and that While the period of fulfilment con tinues we shall see our trade dimin ish in proportion as payments are made. Thus, in fact, we shall never collect the debts even while payments are being made, because what we take in on account of debts we shall not make through trade. The great debate in my judgment, beer Iv on a side issue. What Is the use of debating over the justice of the American policy when the fact is be coming transparent that the policy leads to futllity? The right may be; 10 times over on our side, but the logic is against us. We can't collect dollars, and all we shall get is hatred, Which @ generation or two hence may have very evil political consequences | for us. There is, perhaps, no justice | in making our taxpayers carry all the burden of war debts, but is this a " (Continued on Third Page.) i | | | over debts has. \ conducted main- | She is ready still further to reduce her naval strength. Many signs are also visible in her changing military institutions; of the growing emphasis the people are plac- ing upon peaceful and cultural pur- suits. To give only one recent exam- ple, the war office has at last con., ceded to the department of education | military training of boys of the school age. They will thus be privileged later to a shortened term of service | as conscripts. Such changes of policy in military instruction would not even | be thought of till a few years ago. | Tt was effected by, a law that came into force in April, 192 Japan's economic future, we are' | confident, is assured. The paucity of | natural resources there is a great | drawback, indeed; but it has not pre- vented Japan from achieving the re- | markable industrial successes of the past 30 or 40 years. She bought more raw materials and sold more manu- | factured goods as years went by. Her | wellbeing has come to be ‘more and | more bound ‘up with the wellbeing | of the countries from which she buys raw materfals and to which she sells her goods. And this mechanism works | only when she is at peace with those | selling and buying countries. Japan's traditional friendship with the United States thus receives encouragement iand foundation in economie facts. (Copyright. 1926.) * Political Prisoners Numerous in Europe| | i | | | Probably 1,000 Central Europeans | are being held in jails for political reasons in other countries than their own. Little is heard of these unlucky individuals. Often the fact of their imprisonment is not known until a laconic exchange of notes announces | | theit release or exchange. Most of | the political prisoners are held in Russia, Poland and Lithuania. Rus-! sia holds a large number of Poles, Rumanians, Hungarians and citizens of the Slav border states. Lithuania | has imprisoned a number of Poles, and | | Poland is holding some Russians and | Lithuanians. In the Balkans there | are many_political prisopers. And | even the West European states are ! holding in prison some of the citi-| zens of their neighbors. Poland and Russia_have agreements for exchang- ing political prisoners. {exchange. Poland and Lithuania often | have discussed an exchange, but do | not seem to be in a hurry about it | Germany has just sentenced a Czech . to two vears and six months in prison for supposed spying. The net result of all these imprisonments is to re | tard the return to normal conditions | and to work injustice on private in dlvld\l* » FIVE PRIMARIES TUESDAY HOLD NATION’S INTEREST Senators Means and Weller Facing Hard Fights in Colorado and Maryland. Vermont Rac BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. UESDAY, September 14, will witness five more primary elections of national interest and wide political significance. United States Senators and Representatives, as well as State tickets, are to be nominated in Ver- mont, Colorado, Maryland, Louisiana and Washington Most outstanding lssues are fnvolved oyalty to Coolidge,” the World Court, prohibition and the Ku Klux Klan fonal squabbles, affecting Republican and Democratic Senators aspiring to renomination. becloud the outcome in Colorado, Maryland and Louisiana. Senator Means (Colorado) and Weller (Maryland), Coolidge sup porters, fac vigorous opposition. Senator Broussard (Louisiana) is being fought fiercely by J. Y. Sanders. a veteran Democrat, who opposed him six vears ago. Senator. Wesley L. Jones, Republican stalwart, of Wash ington has a rival for renomination in Austin Griflith, Seattle lawyer, but the opposition is not dangerous. Eyes Fastened on Vermont. The primary in President Coolldge’s home State of Vermont presents far and away the most interesting situa tlon, though the fight went out of It weeks ago. Senator Porter H. Dale Republican, will be renominated there without opposition.. Thereby hangs one of the most tragi-comic tales in recent political history. Dale's victory will represent an unqualified triumph over John G. Sargent, President Cool idge’s Attorney General and intimate | friend, -with whom the Senator has been at loggerheads for vears. Dale, elected to the Senate in 1923 for the unexpired term of the late Senator Dillingham, was marked for slqughter by Coolidge leaders because of his “disloyalty” to the first New Englander to occupy the White House in a century. Dale's misdemeanors consisted of voting for the soldie bonus, the postal pay increase and higher Civil War pensions over the President’s veto. The Senator was also charged with heresy for opposing cloture on the World Court debate though he voted for the court itself. Attorney General Sargent, who like wise hails from the Vermont m. sugar belt. has been after Dale's scalp since they clashed over certain mat’ ters pending before the Vermont Leg islature 16 years ago. Mr. Sargent in those days represented prominent New England railroad Interests which sought important concessions at Mont pelier. _Dale, then a State Senator led a successful opposition to them fle has been in ever since. Long before the railvoad controversy Dale fell afoul of William W. Stick ney, Sargent’s law partner at Ludlow. In 1896 Stickney was a candidate for iovernor of Vermont in a State con ention which nominated his opponent Josiah Grout. Dale, then a rising voung politiclan. had seconded Grout's nomination. His friends say Dale has suffered Stickney’s displeasure throughout the subsequent 30 years Remote Kin of Mr. Coolidge. Stickney was elected Governor Vermont in 1900, but has not been ac tive in State politics since then. This year, however, it was decided to bring him back to that arena for the special purpose. of unhorsing Senator Dale. Stickney is a remote cousin of Presi- dent Coolidge. That circumstance, plus Dale's “disloyalty,” was consid- ered by the Senator's foes to be more than enough to prévent his renomina- tion. le | Dl Sargent's bad books | of | e Significant. Gov. Stickney announced his can didacy in May on a loyalty-to-the | President platform. But on July % to the consternation of all Vermont Stickney, alleging illness and advanc ing age, withdrew from the fleld, leav ing Dale monarch of all he surveyed John Barrett, former director genera of the Pan-American Unlon, for a while thought of entering the lists under the stand-by-Covlidge label. but he, too. reconsidered. Senator Dale therefore, will have no opposition in next week’s primary. His admirers declare he has won the most remark {able victory in the history of Ver mont, where State pride gives Presi j dent Coolidge high prestige. Senator Dale denfes harboring any semblance of anti-Coolidge sentiment He was at Plymouth when the Presi dent took the famous oath of offica by lamplight on August 3. 1923, and st month he sent Mr. Coolidge a cor- dial telegram of felicitation on the an niversary of that historic event. But up where the tall maples grow Ver monters do say that “Porter” has “put one over (al at will long bhe remembered thereabouts In Colorado Senator Rice W. Means Republican, is bitterly opposed for re nomination by Charles W. Waterman Denver railroad luwyer and native Vermonter. Waternian claims to have been the pre.convention Coolidge man ager in Colorado in 1924, but his con tention is contested. Means is an out | standing. Klansman and i ofter {named as a future grand kleagle of the “Realm of Colorado,” which, po is dominated by the Ku Means s a strong Coolidge and ardent dry. He was chairman of the recent Senate suh committee which investigated prohi bition conditions. Colorado Democrats probably will nominate former Gov William E. Sweet for the Senate. The: belfeve they can elect him because o the fight raging within the Republic: {fold. Waterman's principal issu |against Means is the latter’s close identification with the Klan. As th contest between them threatens | outlast the primary. the united Demio {erats helieve they will capture not only the senatorship, but the gover norship, as well Maryland Wet and 1 | In the Muvyland Republican pri mary there is 4 clenn-cut dry and we controversy. Senator Ovington Weller, Coolidge adherent, is fizhting | tor renomination on a enforce {ment platform against Representa Itive John Philip Hill. known as the | wettest man in Congress. HIill has | the backing of Willlam P. Jackson Republican national committeeman nd Joseph 1. France, former United ites Senator. Maryland s “sop ping wet' territory and Hill is waging 1 sledge-hammer campaign for pro iibition modification. Millard Tydings, a wet, will be the Den | cratic senatorial nominee Louistana is witnessing a tooth-and | nall Democratic primary contest be | tween Senator Edwin Broussard land J. Y. Sunders, veteran leader, who for vears has waged a political feud igainst the whole Broussard family In 1915 Sanders unsuccessfully op d for the Senate the late Robert Broussard, brother of the present who dled in office in 1918. In 1920 “J. Y.” as he is kmown throughout the sugarcane country, was defeated for the senatorial momi- nation by Edwin S. Broussard, whom he 1s now opposing for the second time in succession. Sanders controls the New Orleans city organization and fs forcing Senator Broussard to fight hard for self-perpetuation, (Copyrizht. 1026.) | Kluxers, supporter Fight. I I F. incumbent, {UNCURBED PRIM:\RY i*]‘PENSES DECLARED PERIL TO COUNTRY Roosevelt Condemns Pen nsylvania ‘and Ilinois Ex- penditures—Bar Seen to Men of Moderate Means in Politics. BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Former Assistant Secretary of the N Great sums of money must not be used to control an election. The ver iest child can that such not only subverts the principles the primaries, but strikes at tne ve root of republi 1 institutions. The Pennsylvania_and the Ilinois pri martes this Spring were a burning lisgrace. The primaries were designed to give the people who had part in them the opportunity to express their views in a more direct fashion than was permit- ted in the convention system. They had as another aim the opening of the field so that any man should be able to appeal to the voters direct. By the employment of such vast sums their use has been entirely subverted. In- stead of contributing to the widening of the field they have narrowed it. As things stand, a poor man has no chance in them whatsoever. There are those who callously main- tain that the primaries per se make such expeditures necessary, and do not in any way consider to blame the men who spend the money. That is an old and very evil fallacy, which is based on the theory that nothing is immoral that 13 legal, and that what the other man does justifies your ac- tions. , High Cost of Elections. The primaries, however, are but one instance of the trouble that confronts us now. Not only has money flooded our pre-election party machinery in ever-increasing amounts, but election costs are steadily mounting. In the United States in a presidential vear, $40,000,000 or more are spent in the primaries and the elections. Even in what is known as an off-year there is close to 10 millions spent. When money in such quantities is used, the evils are manifest. To be- see action gin with, in spite of all that is said to | the contrary, technical corruptions must exist. Then, regardless of whether there is corruption that can be proved as such before a court of law, there is the equally pernicious influencing of votes by lavish expendi- ture. Where an unusually large num- 4 Hungary and | per of party watchers at the polls are | again. Jugoslavia have just carried out an | hired, it may be legal, but there Is|requested the Mexican government moral corruption In many States no man of moderate means can possibly sonally defray his expenses if runnine for an impor: tant offi Not only that. hut he can. not defray them by small contribu tions. Thaf means that no man of limited wealth can hope for success unless he gets outside backing of con siderable amounts. In addition, the of party organizations are alwaye in need of funds. They cannot depend upon small contributions, but must have money in large blocks Must Appeal to Wealthy. In order it they must go to very wealthy individuals or to corporations Neither candidates nor partles can count on getting this money at all times from disinterested | parties. Human nature is the same | the world over. Those who give |large sums to a candidate or a party ! naturally feel they should have a influence on the actions of that can- didate or that party. The larger the sums the greater they feel that in fluence should be. Do you suppose for one instant that those who oon- tributed funds in Pennsylvania and Illinois did not expect to have a say in the policies of both candidates and parties in those State The United States Senate must not be permitted to degenerate into a board of directors of public utilities ior any other business. In the States jlaws ~should regulate and strictly Iimit expenditures in both primaries {and elections. In the Nation the | same should be true in presidential campalgns. We do not believe in a State church We hold that a man's religion is his personal affair and must not be re flected in his government. By the same token, we do not belleve n a money-controlled government, _and we intend to see that orgles of ex penditures such as those in Pennsyl- vania and Illinois do not occur again (Covyright. | Conqueror’ May Go to New Grave Hernando Cortez, according to | recent report in an Italian news paper, has been burled and reburied | six times. Now the dust of the great Spanish conqueror of Mexico rests in fact in a secret crypt in a remote town In Mexico. But it is uneasy dust. Cortez is to be reinterred The Spanish government has to return the remains for burial iy Spain. But Prince Valerio Pigna telli, un [talfan, and s lineal descend it of Cortez, asks that the remains be brought to ftaly. There is a con { siderable movement on foot in Italy |w see that this is done. The burial spot chosen is near Guernavaca, for many generations the ancestral home Q' the Cortes clan.