The evening world. Newspaper, March 16, 1920, Page 22

>. Dr. Kapp has found that imposing a new govern: on all Germany, and particularly South Ger- capital and labor have failed to get together and build © many, is a much tougher job than pulling off a spec- = ESTABLISHED BY JOSEPH PULITZER. ‘Published Daily Rxcept Sunday by the Pry 7s Company, Nor. 65 to 63 Park Rot : fe exetusively entitied to the ase for reyublication mass edited wo it or mot otherwise credited im thie paow toma) eews published Bereta. ; THE GREATER FORCE. perch, on the best terms it can make. tecular coup d’etat in Berlin. « ~| The end is not yet. But one thing is plain: Dr, Kapp and his Government are staggering under # Publishing ‘ CCORDING to latest reports, the German counter-revolution nas hung out the white lag and is anxious to climb down from its prec: es | was truthful in that it did not lie, Actually it was ‘half-truthful, and consequently deceptive. It did not | give fair credit to the numerous good features of Fed- | eral operation. | Ina word it was “propaganda.” | Call off the propaganda campaign, Mr. Warfield. The country is “ied up’ on it. The courts, the legis- lators, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the press jand the public are competent to form their own) ' opinions, Give us publicity, not propaganda. ious ESSENTIAL TO THE PROCESS. HE Mayor's rent conference at, the City Hall yes- terday threw light on some of the reasons why ‘the new houses needed to bring down New York rents. | A $20,000,000 loan for building construction is promised by the Compiroller of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company with a provision. That provision is: That building materials can be fhe discovery that the will of the majority is a sea and that labor conditions can be stabilized. more important and powerful factor in the new Ger- “many than the militarist party was prepared to be- lieve. The present state of the German people is no ‘olitically, however, their minds are in a more promisinig State of activity than they have been for fhe last seventy years. In more parts: of the world than in Germany of Tate w2 have seen much of the amazing triumphs * minorities can achieve and enjoy—while the triumphs But directly the thought of the majority clears and] / omsserts itself, there is a quick end of tyranny and mis- representation. Berlin is feeling it. Its force, in all countries, can be made compelling— stronger than even the obstinacy of a United States Senate. sewing of 16,000 trees. of Presidential timber. NOTHING TO RECOMMEND THEM. 'T IS easy enough to discover objections to the so- called “Enright bifts,” which would perpetuate the influence of the present Police Cominissioner until death removed him and his “bomb-proof” favorites, 4», Objections do not necessarily damn a piece of leg- « istafion, Objectionable features exist in many excel- Tent laws. The real measure of legislation depends on whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. In the case of the Enright bills, no atom of ad- antage to the public has been suggested. There is gsolutely no reason why they should pass. Enright, Tammany and the “bomb-proof squad” would be the "gole beneficiaries of the demise of public control over police through election of a Mayor. * 4 such measures’ pass, it will be clear proof of po- Wficai jobbery. FRAYED COLLARS—AND TEMPERS. ERVENT expressions of approval of The Evening World’s expose of Cluett-Peabody profiteering “tn collars make it very evident that the ‘public has Seen “getting it in the neck” about long enough. The femper of collar buyers is getting as frayed as the collars they are forced to wear. While the war was on manufacturers regretted their Amability to get linen because of the demand for aero- plane wings. Since the war it is the price rather than fhe woven flax that is aeroplaning. +, ‘Attorney General Palmer is also up in-the air and doesn’t seem to be able io make up his mind as to what he can do to, the profiteers. * Prosecution of Cluett, Peabody & Co. is a “proper basis for immediate action. The 30-Cent Yoke is no joke, Mr, Palmer, fake a vacation? No such luck. S, Davies Warfield, President of tae Association of Owners of Railroad Securities, was the principal propagandist. He is so pleased with the suc- ess of his efforts that he proposes an even more for include security own- It is intended to guard the Nation against any recurrence of Govern- mal propaganda organization t ers, railway managers and shippers. ment ownership sentiment. This country has had enough of propaganda, there is any one evil worse than the others, it is the There Only heaven knows the sins he corporation press agent with an axe to grind. is no need for him. thas commitled in the name of “publiciiy.” on to ferret out and present the truth, io} William Hohenzollern has celebrated the Even so he has no chance of competing with Chairman Hays's pile good place to begin action, It is a near-monopoly, a profi- jeering concern, and practises questionable trade poll- cies, Any or all of these three charges would form PROPAGANDA; TRY PUBLICITY. VER since President Wilson took over the railroads in the closing days of 1917 this country has joeen subjected to an unceasing railroad propaganda. Was it too much to hope that when the roads were released by the Government the propagandists would Publicity—real publicity—is a business tonic, Press agent propaganda is an opiate. With a policy of pub- lieity when it is asked for, the press may be depended Clever and effective propagandists do not lie. They >t but not all the truth. They “play-up* of private operation Contractors present at the conference described how I fobs had been held up by successive strikes of plumb- ers, glaziers and bricklayers. One contractor told of work haited on $2,000,000 contracts involving twenty-two new buildings owing to a plasterers’ strike which left $600,000 worth of material lying on the ground, At the present moment bricklayers are holding out for wages of $10 a day against other workers in the building trades who get $8 and $8.50 and who have agreed to work al present wage scales throughout the year 1920. The bricklayers have been on strike since Jan. 4. The Iron Erectors’ League is at odds with the build- ing trades workers because the latter refuse to work on any building the steel of which is handled by non- union workers. Labor unions are putting the Screws on the Iron Erectors’ League wherever they get a chance, owing to the league's refusal to accept the closed shop or to give preference to union labor, In view of all this, is it any wonder that’ $20,000,000 of capital is not rushing into the building field unless it can feel assured there is to be a change in labor conditions ? ; Nowhere are the baneful effects of slackened pro- duction better illustrated at the present moment than in the acute rent crisis that has overtaken this city. | Nowhere can labor see plainer proof that ils high wages are going lo be relentlessly dragged out of its pickets by yet higher living costs unless it looks further than a fool's paradise of lessening work at rising pay. s will keep rents—even with the profiteers curbed— from becoming the heaviest burden on all shoulders— including the shoulders of the bricklayer or the plas- terer himself. ’ ; Nothing will add to the housing supply except the steadily delivered on. the basis of a fair day's work for a fair day’s pay. It needs no course in economics to show any level- headed man that if he produces less and less of a thing everybody must have, the price will go on rising and he will have to pay in the end himself. < You can’t turn dollars into houses without the cer- tainty of reliable, 100 per cent. work as the chief part of the process. “NICKY" OF SOMEWHERE ELSE. “ce ICKY,” the more or less “masterly” mind ot more or less wanted by the New York police. Two weeks ago ‘ y” believed that “when they want me they will get me.” Inasmuch as he remains ut liberty, the presumption is that he is wanted less rather than more. : While Attorney McGee and “Nicky's” honorary es- cort of detectives were.smore or less on the scent at Cleveland, “Nicky” was more or less close by. in Co- lumbus. Now that the detectives have returned to New York, “Nicky” may be in Columbus or Hoboken. * We would not suggest that Detectives Gagan and Brown should go to Columbus and get “Nicky.” Particularly we should not advise them to advertise their departure for Columbus. If their destination Is correctly and properly advertised, “Nicky” has to go somewhere else, “Nicky” has become more-or less a public character. “Nicky” is tasting fame. If New York detectives say they are going to Columbus, “Nicky? will go some- where else and continue to watch the papers and read out himself, y's” more or less amusing antics have had two more or less definite effects, They have served to advertise his wife's theatrical turn, Three detectives have enjoyed a pleasant trip at the expense of the taxpayers. New Yorkers are more or less tired oft the “Nicky” comedy, “Nicky” should be brought in and put more —not less—in jail It On the Waldorf roof the Independent Artists have an exhibition with a kaleidoscopic “kick” that would shock Mr, Anderson, The observer gains something of the effect that he formerly sot from “mixing his mixed drinks.” Instead of cocktail glasses, the Independents serve in alcoves lettered from A. to Y. A few of the capvases cause the critic to believe he already la @ victim of the D, T, and is “seeing things.” A larger supply of housing is the only thing that | work of the bricklayer, the plasterer and the rest,| To bring down rents, dollars must be turned into] Yenc that possibly the nest tine you houses, | buy an Arrow oollar the price will be| the more or less extensive bond robberies, is | ren nts eid ANE a ee CR Aer ae “Now 2 | | | _ THE EVENING WORLD, TUESDAY, MARCH 16, | - | ‘The To the Editor of ' : In reference to your editorial of Saturtlay, Feb, 18, 1 surely wish to agree with you that our Attorney’ Genetal “surely ought to hit” Cluett, Peabody & Co. and the 30-cent ovl- lars—now. When you do buy a collar) n of the| 35 cents. if Mr. Palmer is looking for a Pres- identia! nomination, the best way to get it is to hit concerns like Cluett, Peabody & Co. who, there is no doubt, must be making “theirs” and a | little “more.” | HARRY ROSENTHAL. Paterson, March 15, \ Profiteering im Collars. | To the Kultor of The Evening World: Ih your fight on Cluett, Peabody & | Co, and the justification for st, you| may be interested in knowing Chat in} when purchasing collars in | sh, L was informed by. the | jsalesman in a haberdasnery that hey } to advance his price to! \J was going | ‘thirty cents and in justifying bis | stand he stated that he had been in- jformed by the representative of | Cluett, Peabody & Co. in Pittsburgh that if he didn't he might find it im- | possible to. s¢ _when his present 3 ed 1, | It seemed to be such a flagrant case of needless profiteering that I sent that information to the Department of Justice and since then have re- ceived an acknowledgment of the receipt of the communication. I feel sure investigation will show that the same conditions prevail here. ‘ Heretofore we have been inclined to accuse the retailer every time an | article Was advanced in price, but my. | experience, ported by the report of | | the 1919 earnings of Cluett, Peabody | & Co., as published in The Evening | World, would indicate that this cor- poration is forcing dealers to become profiteers whether they wish it or not, Until such vicious practices are pro- hibited and punished there can be no | substantial progress made in any na- tional movement to reduce the H. C. of L. Incidentally, since that time they have given the product an extra five-cent boost. A. E. MacKINNON, Brooklyn, $89 FE. 19th 5! Profiteer Practices. | To the Falitar of The Evening World Permit me to compliment you and he paper you represent for the edi- torial appearing in this evening's World in connection with the finan- clal statement of Cluett, Peabody & Co, Which, as you state, will cause | considerable indignation und resent- | ment, but not nearly as much as if the| public was also aware of the fact that) the Goundless greed of this company jcompels their employees to pay rent for their sewing machines and buy | their thread as well, MICH. | ‘Troy, March 13, 1920, To the Eaivor of The Evening World Your expose of the profiteering con- cerns, such as the collar people, cot- ‘To the Editor of Te time the real culprits were shown up and the constant cry of high wages ceased. livery time labor takes an inch the manufacturers and distrib- uters take a foot or a yard, All the slik shirts and $20 shoes are not be- ing bought by the laboring classes. While I am in the underpaid white collar class, 1 do not begrudge what “labor” gets; it has been a long time getting it. ‘The trouble is not with | the cost of labor, but with the profit | on labor that the employer exacts from us all. i There is no more glaring instance of a false alibi than in the case of rent~profiteering (hat is not based on labor to any appreciable extent. | Let the capitalists make the first) move and I am sure labor will follow. JULIUS REICH, 21 Vermilyea Avenue. March 12, ‘The High Cost of Land. bre World In an editorial, fhe Other Cause," you charge one of the underlying| causes for high rents is the high CBSt of labor, What about the high cost! of land, which is always the first charge to be met by prospective home-owner : Our greater city is practically two- thirds vacant land, due to speculators holding it out of use unti! they can rob the community of the fruit o enterprise and labor as the pi letting go. A tax on vacant lund to make it un- profitable to hold it out of use would go a long way in solving the rent, housing, unemployed and other prob- (ems now confronting this community, Before there can be any general im- provement in housing and rent con- ditions we m d our country of the land sluye: 8 their predeces- sors--the chattel slaye-holders—had to move before advancing civilization, ALEXANDER LAW No. 255 West 27th St, March 13,1920, ‘or Prepare for Next W! ‘To the Editar of The Evening World: One foolishly blames Commissioner MacStay for the piles of snow now lying on the ground, The labor prob- lem, the weather and conditions gen- erally are to blame. = * However, he has now had his tas- son. Has he profited thereby? Now is the time to prepare for next year's snows. he Street Cleaning Depart- ment needs a thoroygh overhauling. Most important of all, however, it needs the following: 1. Two to three hundred army baby tanks equipped with ploughs: They are great for piling 2, Motorization of the department. 3. About forty or fifty of Dr, Mried- man's snew machipes for piling and loading purposes undoubtedly solved the labor problem, 4. An efficient system for flushing the streets. Flushing has been found very succesaful in certain, sections when it is above 32 degrees. ©. WHITE, C. E. New York, March 10, 1920. ter. sist!’ This machine has | Home Life and Religous Uplitt, fo the Haitor of The Krening Workd “Most Stupendous Campaign in ton goods people, &c., is a wonderful |e: sbing was unknown, It's step.in journalism, a ae Chureh History Planned at a Cost of 30,000,000," ‘reads a dovble-column beadline home life. and kerosene and gasoline. herring were also brought from { Let Mr. Rockefeller take a ride on j ELIZABETH AKMSTRONG. , ‘5 H ihe Jerome. Avenue extenaioy. of she New York, March 6, | 7p woe, By J. H. Cassel by " (Toe New York Evening Wor'd,) Theda Bara “ Vamps’’ in “The Blue Flame’’ BLU Ld i 1 | | Not since the revival of “The "in which Charles My God, Betty has has there been such Lights 0’ London | Richman cried “ |decejyed met" unexpected laught "ax was heard at the Shubert Theatre last night when ! that siren of the movies, Theda Bara, “vamped” right out on the stige in \a highly colored melodrama, called “The Blue Flame.” | For the first ten or fifteen minutes and jcurious, evidentiy not knowing quite [the huge audience was quiet what to make of Miss Bara as am good girl who remonstrated with John Varnum for ingenue, a perfectly not ‘believing in God and believing” |that he could revive the dead with |an electrical machine he had invent- jed. But there was a decided change when John dozed off and his dreant | was enacted, with Ruth (being elec- trocuted and then electrified until she was all there but her soul, which had gone up in iblue flame. She wasn't at all cold without a soul, and walking up to John she wrapped ther arms about his neck and said, “Kiss me, dearie.” This was the beginning of an hilar- lious event. ‘Tho audience simply couldn't make itself ‘behave as the beauteous Theda went on to show what an experienced vampire can do when she really settles down to work. In the electric chair she had shown | her legs—quite unconsciously, you un— derstand. Now she wore a shimmer ing gown that brought to view some- thing more of her—another eyeful, At another time she let us see her “do jup” her hair. In fact, she made us feel quite at home with her. And Ruth's boudoir! It was # sight in itself, with its silken walls of riotous color. We caught from- it the impression that Ruth, though married, was not jeading a quiet, |domestic life. This idea became |fairly well fixed when a nice {young man--that is, he had beer a |nice young man—dropped in, and | Ruth inquired: “Have you got the co- cajne?" Somehow or other, the au- dience found it impossible to take this question seriously. Later on, Ruth casually remarked, “1 must | have $89,000 in a hurry,” and to a man who had been drinking a lot for these days she said forcefully if ungram- matically, “Dig, or I'll shake you like I shake my shimmy.” on You may judge from these few ob- NCDEMON SENGE See es rather vulgar soul, if this may be said By John Blake of a soulless creature. Yet she seemed (Copyright, 1020.) so very kind indeed to a burglar whom she helped to rob her 90 that he could take his poor, sick wife to WOULD YOU KNOW OPPORTUNITY IF YOU MET IT? Arizona. He wrung tears of joy from If you picked up a diamond in the rough you would { /tRe audience by saying fervently on probably tie it Seay again, Without amine, you would ae departure, “God bless you!” But not know that it was a diamond. f caste Gace apo HG Alte benichiores Every day you pass by, unnoticing, opportunities that other men instantly eecognize and bend to their own uses. Your neglect of them is not your fault. Without spe- formed her alcoholle friend until she screamed for help and he was brought cial training you cannot be expected to recognize oppor- tunity. back to face a charge of murder Wasn't that a mean trick to play en For many years people regarded anthracite coal as useless black stone—too soft for building material, too hard an upright, trusting ‘burglar? “if for fuel. By this time it was quite clear that Ruth wasn't to be trusted for a moment. The next thing we kriow she was down in Pell Street vamping By accident somebody discovered that in a proper stove 3 | 80 awfully rich Chinaman prepara- it would burn better than bituminous coal, and make no 3 | tory to selling him a sacred emerald, smoke. And from that day it became a valuable commodity, $ |%4 Just for that her husband's in~ Don’t expect opportunity to come up and introduce pies ey Sister,” WhO Sed. eos itself. Don't expect it even to knock at your door. SEPT SANE RUS) nals bee a fteneay You must learn to look for it. You must learn to see $|/Uns man. was murdered—throttied, , . es if you please, Things went on tke in some particular position a chance for advancement that that until John woke up,‘and R é other positidns lack, though they may pay far better wages. $|her own weet, chaste self avai You must learn to see in some calling an interest that 3 | showed him the light. : will enlist your enthusiasm. To do this is not easy. It takes trainihg and thought. _ _ The training you can get in schools and out of books, and by consulting others who have had experience. The thought must originate in your brain and operate there. Nobody can do your thinking for you. ‘The men who get important places and hold them are the men who are not only searching for opportunity but who have learned to recognize it when they see it. You cannot be even a lucky gold hunter unless you know where the gold is likely to be, and what it looks like in the quartz or gold-bearing sand. And opportunity, which is far finer gold than any that is buried in the earth, is still harder to recognize, although it is not, fortunately, anything like so rare, This righteous scheme has been em- ployed by George V. Hobart and John Willard in the melodrama they have made from Leta Vance Nicholson's play, to show vicious aspects of life, with cocaine sniffing as one of its @di+ fying spectacles. Fortunately no one is B likely to take the play seriously, judge \ ing by the laughter of last night's au- dience, Miss Bara cut a gorgeous figure tw the proceedings, looking handsdme> than she does pn the screen, As the £ simple girl she’ was stilted in her act. 4 ing, speaking her lines as though giv- ing little recitations and saying “chawnee” and “bawsket” and so fqrth in culchured accents, But she dropped these eccentricities of speech with per party frock and was much more sure of herself as the vampire. Alan Dine+ hart, Donald Gallaher, Dewitt ¢. Jen+ nings and Henry Herberg acquitted themselves creditably, But most of the generous applause, naturally enough, went to Miss Bara, She is likely to gain an even richer reward—one that will enable her, instead of Larry the Dope, to buy the Brooklyn Bridge, | aS et The Dutch East Indies, Since 1915, the first year for which customs statistics for im- ports of conserved fish into the Dutch East Indies are given, the United States has had a fair share of the market. Before the war practically all the salmom came from the Pacific Coast, am® in recent years, when othanf’* sources were closed, sardines an@ Evening World of last Friday, and the talented writer, Marguerite | Mooers Marshall, goes on to relate how the ovement is backed by John D. Rockefeller jr, and some colleagues, and that it already has 1,600 em- ployees on its. payroll and ‘plans to employ thousands nwre, et cetera, et cetera, to make people go to church. Why this appalling waste of money and labor? If Mr. Rockefeller and his colleagues’ genuinely desire to bring] ‘To reduce the high cost of living, pewoe and happiness and contentment | production and then more production into the lives of tens of thousands of Hs needed—farm produce. factor: families let him relieve the housing | made goads, machines, tools, situation in New York City and other] steel, foodstuffs and clothing.” cities. Tf this is true, is it not an ec One-half of the sum that he plans| nomic wrong to divert from produc- to spend on a futile effort to catalogue | tion thousands of men and women and card-index and cross-card-index| workers to the piffle occupation ot men and women and children with a] curd-indexing the names of the mil- view of forcing evangelism down their |jions of non-churehgoers? unwilling throats, will furnish ‘homes | Away with such piffle! The Amer- for the people, ican public is sick of “drives” and From the home springs every good| census takings and surveys and other and perfect quatity in human charac- | kinds of sham uplift and investiga- ter, Without real home life Chris- | tions. tianity is a mere abstraction, ‘f' What the American people want reul reason why the so-called Billy- | are houses, flats and apartments that Sunday-Revival- Machine did not even|do not bar children and prevent nox make a ripple on the life of New{mal, happy home life, and steady re- York is that it was working at the ductions in the cost of living, wrong end, 1 did not begin at the lower prices for food and clothi Sixth and Ninth Avenue Elevated as far as Kingsbridge Road and see the vast etretches of empty land, block after block, almost as far as the eye can reach, that stand ready fo- build- ings—flats and apartments for vhe people, There is no lack of vacant land. Its present owners, in most cases, stand ready and willing to sell it for less than they paid for it. “the United States, ¥ _ |