The evening world. Newspaper, August 12, 1920, Page 20

Biorid, RSTAMLISHED pr JOSEPH PULITZER. Dally Except Sunday by the Preas Publishing ny. Now, 53 63 Park Ro New York. President. AXats Mais reac PULATAER, Je.. Secreta i EY a MEMNKR OF THE ARBOCIATED PRESS, Tere we eae sf A NEW STANDARD. RANKLIN D, ROOSEVELT spoke without partisanship and to all the people when he “expounded the need for “unselfish service” with a “breadth of view.” Bo, *,. ‘Unselfish servants in Congress would not, he said, “consider the obtaining of appropriations for their own localities as of more weight than the | welfare of the United States as a whole.” ___. Every one will agree to this, but how many will + grasp the implication? The obligation of “un- “$elfish scivice” does not end with the Congress- man. It extends to the voters who elect the Con- - > gressmen. iG + In other days when the Treasury was overflow: “ing it was easy to regard as a “good” Congressman ~~ one who contrived to gain his full quota of appro- " priations—post offices, army posts and navy yards. Now ‘it is all changed, The Treasury is empty. '. The country is in debt. The debt bears on every taxpayer. What is squandered in one district is paid for by that district and by every other. The “good” Congressman .now is-not the one who govs log-rolling for a million dollar improve- ment when $200,000 would suffice. = - The “good” Congressman is the one who makes évery dollar of appropriation do the work of 100 ‘ ~ gents. He must spend the Government’s money ; _ a8 though the Government were a corporation of which he was a director. + If we are to have these “good” Congressmen, ‘the voters must support them. They must learn ~ "to oppose the man who angles for an extravagant appropriation for his own district. Voters must *vote against these wasters instead of for them. To localize the matter. New York needs a new _ Post Office. It should be built, but it should not -eost a dollar more than necessary. Until our debts "are paid. we must learn to do without the fancy a a, and the unnecessary rich interior finish. against a New York Congressman who insists on all the trimmings. Again, Chicago may favor a ship canal to the sea. This might be a good thing for the country as “& whole, but not favorable to New York com- “merce. Voters, as well as Congressmen, must look the whole question, not merely the New York "angle, Otherwise Chicago Congressmen will re- -— taliate, “It is a‘big job. The country must be educated to the new standard for measuring” Congressmen | tot as bargaining agents of localities but 4s di- _ fectors of the business of the United States. WEEDING OUT THE WILFUL. HERE there's a will there’s a way,” might be) amended to read, “Where there's a ‘wilful’ there’s a way—out.” Either version would apply to the Senators Presi- dent Wilson denounced as “wilful men.” Senator Kirby of Arkansas seems to have met the fate of most of the other Democratic obstructors who have been forced to go to the people for re- The Democratic Party has purged itself, in suc- cessive primarics. "Now the question is, why hasn't the Republican Party purged itself of its eqisally wilful contingent? Why haven't such leaders as Mr. Taft, Herbert over, Mr. Wickersham and Mr. Lowell seen to that the Republican obstructors were removed ; office and influence and relegated to the outer — 1 IGHER EXPRESS RATES SOON. A WAGE increase of $30,000,000 goes to the express workers. The raise was deserved, ‘and the expressmen have waited with commendable “patience for the orderly consideration of their claims, 3 Of course, the public must foot the bill in the form of incredsed express rates. Like the railroads, the express companies have applied for increased income to cover not only the ‘wage increase but other operation expenses. The asked for exceeds $100,000,000. es claim the Interstate Commerce Commission “stiould examine with great care. The Ametican Railway Express Company is on somewhat different basis from the railroads. ng the war the three principal competing com- were unified and operated under Govern- control and guarantee. Although the express v $s was early returned {fo private ownership id, operation, the monopolistic organization ef- fected for the war period has been retained, There ‘no longer competition in the express field. theory, unified operation should result In ma- savings in overhead expense and consequent in the rates required to pay fair returns at ’ terial srl ission should make sure that these cal savings materialize of the balance sheet favor the shipper and consumer who are de- a of Nesrion payer Health Commissioner Copeland silys; “Hore fs a practical sittiation Unique in the history of the world, We have thousands of families without homes. These people must | live somewhere, If our citizens are unable to help themseives, and private capital re- fuses to be employed for this purpose, how else are the homeless to be provided for ex- cept by municipal or State assistance? Dr. Copeland's suntmary of the situation is sound and his conclusion logical. But wliy make out that New York's present housing plight is “unique” and that there is neither experience nor data anywhere for the guidance’ of those who urge public action to relieve it? i Two years ago the British authorities had to deal with the same post-war problem on an even larger scale in Great Britain, The British Government faced the same question ,of how to enter upon a public housing programme without discouraging private building enterprise. Witness the following from the memorandum of thg Advisory Housing Panel of the British Ministry of Reconstruction presented to Parliament in May, 1918, when it was estimated that 300,000 houses must be built to provide homes for fantilies in Eng- land and Wales alone: About 95 per cent. of houses in the past have been built by private, enterprise in the form of speculatiye building. In the case of work- ing-class houses, this form of building has shown a tendency to diminish, and abnormal, conditions apart,.the expectation that it would continue to provide the necessary number of houses in the future would not be justifiable. We willingly, however, accept the: prin- ciple that no obstacles should be put in the way of the free working of private enter- prise in the futurd, subject only to its con- forming, as we believe it well can, to a suffi- clent standard of design and arrangement, internal and external, of the houses built, Conclusions: It is imperative that the Government should secure the building of sufficient houses for the working classes, to make up the deficiency caused by the cessation of building. Whatever other measures may be taken, no considerable number of houses will be butlt unless financial aid is forthcoming from public funds, British authorities, national and local, have pro- vided such aid in the shape both of direct building undertakings and in advances on easy terms to Public Utility Societies organized in a manner speci- fied by the Government to build homes for workers. British experience in public and semi-public hous- ing since the war has been extensive, Its methods and results are available for the study +of those who are confronted by similar problems in the United States. New York may have excellent reason for pro- ceeding cautiously with public housing projects. But at least that caution need not be based on ignorance of what other communities have found practical. New York will advance no further toward solv- ing its housing problem by pretending that problem is unique. '\ ALOW START. T IS hardly to be expected that early August openings in the theatres will be up to the stand- ard of later offerings. But judging frém the almost unanimous opinions of the critics, several of the recent presentations have been anything but credit- able, either to managers, players or audiences. 4 A “jazzing up” of the bedroom motif has been the predominant note, and this without the extenu- ation of cleverness and wit. It is the sort of thing which ought to intensify the weariness of the Tired Business Man. If New York wants this kind of entertainment in its theatres, and if the police do not interfere, we shall have more of the same, It would be better by far to pass up the frankly —and rankly—salacious offerings and so inform the managers that decency will not be unwelcome. WISDOM FROM THE POETS. (From the Ohio State Journifl.) The poets help out amazingly at times, They are the true philosophers, and know how to put the wis- dom of the world in phrases that are most memorable and most helpful. Personally we rely largely on two little stanzas from two widely different poets, which have been found efficacious jn helping through the hardest problems. It is in times of greategt puzzle- ment when what to do seems almost unanswerable, that this splendid bit of verse from Charles Kingsley comes as first aid: “Do the thing that’s nearest, Though it's rough at whiles. Helping when you meet them, Lame dogs oyer stiles.” Somehow that seems a bit more practical than its Biblical inspiration, “Do the next thing.” Bat both between them generally manage to answer the ques- tion of the hour. And then for those memories of contention which will come whether you invite them or not, there is the ever-sati@fying answer of a too little appreciated American poet, Ella Wheeler Wil- cox, We are not sure that the quotation is exact, but it goes like this: So many ways, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind, When just the one of being kind, Is all this poor world needs, With these two bits of verse, there is guidance enough for @ lifetime. oh 1a ah = rng f ee) THE EVEN ‘NOT UNIQUE. | EVIEWING the housing shortage in this city, | } RETIRES RN ING WOR OS he DAY, AU peg ON tet Epes Sig oa a a9 IS THERE A | |SYAGON TO TAIKE ME TS HE STATION 9 \JHAT DoYou THINKS THIS IS A RUBE TOWN? VL GET You A TAXI SEND THe TAX) To THE HOTEL FROM EVENING WORLD READERS What kind of letter do you find most. readable? Isn't it the one that gives you the worth of a thousand words in a couple of hundred? There is find mental exercise and a lot of satisfaction in trying to say much in a few words. Take time to be brief. Drive Them Out. ‘To the Bilitor of ‘The Brening World: Now that we have the declaration of Gov. Cox of the character of a separate peace with Germany, would it not be well for the party to make certain that none of those alleged Democrats from New York City and elsewhere, who in th last session of the Congress voted for a separate “dishonest” and “dishon- rable” peace with Germany and for e overriding of President Wilson's patriotic veto of that peace, ever again ocoupy a seat in Congress of the United States? They made themselfes the allies of Johnson, Lodge and Borah, and of the Huns of Europe. Let them abide with them. Horsewhipped, they should be, out of public life ‘it they dure show their faces at the*polls on election day, Would it not be well to print in large bold type on your first page the names of these representa- tives with a demand for their rejes- tion on election day if nominated at the primaries, Gov. Cox's success must not-be im- perilled by such association, By the way, are not these the same men who were vacationing when the Volstead yeto was before the House? JEFFERSONIAN Aug. 10, 1920, Why Nott ‘To the Ealitor of The Brening World: The past few months or so we have been reading in the daily pa- pers about the different benefits which are being arranged to help the New York Police Department, such as a $5,000,000 hospital to be erected in Brooklyn, a health resort in the mountains, where they can regain their health, a club house on River- side Drive, where they can spend their spare time, and general stores hase food and ‘This is all fine but how where they can p clothing at cost pr’ and dandy for our polic about that other gallant body of men, Is the New York Fire Departm the public going to neglect get them altogether? Why und give them the same Why not have an annual parade of the Fire Department, the same as the annual: police parade, so that the people of New York could get an idea of the most wonderful fire fighting force In the world? Let's start the ball a-rolling for our fire laddies, J. MoMe 16% B, $80 Street, Aug. The Power of Kindn To the Maitor of ‘The Exening World After reading the letter of J in to-night's World it brought back |to my mind the inscription that ul- ways appeared at the head of a New York weokly, those mortals | dF. P, credit wits "What fools says her daughter to ‘the man sh T'presume she is yo cowed Democratic | is a is going to |do is hold a hoop and say to her jump | through that and she will do her best to make good. Perhaps if she used the hairbrush |More for what it was intended on her daughter, the poor girl would have been healthy enough in both mind end body to never give any one cause to chastise her. I am the father of a girl twenty- ‘| two years of age who has never had a hand laid on her from the day of her birth, except in the form of a caress, Her mother died when she was only an infant, I undertook to bring her up myself and am very proud to suy I made a god job of it. She was taught that to have a healthy mind she must have a healthy body, Also that when I said no 1 meant It, I never lied to her, with the result that it did not take very long for her to realize that anything her dad sald to her was for her own good, She always takes my advice, and to- day, at the age of twenty-two, I still pals in the world, ‘When I think of what a few kind words will do for a child, given by a how to give them, and then read of people using huirbrushes, it proves what I have always contended, that a lot of the mothers of to-day should not be allowed to raise animals, jet alone children. MR, W. J. J.B. Brooklyn, Aug. 6, 1920, Many Splendid Divintonas, ‘To the Falitor of ‘The Evening Workt: I noticed in your edition of Aug, 4 a letter signed “Rainbow,” which eulogizes the record of the 42d Divi- sion, While the 424 Division was a splendid unit, the writer again opens the question as to which was the best division in France, which question I thought had been settled by the of- ficial records of the divisions. The writer says that the 42d Divi- sion gained more ground aguinst the enemy than any other division, Ac- cording to the official records given out by G. H. Q, A. B. which gained the most ground in France was the 77th, and the next one was the 2d, of which I had the honor to be a member, Permit me to say that when a per- son has taken upon himself the task of eulogizing a splendid division like information before writing a letter which Is going into print. C. A. MEISTER JR. No. 218 Fourth Avenue, Aug: 6, 1920, The Blahteenth Amendment, To the Eaitor of The Evening World How dare you, Mr. Editor, criticise the Highteenth Amendment or the method of itp enforcement? Don't you know you will be advertised all over the werid as having “sold out to r interests,” that you are @ e fighter’ and on the side of mon Rum" and, consequently, bootter for intemperance and im- morality? No one to-day ee person with brains enough to know! oy The Ereme Uinintigl being a widower, we are the two best ; . the division | } the 42d he might well obtain rellabled jcontrol by law, control by the police can disagrees with club. tume that all he will huve to that handful of frock-coated, third- cratic and wrong in principle Conyelant, 192 tow "York Yeung, Wo Ys, SIR WE HAVE A TAXI TAKE THIS GENT [9 THE STATION. HURRY UP. HE WANTS To SATCH UNCOMMON SENSE By John Blake. (Copyright, 1920, by John Blake.) DON'T WORK BEYOND YOUR LIMIT. There is little dwager that you will overwork. The amount of underwork is so much greater than the amount of overwork that it seems hardly necessary to counsel people against overdoing. Still there are limits beyond which effort is unwise. A time comes when a man's faculties are lulled by the task he is doing, and when it is far wiser to stop all work and allow tne worn tissues to build up before tackling it afresh, : Any brain worker who has toiled long at night knows that it pays to stop before he is too tired and go at the job whea the morning brings clearer thinking pdwer. In everything that you do set yourself a limit. Make the limit high. Say, “I will do just so much of this to-day,” fixing the amount at considerably more than you care to do when you start. When you have reached that limit quit. Rest or play or sleep. Dismiss the work you are doing from your mind. Don't think of it at all. The next day go back to it, fixing a still higher limit. You will find that you can do more on a given task the longer you keep at it. But as soon as you trate your attention, stop. Fatigue, as you know, forms poisons in the tissues, and the poisons, if permitted to form without elimination, will briag on sickness and final breakdown, By working hard while you work, by concentrating all your energies to tne job in hand, you can accomplish a great deal—vastly more than you have been a in the past, But be content with a reasonable:amount of effort, remembering that a reasonable amount of effort is usually more than you think you ought to do. And while you are working, work. Loafing in the middle of a job breaks continuity of thought, and without sustained effort the mind slows down and starting it again is difficult. _ Set your limit and stick to it, but set a high Jimit always. find that it is hard to concen- ccomplishing nyt sn =" class, defunct preachers constituting themselves the Anti-Saloon League without being lined up as asso ites of the liquor interests, There is no middle ground, no temperance udvo- In the sa ne town with a ent the inferen: of myself and my children cates, no morality outside of those] Almost the entire daily pr 5 : 3 ntire ¢ ress {8 to- who approve of that Eighteenth | day under intimidation Dy that Ne Ma Amendment coated intimidators here- Yet the Prohibition Party polled tioned, because they less than 300,000 votes for their vandi- date for President in the last Presi- dential election. It ds the principle of Prohibition as having sold out, &¢ There are now departments of ( ernment recently ricanized for the which is wrong, and amendments and| purpose of molding public sentiment Prohibition Commissioners can never | through the publication of happenings make it right and events favorable to Prohibition ‘Temperance ts right, It means self- | Nothing Is to be published whieh | control, self-restraint, self-govern- | would reveal the the wieked public sich things as are favor hibition are to be 1 tho wenr one hat, And this ts not Russia, ment, self-determination, eratle, Prohibition means some one else's control pyer you, control by c If ts demo- It is un-American, undemo- | It infers that as a people we aay not trust ourselves or our nelghbors lish the idea of being advertised | acted at Albany was in 1769 by & com id tet . to mold dx of the people so they all can | NIMONA 8, JONES. | Ten-Minute Studies of New York City Government By Willis Brooks Hawkins. ‘This ia the twenty-first article of @ series defining the dutics of the n= istrative and legislative officers) and | boards of the New York City. Goyarm ment. ' FINANCJAL ADMINISTRATIO! Sinking Funds. ‘The laws which permit the cit; contract permanent Indebtedness pj vide for the establishment of sin! |funds for its liquidation. Six of th funds are now maintained for the demption of the city debt and one the payment of Interest, ‘They are: 1. The City Sinking Fund, for th payment of the funded debt (except for water purposes) incurred by the city subsequent to consolidation. » ‘Through this fund, all rapid transit; and general obligations of the great- er city are liquidated. t 2. The Water Sinking Fund, for the payment of debt incurred for water purposes subsequent to consolidation. 3, Sinking Fund for City Debt No. 1 is the genéral sinking fund of former City of New York. The pres ent charter requires the maintenance of this fund until 1929, when all the bonds payable thersfrom will have matured, + 4. Sinking Fund of the City of Brooklyn, through which the funded s debts of the former City of Brooklyn (excepting for water supply pur- poses) are liquidated, It was taken—_ over by the greater city at the time of consolidation, Jan. 1, 1898, Tho last of the bonds payable from this fund mature in 1937. Sinking Fund of Long Island for the Redemption of Fire, Vonds ig a very small fund taken” over at the time of consolidation, ‘The last of these bonds will matur in 1924. 7. This is not, strictly speaking, a sinking fund. It was established for the payment of interest on the debt incu by the City of New York prior to consolidation. The revenues of Nos, 2 and 6 are derived from budget appropriations and the from their inyest- ments. In addition to these forms of revenue, receives the rapid transit rentals, while No. 5 receives certain other revenues in addition to budget appropriations and income from its investments, ‘The three other funds receive no budget appropriations, being main- tained entirely from the income of their investments and certain rey- ennes pledged to thelr support, in- cluding dock and slip rents, Croton water rents, surplus water revenues, the Borough of Brooklyn, rents y property, mun fares and receipts chises, privil income No. 1, T is most refreshing indeed to find a landiord seeking tenants on the stipulation that they “must be of, good character and must have chil- dren." « Daniel W. Blumenthal, a tawyer, offers his property of seven city blocks in Long Island as a nucleus for a tent city, claiming that 100,000 families could be housed in his section, if prop- erty owners would be willing to offer their property as he does, This landlord made this offer after visiting the poverty stricken sections and seeing how “the other half” lives during the sweltering season. : He pointed out that thousands of families in the West live in tents all summer, and that many people who are owners of automobiles live In tents while travelling through the country, While his offer may be only a tem- porary summer proposition, yet it is a healthy sign, coming from a landiord, The day is not far distant when th statute books will contain laws that will not permft the familiar placard “Children or dogs not-allowed here.” Housing has already been declared a business clothed with public use, and’ therefore, to be regulated. i Legislators are beginning to thinks more in terms of humanity rather than of property. “That’saFact’ By Albert P, Southwick we Publinht Co, Trinity Cemetery, ew York é City, extends from Street to 155th and from Amsterdam Ave- nue to the Hudson, Evvbedded tn the wall if a bronge tablet in mem- ory of Knowlton and Leltoh, the heroic American officers. ‘Dhere ts also a cenotaph of President Mon- roe President James Monroe died in New York City on July 4 same day of the month as both Presidents Jefferson and John ‘4 Adams), in 1831, at bis daughter's house, in Prince Street, east of Broadway. Twenty-seven years later Virginia claimed the remains or her illustrious son, and under military “escort they Were transs ferred to Richmond, Capt. Henry Hudson steered the good ship Half Moon into the Bay of Manhattan on Sept. 12, 1609, and then went on as far as Albany, searching for the Pacific. Duteh obtained per- mission of the Indians to build « { better fort (ort Amsterdam), and the four houses around it marked the beginning of Pearl Street, In 1623. the In 1639 the English settled at Oys- te? Bay, L. I, when Gov. Kieft at- tacked and drove them away, | The first theatrical performasece en { pany ew York City, Waving gained ssion “for one nmnth only," 1 “his oxcelleney the Upv= ernor. play was "“Ventce #re= served," the place, the hospital, Hell Gate,” Bast River, New } York City, is a corruption of the Dutch “Horlgatt" from “horl,” « whirlpool, and “gatt,” a passage, Saniy Hook, N. J, means sandy » the term “hook” being de- rived from the Duteh “hoak,” a point, wang.