The evening world. Newspaper, January 29, 1921, Page 14

N TATTERS. read in the Senate yester- day The Evening Work!’s exposure of the Foniney Fake sugar fraud. Advocates of the sugar paragraphs were immedi- wtely on the defensive. The defense offered was the claim that Senator Gay, who prepared the bill, ‘was not actuated by improper motives, that the * Sugar Trust had not directly asked him to engineer the grab for the $350,000,000 prize. No Senator denied that it would advance sugar "prices to the consumer. No Senator gave particu. lars as to how the bill would benefit the farmers ' who have already sold their crops. No support except the old orthodox “protection” rigamarole P (‘The bill is scheduled for defeat. It is encourag- ) ing, indeed, that the worn-out arguments of the ' log-rolling protectors of the Interests no longer seem 3 ~~ torhave the force they used to have. If Senator Gay honestly wants to help the farm- ing. producers of sugar and not the profiteering re- finers, why doesn’t he suggest a subsidy? — A subsidy would go straight to the farmers, A tariff would help only the manufacturers. i AN ANALOGY. | EW YORK has reason to thank the City Club Committee on Public Service for its tem- perate and well-considered criticism of the Service- at-Cost plan of transit regulation, ‘ Every’ person who assumes to discuss the ques- ion should study the whole report with care. It is ee an excellent basis for discussion and investigation, which is what the committee wants as a preparation for a settlement. For example, the committee says: “So far as we have ledrned, no attempt has ever been made to apply the Service- “atCost plan to competitive conditions , Wherever the scheme has been tried, the local transit service has been operated as } @ single, unified system.” "This is true as regards municipal transit. But = ina larger field Congress has applied a modification of the Service-at-Cost plan to the highly competi- tive railroads of the Nation, with the avowed inten- tion of forcing consolidations and reorganizations of the weaker roads into a few large systems of limited competition, The analogy between our national railroad mud- ile and the local traction muddle is striking and deserves careful study and comparison. ti Is it not possible that a system of limited compe- tj {ition might prove to be the practical solution of the “incentive to economy” difficulty which has ap- peared in other cities? HOW EUROPE REGARDS HOOVER. ETURNING from Europe, Mr. S. S. MoClure confirms reports of bankruptcy, hunger, pes- simism and general low state of mind in Central European countries. He says he heard frequently ‘ expressed’ in these countries the view that, with conditions going from bad to worse, the best thing for Central Europe woukl be a receivership, and ‘the first choice of these peoples for their receiver 5 would be—Herbert Hoover. * The idea is not altogether fantastic. It grows out of first-hand experience that must have made a deep impression upon the popular mind in many parts of Europe. In the midst of political and economic chaos, these Europeans have seen an American busy with one particular job of organization and rescue on a big scale. They have seen him put great staffs of competent workers into quick action with immediate and beneficent results. They have seen the Hoover | organizations holding back the menace of starvation | with extraordinary economy as well as efficiency. \ What more natural than for these Central Euro- pean peoples to feel that there is no better hope of » salvation for them to-day than the kind of executive ability shown by Herbert Hoover in administering ‘American first aid? He has established administrative standards that will have an influence in Burope besides and be- yond the feeding of starved children. WHY DO THE ALDERMEN BLOCK HOUSING RELIEF? 7 a Washington conference called by the United States Chamber of Commerce to consider the housing problem, Lawson Purdy, for- _ mer President of the New York City Tax Board, recommends tax exemption during a period of at fifteen years for all new dwellings built in the three years. t it about time for insistent effort to force Board of Aldenmen of this city to reconsider recent adverse action on an ordinance which have stimulated home-building hereabouts exempting from local taxation for ten years constructed in the next two years? represented the one immediate action opened to the city by the sent legis- az hi Da a lation of last fall to encourage capital to come for- ward and build houses. Strong support for the ordinance, under the lead- ership of Borough President Henry H. Curran of Manhattan, seemed certain of carrying it success- fully through the Board of Aldermen. Then sudden changes of front became evident among the Aldermen under pressure from realty was defeated by a vote of 34 to 28. It fs not dead, however, nor should it be allowed to die, The housing shortage is still an acute problem for New York, The homes that are needed are not being built or planned. The winter is well advanced and there are as yet no signs that spring will see the revived interest in housing construction that will alone save the city from another housing crisis when the annual shift of tenants comes next fall. ‘The Legislature did little enough to encourage house building. But it did pass an Enabling Act whith made it plain sailing for the city to appeal to capital and building interests through tax exemption. What has become of the tax exemption ordi- nance which was to come up for reconsideration? We thought the Board of Aldermen was trying to live down its old record of futility and obstruction. | WILL THEY GET USED TO IT? T WOULD seem that the people of this Com- monwealth must accustom themselves to ‘a new tone from Albany. Gov. Miller apparently likes to lay down the law to his subjects—who thought they were only his constituents. id It would be charitable to assume that illness was tesponsible for the Governor’s scolding of the ‘League of Women Voters. Otherwise the Gov- ernor is flying square in the face of the principal political development of the last generation in the United States. He is denying the effectiveness of independence in politics. !t must not be forgotten that Gov. Miller, in the campaign, was glad to avail himself of just the sort of. support which he described to the women as a “menace to free representative government,” the — Anti-Saloon League. Non-partisan political movements have their place. Each must be judged by the ends toward which it works and the means to those'ends. It would be an insult to compare the League of Women Voters to the Anti-Saloon League. The women have depended on education rather than on coercion in their campaign for social welfare, The fight against Wadsworth was waged in the open and on fair criticism of his record as he made it. New York will await Gov. Miller’s recovery with the hope that better heafth will be conducive to bet- ter temper and better reason than he has displayed in discussing the transit bills and feminine inde- pendence of machine politics. DIGESTION TO COME, LL Cabinet forecasts indicate that the “best minds” have decided the Progressives are back in the fold to stay and that Mr. Harding ‘has no intention of subjecting himself to immediate con- tagion in his official family. The Old Guard believes it is no tonger necessary to flirt with Progressivism. That Jamb has lain down with the lion—inside the lion, The process of mastication is complete. lion is licking his chops over the Cabinet. The only question is, “Will the Progressives stay put?” What will happen when digestion com- mences? Are the real progressives—as distin- guished from the purely political Progressives—and the independents going to continue to-feel comfor- table inside of the lion? And will the lion continue to feel contented? Or 4s the lion’s heavy and highly satisfactory feast merely the forerunner of another attack of Political gout complicated by acute colic? Nobody knows—yet. Formal announcement of the Qabinet is likely to give rise to premonitory rumblings. But thus far the Old Guard is feeling So fine that the best of the “best minds” are plenty good enough. There is no thought of calling the doctor as a preventive measure. The FROM THE CITY OF HI LAN. To the Heaven-Born Mayor of Pekin, Ohina: In this City of Hi Lan, all servants of the admirable Mayor show commendable loyalty by keeping his scholarly mind free from wor ries which might trouble his placidity. For erample, although it be widely known that robbers and cutthroats go freely about their trade, Hi Lan’s Overlord of Police pro- tects him from annoyance by assurance that all is well, ' In much public speaking this Overlord, wamed Wun Dick, has declared the City of Hi Lan to be the safest, best policed and most orderly city in the world, By this modest estimate of his own service Wun Dick saves Hi Lan from realizing that the people are going about muttering against him and his Overlord. All the servants of Hi Lan would be happy but for one thing: The time of seeking votes from the populace ts only a few months away, three-fourths of his time of office having sped. When the populace, as seems probadle, casts Hi Lan out of office, how then can his servants keep him calm in mind? Can they convince him he is yet Mayor, even though the janitor will not let him into the Sittee Hall? This problem alone keeps servants of Hi Lan from full measure of huppiness, ' HONG, COMMISSIONER, ok interests. To every one’s surprise, the ordinance, ‘WHE EVENING WORLD, SATURDAY, JANUARY Nothing Doing! _ s ‘These Will Not Watt. ' "Te the Puitor of ‘The Brening World: | Your editorial of yesterday, “Root's | Retamting Hand," shows up the nar- | row partisanship of Root in strong comtrast to the thoughtful and hu- manitarian principles of Borah, Well does Borah say, “During the deiny (which Root insists on) contracts representing. billions of expenditures will be made, and billions wiil be ex- pended on armaments. Budgets are being framed and the taxpayers (that is, you and I and every other con- sumer) will have to take care of these immense amounts.” In the meantime the world is on the verge of bank- ruptey. Millions are freezing and dying for want of clothes and food. Taxes will not wait. Hunger will not wait, Death will not wait. These things do not wait for change of Ad- pee gpa yavaare or \ oe themselves aside out of party ie. Well do aon ay “Here is an im- perative national and international need which hes created no party di- vision, which cam furnish issues for no impending Presidential! campaign, which involves only practical saving and relief for tax burdened millions,” Surely such narrow, jealous, re- vengeful sanship as Root here hows will be condemned by the Re- publicans themselves! Just think of these billions worse than wasted in @ bankrupt world where 90 per cent. of the ie are either perishing or driven ntic in an effort to keep the wolf of want from the door! The atrovity of such an action is equalled by the bithions of wealth we would thus throw away. We can't believe the Repubiteans will stand for “Root's Retarding Hand.” JOSIE THORPE PRICE. Inwood, L. L, Jan. 25. +; A Dish of Prance, | ‘Po the Editor of The Brening World: One nay hear talk everywhere of lower prices. Much of it is only tatk. In certain places profiteering is as rampant and audacious as ever. | lunched in a@ Child's restaurant yesterday, and thought I would top off with ‘a dish of prunes, A dish of prunes! They brought me, by actual count, three prunes in a apoon- ful of syrup, which cost me exactly three and one-third cents a prune. With prunes selling at 23 or 26 cents a pound, isn't that profiteering gone mad? T. BE, WOODWARD, New York, Jan. 22, 1921. Ne Opportunity In Offices, ‘Te tho Baitor of The Evening World: As thousands of public school graduates are about to enter high schools or business schools for the purpose of learnipg stenography, typewriting and bookkeeping, would it not be beneficial to inform these future job eeckers to learn some other profession, particularly at this tine when there is no demand in this sort of work? S. SOHAYE, Brooklyn, Jan, 25, 1921, Another Gas Bill, \ 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 fine mental exercise and a lot of satisfaction in trying to say much in @ few words, Take time to be brief. month we used practically the same amount of gas and the bill jumped to $27.28. Yet the gas company says the metre is O. K. This letter is from a widow trying to make a living. Will we al- ways submit? G. D.B. Dean Street, Brooklyn, Jan. 26, 1920. Get Busy, ‘To the Diitor of The Hreutng World: “What is everybody's business is nobody's business.” Ie there any real necessity of point- Ing Out to persons of average intel- hgence (which means most of us) the Many “crying cvils;" the abuses of pewer; the criminal indifference of our elected representatives, and the selfish indifference which is dally be- coming more and more evident in the majority of citizens of our so-called “Free and enlightened country.” Our President has been practically repudiated by the majority of voters. A ol examples are submitted here- with: Our shell-shocked, wounded and phywically and mentally wrecked sol- diers are ‘tied up in a mess of red- tape, or ignored and practically for- gotten. Our police force is under-manned (compare pro ruta to popuiation with other cities) over-worked (sunpris- ing statement? look it up); forced to live an unnatural, umhealthful Mite (knew the hours of duty, reserve,éo.), end are held up to scorn and ridicule almost daily (see most daily news- papers). We how! mournfulty at blue-laws, prohibition, &, Why not join a po- Vitigal ongunization, or local league of some kind, and “howl to some effect? Tf this is too much trouble, my case is proved. Not by thelr words, but “By ‘their shall ye know them.” yn, Jan. 26, 1921. Not the Last Word. ‘To the Extitor of The Dreving World; It is the “cock-sureness” charac- terized by the writer who calls him- seif “The Last Word” that makes drys so unpopular, ‘That and the false and misleading statements they use as propaganda, Conscription may have been a necessity of war, but we no longer have conscription; 80 where |s the comparison? ‘When he speaks of a drinking army being a defeated army, surely he doesn't mean the doughboy of the A, E. F, who conld at all times get ail ho wanted fo drink, or the French ‘who carried thelr wine with them on the march, Statistics? The drys say the people of the country saved a ibillion, Ask the first man you meet. what part of the billion he hast On the other hand, the wets submit ficures to prove the Government lost many billions, We would have more re- spect for these people if they had more regard for the fats in the case It looks as though the “truth is not Kaitor of The Brening World Regarding an article in last night's ning World in reference to out- ageous gas bills, T wish to call th attention of all to my gas bill, The flit. month we moved in the house mov bill ‘The next in them.” It will be a tone while| UNCOMMON SENSE By John Blake (Copyright, 1021, by John Blake.) ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE. Never believe’ the man who tells you that the day of great opportunity is passed. It is the excuse of theMailure, the justification*of the loafer. : To be great—or even to be very successful—is to achieve what is commonly supposed to be the impossible. That would be discouraging for youth if it were not for the fact that it is being accomplished right along, When a man tells you that in a time of vast business and social organization no mam can rise beyond a certain point, ask him what he knows about Lloyd George. This man, now Premier of Great Britain and by many persons held to be the greatest man living in the world, was a few years ago a poor Welsh boy, receiving his education at the hands of a cobbler uncle. If ever a lad had an excuse for believing that he was born to a station in which he must remain all his life, it was young George. > He had to touch his cap to the squire of the neighbor- hood. The heights on which the rich and the titled people of this district lived seemed utterly impossible for a poor boy to scale, Yet this boy, by ability and determination, took away the seat in Parliament that was once held by ‘the man to whom hé touched his cap, and later saved England for the aristocracy who despised ‘him. Into the world young Lloyd George brought absolutely nothing save brains and energy. He had no birth, no money, no standing. He belonged to a class against which the whole British system was organized. The difficulties of this position can- not be comprehended by the people of another country. It was the impossible he achieved—judging the impossi- ble by the general idea of it. Yet hundreds of other boys, in every quarter of the world, have done and will de the same things. Think of that when the pessimists tell you that the day of opportunity is over and that brains and energy can no longer win their way in the world. to-eny that the Liberally dis- on want “the Tight to get drunk’ —the “right to poison oneself,” &c. This is mere oratorical camouflage, and no one knows it better than the drys themselves. These things were forbidden by law long before in Righteenth Amendment was ~_ I. ‘The question involved is whether the rights and opinions of the vas! majority. of the law-abiding and} temperate people are to be aubordi- nated to those of the few inebriates and equally few fanatics in this country and whether our legislators will continue to deserve the current designation as our “mis-representa- tives” 80 applicable in the past few years; and whether paid lobbyists Mhall continue to foist unweloome laws on an unwilling public or leave an unworkable one unrepealed or at least modified to the extent that th will have the appreval of the There is no remembrance time does not obliterate, nor pain which death does not terminate, —Cervantes. Death, the eternal sleep and rest of man, is the greatest gift which God has given him, It is the only joy undenied to the poor nor begrudged the rich; it ig shared equally by the mighty and the humble, but denied to God hims: ~L. M, Notkin, The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good ure the two most important before the “last word” has how suid! people and thelr consequent co-| abjects of philosopiy.—Voltairé, Mehe matory of 4 nl ital ehtimee neal Se ee ean tay man may commit a avis e malority of the pronto of thie] we mny Ase ‘ oyntey worl vaths + for theig| Iowa and lawegivors thut “che tule, but none but a foot wilt motio, “We have Just begun to Aight} deserve MBRITAS. | Ncontinue in it-—Cloero, ‘Anotugy tavorite ruse of these weo-1 New York, Jan, 26, 1921, pick ~~ Words From the Wise IVE me work to do, Give me health, ‘ Give me joy in simple things. Give me an cye for beauty. A tongue for truth, A heart that loves, 4 mind that reasons, 4 sympathy that understands Give me neither malice ror envy But o true kindness And @ noble common sense. At the close of each day Give me a book And a friend with whom 1 can de silent, So runs the pmyer-poem, which is & metrical foreword to “Fagots of Fancy” rogressive Publishers, Wheeling, W. Va.), a book of verse by Mise Scottie MoKenzie Frazier, ‘This por “The Gift,” won @ prize from the Alabama Federation of Women's Clubs, It should win a thought anywhere. . ee Declining of Million With Thanks-- A little suggestion in martyrdom from the of “Not That It Matters” (Dutton), essays by A. A. Milne: qr « gelling ponees were left to you, how coul lo most good with it? Te “Some say they would endow hos- pital, some that they would estab- ish almshouses; there may even be some who would go so far as to say they would build half a dread- nought. But then: would be a more decisive way of doing good than any of these, You might refuse the million pounds, That would be a to the systems of the comfortable—a blow struck at. the great Money which would make it totter; thrust in defense of pride and free- dom such as had not been een weet would at would be a moral tonic more needed than all the draughts of your newly endowed hospitals. Will it’ ever ‘be administered? Well, perhaps, when the D. W. T. club 'has grown a Htte stronger. Have you heard of the D. W. T.— the Declined-with-Thanks club? The entrance is one hundred guineas and the nual subscription is fifty guineas; that is to say, you must have refused a hundred guineas before you can be elected, and you are ex; ted to refuse an- other fifty guin @ year While you retain membership, All right! No, thank you! When we think what’ the inbert- t taxes and the super-tax would do to that million, we would rather dodge than owe the money, anyway, . 8 8 Being Humble to Women - - « Having travelled much and found the earth beautiful to see, J. H. Curle nevertheless writes a drawback into his book, “This World of Ours” (Doran), thus: But the most interesting thing tn this country to-day comes on no . It is this: American women are losing res- pect for their men. They are the mates of the most forceful, originat- ing, doing race in history, yet treat them, as} they by and large, without respect, with scant politeness, often with thinly veiled contempt, as those of an inferior mould. And why? Because the men have set the tradition. Because these strong, forceful males have let the idea becom Nation-wide and per- sisting that the Woman Is superior. It is dreadful, Much more dread- ful for the women than the men, In every true woman is the long- ing not only to love but to lean, to look up; and when she can do this— behold!—she haa gained her heart's desire, I cannot erect your s'cyscrapers. Now juggle with steel. Nor byild railroads, Nor corner copper. Nor create “big business.’ But have my ewe-lamb of knowledge, and nothing in this wide world can’ take it from me, It is this: Don't be humble to women, A brave word spoken out of time, Since She began to carry the votes of the district in her beaded shopping bag it has been a closed season for Cave Men, . . We Are Kind to Mr. George- ++ Writing a “Hail; Columbia!” pa- for the February Hampers, W. George says: Kindness is almost universal in America; in my first three months I collected only, three deliberate Tudenesses, though, doubtl de- served Many more. I have found everywhere assist- ance and, what the straager needs 80 much,’ information. ‘The American is often quiet, but he never refuses conversation,” and, ‘on the whole, it is better that peo- ple should talk too much than too little; this contributes to general sociability and ease of intercourse. Also, conversation helps a man to exhibit himself. Very few of us ever attempt to discover what the other man thinks: we talk so as to assert to him what we think; this helps us to discover what we really think. T suspect that the American, mote than any other kind of man, his mind being filled with a vast num. ber of physical impressions, needs converwation to sort out thése im- pressions. And doubtless there are Americans who found Mr. George an English- man gratefully unique in that he cheerfully would speak when spoken to. A Rap for the Super-Optimist- -« In his new book, “Democracy and the Human Bquation” (Dutton), Al- leyne Ireland declares himself thus: If any one cause, more than an- other, has contributed to the pres- ent appalling dition of the world, If there is one which has done more than any other to withhold from the use of mankind that nourishing harvest which observation fertilizes in the soil of experience, ft is that biind. optimism which’ discounts every disngreeable fact as having ho more than a casual and transi- tory significance, and accepts every agreeable fact aa the expression of an irresistible force for good. ‘The arguments of the optimists have ‘heen advanced with warmth, with ingenulty, with persistence: and as thelr general quality is that they reassure the bg- t, console the mediocre, fot- ibewllder the stupid, they have rallied to their standard @ vast army of genial adherents. So great is the proportion ‘of humanity which has fallen under their spell that the almost im- ercepUble minority which pre- ere Any. truth, however painful to any falsehood, however gratl: fying, 18 branded as materialis- :, evynical, and reactionary, Mr. Ireland has in mind, ust-be-giad persons who insist that there is no f crime about us, but that 4 of ine hithway do but chival- er in order to b, cing ifte nor ter the vain and