The evening world. Newspaper, February 28, 1921, Page 16

‘Yepablicetion 3 of I danger, fike crossings, the ‘best automatic train stopping devices so far avail- able should reduce the human equation to its lowest More than forty lives have to be sacrificed to _ provide a new spur toward greater safety! H NOT THAT ARM! Hiram seems to think seme of the news- ‘papers hereabout are joggling his ann. Sorely not the arm that uphojde the pal- Indium! A NEAT STROKE. 4 PPOINTMENT of “Young T. R.” as Assistant ae Secretary of the Navy was a sagacious mov: on the part of the Harding Administration. In a near-Cabinet position which befits his years, the Roosevelt ‘name alone will be balm to the pro- _ gressive wing of the party, which has felt rather lonesome since election. Whether Col. Roosevelt’s acceptance of the post : Whether a young man is wise to associate himself with the “Old Guard” is open to serious the country is in a fair way of @ political tradition that the Roosevelt first call on the office of Assistant Secre- Na watching this “son of his father.” ’ ‘So too are the political leaders. It is fair to presume _ ‘What the party chieftains are more or less deliberately will be possible to arouse American sentiment by a hoodlumism. } Duffy, admitting that he would like to ste an Irish Republic, told nothing but the truth whza he warned the gallery disturbers that they were act- ing as British propagandists might be expected to act. ’ The sooner Irish enthusiasts in America let that iruth sink in and take effect, the better their chance ‘of giving effective aid to Ireland. ‘ til s IN PLACE OF THE SALOON. “The elimination of the saloon brought with force the responsibilities of the community in providing, in some constructive way, for the employment of one's leisure. Take the ordi- » Wary day laborer, It ts all very well to say vhat after a day's work under trying condi. tions he should be content to return to his ‘home and bis tired wife and share with her the blessings of several fretful children, each ' 4 An the way of the other and all in the way of each. The plain fact is that he will not do it.” » These words of Col. C. Seymour Bullock before the National Education Association present a clear ‘statement of a truth that becomes increasingly evi dent as the “poor men’s clubs’ close their’ doors, or. if they continue to exist, defy the law and become “more exclusively centres Of expensive intoxication. et |THE crying need for an informal and inexpensive type of meeting place. Perhaps, as Col. Bullock suggests, the community should assume the responsibility. But how? If a half of the mental effort now being devoted to “reforms,” new prohibitions and sumptuary legis- lation were turned to a constructive effort to answer this one question, it is safe to assume that a good share of the “reforms” would prove unnecessary. THEATRE TICKET BILLS. has MILLER has signed the Walton-Smith bill which aims to rid this city of the sidewalk theatre-ticket speculator. That is straightaway ac- tion fo abolish a nuisance, But when it comes to the companion measure, which woudl punish a theatre-ticket broker for sell- ing tickets at more than 50 cents advance over the box-office price, the Governor is reported doubtful. One thing is certain. Collusion between theatre manager and ticket broker which puts practically al! the best seats in the house for weeks at a time into the latter’s hands to be sold at fancy prices is too unjust to endure. The better element among the theatre managers themselves has sought to put a stop to this practice. But to try o make it legal to sell a theatre ticket at more than 50 cents above the box-office price is a different proposition. It is urged that if theatre ticket agencies as well as theatres can be made to operate, like taxicabs, under public license, they can be brought under similar regulatory laws. So do hotels and restaurants operate under public license as licensed victuallers. Yet it has not been made illegal for hotels and restaurants to charge $10 or $20 for a meal of very ordinary “victuals” on New Year's Eve or other occasions when public de- mand puts the privilege of eating in certain estab- lishments at a premium. And food ranks as a prime necessity. Ina sense, every night at a great popular theatrica’ sucess in New York is a New Year’s Eve. Greatly advaneed box-office prices for first nights as well as advances for Saturday and holiday performances have already been introduced. And while the theatre manager knows that fancy scales of box-office prices ‘may prove as wise for his political ¢uture, remains to | Would be bad business in the tong run, the ticket be seen. Unless all signs fail, the mew Administra, | broker is under\no such restraint. will be reactionary and anything but progres-. Nor is it strictly true to say the ticket broker preys upon the public. A substantial part of that public eagerly seeks him every day and finds fault with him if he cannot provide it with tickets for something it wants to see that same evening al any price he chooses to charge. It is often necessary to travel by a certain railway train, It may be necessary to take a taxicab. But there is not the faintest necessity that any man or woman of the pleasure-seeking public, should on a given night occupy a seat at a popular theatrical performance. It is a luxury—for which, unfortunately, not a few people in New York are only too ready to out- bid less fortunate lovers of the theatre, Get .ninety-nine per cent. of the theatre-going public to agree that a 50<ent advance over the box- office price is enough to pay for a theatre ticket, that it will stay home rather than pay more—and your theatre-licket broker will cease like magic to be a gouger. hn But so long as many theatre-goers cdntinue to regard him as their best friend because he can “get ’em a Couple of good ones for that night at $8.80 per,” he will thrive and manage to keep out of react: of any law that will stand the constitutional test. Tax him more heavily and he will charge more for his tickets. Legislate him out of one shop and he will turn up presently in another, Cut him off from the theatre manager and he will hire hundreds to buy at the box office. Until the theatre-going public—with far fewer exceptions than at present—resolutely turns its back on him, the theatre-ticket speculator will continue in one way or another to graft on this “show’-madj town. TWICE OVERS * sé R. HOOVER begins his day by meeting some one on business at breakfast, and has the newspapers read by the time he reaches his office.” —George Barr Baker. “ee 7 HIS act is not only one of great humanity but one of good diplomacy.” Senator Kenyon of Lowa on the Senate vote of $500,000 to send across the Pacific the grain donated by American farmers Sor famine sufferers in China. eee “6 WE went to Russia to help build vo the government with all our heart and soul. When we got there it was a terrible thing—simply terrible. I toid Lenine and Trotzky what I thought of them, and I have paid the bill. They arrested my wife--they murdered her for nothing, treated her with unspeakable cruelly,”—Morris Schwartz, who went to Russia to investigate conditions there and report fo Amertean Soctaliets, , Sesh as DAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1921.) i Lala Bisa What kind of a letter do you find most readable? Ien'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 im trying to eay much in @ few words. Take time to be brief. ——— Child ‘Tot We the Extitor of Th ing World ; Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis |/ {e the bearer of one of those names Sot doomed to die. The name alone ‘Will keop his fame alive; yet in ad- dition he has the credit of such loose thinking and acting as the imposing of a fine of $29,000,000 on the Stand- ard Oil Company in 1907. Forbearing to impose sentence on convicted thieves is hardly a worse Anti-social act than to impose the laughable fine. There was nothing Leo ghnars in the consequences, viz, thé accelerating of the panic of 1907, But it is of his comments on Sena- tor Dial that I wish to speak. This Senator is one of those In the South that think work—steady work in cot- ton mills—is better than the continu- ation of the clase. of “poor whites,” The “white trash” of the South is nothing less than a scandal, Not tong ago I bought “The Child That Toileth Not,” by an author who travelled through the regions given over to these unfortunates. He was a Gov- ernment inspector, and his report was suppressed by the influence of the sob sisterhood of Northern reformers. So he put it-in the form of a book. It impressed me with its sincerity and I gave it to the Public Library, Why should a report be suppressed? No one can read it without think- ing Senator Dial very much more of an improver of the race by supply- ing them with work, than Landis and his sentimentaliste, who may have somé impossible dreams of regenera- tion for “poor whites,” as weil as for all kinds of thieves as per recent press reports, It is too bad I forget the name of the author of “The Child That Toileth Not.” is at the brary and it is ROBERT P. A Change in Sympathy. To the Mditor of The Wrening World: 1 am a native-born American citl- zen and until a few years ago my sympathies were for England. Now my sympathies have turned all for Ireland, Why shouldn't any one's turn? During the early part of the World War the German methods em- ployed in Belgium were considered brutal, especially the snooting of civilians. The whole world was is the time for us to demand of Eng- land a free Ireland. SAM BOY. South Amboy, Lh J., Feb, 23, 1931. Taxed for Idleness. ‘To the Haitor of The Hrening Work! : + I really think {t's a shame that the outbursts of an individual who shows the. lack of intelligence of F. Daly should be printed in such ah enlight- ening newspaper as The Evening World. Although I am not familiar with the doctrines of the Single Tax Party, I know that when any land ie worked by any individual (and In most cases this individual does not own the land he works) he receives payment in return for the amount of work he puts into it, be it with his mind or with his muscle, Should any land remain idle it is taxed for ng out of use, which is no more than fair, RICH) A, Bronx, Feb, 24, 1921, Theatre Disturbers, To the Biitgr of Tag Exening World; Allow me @ few words concerning theatre disturbers. A few’days ago I went to see a drama in a Brooklyn theatre. In the second act of this play and at the most thrilling mo- ment of the scene a hearty laugh came out from one of the box seats. It was at a time when there was noth- ing to laugh at on the stage. The interruption seemed funny to ¢ few more persons in the audi and they laughed, and, the best part of a good play was interrupted for two or three minutes because of the noise, People like that should not go to theatres to annoy the real theatre-go- ers. They should go to see a boxing bout or a baseball game, where noise does not ‘bother any one. A THEATREGOER. 30 Hours of L ‘To the Editor of The Brening World; Permit another voice to be heard in support of the daylight saving plan, After reading the nonsense whioh emanated from the rudimentary in- telligence of A. J. Weeding, I feel impelied to reply. Tam one of the workers and I cer- tainly feel that the poor man is thc one who gains by daylight saving "The worker is the man who needs tha: hour of daylight in the evening for outdoor sport or relaxation, not the man whose time is his own; to say aroused to a high pitoh of indigna- tion then, thanks to a good deal of English propaganda. Now — the tables are somewhat turned, Eng- tand is doing in Ireland .what Ger- many did in Belgium, How about some propaganda now? Now is the time to advertise and advertise wide- ly those brutal killings in Ireland, Now is the time for the whole world to demand Ireland's freedom. Do- mestic question? Is Poland a domes- tic question, or Csecho-Slovakia or any of the other smal) nations liber- Ve after the late war? Decidedly not. The United States fought for the ttherstion of small nations Now nothing of the @aving of the cost of approximately thirty ‘s’ Numina- tion each month. Persons with the Weeding calibre mind should receive a mental test before being allowed tc vote. Lam wondering if he is a Pro- hibitionist. H. J.T. Brooklyn, Feb, 24, 1921, A World Gold Out. To the Kaitor of The Broning World ; To-day’s editorial, “The Great Fail- ure,” in the New York Trivune is just what One® might expect of the ribune—just a sublime lack of com- prenension, ‘The people understand where Hes UNCOMMON SENSE By John Blake (Copyright, 1021, by Jon MAKE EXPLANATION UNNECESSARY, Politicians are not the only people who find explana- tions inconvenient. Explanations of conduct are always em- barrassing. They are usually unsatisfactory. Explanations are really first cousins to excuses. If you haven't yet discovered how futile excuses are you will, so there is no need of dwelling on them in this’ article. An’ action that requires explaining may of course be a perfectly good and worthy action. In some rare cases it may be the only action possible. ' Bat very often it is impossible to reach the people who are affected by it with the explanation. Many times they do not understand the explanation. Occasionally they refuse to accept it, although they know it to be perfectly valid. So it is safer whenever possible to make explanations unnecessary. If you are about to do something that you know will lay you open to serious criticism, think first if it will HAVE to be explained, not if it CAN be explained. Doing habitually things that require explanations will get you a bad name after a while, and although you are always able to make explanations, that will get you only the reputation of an “alibier.”” ; A few illustrations will suffice to show how explana- tions are injurious, A man in bad company is arrested for complicity in a crime some of his companions committed withont his’ knowl- edge. He would not dream of committing any crime. He merely happened to be in the place where the crime was committed to do something for one of his questionable friends, ‘ # He can explain all that in court and clear himself. But hundreds of people who never read of his explanation will still think him guilty. If he had kept out of bad company in the first place it would not have required an explanation to keep him out of jail. \ s You make a succession of trifling errors in your work, Later a serious error of the same sort is made by a man be- side you. He happens to be an alibier and blames you. You have to do considerable explaining to put the blame where it belongs, and you don't always succeed, for your record for errors is If you hadn’t made the trifling errors in the first place you would have needed no explanation to establish your in- nocence of the serious one. If you apply the explanation test™to whatever you do you will make fewer mistakes and get into less trouble. Even when explanations are casy they are always troublesome, because it often happens that the man who ought to get them is beyond your reach, Avoid excuses always. Avoid explanations whenever possible. By using a little care you can make nine-tenths of your explanations wholly unnecessary. ¥the front or rear will be dark, A the failure. The Republican Party gold itself for a “mers of potage, and the Republican Party has it meas with the coming of Mr. Hard- ing and his presumptive, iMuminating Cabinet of great minds, ‘The Democratic Donkey can well he-haw in derision. ‘The world understands how it has been sold out and realizes if @ city, is mightier than the sword,” Messrs Lodge, Borah, State and Nation can be regulated by the commen law that “Might is not right,” 60 a combination of civilized nations can join hands, under a law of hamanity, to prove that the “pen Johnson, Hale, et al, will pass Into oblivion, ‘out Woodrow Wilson is immortal. AMERICAN Xi—THE BARONS. By common consent and usage, the word “robber” has been coupled with the word “baron.” This verbal marriage is justified by the record of centuries of merciless rapacity. Here and there, through the dark- ness of the Middle Ages—the feudal period of civilimtion—there are giim- merings of the existence of good oF near-g00d Barons, But the whois in- stitution represented by the Barons was suprem@y vicious because it vested in a small minority the right ) to dispose of the persons and the property of the great majority. fevfdal system, of which Barop Counts and Dukes were the living symbols, was the greatest get-rich- quick scheme ever devised by the mind of man. This colossal syetem of exploita- tion was invented by the Germans. ‘They devised it as a workable meana to ingure the holding of the lands which ‘they had acquired from: the Roman Hmpire as « crumbled under their asewults. Wherever Gerinan tribes advanced —westward, over France to Britain: eastward over Bohemia and Poland into Rustia—they carried the feud- alistic idea with them. Every Baron ruled by the maile@ fist. Lesser Barons had greater Barons, with heavier fists, to exact obedience and service and treasure from them. And the gregt mass of § humanity at the base of the pyramid carried the crushing burden of the entire structure. Jonathan Swift. who lived on the edge of the vanishing period of feud- alism, put a great truth in whimsical | form when he wrote: So, natorailsta otwerre, a Clow Has smaller fleas that oo him prey: And these “hare smaller still to tite “em: And so proceed a4 infinitum p Phis plece of wise doggerel fyur- nishes an accurate picture of sooli under the Barons. The greater B ons bit into the lesser Barons. lesser Barons bit into the commol people—the “infinitum,” who had no. mailed with which to defend , themselves. And ail that was left,; for the common people to bile was the black earth, ! But the time came when the Big Flea—the most powerful Baron in this | or that country—began to reserve thie © biting privilege to himself. That Big | Flea was the King, This tendeoty, | furnished a measure of protection (9°, ' ' ' the common people, In other : tries, as in England, it was the Barons who placed a limit om the.) rapacity of the King. ' Both roads led to the same des | tination. In France and Germany, the growing power of the King | served to concentrate responsibility, and reduce the hydra-headed mon- ” ster of oppression to a single head, ” easily removable by the guilloting. | In England the cause of the Barons became identified with the cause of the people. And the growth of the bourgéoige, or mercantile and artisan population living in bourgs or cities—now #0 | bitterly denounced and persecuted by / the Bolsheviki in Russia and théir sympathizers in other lands, not ex- cluding America—supplied a che on the rapacity of both Kings an Barons, powder, which tended to place in hands of the average man, the sma! est flea, the means of stopping th¢! armored horseman in his tracks an@!! to make it available at comparatively small cost. © But it took the American Declar- ation of Independence and the fall of the head of Louis XVI.—the biggest Baron of France—into the basket | twenty-three years later to signalingy) ~ triumphantly the collapse of the rob= ‘ver Baron institution, That institution, however, sur. vived in some of the darker corners of Burope un our own day. Ib lasted in Ru: abolished serfdom. Roumania, ssia until Alexander ‘ % died by history with a system 1 Fp feudal land-ownership that redu the great majority of the people to a condition of serfage, is now atrug- giing to free itself from an institu- tion that bled the body and blighted the soul of Europe for at least ten centuries. ‘ at The fall of the Barons teaches us ~ that it is an exceedingly fong lane that has no turning. Are You Observant? WHAT PLACE IN NEW YORK CITY Is THIS? Read the Answer in the Nest of the Series. NO. 7. As you climb the slight rise in the avenue going south, you are sudy denly aware that it ends a short way), down the street. The trolley cant), have turned off it and gone to the west, You are copfronted by a row |. of old-style apartinents that show from thb outside they are roomy, ab: |thewan you suspect the rooms not im} short distance away is the park, while west the elevated runs. It is not really old New York, but it is old for this new generation. The character of the private houses that abound along the lower end of it mark it as, a place that once had great prospects, as a residential district »f private, homes for persons who wanted to bel! uptown yet near enough to transit fo! keeep in touch with dowrtowmil through the elevated. iv Answer to previous description—Vag,” cant plot on Fifth Avenue op; | Marrenctine Museum of Art, ‘The feudalistic structure was badiyg shaken, by the discovery of ae i | i) } | 4