Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], March 21, 1914, Image 1

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

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Vol.22 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH,-MARCH 21, 1914 No. 13 1
An Independent Paper Published Under
:: the Management of J. T. Goodwin ::
EDITORIALS BY JUDGE C. C. GOODWIN
A Dangerous Measure
THERE is talk in Washington of passing a
law, with heavy penalties for its violation,
shutting out of the United States all goods made
wholly or In part by convict labor. The first
question that suggests is, how are importers to
distinguish convict-made from any other kind of
goods and wares?
But if the government is resolved upon a
measure of that kind, how is it going to keep the
peace with Great Britain, which power we
are just now so anxious to conciliate and keep on
friendly terms with? In addition to the convicts
that Great Britain sends us, she has plenty more,
she makes them work and sells the products of
their labor.
If wo are bound to compel our coast shipping
to pay Panama canal tolls, rather than to offend
our great grasping great-grandmother, by what
course of reasoning can we refuse to accept her
convict-made goods?
But the proposition is a reminder that off
across the Pacific, facing our west coast states,
is a nation of 400,000,000 of people, quite 33 1-3
per cent of whom, would be convicts if there was
anything in their country to steal. They are
too poor to buy anything from us, but through
the wisdom and patriotism and rare intelligence
of a former president and congress our country
passed a law which enables these wretches to un
load upon our shores their products at a discount
of 60 per cent below what they formerly unloaded
" thorn upon us for. We suspect that the convict-
made goods of Great Britain are at a discount
below other goods in England, but this law of
ours enables the men off across the Pacific to
turn out goods for a dollar which it costs ?15 to
produce in our country. And they deal in such
articles as coal, iron ore, pig iron, steel rails,
sugar, eggs, rice, wool and a multitude of other
articels which come in direct competition wtih
American labor, and even make unavailable the
i convict-made wares of Great Britain. The ques-
tion, therefore, is reduced to one of whether we
S have a right to discriminate in our trade against
the convicts of Great Britain. Has not Great
Britain a right to protest?
Most English ships are run by these same
pauper laborers from Asia. What will that avail
if we are to permit the entry of goods made by
those same pauper laborers? Of course our poor
do not matter, but how is Great Britain to get
along against such hopeless competition? It
seems to us that this situation Is serious enough
to incite another "speech from the throne" by
President Wilson to congress.
) George Westinghouse
THE late George Westinghouse was, up to the
day of his death, one of the foremost men of
" this country; about the finest model for young
Americans to fashion their lines after. They can,
not all be great inventors, but all can emulate
the spirit which was the moving spring of the
great man's life, which was that In this land no
I
I
American youth needs aught except a clear mind,
a healthy body and indomitable pluck and in
dustry to win.
The story is repeated in all the newspapers
how old Cornelius Vanderbilt insulted him when
he explained that he could regulate a speeding
train by compressed air. Ho got even with the
old man when, later, Vanderbilt sent him an Invi
tation to call at his of fice, Westinghouse sent
the word back toUhg -wfofipG his place of busi
ness was, wJWerey5ils office hours and if Mr.
VanderbilfipIeaK$ to pall he would give him a
few momen$vJof hsime-tfUit Vanderbilt was
notspjucn tp be,.blamed3as pitied. He was abso
lutely pracftul he l$xrhot a speck of imagination,
he had no ed ' i and read little. He doubt
less had rira e effects of cyclones, but the
thought that ue jompressed air of a cyclone, If
harnessed, could be made a potent force to serve
man, was naturally beyond his comprehension.
Vanderbilt had doubtless seen an oak that had
been shivered by a thunderbolt, but had neve
dreamed that the agent which had performed that
work could ever be tamed and made a servant
of man.
Mr. Westinghouse knew what the cyclone could
do, and sfit about to run down, catch and subdue
to servitude that force. That accomplished he
turned to the other agents which Omnipotence
employs to do His work. So he went on from one
to another industrial force to change what had
always been held as supernatural to practical
form, for the uses of men.
Last Sunday certain maudlin sympathizer
crossed the river from Sacramento to encour
age the sturdy company of mendicants camped
there to continue to live on the bread of charity.
It would have been far better for them to have
told them the story of George Westinghouse, how
he started as poor as any of them, and in thirty
years made it possible for 500,000 men and wo
men to find profitable work. That he did It be
cause he had the pluck to try and the persistency
to keep trying.
A nation made up of such men as he, would,
in a little time reduce the forces of the universe
to obey man's control; to harness them and
change them to Genii to serve mankind, to banish
poverty from the earth and make gods of men.
The Vagabond Host
THE uprising, as in a night, of an army like
the Kelley army in California, is a serious
thing, for it carries with it a direct menace to
free institutions. There must be a cause for it,
perhaps several causes. We wonder how many of
the sinister company are native Americans. If
they are mostly foreign born, then the chief cause
is traceable in large measure to the want they
suffered in other lands which killed their pat
riotism and self respect before those germs In
their souls had a chance to begin to expand.
If they are mostly native born, then It is clear
that there are wrongs in our country which must
be swiftly cured or the truth will soon be made
apparent that there is a mighty percentage of
the human family who are not yet fit to be free.
If such hideous presentations can spring up in
California, what will it be when California Is as
densely populated as Massachusetts now is?
But after all it is futile to trace out the cause
of such an uprising except to try to devise a cures H
for the wrong. M
The first things to look to aro the homes of the H
country. Are not thousands of the homes but nur- H
series for just such dangerous loafers as make up jH
the Kelley army? Is it the rule in the homes to H
impress upon the children, the boys especially, H
that if they would have anything worth keeping, H
they must honestly earn it? Aro the homes and H
schools combined so carried on as to fit children, H
boys especially, to know something through which H
they can earn an honest and honorable livelihood? H
Are citizens in the cities and city officers doing H
their part to keep track of the unemployed, what H
they aro doing and what their needs are? H
Again when a vag is convicted by what au- H
thority does any city officer send such an one H
away to prey upon other places? H
Then, when a convict serves his term and H
though known to be a desperato and dangerous H
man, why does the law release its hold upon him H
and permit him to go forth and prey upon Inno- H
cent people? A man convicted of a felony by right H
has forfeited his claim to liberty. Such men
should have a place by themselves; should be sup- H
plied work and paid for it, but should be placed
where they can no longer bo a menace to inno- H
cent people; no longer past-masters to teach H
lesser criminals their sinister arts. H
The abuse of free speech, the using of it to
incite violence is a crime and should be suppressed. H
For example it is said that Heywood, formerly of H
Denver, is coming here to speak in behalf of the
I. W. W.'s; that he looks upon this as a promts- H
ing field in which to gain proselytes. Now his
record for the past ten years is well known here.
It is known that no matter where ho goes, trouble
to society follows. H
A woman was found in Now York City two or
three years ago who was a natural incubator of H
typhoid germs which she was throwing off by mil- M
lions daily, in the public conveyances, In the M
stores and streets.- She was, though an abso- M
. lutely Innocent woman, a perpetual disease dis-
seminator, and it was necessary to isolate her.
This Heywood cannot bo Isolated, but the M
disease he throws off comes from his mouth. His H
mouth should be quarantined, and should so far- HI
as public speaking goes, be Isolated. The man M
who with knife and revolver tries to run amuck M
is either speedily run in or killed. The man who
tries to Invito other men to cease honest work
and resort to violence In order to live, should bo
silenced. H
That much Is due honest people who live by
honest work and fear violence. H
The Wooing M
HP HE coy manner in which the leading Demo- jl
crats and Progressives aro pursuing their H
courtship is doubtless delightful to them. It cer- B
tainly is entertaining to outsiders. To them it M
looks like a case in which expediency is the ruling M
thought on the one side and a vast desire for a H
home prompts the other. In his own smooth way H
our friend, Chairman Thurman, does not know a m
thing that is going on, but since his attention M
has been called to the fact, ho can see really M
nothing in Progressive principles that might not M
be swallowed and assimilated with the all-embrac- fl
ing Democratic bill of rights. Friend Moyle ap- H