Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], February 05, 1916, Image 1

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

Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library

                
I Goodwin I
Vol. 26 8ALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, FEBRUARY 5, 1916 No 8 H
IAn Independent Paper Published Under
:: the Management of J. T. Goodwin ::
j EDITORIALS B Y JUDGE C. C. GOOD WIN
1 I '
J Was It Just Hot Air?
THERE surely is a loose pulley or two in the
, head of Woodrow Wilson. In his speech at
V the banquet of the New York Railway Business
Association in New York City on Thursday night
of last week, he is reported to have said:
"America has been reluctant to match her
wits with the rest of the world. When I face a
body of men like this, it is almost incredible to re
member that only yesterday they were afraid to
put their wits into free competition with the
world! We have professed to stand behind pro
tecting devices, and now we are thrust out to do,
on a scale never dreamed of in recent generations
in America, the business of the world."
When one reads and re-reads the above there
comes a doubt whether it was intended as a se
rious argument, or merely an eloquent, intellec
tual frieze to embellish the cornice of the struc
ture of his speech.
What have Americans shrunk from in the
world's competition? Where, when the terms
have been anywhere near equal, have they failed?
And if it is true that we are "now thrust out to
do, on a scale never dreamed of in recent genera
tions in America, the business of the world."
What has been done, Avhat is being done to meet
these new responsibilities?
If it is trade and commerce that he refers to,
what advance has our country made in shipping
or in foreign trading stations since this war,
which the president says has brought this changed
1 condition upon us, began eighteen months ago?
3 f Tnere was a time when our ocean tonnage ex-
f ' ceeded that of Great Britain and was nearly equal
I ,, to that of all the world outside of Great Britain.
i i-,i If Americans decline to build and run ships in
f v the foreign trade, is that due' to fear, or is it be-
, " cause of the knowledge that they would in a brief
, , . time be bankrupt in trying to run in competition
r , with the subsidized ships of Great Britain and
' the continent?
k If American factory owners close down their
works because they cannot produce goods and
wares and sell them in competition with the
H pauper-paid laborers of the old world and the
1 B naked, servile races of the new, is that because
t of lack of courage?
How does the president's argument compare
" with that of James J. Farrell, the president of
r the U. S. Steel corporation, which wa3 delivered
in New Orleans in the same hour that the presi-
.dent was talking in New York, and which was
printed next morning on a parallel column with
Ithe speech of the president. He declared that
our foreign trade must be extended, that our rich
men must supply the money to help carry on the
enterprises of some foreign countries aD 1 ointed
out how Great Britain has been prospering
tKjiXs , ,, 7Tii.i "- T----- -- r ..-"
greatly in Latin America because of her methods
ever since the present war began.
The two speeches give the impression that the
one is the wisdom that comes from a wary, prac
tical, thoughtful, all-comprehending business
brain, the other the knowledge that an over-cultivated
intellect picks up from the clouds that
circle around his intellectual aeroplane when in
full flight, and the difference is the difference be
tween practical facts and radiant but unsubstan
tial rainbows.
Vaudeville Politics
THE DESERET NEWS once a week publishes
a letter from New York signed "Holland." The
writer is evidently a trained journalist and his
papers are" generally most interesting and often
instructive. But he is either a young man, or has
an imperfect memory if an old man.
In his last paper as published in the News,
there are two or three statements that should not
be passed by in silence.
After a strained effort to establish as a fact
that when Colonel Roosevelt, as president, ap
proved the grab and absorption of the Tennessee
Iron & Coal company, he had in mind a better pre
paredness for the United States to resist a pos
sible attack from some power or combination of
foreign powers. That is just as sensible as it
would be to say that when the colonel was shoot
ing lions, hippopotamus, rhinoceros and pythons
in equatorial Africa, the real motive which im
pelled him was to prevent the United States from
being over-run by those wild beasts and reptiles.
But continuing Mr. Holland says:
A communication recently made by Hillary A.
Herbert, who after long service as a representa
tive in congress from Alabama became secretary
of the navy in the second administration of Presi
dent Cleveland, is in entire accord with public
opinion in the east, and especially in New York,
upon the subject of preparedness. Mr. Herbert
was commonly regarded as a worthy successor
although after the lapse of a Republican adminis
trationof William C. Whitney, who, as secretary
of the navy in President Cleveland's first admin
istration, achieved so greatly in modernizing and
building up the American navy. There are no oc
casions in New York when preparedness is men
tioned or suggested without meeting with fine
demonstrations of public approval.
Former Secretary Herbert in his communica
tion advocates precisely the same policy of prepar
ation which so many now in public life and which,
especially, Colonel Roosevelt so cordially advo
cates. One of the most significant statements is
this: "It was undoubtedly the unpreparedness of
the Allies that caused Germany and Austria to
make war against nations which had really twice
their fighting strength; but in the face of all this
evidence, our pacifist of today thinks that it was
the competition in preparedness that bred this ter
rible war. He insists that the way to prevent Avar
is for a nation not to prepare for war at all, but
. to be good and set an example, like an individual,
of fair dealing and of justice to all."
With this as an introduction, and assured of
public opinion, one of the great secretaries of the
navy, a Democrat of the south, goes on to show
what the necessity for preparedness is, and that
one of the factors in tbta work is the establish
ment in proper locations of adequate munitions
plants.
In the light of real facts the foregoing is about
as labored an effort at "tommy-rot" as one runs
HMwwMHfifiniiiiHBMMi!
against about twice a year. In the first place, H
Colonel Roosevelt has never yet originated any
great public measure. A close study of his his- H
tory makes that fact clear. Before and while H
president he drifted contentedly with the Repub- H
lican tide, never originating anything and never H
revealing any marked trait except to interfere H
with and boss everything from the supreme court jH
of the United States down to the cleaning of the H
slaughter houses in Chicago and Kansas City, to H
the legitimate duties of the school board in San H
Francisco. But it is the reference to the navy H
that we wish particularly to note. H
After the great war of the rebellion the Demo- H
crats stood like a stone wall against every need- H
ed appropriation for the United States navy. The H
utmost that Secretary Chandler who preceded H
Secretary Whitney could get, was merely enough H
to build the Trenton destroyed in the Samoan jH
hurricane and the Dolphin, and to have on the jH
ways the Chicago, the Boston and Baltimore 'H
which helped make up the fleet with which Ad- H
miral Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in Man- H
ila bay. Then Secretary Whitney tried his very M
best to have the Dolphin by unusual tests on her M
trial trip condemned, but at last accounts she jH
was still a fine craft. M
Then he refused to meet the contract pay- H
ments on the three ships under construction, made 'H
bankrupt John Roach, broke his heart and killed H
H
Then he determined to build a real battleship, H
but would not trust any American ship architect H
to draw the plans for it. He sent to England and H
bought the plans. When they arrived, an Amerl- H
can shipbuilder pointed out to him that a ship H
built on those lines would sink the moment it H
was launched. H
The plans were modified and the old "TexaB" . H
was built which was lop-sided and had a list from H
the first until on that dny when Covora's fleet M
sailed out of Santiago harbor. Then, with, the H
certainty of a great fight and race on hand, like M
a true Texan she righted up and made better M
time than on her trial trip. M
Since then our navy has steadily progressed. M
Its greatest advance under any administration M
was under President Harrison's secretary of the M
navy. M
Ex-Secretary Herbert's endorsement of the H
need of preparedness is doubtless sincere, for he H
is a superior man. H
But two or three facts are apparent. There H
is a possibility that a truce may bo called in Eu- H
rope any day. So far as can be seen, the tension H
is so terrible there that a break at some point H
would cause no surprise. H
In that event the war contracts for supplies
would be annulled in a day. Then utter prostra- H
tion on this side would follow and a presidential
campaign will bo on in three months more. I
The Democrats must have a campaign cry and
must keep work going on. Hence the sudden cry ,
for preparedness. It is but sorry tommy-rot, but I
the people are like sheep, they follow the bell-
wether even If It takes them over a precipice. Just I
now President Wilson is the bell-wether, the .s I
in New York want more contracts, the pr of I
m