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JH GOODWIN'S WEEKLY 3 M latter might readily gain the upper hand at the very moment when Germany must needs present a 'united front if it is to save anything for itself at the peace table. The allies are certain to develop dis agreements. In fact, differences have already appeared huge differ ences of opinion such as those voiced by Wilson on the one side and 4v Clemenceau on the other. If the gaps in entente armor widen while the breaches in the German armor are swiftly mended the allies may yet have reason to wonder at a beaten enemy still able to dictate terms of settlement. sfe ale sk sk f tvu' r p T p , vS AN IMPOLITE INVITATION. S$ 8 s ZITHER presidents have ventured west of the Mississippi river, so $p V- why not Mr. Wilson? 3J After Mr. Wilson has regulated Europe he should familiarize ;a himself with his own country. iw l n tn's West of ours, so different from the world in which Mr. 'Wilson, has passed his life, he can learn many things that he did not ffclfV wot at Princeton and Washington and that he will not hear of at Sjjptv, Versailles. We have problems in our West that presidents of the W United States would do well to study on the ground. If the president ff can find reasons for going to France to din his fourteen points into ' JSo, '. the more or less eager ears of statesmen he can find better reasons jSpl1'1 ,for crossing the Mississippi, the Missouri, the great plains and the ' r& .Rocky mountains even as far a Puget Sound and the Golden Gate. Mr We presume that in his perigrinations before he took up his resi- ' "$ dence in the White House Mr. Wilson sometimes placed several thou- , C ,. sand miles between himself and the scholarly halls of Princeton. He may even have slipped into Cheyenne on a windy and dusty day when f' his features were not clearly discernible or he may have passed a ir.v night at Green River, Ogden or at Phoenix or Flagstaff in the dim i years when he was far from illustrious. In a word, he may know !&P more of the West than appars in his words or official actions. Even fe, so it will do him no harm and the West perhaps much good if, after "" he has somewhat wearied of umpiring the League of Nations, he shall i, . come among us of the West and acquaint himself with our ways and jf our problems. Of course, the president might send Colonel House as his personal representative to compare Utah and Texas. We would welcome Mr. House, but we would not wholly trust to his judgment, fearing that he might be biased in favor of that state which once tempted a great general to say, "If I owned hell and Texas I would rent out Texas and live in Hell." Moreover, we desire to pay homage to the president of the United - States. We have not the historic memories, the splendid monuments, nor the treasures of art and learning that attract the attention of our president in Italy, France and Great Britain, but we have heroes of &, , the war and we have hats to throw in the air and horns to blow in l&. honor of a president of the United States. Even Paris and Rome and I London cannot outdo us in enthusiasm. j jt, j" We have many other things, too, that a president of the United t States should know about. H Jb Come West, Mr. President, and learn as much as you can about I your own country. ,f i - FAILURE OF FEDERAL CONTROL. ' . j. - T T is well for Secretary McAdoo that he began his "fading from of- ' " A ficial life" before the railroad administration became, any worse. If he has presidential aspirations his chances will be much rosier by his permitting the moss of many months to overgrow the ugly mem--J vr ory of his railway administration. ?, ,, The public has a habit of ascribing the faults of a system to the ii responsible person at the head of the system. Actually McAdoo ac- ij complished as much, perhaps, as any administrative officer could have been expected to achieve with a system alien to our American ideas. Government ownership, which was forced upon Europe by peculiar i conditions, largely militaristic, is no criterion for this country. On the contrary we have had a. chance to see how miserably government 'control can fail. Everything points to private control of the railways under a na- H tional supervision which shall do away with the nagging state com- missions. No one expects that there will be a return tO'that system of competition which will result in business for one road and failure H for another. But the public yearns for that competition which -will give us something approaching the good passenger and freight serv- H ice of the old days. By all means unify the railway systems of 'the H country, but see to it that the dead hand of government ownership H does not palsy private energy. M If there is a mossback institution in our country it is the postal H service. The morale of the officials and. employes is on a plane -far 11 below that to be found in the private enterprises which did so much 11 by their unflagging energy to win the war. The postoffice department is a standard by which we may estimate the consequences of govern- 11 ment ownership. It is slow, dictatorial to the point of despotism, 11 hopelessly entangled in red tape and the employes .have lost ambition. J In the! speedy deterioration of service on the railways we can 11 see at work the same process which took the life out of gur postal H service. Given time, the decadence would result in an even more mel- H ancholy state than that which curses thq postal 'department of the H government. jH And yet McAdoo wants us to try .federal control five years more. H It is an admission that control up to the present has been a failure. It lH is a plea for time in which to "make good." What would become of some of four industries if federal control should continue to impose on H them the icy hand of decay and death? . ,,, We have in mind a Utah case. For six months -a firm has been i waiting for the adjustment of a switching, charge. It cannot ship H over a small switch without paying a class rate of a dollar a ton, al- M though a fair rate would be about ten cents a ton Consequently the company has ceased to ship over that branch and has lost thousands H of dollars. The rate fixers are still passing the tiny problem from headquarters to headquarters and finally it will arrive in Washington. In the old days a subordinate official would have taken the responsi- bility of adjusting the rate within twenty-four, or at! the most, forty- M eight hours. M That the railways, with their hundreds of thousands of em- M ployes, would develop into the biggest political factor in the country M under government ownership) is hardly open to question.' If Con- M gress should attempt to prevent this development it would be 'com- M pelled practically to disfranchise the entire railway persnftel. ' Even M then the element of political influence on a gigantic scale would M remain. In one sense government control has been a good thing for the fl country. It has made the people think highly of private ownership M or, to speak more correctly, of ownership by the investing public. fl H ERRORS ABOUT FREE SEAS. COMMENTS in American and British newspapers on the "freedom M of the seas" led to the impression that an irreconcilable difference M existed between President Wilson and the statesmen of Great Britain, M but when Mr. Wilson went to England he found himself in perfect M accord with the statesmen. What is the explanation ? M The British journalists seemed to eblieve President Wilson was H demanding that Great Britain should reduce the size of its navy as a H guarantee of the freedom of the seas. Is it likely that Lloyd George H and Balfour convinced the president of error? Has he abandoned an- H other of the world-renowned fourteen points Not at all. H It was a common mistake to believe that freedom of the seas and H disarmament were inextricably linked. In practice we may discover H that they are linked, but in theory freedom of the seas has little to do H with disarmament. H The real guarantee of freedom of the seas will be a body of inter- H national law upon which the principal nations will agree. Once an H agreement is attained, once the laws are promulgated and the nations H bind themselves to enforce international law we shall have liberty tin- H der law on the high seas. - .. r. H Take our own system of government, as an .example. . Horenv,e H havj liberty under law, , We do not concede'absOlute freedoms any- H