Dearborn independent. [volume], March 13, 1920, Image 4

About Dearborn independent. [volume] (Dearborn, Mich.) 1901-1927

Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library

                
The Fortl International Weekly
THE DEARBORN
INDEPENDENT
tubilk4d h
THE DEARBORN PUBLISHING CO.
Dearborn, Michigan
HENRY FORD, President.
C. J. FORD. Vice President.
F. B FORl. Secretary Treasurer.
K. (i. PIPP, Kilitor.
Twentieth Year. Number 20, March 13, 1920.
The price of mbacription in ts t'mtel .states and its
poaaeaatoni ii On Dollar year; ia Canada, One Dollar and
Fifty Cents; and m other o-untr.rs. Two Dollars. Mngie
Fiv C ents.
Entered as Second ( lass Matter at the Pag Office at
Dearborn. Michigan, under the Act oi March J. 189.
Sowing Seeds of Trouble
ANYONE who is interested in teeing how wars are
kmade may observe the process in easy operation
during these days. Consciously or unconsciously the
machinery that turns nation against nation has been
set at work again. In America the machinery has been
strongly set against Great Britain and France; in those
countries it has been strongly set against the United
States. The worst feature of all is that everything
is so phrased as to carry the impression that "the
people" of the United States r of some other countries
"the people" are responsible for some of the things
which are justly reprehended.
There is no getting around the fact that irresponsible
newspaper talk is the power beneath the kindling of
war. We have many illustrations of it all the time.
We have it in our own Mexican situation. (9n one side
oi the line we read. "Mexicans Kill Americans"; on
the other side of the line. "Americans Kill Mexicans."
and these national names are bandied about so much
that all Americans and all Mexicans come to think of
each other as exclusively in the killing game, and as
nuisances which to wipe out would justify a little war.
It is simply the daily practice of indicting a whole
nation.
This is being done abroad in old-time style just now.
Where is all the gold of the world? "Why, the Ameri
cans are wallowing in gold P Where is the most com
fortable place to live on earth today? 'Why. the
Americans have never known the pinch of economy
they have all the money and all tht goods'' Who is
it that is suffering want and disorganization and un
employment today? "Why. the countries that saved
civilization. Countries like America that staid out un
til it was nearly over are not suffering. We suffered
and denied ourselves, and now the Americans gobble
up the fruits of it all !"
So it goes. Why is it not possible for some agency
to operate that would enable the people of one coun
try to know the people oi another country? Why
must we alwa) - carry around with us the false prejudice
that because an English syndicate does thus-and-so,
therefore the whole Knglish people are not to be
trusted? Why must the Knglish carry around a false
notion that because certain American bankers do thus-and-so.
the America!, people themselves are a lot of
skinflint-"' Must nations always r.ufTer for the attitude
of a coterie?
it merica were rolling in wealth, why should there
DC SO much unrest in her? That is a question our
friends overseas might ponder. Surfeited nations do
not disturb themselves with questions such as now
rend America.
If the people from abroad only knew it, the condi
tions of living are harder in the United States than
they ever were. The American dollar may rank high
abroad : it is worth only about 38 cents at home. We
pay two and three prices for everything we get, and
nearly everything we get except that manufactured by
Nature herself is of inferior quality. And upon this
double and triple price, upon this inferiority of ma
terial there is a war tax. And after the war tax comes
the income tax. And if you talk with the man and
woman who really are America, you will find that
they are worried and strained.
"Hut all the gold is in America!" Maybe so, but the
jxople" do not have it. "And all the goods are in
America P Maybe so. but there is still a scarcity of
everything we try to buy. If the plain people of the
world could sit down together and compare notes, the
end of the conference would be a casting of eyes toward
a little international group which does the things which
wc Say "the French" are doing, or "the Kngl.h" are
doing, or "the American" are doing.
There are two thinfl Wi must do. Pint. ifWJ iff
to avoid the Conditions which make war We, WC
have got to prevent this international group gassing
itself oft as representative of the people, list Amer
ican people- have absolutely nothufc to do with the
influences winch foffCC down the value of foreign OtJ
aiul force up tlu ral k of American money in orderto
gouge the nee.lv nations both going and coming, rhe
American people have nothing to do with that, rhe
merican Government has nothing to do with that
And those who are responsible foe it must sotnehow
be made to shoulder their own responsibility and not
hide themselves In hind the national antipathies and mis
understandings they have created.
nd. second, if we are to avoid artificial poverty
and stress, we have got to take the business of the
world out of the hands oi those who pta) across tin
international map as ii it were a chess-board, pitting
nation against nation, creating gluts there and Scarcities
here, bearing in one market and bulling in another we
have got to explode the tricks by which these groups
have been able to get and keep their grip on the whole
planet
People who do their daily work Cannot see the
world-game as it is played. They cannot SCC how
their very labor is, not only part of the stakes, but the
very cards with which certain interests pity. There
ought to be some watch tower, manned by hones!
watchmen, whose duty shall be to tell all nations equally
the things which pertain to their common welfare, and
save them from the gusts of unjustified passion, jealous)
and suspicion which are stirred by tin-national enemies
Canada Declares Herself
MR. ROWKLL. president of the Canadian Privy
Council, has been doing some very plain talking
to Americans during recent months. Mr. Rowell re
sents with much emphasis the objection raised in the
United States Senate to giving Canada a vote in the As
sembly of the League of Nations. He declares with
some feeling that Canada lost many more men in pro
portion to population than did the United States and
history will bear out the fact that the C anadians surely
were good fighters, as shown in their brave and bril
liant work before Vpres, as well as in other places.
Canada, with Mr. Rowell. feels that it is not very
neighborly nor fair on the part of the United States
to begrudge a dominion that made the sacrifice she
made, and has the resources and future she has, a
place among nations equal to that accorded Haiti or
Nicaragua or other small nations. And Australia and
New Zealand, with other great sacrifices, feel the same
way about it.
There is considerable misunderstanding about the
votes and power in the League. To say that England
has six times the voting power that the United States
has is not stating the exact truth.
The power of the League is divided between the
Assembly and the Council, and all important matters are
placed in the hands of the Council. It is there that
the United States has equal power with Great Hritain
and all her colonies combined . it is there that the
United States has the veto power on anything that is
proposed. The Council is made up of nine members,
one each from the five leading nations Great Hritain,
France. Italy, Japan and the United States and four
selected from other and smaller nations.
The matter of reducing armament will be up to the
Council and not the Assembly; so is the subject of ad
vising action under Article N, in fact all important
executive functions rest in the Council.
Americans have a right to their opinion in per
mitting dominions of Great Hritain a vote in the As
sembly and a right to object if they wish to, and
Canadians have a right to ask recognition for them
selves if they wish ; but more has been made of it in
this country than conditions warrant.
Another thing, there is no certainty, scarcely a like
lihood, that such dominions as Canada, Australia and
New Zealand will always vote with Great Hritain in the
Assembly, if one may judge by some of the events that
have taken place since the war.
Canadians are more like men and women of the
United States than like any other nation. Their habits
and trend of thought are much the same, and when it
comes to voting on measures, Canada is as likely to be
with the United States' as with Kngland.
Kngland does not go to the Assembly with fiv votes
in her pocket to cast as she pleases.
Before the Assembly, Canada has equal power with
Kngland and with the United States; before the Conn
cil, Kngland and all her colonies together have just one
vote; the United States has just one vote.
Smile, Gentlemen, Smile!
THERE is a peevish tone creeping into the Utters
that are being sent out by the Leonard Wood
National Campaign Committee. In one of then we
1 1 ad :
Rumors, in these pre-convention days about the
enhanced progress of this candidate or that candid
in various parts of the country, are flying quick winged
everywhere The rumor factory is run by the original
Shanghai Liar, ably aided by the original St. Nicholas
Uok Hrevaricator, and everybody with a memory a
SCOre ot years long remembers these gentlemen. "
Sad news must have come from the rural districts
and from the city workers for the news is there.
Mr. Wood is a military man by instinct, training
and profession He wants to be President of the
United States, a very laudable ambition, and has the
backing of many men of wealth, some of whom have
made fortunes from munitions of war.
They toasted him and they started him across, the
country with his own strong convictions and with
press agents, campaign committees and means . gain
ing publicity as well.
Hut there are other candidates in the field, and they
too, have press agents. And the press agents, whether
for Mr. Wood or for somebody else, find what is true
that the farmers do not want their boys and hired men
taken oft the farms to do military duty in camp, forc
ing the farmers to permit their crops to rot on or
in the ground, and that the city toilers do not care to
be taken from their work and prepared for cannon fod
der, unless it becomes absolutely necessary.
They all have an abiding faith in the country and
in the people, know that a nation strong in the arts
of peace is equally strong, should trouble be forced on
it, and they are not for perpetual military training.
Betides that, leaders of the Republican party in the
House of Representatives have something to think of
he-ides Mr. Wood's candidacy their own, for instance
and, also, there are many patriotic men among them.
Then the Wood committee reads of the Republican
floor leader of the House taking a stand against
universal military training at this time, and the party
saying, "Let's pass it all up for the present."
Vet Mr. Wood feels he is right and his part) leaders
and the farmers and the city toilers are wrong really
it may affect his chances, you know.
Hut why get peevish? Why yell Liar at the men
who tell truths?
Above all things the men running for the highest
office in the land should keep good-natured.
Sense From Mr. Mondell
CONGRESSMAN MOXDKLL, Republican floor
leader of the House, has been putting up a good
fight and with it some sound arguments against the
plan to force the country now to universal military
training.
He knows that, with a bill of $9,000,000. 1 KX) before
it, Congress has a threatened deficit of $3,000,OOOyOH
with $2,500,000,000 the very lowest estimate.
He asserts, with facts to back him, that the uni
versal training proposition would cost a billioi dollars
a year, and adds, "If we are to have any more large
expenditures, gentlemen proposing them should bring
along w ith their proposals a plan of additional I ies to
pay the cost."
With nearly everything taxed now, Coflgn H
be slow to levy more taxes.
But what is the use of it all?
We now have about 4,000,000 trained soldier! in
the country. They could very soon train milli- ni more
should a crisis arise and we should be thinking of
plans for peace rather than more war.
Besides, look at Germany !
That nation had forced military training fof W
years. She was at the very crest of her power, when
she got the worst whipping ever given a nation, and
the final stroke was put on by a nation that was far
from militaristic in spirit or training.
Good citizenship, thriving industries, men free to
develop themselves in the arts of peace, these are the
1" It possible guaranties of the safety of the nation P
any emergency.
Expecting something for nothing is frequently clari
fied as "hope," but in truth it is nothing more than
plain idiocy.
A sofa pillow designed to rest the head on is the
rarest work of woman.
The millennium will not arrive until the "Age oi
I iscretion."
Man knows by tuition, woman by intuition.