New-York tribune. [volume], May 02, 1919, Page 12, Image 12

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3?hu Ijork&nbttue
First to Last?the Truth: News?Editorials
?Advertisements
Member at the Audit Bureau of CirculaUon?
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1919.
Owned and pvhltshed dally by New York Tribune Inc.
a New York Corporation. Ogden Kehl. Pr?sident: Q.
Vernor Roger?. Vice-President ; Helen l'.ogers Held. Seere
t?ry; F. A. Suter, Treasurer. Address, Tribuno Building.
154 Nassau Streit. New York. Telephone. Jioekraau S?00.
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money back upon request. No red tape. No aulbbllns.
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MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to the u?e
for reptiblicatlo!i of all news dispatches credited to It or
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All rights of republlcauon of all other matter herein
also are reserved.
The Bomb Honor List
Thirty-six American citizens, includ?
ing a justice of the Supreme Court, three
members of the Cabinet, a judge of the
Federal court, Mayors Hylan of New
York and Ole Hanson of Seattle and
Police Commissioner Enright, are the
recipients of high honor. They have
received a decoration rivalling those ?
conferred on war heroes. To them The
Tribune extends felicitations and vent?
ures to suggest that they cherish the
testimonials, when properly denatured,
as precious heirlooms to be handed down
to their children.
Each of the thirty-six has been distin?
guished by having an infernal machine
mailed to him. Evil men, indicating
those they esteem in the way of the
attainment of their foul conspiracy, thus
write a certificate of merit. Satan may
be presumed to know his enemies?to
be too intelligent to waste effort against
those not in the path of his plans.
What do the bomb senders seek? In
the first instance to destroy democratic
government by terrorizing agents the
democracy selects to do its work. In the
second instance they seek another and
even more sinister thing. They would
reduce the masses of this country to the
level of misery which makes Russia a
land of horror. They would introduce
the L?nine regime of general starvation.
On the pretence of promoting what is
falsely called a social revolution they
would bring in social devolution.
Against the rich? Only incidentally.
Bolshevism and the I. W. W. doctrine,
which is its brother, are shotted against
the poor. In the general granary are
stores of food and our industrial ma?
chinery creates more to supply the sub- ?
tractions that go to human stomachs. I
The distribution is not wholly equitable, I
for men are not supremely intelligent. I
On the pretence of removing the in- j
equity the Bolshevist proposes to raid
the general granary, to scatter its con?
tents in one grand gorge, and then to
destroy the machinery for refilling it.
Thus the Bolshevist is promoter of
famine and an enemy of his kind.
These haters of the human species
have found a lodgment in New York.
The infernal machines were not self
created and self-winding. Labor went
'into their preparation. The police duty
of the hour is to find the nests, and
each citizen should become an assistant
in the work, reporting with promptness
all suspicious circumstances coming
within his view. Ten million watching
eyes will effect discoveries.
Bars Up on the Referendum
The Supreme Court of Oregon has
given a jolt to the assumption that rati?
fication by a state legislature of a Fed?
eral constitutional amendment is not
final in those states where legislative
acts are subject, under state require?
ments, to a popular referendum. Oregon
is the pioneer referendum state. Yet its
highest court holds unanimously that the
exclusive power of the Legislature to
approve constitutional amendments sub?
mitted by Congress has not been im?
paired by the introduction of the ref?
erendum system.
This decision follows analogies estab?
lished by earlier interpretations. It has
been held that the language and intent
of the Federal Constitution must prevail
over any attempted additional qualifica?
tions set up by the states. The qualifi?
cations of Senators in Congress are fixed
in the Constitution. Some states have
sought to amplify them. The Maryland
constitution, for instance, once provided
that one Senator should be elected from
the Eastern Shore counties and the
other from the Western Shore counties.
But the United States Senate refused to
recognize this restriction when a test
case came up.
The Federal Constitution prescribes
that amendments to it shall be ratified
by the state legislatures. In ratifying
the legislatures are presumed to act in a
somewhat different capacity from that
in which they act when they pass state
laws. In those states in which the Gov?
ernor has a legislative veto Federal con?
stitutional amendments are not sub?
mitted t/j him. The entire law-making
machinery is not invoked?only the part
of it represented by the legislature.
BimilarJy, amendments submitted by the
two hoaxes of Congress do not go to the
President for nignature. They take ef?
fect when .paused.
The Oregon Supreme Court sustained
the refusal of the Secretary of State to
accept a petition asking for ;i referen?
dum on the Leg?Hlature's action in ap
1provi?g the prohibition amendment.
The court therefore apparently accepts j
the view that the language of the sec- j
tion of the Federal Constitution r?gul?t- '
ing the ratification of amendments is ex?
plicit and conclusive, and that it vests
power of ratification in the legislature
alone. This is in line with common
sense. It combats the sophisticated the?
ory that when the Constitution said
"legislature" it meant to include in that
term any and every organ within a state
which might hereafter acquire a share
of direct legislative power.
A Fiume Compromise
Between the lines of the latest news
from Paris and from Rome it is possible
to discover signs of compromise. There
is a calmer tone, and dimly can be seen
hints of compromise and adjustment.
It is established that Fiume itself is an j
Italian city which is resolved to be united
to the motherland, and that Italy is as
firmly resolved not to abandon her daugh?
ter to the mercies of those who lately
wore Austrian uniforms and as invaders :
diligently labored to kill Italians and j
loot Venetia.
But Italy, despite the heat of her emo?
tions in the presence of what she re?
garded as an insulting demand, does not
seem impervious to the force of the argu?
ment that the Danubian hinterland is en?
titled to access to the sea. Italy sup?
ports Poland in a similar demand, and
may be assumed nevi?r to have intended
to seal up any population. The spirit of
Italy has been widely misrepresented.
What compromise is possible? Scarcely
the plan suggested by President Wilson,
under which Fiume would be interna?
tionalized but left under Jugo-Slav cus
toms. This would be but nominal free?
dom. The compromise is rather to be
sought by discriminating between the
port of Fiume and the city of Fiume.
Hamburg for many years had a free
port while Hamburg: itself was German.
We are familiar with the project to make
Staten Island a free port.
By this settlement Fiume's people
would live under their own flag, with no
blocking of the road to the hinterland.
Italy has no desh-e to dissociate her?
self from the Western democracies. Nor
have the Western democracies any wish
to isolate Italy. However tactless his ac?
tion, President Wilson surely is alive to
the need of reestablishing union. It is to
be hoped no narrow pride or any desire
to win a victory which will be a defeat
will lead either Italy or the President to
persist in aloofness.
Protecting a Baby
"It is something of a disadvantage,"
says Charles II. Grasty in a Paris dis?
patch to The Times, "for a man to go
into battle with his baby in his arms."
This philosophic observation follows a
listing of some of the items in the price
paid for a perfunctory indorsement of
the covenant. Great Britain not only
quieted all talk of "freedom of the seas,"
but secured the so-called "mandatory"
scheme, by which the chief German
colonies are disposed of. France received
not only Alsace-Lorraine, but occupancy
of the Saar Valley, with its immense coal
deposits. Japan, it is reported, Ms to get
Kiao-Chau and former German title in
Shantung.
Whenever objection seemed about to
be made blows began to threaten the
sacred infant.
Not until Italy was reached, the Italy
that, next to ourselves, has asked the
least from the victory, was there much
insistence on the Fourteen Points.
The concessions made to protect the
covenant from rough handling doubtless
are meritorious in their own right, but
one can imagine the outcry of the "peace
without victory" advocates if they had
not been held in leash.
What the Paris conference thought of |
the vitality of the covenant was indi?
cated when no one deemed it worth while
to speak and the dozing delegates droned
their affirmative votes. If a- vehicle of
real power had been put in motion one
may assume there would have been
heated debate. And now the chief argu?
ment for ratification here is that which
was accepted at Paris?namely, that as
the instrument amounts to practically
nothing, it is ill-natured to reject it. So
it was not of a pappoose that there was
care to protect, and another triumph is
to be recorded for those who follow the
honest brokerage tradition in diplomacy.
"The Black Crook"
Wherever doddering old men and
women approaching forty sit about the
fire of a long winter night puffing at
their Fatimas, talk will now and again
inevitably revert to "The Black Crook."
Some will say that they actually saw the
show (wheeled in, doubtless, in perambu?
lators) ; others will merely recall the
posters blazing forth its attractions; all
will agree that it marked an epoch, and
that modern life as we know it
then began.
That is a funny word, "modern." On
Sheridan Square it means everything not
more than a week old. In Petrograd it
doubtless looks back to the second rev
' olution. We suspect that the war will be
the dividing mark for most of the world
I ?certainly for all that part of the world
that fought in it. Anything before July,
1914, will be old-fashioned long before we
can get our Victory bonds paid for. So
it is of an obsolescent modernism that
we write, a rollicking, devil-may-care
youth very bare of hair on the top of
the head and slipping unobtrusively" out
of tennis and into golf.
It was in 1869 that Imre Kiralfy, who
died the other day, danced in "The Black
Crook" at Niblo's Garden". But the show
lasted for years thereafter, and was rc
| vived periodically through the '7?3 and
| Into the '80s. Other spectacles made
I the name Kiralfy more famous, cspe
I cially "America," at Chicago in 1894, and
the cause of pageantry owed much to his
genius. It was not as a pageant, how?
ever, that "The Black Crook" prospered j
or marks an epoch for the passing mod- j
ernist of to-day. It was the first show j
wherein tights reigned supreme. Tights |
in the ballet were always accepted. j
I Tights in the circus lifted no eyebrows. |
But tights as a complete entertain- ;
ment, the central feature of a show, "The :
| Black Crook" introduced to America in j
the Centennial era.
Those were, indeed, the days. But so |
fast has the pace been since that tights
seem now as quaint and prim as panta- j
lettes. That is the trouble with all prog- j
ress. For a few years "The Black Crook" I
thrilled and stirred hurrahs and maledic
tions. Then it faded into pallid obscur- \
ity, and lives on now only in the memory
of reminiscent quadrogenarians. In ;
/short, "The Black Crook" was a pioneer, i
and, like all pioneers, it took only a '
couple of generations to relegate it to the
past of mossback conservatism.
Tired of the Lockout
By a unanimous vote the Chamber of ;
Commerce of the United States has j
adopted a resolution urging President ;
Wilson to return immediately to this j
country. In its opinion the thing most ]
needful just now is reconstruction at
home, and reconstruction cannot begin ?
until Congress is called in session.
Opinions may differ as to the value j
of the work which the peace conference j
has been doing in Paris for the last four j
months. The country generally was
reluctant to see Mr. Wilson go abroad !
to participate personally in that work.
It noted the fact that the head of no
other state was going to appear as a
delegate. Our people realized that the
President's absence from Washington
would virtually stop all reconstructive
effort here. They feared that that
would be too -high a price to pay for
anything which might be accomplished
through his personal intervention in the
peace parleys.
The situation was less burdensome ;
when Mr. Wilson departed in Decem?
ber and left the last Congress to its
own devices. The two houses could pass
laws if they cared to do so, and those
laws would become operative ten days
after passage whether the Executive
signed them or not. But the expiring
Congress had failed to receive a vote of
confidence from the people. It was dis?
gruntled and apathetic, and naturally
held that the verdict at the polls ab?
solved it from undertaking seriously to
shift the country from a war basis to
a peace basis. It listlessly marked time
during the short session and then dis?
solved.
A fair consideration of the needs of
the domestic situation would have
moved the President to call the new
Congress in session last March. But
when he returned to Paris the second
time he locked the door of the Capitol
and took the key away with him. Tiie
scat of our government has been in
Europe ever since. The administrative
machine here has been put in ordinary.
Tho opening date of the campaign of
reconstruction has been postpoi.ed an?
other two months.
Complaint at this delay is not due to
partisan bias. The delay affects every?
body. It has injuriously prolonged un?
certainty in business. It is costing all
classes annoyance and loss. Americans
would face with cheerfulness any pos?
sible complications which might arise in
the Paris negotiations were they not
keenly touched in their evcry-day affairs
by the anomaly which keeps Congress in
.recess while these complications tedi?
ously arise and are unravelled. The
peace compact would have aroused much
less criticism here if the people had
not been kept on the anxious bench
awaiting the disposition to be made of re?
mote objects of controversy like Danzig
and Fiume.
The Chamber of Commerce of the
United States is not a political body.
It speaks for business men of all partios
and sections. Its demand is just and
proper. Let the President call Congress
in session and the country will cease to
torment itself about the long delays in
Paris. It will be satisfied, whether Mr.
Wilson himself lingers there as a dele?
gate or sails home after turning over
his functions to Colonel House. Con?
gress alone can start peace reorganiza?
tion. It should begin at once.
A Sorrowful Reader
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: After reading your editorial on
tho league of nations one is led to wonder
why all the various countries with repre?
sentatives in France should have over?
looked your paper. Certainly, if they had
put tho whole matter in your hands it
would have been quickly settled, and
all would be happy. Just why each coun?
try should send such a set of know-nothing
men and get out a paper that does nothing
' and means nothing, when the medium of a
right and just settlement of the many
vexed questions was right at hand. No
matter of legal import but that your paper
and representatives could so easily an?
swer. No question of justice between na?
tions but that you could have adjusted.
Such a sad lack of foresight was shown
by our own country by sending such men
as President Wilson, Mr. Lansing and
others, all men of, little brains and less
knowledge, and then overlook Trio Tribune.
loo bad, too bad!
A SORROWFUL READER OF YOUR
PAPER.
New York, April 29, 1919.
In His League and Theirs
(From The Washington Star)
If President Wilson ever finds time to
go to another baseball game he will
probably feel a thrill of sympathy with the
umpire who is called upon to render a
close decision.
The Conning Tower
TO F. T. T.
I don't belong here,
F. T. T. ; I too
Belong out yonder
Where the air is lilac
All the year round,
And the soft breezes
Of the Pacific
Make life an endless Spring.
I work in an ugly office
In the heart of New York.
And near me are
Several bookkeeper?
Who debate whether a quart of ink
Is a tangible asset
Or a current expense.
I belong in Culver City
Where the Goldwyn studios are,
And the life of a press agent
Is merely a matter of How-dye-do.
I don't b?lons here, F. T. T.,
And as for the Top of The Tower,
I don't belong here either.
Fbecklbs.
Yesterday's attempt by Al, the little giant
contrib, to call a May Day strike of contribs
fell through, largely because we didn't print
his appeal. But yesterday's mail was unusu?
ally large.
The only way, Al, that contrib3 can suc?
ceed in making this Autocrat, this Plutocrat
of Pif?le, as you jokingly call us, work is
to send in such poor stuff that we shall have
to write The Tower ourself. And that, as
the great columnist Euclid so fittingly said,
is absurd.
As one who can take his frosted sarsa
parilla or leave it alone, we record that
our first day of abstinence from soft drink?
ing-a protest against the tax?passed
without untoward event. At 4:45 yester?
day afternoon the Craving came over us,
but lighting another 22c cigar, we over?
came it.
To de-swank the preceding paragraph, it
should bo added that tho cigar was won
by matching with the unlucky editor of the
Sunday Magazine.
fKrnm th? I'vcning Post]
LITTLE MAY-DAY
MOVING THIS YEAR
JIlKh Bents Put Stop
to Old Custom
THE GREAT DIVIDE
[Frnra tho Evening Sim'l
Busiest Moving Day
Is Near
May 1, Because of In?
creased Rentals Made
Possible by Lack of
Apartments, Expected
to Break Records.
What do you make of this, Dr. Watson
-?Dr. Brill, rather? "Frequently," con
fosses Mel, "and without apparent reason,
my memory, trails back to the songs of
the nineteenth century. Lacing my shoes
amorning?, pulling on a trouser-leg or
harnessing a wayward suspender, I hum or
whistle such gems as 'Louisiana Lou,'
'When T Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent
Road,' 'I Want Yer, Ma Honey,' and 'The
New Bully.' "
Yesterday morning after s dreamless
sleep, we sang, until the shower got too
cold, the chorus of "Poor Little Joe,"
which, as we recall it, went:
Cold blew the blast, down came the Bnow,
No place to Bholt'-r him, no place to go;
No mother to guldo him. In the grave she ia
low,
Cast on the cold street was poor little Joe.
There's the silver lining. The soda water
that costs 22c a glass now is not so large as
tho glass that cost 10c two years ago, so one
doesn't waste so much time at the fountain.
"Thou, Who When Fears Attack"
Another argument against that
Anti-tobacco campaign
Is the awful time
We'll have
Judging character
If folks can't
Smoke any more.
? ? ? ?
There's one bird in our office
Who smokes Camels
When he's dictating to me
And Melachrinos
When clients 6top around?
And the Big Boy
Whom everybody salaams
Imbibes in Sweet Caps,
And lets the office boyi
Keep the change
From the dime
When they buy 'em for him.
? ? ? ?
And here I am
A mere child
Whose folks won't let her
Indulge?
So I have to do it
In the bathtub ;
And, O man!
I'm one cleanly
Infant. BABSi
When you read one morning that the
city is far behind in its V. L. quota, and,
deciding to forego many things you want,
you go to the bank and quadruple your
subscription, and the next morning you
read that the city is even further behind,
?aint it a gone, inglorious feeling?
An Air Service Lieutenant of our ac?
quaintance bought a copy of W. L. George's
"Eddies of the Day," and when he found
no reference in it to Captain Kickenbacker,
asked for his money back.
The bomb business is familiar to every
colyumist. Not a day passes that we don't
get at least one anonymous letter sug?
gesting that we jump from the top of the
Woolworth Building. And yet if an an?
gered render will only consult an attorney,
he will discover that there is no law[
statute, or ordinance compelling him to*
read this, or any other, Turret of
Triviality.
The persona who send bombs by mail
haven't much of a batting average. Offhand
we can't recall one instance of such a bomb
destroying the person it was intended for.
Our notion of conspicuous waste is
writing Personal on, an envelope contain?
ing a contribution.
Postmaster General Burleson has sug?
gested that action be taken to reward
Charles Kaplan, the postoffico clerk whoso
judgment resulted in the discovery of the
bombs. And this department suggests that
the newspaper in which Mr. Kaplan read
tho account that stirred him to action bo
cited for conspicuous newsguthering ability.
The paper's namo is on Page 1, this issue.
P. P. A.
Germany To-Day
Wilson the Messiah
Fourteen Points Regarded as Honorable Draw
By SAMUEL CROWTHER
Special ?Corre?pondent af The Tribuna, ?jxe?,t reUirrre?L:frtrm Germany
VII
WHEN President Wilson enunciated
his fourteen points the laboring
people of Germany?which is only
another way of saying all Germany?took
them as the terms of an honorable draw
which would end the war and thus dispose
of their most pressing troubles. But end?
ing the war was only part of all that was
going to happen. President Wilson had
not been liked in Germany?he was the
leader who was fetching the United States
into battle to save the money which had
been loaned to England?for the German
conviction (and German convictions have
nothing to do with facts) is that America's
motives were purely financial. Then, all
at once, President Wilson appeared to them
as one transformed into a Messiah, who
would lead them not only out of war but
on to life and hope in a new and better
world. ?
The details of this new world were hazy,
but that made it all the better, for each
could furnish it to suit himself. Anyhow,
it was to be good. The professional poli?
ticians of the Socialist party seized the
opportunity to get themselves into power,
and the Spartacist wing of the Independent
Socialist-, equally took the opportunity to
catch the amateur politicians in the net of
soldiers' and workers' councils. In such
fashion camo the revolution, with its mul?
titude of promises, and for the moment the
workman and the returning soldier were
as so many schoolboys without their mas?
ters. They stopped work and they capered;
they passed resolutions that each employer
should present 800 marks to each of his
employes as a joy offering. Some of the
employers made the presents and some did
not. The workers passed local acts making
it. a penal offence for any employer to dis?
charge an employe?whether* or not he
worked?and they gave very large employ?
ment allowances, some of them amounting
to as much as 15 and 20 marks a day.
The Revolutionary Fantasy \
Since those happy days the realization
has been growing that there are seven days
in the week and three meals at least a day I
to provide for and that idleness is
not an unalloyed blessing. The trade
unions, which were quite lost in the revo?
lutionary fantasy, are coming back into
their own again, and the labor question is
rapidly adjusting itself upon at least com?
prehensible lines.
And slowly, too, the feeling is growing
that perhaps the fourteen points were not
the charter of the millennium but a series
of subjects for argument. The United
States took those fourtee.i points rather
coldly, because it did not know what they
meant. The German took them with avid?
ity because he drid not know what they
meant and yearned for something that he
could not phrase. Now he is asking for
more definite information and is finding
that the Allied powers consider that they
are treating with a defeated Germany and
not with an honorable foe, with whom they
have fought to a draw. The nastiest feature
of the whole peace business is that the
German does not consider himself defeated
and will take any repressive or oppressive
measures as bad faith. This would not
seem to form any part of the subject of
labor, but it does form a large part in that
the possibility that there will be no Ger?
many fit to live in after the peace is being
made use of by agitators to help along the
Spartacist propaganda. But the faith of
the worker is still in the fourteen points.
Essential Orderliness
The points which would make for labor
disorder in Germany are more numerous
than those in any other country, and it is
a* remarkable tribute to the essential order?
liness of the people that the differences be?
tween employer and employe are rapidly
being solved. The first and primary cause
of trouble is unemployment and the daily
arrival of demobilized troops with no jobs
to go to. For instance, Essen, which has no
unemployment in peace times, has now 20,
000 men out of work, although the 200,000
men and women imported for war work have
nearly all been sent home. Leipzig has 40,
000 without v.-ork and Hamburg over 100,000.
Taking the country as a whole, out of a
normal working population of 12,000,000
about 4,000,000 are supposed to be without
jobs. The second factor is the state of the
money. When a worker receives five marks
in wages he does not know what it will
buy. To-day it may buy him enough food
for the day, but to-morrow it may not be
sufficient. Thus no one knows the purchas- ]
ing power of wages and how much they
Hail Nestors!
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: The universal anxiety aroused by the
grave accident to Mr. Gompers, who is in his
seventieth year, following so recently the at?
tempted assassination of Clemenceau?"the
oldest young man in the world"?brings a
realization of the tremendous r?le played
by septuagenarians in the making of world
peace and in the maintenance of Bocial
peace. Among other aged men active in the
Paris conferences are Balfour and Sonnino.
Gompers has played a large part in win?
ning the war, and since the armistice he
has been the greatest influence toward
keeping the radical element in internation?
al labor in the harness of patriotism. He
has convinced the leaders of capital not
only of the right of labor to organize, but
of the advisability of its doing so. Only
two days before Gompers's injury two of
our largest employers of labor, Schwab and
Rockefeller, jr., publicly upheld the prin?
ciple of collective bargaining. Since the
great anthracite strike of 1902 Gompers has
made giant strides toward ending the war
of labor and capital by his fearless but '
conservativo?, leadership and spirit of co?
operation. In his most recont public speech
ho made a most significant statement. "You
may destroy our movement," he said, "but
if you do you will have another element to
deal with."
The capitalists with vision have no de
I really mean. This factor alone would be
enough to cause revolution in many coun
| tries. Ihe money question is so bad that
; in some parts the people employed are ask
! ing that they be paid in food and not in
money. One mine that I visited in Silesia
; has had no trouble with its people because
they have been able out of their farms to
supply many articles of food at low prices.
; At the Krupp works the personnel mana?
gers have taken care that the workers are
i able to buy food at reasonable prices, and
I in consequence the Krupps nave had com
i paratively little trouble with their own
| people. All of the disorder (and there has
I been very little of it) at Essen has come
| from the outside.
; The Variable Mark
In going about Germany one finds that
the purchasing power of the mark varies
I widely, and although the Rhinelands have
? always been expensive for the workmen,
| the prices there have not risen in com?
parison, say, with Berlin or Hamburg;
while what they take as very expensive in
Breslau would be held to be a bargain in
Dresden. This makes figures on wages of
almost no value, because the wages must
vary with the buying power, but generally
| speaking the rises have been about 200 per
i cent, and most of this has come since the
| revolution, for it is since that event that
| the prices of food have gone up. Here are
some typical increases: Dock workers at
Hamburg who had B.80 before the war now
receive 14 marks a day; an unskilled
worker in Saxony who formerly had from
20 to 30 marks for a week of nine to ten
hour days now gets from 60 to 80 marks
for a week of eight-hour days; a Silesian
miner who would average 6 marks a day
before the war will now earn from 20 to
25 marks during the shorter day of eight
hours. The minimum wage in Krupp's now
is 12 marks a day. A machinist in the
Rhinelands who earned 1.25 an hour be?
fore the war now gets 3 marks, while the
wages of unskilled men in these trades
has jumped from .60 or .70 an hour to 1.50
marks. About Berlin machinists who had
40 marks a week before^ the war now ask
for and get 80 marks a week; but these
same machinists reached a3 high a3 150
marks a week during the war.
And this^illustrates one of the remark?
able facts about German wages?and that
is the dawning comprehension that it is
not the amount of money that one receives
which counts, but what that money will
buy. I asked many workers in all parts if
they hoped to hold their present wages, and
in every case they answered that they did
not think the wages could or should last,
but that they would be willing to go back
to the pre-war basis or a little better if
only the prices of food and clothing would
come down. A start in this direction has
been made by reducing the unemployment
allowance in Berlin from 8 to 4 rrmrks a
day and limiting tho additional sums of
1.50 a day paid for each child to three
children. The trade unions urged this de?
crease because they found that the high
unemployment payments removed all de?
sire to work. The wages offered- seldom
exceeded by more than a mark or two the
allowance which a man with a large family
could have without work.
The Danger of Pressure
The unions are winning at the time of
writing, but they are so engaged in the
winning that they have had no time to
work out plans or details. They took the
Whitley idea in toto because it was ready
made and had been praised in England;
they have some ideas of making the powers
broader and of permitting the highest coun?
cils to control the entirety of the industries
on a kind of gigantic trust plan. But all
these things are yet in the distance. The
important thing to remember about Ger?
man labor to-day is that it is really anxious
to work and will take a considerably lower
wage?will adopt a whole new wage plan
if only the general prices can be brought
down. And further?that it is willing to
adopt any kind of scientific management
which can be shown to increase production
without hurting the status of the working
man.
The other side of the picture is that the
radical elements n?ay grow in power?al?
though hardly to the point of control?if
any very great pressure is put upon Ger?
many. ?Pressure without propaganda would
defeat itself.
The efficiency of the worker In Germany
has lowered to a great degree during the
war, but that is something to be taken up
in estimating the ability of Germany to
compete in the world's markets.
sire to destroy responsible trades union?
ism, and the Bourbons would rather deal
with Gompers than with Bolshevism.
Clemenceau reconciled the discordant ele?
ments in France in the midst of war and
produced victory. He and Foch are prob?
ably the two greatest figures in the history
of our times, and Foch himself is not a
youth. Clemenceau and Balfour have with
patient sagacity welded the conflicting the?
ories and aims of younger and more ambi?
tious statesmen into a workable and sign
able treaty.
How much the world hangs upon these
frail Nestors, who in their youth were like?
wise troublemakers of the first order, is
only made evident when we risk their loss.
One is almost inclined to advocate
doubling the minimum age requirement for
candidacy for the Presidency of the United
States. How much safer we would feel in
these too eventful times under the guidance
of a calm-eyed old gentleman for whom
time had dimmed tho glamour of change
and fame while brightening his vision
through human fancies to human needs!
C. LAW WATKINS.
New York, April 30, 1919. *
Spring in Arkansas
(From The Arkadtlphia {Ark.) Kewa)
From between tho creeks, Pink Wright
says ho heard a whippoorwill holler. No
mire socks. No more stove wood till winter
comes again.
Glimpses
By Wilbur Forrest
GENERAL HEADQUARTERS, A. E. p., j
CHAUMONT, France.?The Nation?! |
Museum in Washington some day ;
probably will receive one of the most
prized official souvenirs of the war. It \t
simply a piece of paper tape from a deli,
cate mechanism used by the army to regie,
ter sound of gunfire. Heavy firing pro?
duces a jagged, irregular line. Intermittent
cannonading makes wavy lines at intervals,
while a single shot throws the line into a
convulsive "jag" upward and downward,
or into a "hump," sizes of "jags" sad
"hum^s" depending on the calibre of th*
gun and distance of its position from the
mechanism recording the sound. The i trip
of tape which may become a National Tu
seum curiosity, therefore, records the at
cannon shots of the war on the Amer in
front along the Meuse. One minut? t.?
11 o'clock, November 11, the line perform ?1
a series of antics, "jags" and "hump. ?
Beginning at one-half minute to 11 ti i
line weakened and grew weaker and weake
until precisely at 11 o'clock it resumed the
even tenor of its way and recorded th?
"sound" death of the greatest war in his
tory.
Dapper young headquarter lieuten
are extremely jealous of three young
dapper, if not immaculate, young lieuu
ants, who to-day are performing the
luxe job of the whole war." They
peace conference couriers from Parii
Washington. Leaving Paris with messaf.
one at a time when the occasion deman
they motor in a nice army limousine
Brest. Here a fast American warshij
awaits. Boarding it the courier just siaipl>
lolls back in a comfortable stateroom ar
reads books or anything until the ship s -
rives at Norfolk. At Norfolk another a^ *
limousine awaits and he motors com1
ably to Washington and hands over >c
message at the State Department. n
it is perfectly proper under army refuta?
tions to run down to Atlantic City, or up
to New York, or just visit around Wash?
ington until it comes time to run back U>
Paris. When that time cornes the army
limousine awaits, and he enters and is off
to Norfolk. And he does it on a govern?
ment expense account.
Who's Who in the
Banat
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: You had a very excellent article r?a
Rumania and its new frontiers in yeur
Sunday edition of yesterday, quoted from
"The Manchester Guardian." There wa3 one
statement, however, which I would like to
have corrected. I refer to certain figures
given in the second column which would
indicate that the total population of the
Banat was only some 400,000, while, as a
matter of fact, the population of the Binat
as shown by the Hungarian census of 1910
was over a million and a half, and wat
made up as follows:
BANAT
Rumanians. B92.049
Germans. 387,546
Serbs . 284,32?
Hungarians. 242,1 Hi
All others. 75,05?
1,681,153
In the County of Torontal the Hungarian
statistics for the same year were as fol?
lows:
Serbs . 199.780
Germans . 165,779
Hungarians . 128,520
Rumanians . 86,937
All others. 34,166
615,151
But the above are from the Hungar?a \
statistics, which are notoriously unfair t
all the subject races, especially to the Ru
manians.
For instance, the Austrian census fo
1840 gave 2,037,433 Rumanians in Hungar]
and in 1857 the figure from this sam
source was 2,641,700, or an increase in sev
enteen years of some 600,000. But tht
Hungarian census for 1910 gave only 2.?32,
214 Rumanians. That is, the Austrian fig ,
ures Bhowed an increase amore the Ru
, ^ i
manians in seventeen years of 600.0CC
while the Hungarian figures would have in '
believe that a people which had increase.. !
600,000 in seventeen years should increaE
in fifty-three years only 300,000!
In fact, there is reason to believe the j
the Rumanian population of the Banat ii ?'
over 60 per cent of the whole and that i '
fair count would prove this.
T, TILESTON WELLS, Consul.
New York, April 28, 1919. \
The Ringing Isle
.-'*
(From The London Morning Post) $
? ._ I
There always has been such a love of bel *
music in England (known in medisva ;
times as "The Ringing Isle") that it i j*
curious the keyboard carillon was never %
developed here, as it has been in Belgium*
and Holland. There are a few keyboard1!
carillons in this country. The best knows I
is the three-octave carillon in the beautif'tJ
Scott tower at Cattistock, in Dorsetshl ?, '
where M. Denyn gives a recital every year
on the last Thursday in July. There also is
a good carillon at Eaton Hall, the Duke ef '
Westminster's seat in Cheshire, and a won- |
derful set of forty bells?in tune with ons
another and in themselves?at Messrs. Tay?
lor's famous foundry at Loughborough,
which shows we are ahead of the whole
world in carillon making.
England is perhaps too "pewy a eonntrjTt
as hunting men would Bay. for the trae
carillon, which flourishes in flat countri**
such as the Netherlands, where there are
no hills to close the long vistas of hearing*
But wo ought to have a great many more of j
these celestial instruments that sing in tk?
height od majorent Dei glo-riam ? wk**
braver or more beautiful memorial could b? ?
set up in memory of Englishmen who ???
in Flanders? Meanwhile there is great activ?
ity among the English bellringers, a ?*???
and yet joyous fraternity, who certainly d*
not live down to the second part of *n
Inscription on bells at Welwyn, Herts a*d !
Whittlesea, Cambridgeshire : "Prosperity *?
the Church of England and no encourage?
ment to enthusiasm.*' Fancy perpetuattof
the feud against Methodism in a bell motto}
Our bellringers are having their bel!? ,
put in order and are busily practising te
order thut the real peace might be Attic
celebrated by peala, long drawn arabeaqaj
les of many colored sound, from all
belfries in the land.