Newspaper Page Text
.ese ayerr, uvealas, Ezxrt uaday, by THE BULLETIN PlIuzINOe 0o. Entered as Second Class.Matter, Dec. 18, 1917, at the Postoffice at Butte, Montana. Under act of March 3, 1879. PHONES: Business Office, 52; Editorial Rooms, 292. BUSINfEa OFFICE AND EDITORIAL ROOMS, 101 SOUTH IDARU ISTRLET BUBB(RIIPTION RATES: One Month............-.............$1.00 Six Months ................ _..... $$.00 Three Months ................. $2.75 By the Year .......................$9.50 The Daily Bulletin is on sale every day at the follownlg places In Butte Jacques Drug 0e., Harrison and Cobban Depot Drug Store, 828 East Front St. George A. Amen, Jr., 816 12 N. Main St. P. O. Nows Stand, West Park St. International News Stand, S. Arizona St.; Palace of Sweets, Mercury and Main Sta Harkins" Grocery, 1028 Talbot Ave. Everybody's News Stand, 215 S. Montana Helena Confectionery, I85 Eaut Park It. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1919. Has your local union contributed to the new workmen's com pensation fund? If not, take the matter up at your next meet ing. All contributions should be sent to the Cascade Trades and Labor Assembly, Great Falls, Mont. See that the petitions are signed up and sent in as soon as possible.' ,WHAT OUR CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT. A ixl-hliok published by the A rical'ien lok Com pani---a coclil.ern whiichi is, by the way, in fair to o l'llllg z lil...or.-----is urnlished leah ers ii tIhe Butt1 schiools forl claiss-rooni ise. This work is called "A School Histoiry of the (Great. War." (On page 117 is found i his delighlfully sympathetic accountilli of the Irish revolultion iini 1910. "Some of the more radical among the Irish llorne ilule part bad flormend aill o'ganiiizationi known as Sinn Fein, ani Irish ]ihrase which lmeanis "for ourselves." Their aiiii was to make reliand an iindepeilient natio. The leaders of this group got into c.rres(0tlOenice with lpersonis ill (Giernany and were proml - ised iiilitariy aissistance if they would rebel agaislt Englianld. The rebellion broke ilt A.iril 24, 1910, without the promised elp ron Germaniiy. F'or several liays the rebels held some of the plincipal buildings in Dublin. After much bloodshed the rebellion was pultdown and Sir Rogeor (Casement, one of those who had been in (colilmllietlion with Germany, was executed for treason." Thulis does this "hislory'" dismiss the struggle of the Irish eople for freediim fl'ro1 oppression! Nr 'lie thlie Rlussiauis treated any mnore kindly. "On page 123, in speaking of the Russian revolution, which freed 180,000,100 people, it states: The revolt was led by two of the most extreme members of hlie party. Lenine and Trotsky, who had at their disposal large Sillls olf money furnished by Germany." This li has ben exploded so oftelon that only the most as Iuldlli.ig disregalnid I. facts couldlI have caused its incorpora ini in a, school histoy. \Vhalover Lonine anlld Trotsky may be, it has beeni provel o thlie soatisf oction of both ermaniy and the allies that they were not German agents as this work infers; liir propagndlll a entirely demoralized the eastern Gerlmani aHmios. ''l ic Itriideri regard for Ithe iilterests of wealth and prIivilege is again shownii oin pago 15.(, whlere it stales: "'Soin ffter \\ar was declaiied, the railhroads of the country p.lneld Itieniselves at the disposal of thlie governlncrt in order In tukte care of the incirease in ltrilansportatlion service required by the slale of war." "'laced thliemselves at lhe dislosal of Ithe government" is ratherii good coiisiderinig the fai.l that the government was iforced o take the rolldss over in order to relieve the traffic con gestliin that threatened to disrupt the industrial life of the lna ltion aind consideriiing furtiheri that the roads lelft no stone in turned ito prevent the governmient itaking control. Th'iis is iindeed a reliabloe work. The slelreoltyped exilanlation of the rise in plrices---lnlam ing it il laio i.-----is ailso adoplted Iby this children's guide on pages 1(12-1(63. II says: \' en thle gover'nmiinenIl \w'ilants a greatil uantiily of aimunlli liiin ti which it is willing to pay ia high price,-the manlufact.ur cr, desiring tl obtlin in i increased limiiOer of workmen quickly, ol'ners unusually high pay. Thiis 1itracts workmenli from other iduslries, and the Itleatter offer still higher pIay to their work iien. lii this way. wages rapidly go up anl things that have lto be piroduced with labor,. like coa iii oliioises, or ships, rise enoir mioiisly ini cost." Few workers will subliscribe I to ihis sketchl of the workers' lip'ndise thiat this country \\'as silpposed to )be during the war. Thl'lie ac that wages always lag behindl tIhe cost of liviig and that wage-ilncreases are never secinred until prices have risen seems to be unkniiow to the compilers of this mnsterpiece, but as long as labor is the class that gets the worst of it, it is doubt ful if imaniiy will notice the errors. "'The Sch adl Histor'y ofl the (Greal WarVii'." comnpiled by Albertl McKinley, 1ih. I)., professor of history. Uniiiversity of Pennisyl aiiiia: Charles A. ICoil olnib, Ph. I)., distr'ict superintendenrt of schiools, Philadetlphia, and Arman\ d Gerson. Ph. D., also a dis hrict superintilendent of schools in Plhiladelphia. Tlhe fact than the steel-truiist owns Ihe state of Pennsylvania anild with it the public sclhool system, may possibly necount for some of the more glaring mis-statements of fact when the truth would iiinjure tIlie financial interests associated with the steel-trust. ]The learned geCtlemen nomedi above should have no diffi culty in securing, as a reward f1or their attempts to poison knowledge at it source, a few more degrees from the steel trust's~ University of Pennsyl'vania. BUTTE WATER COMPANY SHOULD PAY FOR RESULTS OF ITS NEGLIGENCE. Competent w\itnesse. who s\aw the McKinley school building destroyed by fire, say that the water-pressure was extremely low and that this hampered the fire department to such an ex lent as to render impossible the saviing of the building. The destruction of a large school building in this city, where the schools are already overerol\\led, aside fronm the properly loss, works a hardship on the children whose instruction is interruptled during the middle of the school year. They will have ti be crowded into olher strictures with the danger to health that it implies. I.esplite lhe stalement in the Post of Mondlay evening, evi dently inspired by a desire to defend the Bulle Water company from criticism, to the effect that considering lthat a number of domeslic faucetls were running, the pressure was really very good, it is the consensus of opinion-that the reverse is true. We are of the opinion that the contract of the city with the Bulte W\ater company calls for a stipulated pressure at the hydrants. If the de itruction of the building was a result of the low water-pressure, the school board should be able to recover from the Butte Water company damages equaling the differ ence between the insurance and the cost of rebuilding the -tructure. The court would probably also allow a certain sum for punitive damages. In view of the exorbitanlt prices charged by the water com Ipany for its service-or lack of it-there appears to be little excuse for not maintaining an adequate pressure in its mains. It is probably fortunate that the children were not in the McKinley school at the time the fire occured; even with the efficient fire-drill system maintained, there is always danger hot. some little lot may be isolated. Perhaps, though, the Butte Water company only allows its pressure to run down on Saturdays, endangering the lives of the fire.-fighters alone. In view of the facts so far established, we believe that the school board should fire a shot across the admiral's bows, heave hiin to, a.nd bring him into port--we mean court. RUMANIA AND OIL. We have on more than one occaison referred to the im lortance of crudce-oil to modern imperialism, and to the fact Iha.t most of thie "lpnceful pene, etrationts" of balckward na lirlls--- fl'ially endiirng in conquest- most of ItIe plans for in terve ntion in Mexico alnd elsewhere, in fact all recent adven tures ini imperialism on the part of the great powers are prompted by a desire to obtain nionopolies of the oil resources oif thte wthorld. England's war otn Russia, her hold-up of Persia, our own brawl with the republic to the south, the Japanese alliance with the house of' Morgan, all can be traced to the rivalry for the cot itrol of the supply of the modern fuel. It will be recalled by those who have followed developments in eastern Eurol.pe since the signing of the armistice, that Ru rmarlia has been allowed almost a free hand in the Balkans and that the peace conference, the allied powers ini fact, have been strangely lenient in dealing with her. She has been allowed to pluntder and ravage helpless Hungary without interference; permitted to loot that already starving nation and to commit unnameable atrocities upon the conquered populace. No page of history is blacker than the record of the dealings of the allies with a nation that had surrendereed upon promise of bread tlan t peace. The well-meaning humanitarians who are puzzled and un able to explain the brutality of imperialism because they believe that. the knowledge that cqrtain things are wrong acts as a deterrent, ftiil to understand that the imperialists have never yet surrendered their ambitions because they could only be realized by wholesale murder. The latitude allowed the Ru manians, the lack of interference with their fiendish practices can also be explained by the oil hypothesis. lRumania is rich in oil, but lacks capital with which to ex ploit it; the oil-kings are desirous of placating Rumania at the expense of other nations who do not possess this precious fluid. In return for tie favors shown her she is expected to allow exploitation of her oil fields. Her own population is oppressed to the limit, the land is held by a few nobles and therefore a supply of cheap labor is guaranteed to the oil magnates. The oil situation in Rumania is well described by Edward J. Iling, United Press Staff correspondent in the following article: Vienna, (lly Mail.)--in view of' the general shortage of coal here, the question of the production of other fuel has again become extremely important. Special attention in financial circles is being paid to oil and petroleum which eastern Europe used to produce in abundance. The exportation and the equal and judicious distribu lion of the material, however, is rendered particularly dif I'icult today by the exceptionally grave political situation of the prod(ucing countries as well as by the devastations of-which this territory was the theater. This refers above all to' the oil wells of Galicia and Rumania, while the oil occurrences of B3aku, on the Caspian Sea, and Kerkuk (,hanikin still deserve the greatest attention in the Far East. The extraordinary abundance of the latter's prod ticts was one of the principal reasons why the British naval craft reconstructed for o)il heating. While thhe petroleum and oil production of Asia is more or less in lBritish hands already. there ought to be a good opportunity for the investment of American capital in Galicia and lnualniia. American business interests, however, must he aware of the fact that one of the most. urgent and indispensible tasks in regard to rational ex ploitation of the oil wells in that part of the world will be their reconstruction, aiming at hringing about the pre war standard of production. While the outlut of mineral oil in Galicia-which centered in l)rohobycz and the neighboring territories-was very great in normal times. a considerable number of wells have been choked and devastated during' the course of the numerous battles which took place there between the Russians and the Austrians: even after the armistice and right now this ter ritory is the subject of dispute between the Poles and the Ukrainians; the wells are partly in British and partly in American and Austrian hands. As to the Roumanian oil wells, a considerable part of these is inot now in working order, which is chiefly due to the military measures taken by the allies at the time of the (erman advance in Rumania. Although General F:alken hayn's experts devoted particular attention to the recon struction of the destructed wells, their work was crowned with limited success, and it will take a long period of sys tematic work to raise the Rumanian oil fields again to their pre-war importance. The Rumania n government is trying hard to achieve results in this respect and is report ed -to have lately concluded a convention with the Aus trian government whereby they are to supply the Aus trians with petroleum and other material of primary ne cessity in exchange for industrial products. There is ani exceptional opportunity at the present time for American capital to tack an increased active in terest in the oil production of eastern Europe; an activity of this kind on the part of the United States would be very much facilitated, first, by the exceptionally favorable rates of exchange for American coinage in those comn tries, and, second, by the marked readiness of the peoples and aovernments concerned ti co-operate with America and to profit of her efficient business organization. It can be seen from the above that there is method in the madness of the allies in dealing with Rumania. The fact that a considerable portion of the oil resources of Rumania are already in British hands suggests interesting- pos sibilities if' attempts are made 'for their control by American. calilal. "Is there any man or women. let me say hny child, \who, does not know that war is the result of commercial rivalries?" Presidenlt \Wilson's San Francisco speech. Listen to the Mucker ( ,6 -I - . . The Mucker-What is worth having is worth fighting for. The average man gets up on his dignity when some person or persons try to take advantage of him as an indi vidual; he's right on the fight. Let the same advantage be taken of him through a cor poration or through process of law and the average man. may be stripped, starved and robbed of his eye-teeth before he will register a kick. THE STUDENTS' CORNERI (Under this caption will be run daily extracts from some standard work dealing' with economics or his' ory.) The series begins with Shop Talks on Economics by Mary E. Marcy. Questions dealing with the subject will be answered by the editor in this department. The space is limited, so make your questions as con cise as possible-Editor. Having completed "Shop. Talks on Economics," we begin a study of "Evolution--Social and Organic," by Arthur M. Lewis. Students will find in this work the explanation for many natural phe npmena, whose causes have escaped them. It deals with and explains the various philosophies and theories of. existence that have arisen from time. to time and contains much informa tion not found in the ordinary text books. It should be carefully studied for the reason that a thorough under standing of evolution is necessary for a true knowledge of life and labor, the most important factor in life.) Editor's Note. (Continued from yesterday.) Take a row of celery plants from which future seedlings are to be "selecte". In this instance, let us suppose, the quality desired is ability to resist frost. -low is the gardener to know which of fifty plants are the "best' in this respect. He has no method of finding out with any degree of certainty. But nature comes along some night with a sharp frost and "selects" ten by killing forty. And the very act of this "natural" sel better able to withstand the frost than their fellows. Breeders of white sheep who sup ply the white wool market have a very tangible guide-they kill every lamub that shows the least tinge o. black. But even here, nature is no. to be out-done. In Virginia there is-or at least was in Darwin's day --a wild hog of pure black. One of its staple foods was known as the "paint-root." Any hog with the least speck of white on its body was poisoned by this root while its all. black brothers found it a health sustaining and succulent food. In an environment which remain ed constant and where a species of animals had reached a population which strained the limits of sub cistence-food supply-those off spring which most closely resemble their parents, who had won out in that environment, would again suc ceed and be selected. While if the environment c h a n g e d - became warmer or colder for example-- those descendants which happened te vary in a direction making them better able to cope with the new conditions would be selected for sur vival as against those who resem bled their parents, which parents had survived in their day because they were adapted to the prior eun vironment. For example, a country is well supplied with water and it is as a consequence fertile and "green." In puch a country green insects ana green reptiles will be selected, be iause a green background will ren i er them almost invisible to their enemies. Individuals of other colors will make their appearance by vari ation, but they will be such- plainl targets to their enemies.. they will be devoured before, they reach breeding age and have a chance to reproduce the variation. But suppose desiccation (drying up) sets in. The country loses its water supply, as Krapotkin has shown to have been the case it, Northwest Mongolia and East Tur itestan, leading to the enforced ex odus of the barbarians. Now green will disappear and brown or yel lc, -say brown-takes its place. While tnis change will not, so far; as we know, cause insects and liz ards to breed brown instead ofi green, it will ensure the survival or "selection" of such as are born brown and the destruction of those who breed true to their green an cestors. Now every atavisLuc return to green will be mercilessly weedea out, just as, when the country was well-watered and green, every spor adic production or brown was done to death. This is the biological foundation of that environment philosophy which now pervades all our think ing. Change the physical environ ment, says the biologist, and thL spec.es will be transformed. Change the economic environment, says the Socialist, and, if you make the right change, the race will be redeemed. Both statements rest on the samint fundamental laws. As the many and highly important implications of this theory, are fully dealt with in subsequent lecture. most of them will be passed here. We may note, however, that when ever any nation in the moder. world, produces, in the development of its industry, a Socialistic van ation, that new feature at once ,,roves its utility and is "selected" in the Darwinian sense, because it constitutes an advantage over the previous form of social organization, in that particular. This is the rea son why the trust-which is social istic and revolutionary in its es sential tendencies-is always vic torious, in spite of the foolish rar ings of the Hearst newspapers and the antediluvian twaddle of William Jennings Bryan. But Darwin's crowning achieve ment is that he made tue general aleory of evolution impregnable by thoroughly and conclusively demon strating it in his own field as a naturalist. From then on it was only a question of time as to when its application would be universal. Socialism may be defined as the application of the theory of evolu tion to the phenomena of society. ibhis is precisely what Marx and Engels accomplished, anri this why their work is so fundamentally op posed to the conventional theories and theological superstitious cur rent in their time, and so fully in harmony with all the latest achieve lmets in the scentific world. His iory ceases to be a meaningless mass of war and famine, bloodshed and cruelty. It becomes a pano rama presenting the development of society according to laws which may be understood and with a future that may be measurably predicted. It develops by the operation of forces that no man or class can wholly stay or hinder. The power of those forces and the direction in which they are now making has been well set forth by Victor Hugo by a very striking simile in the follow ing passage: "We are in Russia. The Neva is frozen. Heavy carriages roll upon its surface. The improvise a city. They lay out streets. They build houses. They buy. They sell. They laugh. They dance. They permit themselves anything. They even light fires on this water become granite. There is winter, there is ice and they shall last forever. A gleam pale and wan spreads over the sky and one would say that the sun is dead. But no, thou are not dead, oh Liberty! At an hour when they have most profoundly forgot ten thee; at a moment when they least expect thee, thou shall arise, oh, dazzling sight! hou shalt shoot thy bright and burning rays, thy heat, thy life, on all this mass of ,ce become hideous and dead. Do you hear that dull thud, that crack ling, deep and dreadful I 'Tis the Neva tearing loose. You said it was granite. See it splits like glass. 'Tis the breaking of the ice, I tell you. 'Tis the water alive, joyous and terrible. Progress recom mences. 'Ti.- humanity again be ginning its march. 'Tis the river which retakes its course, uproots, mangles, strikes together, crushes and drowns in its waves not only the empire of upstart Czar Nicholas, but all of the relics of ancient and modern despotism. That trestle work floating away? It is the throne. That other trestle? It is the scaffold. That old book, half sunk? It is the old code of capital ist laws and morals. That old rook ery just sinking? It is a tenement house in which wage slaves lived. See these all pass by; passing by never more to return; and for this immense engulfing, for this supreme victory of life over death, what has been the power necessary? One of thy looks, oh, sun! One stroke of thy strong arm, oh, labor!" (To Be Continued.) Flour Gold (Panned by Jim Seymour.) Oh, see the man! Is the man fat? Yes, the man is fat. Why is the man fat? Because the man has both feet in the trough and his snout bur-ied to the eyes. Upton Sinclair's latest book, "The Brass Check," is pernicious, insidi ous, anarchistic, law-defying, low, vile, unspeakable and bolshevistic. It is even published for principle, in stead of for profit. Loyal and re spectable workingmen are tearfully cautioned against this damnably un warranted attack upon oui eminent ly honorable capitalist press. This advertisement paid for by the Mental Bagnio ass'n, Arthur Fizz brain, president. It is reported that Y. M. C. A. patrons who approve of slang are us ing the prayer, "Give us this day our daily punk." Gentlemen, let us issue injunctions tying up strike funds; thus may we take the world's safe from democ Sracy. -- -