The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume], December 14, 1918, Page 4, Image 4

About The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947

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THE GOLDFIELD NEWS
AND WEEKLY TRIBUNE
ISSUED EVERY SATURDAY BT
THE TRIBUNE PRINTING COMPANY
V L. RICKETTS, _ Pwldsnt sad Manager
Subscription Rate*
One Year __$6.0#Three Month* .
Six Months _-_ 2.50 Single Copies
When Paid in Advance
One Year __53.50 Six Moatha .**°0
AiMrew all Communications to.........The Tribune Printing Company
Entered at the Goldfield Post Office for transmission throu#h the !
■mils at aecond-claaa rates, April 8, 1911._____|
“
I
—WmrnkJJm — ~
“FATHER IS A BROKEN MAN”
Can anyone imagine William Hohenzollern, emperor of
Germany standing on the Belgian border before his legions
crossed and saying: “The die is east! I will win or die m
exile!”
When the audacious Caesar, who also “was ambitious,
crossed the Rubicon, he said: “The die is cast! Had he met
defeat afterward instead of becoming “the foremost man of all
the world” there is no doubt that he would have died fighting
on the field of battle. Caesar led one lone legion into Italy.
After 40 years of preparation, ehoosnig his own time, tak
ing what he considered to be the most opportune moment for
a bid for world power to be won on the field of battle, the
kaiser sent his hosts across the Belgian frontier. He lost, and
now his son. speaking for him, says: “You Englih are trying
to get father from Holland. We are down and out. Father
is a broken man. Is not that enough punishment?” Decid
edlv it is not enough punishment.
* __ >• i j_1_J
Of Caesar. Mommsen says: nr «urtvcu «nu
never any mortal before or after him, and as he worked and
created he still, after 2000 years, lives in the memory of the
nations, the first and unique Imperator Caesar!”
Caesar said: “The die is cast!” He won Rome. The
kaiser said: "Woe and death unto those who oppose m\ will.
After deserting the nation for which he gained the hatred of
the world, he now whines like the whipped dog that he is to
be permitted to die in exile. His son says for him: “Father
is a broken man.” And “woe and death” for the nations that
opposed his will were this not so.
Napoleon was a vulgar conqueror. He was permitted to
die in exile. But Napoleon was a man and he and his armies
fought like men and not like beasts.
In the days of the Roman Coliseum the defeated gladiators
were permitted to live when they had fought cleanly and wrell
before 80,000 spectators, and today America admires the gloved
gladiator who falls after a battle well fought.
Rut the kaiser, with his armies trained for almost half a
century, equipped to the minute and directed by the pick of
the products of the German military system, fall on an unpre
pared world at a time and on ground selected by himself and
lost. He fought neither cleanly nor well. For the fact that
he lost, the world could perhaps excuse him, but for the fact
that he made women and children his prey he and the men
he selected to lead his armies deserve death.
Holland proposes to place the archicriminal of all time and
his son, who is no better and perhaps W’orse, on an island.
German propagandists in the United States claim that the
ex-kaiser and his son should be permitted to live “as an ex
ample.” When a murderer, and William Hohenzollern is a
murderer, is found guilty he is not permitted to live “as an
, example.” Murderers are hanged, not for revenge, but as ex
amples.
England will demand William in the name of all the allies
and America, and then, not as the ex-kaiser, but as William
Hohenzollern, a common man charged with murder, he should
be tried. If he can clear himself of the crimes of which he
stands accused, he should be released, and if he is found guil
ty in an international court he should be hanged.
While Holland talks now of putting William on an island,
the spectacle of England permitting him to be placed on an
island or anywhere else without first facing England for his
deeds would be a joke, and the British empire does not joke
w ith characters such as William.
Mining-Scientific Press: Legislation excluding undesir
able immigrants has been enacted and is to be enforced by the
department of labor. By this new law', signed by the presi
dent on Oct, 16, all anarchists are to be kept out of the coun
try; also those who are known to hold the anti-social and de
structive opinions concocted by Bolshevism and the I. W. W.
The new law provides that, irrespective of the time of entry
of an alien into this country, he may be deported if he has ac
• quired such beliefs since coming here. We welcome such
legislation, for it is a flagrant absurdity to give domicile to
those that purpose to subvert our domestic peace or to pull
our political house to the ground. Now that the war has
. fused the diverse elements of our population into a united na
tion, it remains for us to deal summarily with the poisonous
propaganda that may be brought hither from the disorderly
elements in Europe. Here we note with approval the an
nouncement that Germans and Austrians w'ho served the cause
of the enemy in this country and were interned as dangerous
aliens during the period of the war are to be deported as soon
as the treaty of peace has been signed.
-o
It was von Hindenburg who ordered bread soaked in par
afin for Russian prisoners. But from his utilitarian view
point they probably bad too many prisoners to feed, *nd that
was his w'ay of disposing of them. Of course he mi> ht have
thought of a better way than that—hitting them in the head
with a club, for instance, and most of them w'ould have pre
ferred that death to the one that carried them off eventually.
The Germans may now be washing that French and Brit
ish and Belgian prisoners were able to speak more and kinder
words for them. And if they had treated them better they
would have spoken those words.
THE PRICE OF COPPER
The agreement made between the war industries board,
and the representatives of the copper producers to maintain ,
the present rate of production and to continue both the exist
ing price for the metal and the current rate of wages for the
remainder of the year is of good augury. It postpones any j
immediate change in the status of the copper-mining industry. |
Announcement is made that one of the allied governments!
ha- asked the delivery of 200,000 tons, or 448 million pounds,
of American copper. This is about equal in amount to the
stock of copper in transit and unsold in this country at the
present time. Domestic consumption, it is said at Washing
♦. n. will require a good dev of copper to correct the shortage
created by the demands of war. The resumption of automo
bile manufacture is a favoraLle factor. Reconstruction abroad
should furnish a market for an enormous quantity of metal,
even after allowing for salvage from the munitions that will
be scrapped as soon as peace is definitely concluded. Ger
many must be in urgent need of copper, in consequence of the
collection of the metal from roofs, bells, utensils and even
electric equipment, during the period of the war. All this
appears encouraging to the miner, but there is the other phase
of the subject to be considered. The absorption of 90 per cent
of the world’s output of copper by war necessities is a fact to
check undue optimism. In September our exports of copper
aggregated 71,220,800 pounds, as against a maximum this year
of 81,058,000 pounds in January and a minimum of 42„300,000
in August. Such statistics are interesting, but the future pros
perity of copper mining depends, it seems to us, mainly on the
solving of the labor problem. The cost of producing copper
has more than doubled during the last two years, largely ow
ing to the higher wages paid at mines, mills and smelters.
Of the total cost of production 60 per cent is recorded on the
payrolls of the companies. Will that be reduced soon? Will
the deflation of the expenditure for labor be effected reason
ably and amicably, or must it be done at the intolerable toll
of disorder and riot? Here, it would seem, is room for the
proper use of government paternalism and federal control of
industry, to which mining has submitted cheerfully during the
war and to which it is entitled now to turn for protection.
Just as the mining companies acquiesced to the raising of the
wage scale when copper increased in its selling price, so now
they have a right to expect that their employes, under govern
ment tutelage, will acquiesce in the reduction of wages when
the price falls, in obedience to economic law. This is going to
be an excellent test of democratic government and we are not
without hope of seeing an equitable result and a peaceful so
lution induced by the pressure of public opinion. — Mining
Scientific Press.
-n-—
PEACE WORK FOR AIRPLANES
On November 22 army planes from flying fields in various
parts of the United States started a series of cross-country
flights to cities in their sectors to chart air lanes, make air
maps and gather valuable air statistics. Incidentally they will
locate sites for landing fields and airdromes; the landing
fields to become a part of the great chain that will soon “air
link” every important community in the country from coast
to coast; the airdromes, in addition to offering shelter to visit
ing flyers, to be made available, if needed, in helping to house
the equipment the air service will bring back from overseas.
This reconnaisance work will be gradually extended as fast as
arrangements can be made.
An important part of this work by the air service is
bringing up to date the records started years ago by the cav
alry, which, by cross-country rides, made extensive maps for
future emergencies, showing all available shelter, battery lo
cations, good roads, bad roads, fords, safe bridges, poor and
plentiful sources of water and food supplies.
Then the cavalry was the eyes of the army. Today the
airplane takes the cavalry’s place and to operate successfully
in the air squadron commanders must know their sky routes
as cavalry leaders knew the turnpikes and highways. As the
horseman needed water and forage, so the air pilots use gas,
oil and landing fields.
The flyers who are starting this air map-making cam
paign are combat pilots, trained in the United States for fight
ing overseas, and whose battle training has, by the armistice,
been turned to account in preparing for the times of peac.
Major Gneral Kenly, director of military aeronautics, has
placed in charge of this immense reconnaisance work Colonel
M. F. Davis, head of the training section , an army officer who
saw bis first field service on the plains with the first and
fourth cavalry, and who has ridden horseback all three historic
trails across the continent—the Lewis and Clark, Oregon and
Santa Fe.
-O
HOW VON TIRPITZ FAILED
To offset the submarine, beginning in 1917, the convoy
system was introduced. Under that system, we are now told,
85,772 ships of all kinds crossed the ocean, and of all these
only one-half of one per cent were lost. That is to say one
ship out of every two hundred was sunk by the Germans and
199 got across to their destinations. These facts are now used
to prove what an ass von Tirpitz was when he announced a
policy of stopping allied shipping with the submarines.
Now the German people ought to be thankful for the fact
that the von Tirpitz policy proved such a failure, for they will
not have to pay for or replace the ships that the convoys kept
them from sinking. But as it is they will have enough ships
to replace, for it is understood that it is to be ton for ton. Of
course, in such replacements, as we understand it, are not in
cluded those that the Germans sank according to the rules of
war.
-o
The boys who are being put on ships to return home may
not be the most enthusiastic chaps about the matter. Many of
them would have preferred to stay a little longer in a beauti
ful country like France where it is not devastated. But we
take it that all of them had many days of leave to look about.
REGAN A LIAR—ENDED A THIEF
The kaiser entered the war as a liar and he crawled out 4
of it as a thief. These statements are literally correct and
they are now proved. Documents that ha\e been printed in
Bavaria make it simply more clear that the war was not
something forced upon Germany as often declared by the
kaiser, and as he solemnly protested before his people after he
had invoked the name of his God. What has been repeatedl^|
proved is now proved again. The ultimatum to Serbia was
known in Germany and it was Germany that urged Austria
into sending it. It was so worded, just as has been all the
time contended, that Serbia coulud not possibly’ accept its
terms, and the rejection of any of them w'ould constitute an
excuse for war. It was war that they wanted. It is now also
revealed thatt he peace proclivities of England under Grey
w’ere things to be combatted; the British statesman must not
be permitted to thwart the will to make war on the part of
Germany, and he wras not. The papers of Germany which
have been upholding the kaiser and his gang in perpetrating
these lies, now know better, and they are now able to speak
out wrhat they believe.
“We have been told that Germany had no knowledge of
Austria’s ultimatum to Serbia. It was a lie,’ says the Vor
waerts. “Berlin is said to have admonished Vienna to go
slow’. It was a lie. On the contrary, Berlin incited Vienna.
In the course of his proclamation William II declared in the
midst of peace we are attacked by th eenemy.’ A base, impu
dent, bottomless, shameless lie.”
Yes, even Munich now’ knows and has the proofs that the
great war was deliberately planned and brought upon the
world by the Pottsdam gang, who held a conference for that
purpose on July 6, 1914, at which all the details were com
pleted, and after they7 had been so completed the kaiser, as a
part of the deceit, went to his yacht and laid off shore w ithin
range of call. That was done so he could re-enter Berlin in
pretended consternation over the allegation that his enemies
had attacked him and his fatherland wrhile he w’as resting on
the waters. What a remarkable game it was that they played
and the wonder still grows that they could make, even the
German people fall for it and continue to stand for it, and to
do so until they met with the utter defeat and humiliation
that have overwhelmed them.
And the kaiser in departing took with him all the gold
and the silver securities that belonged to the government, and
he smuggled them out of the country, or his helots did, by
fraud, thus proving himself a common thief in the ending of
the great tragedy. And yet that creature at one time aspired
to control the destinies of the w’orld; and there w*ere persons
in this country so deceived by his pretensions that they be
lieved that he was right and that he had the ability to get
away with his gigantic swindle.
ONE GAIN FROM WAR
It would bo n singularly unfortunate thing for Americans
to get tne idea, as some of them seem to have done, that this
war hgs been merely a period of destruction. Destruction
was one phase of it. There are other phases, valuable, con^
struetive phasps of war activity which have bn no meaiQ
reached their full growth. #
For instance, there is the campaign for the eradication of
commercialized prostitution which has been carried on by the
law enforcement division of the war department commission
on training camp activities. What is it worth to a community -■
to be rid of its “red-light” district? Back of this, what is it '
worth to the country to have hammered home the idea that
red-light districts can he eliminated from the community and
to have proof given, not in isolated instances, but the country
over.
Primarily this work was undertaken at the order of the
secretaries of vv'ar and of the navy in order to keep the fight
ing men of the nation clean and fit to fight. But the com
munities reaped the benefit; first the communities in the
barred zones established by the war and navy departments
around the campsc; later the communities in broader zones
created when the authorities found that it was necessary to
extend the sphere of protection for the men in uniform as far
as they were likely to go when on leave. Some of these
towns considered themselves tolerably clean. At worst, they
were as good as their neighbors. Prostitution was “restrict
ed.” The “district” was carefully regulated. What more
could officials do? That was all that ever had been accomp
lished; it wrould be “idealistic” to endeavor to do more.
Nevertheless, more could be done, and was done, under
the impetus of a constructive phase of war activity. The
tow-ns were cleaned up and they have been kept clean. The
result has been an eye-opener to municipal officials. Regard
less of their experience and their alleged knowledge of local
sntiment, they saw7 the impossible being accomplished7 they
saw their own townspeople, the very people on whom’ they 1
depended for votes, co-operating in the endeavor. What this
means is a veritable revolution in the American way of think
ing regarding commercialized vice. The old order has been
overturned. Human nature has not yet changed, and it would
be idle to expect that there will be no more prostitution even
in the cities thus cleaned up, either during the war or after
But it is not too much to predict that the American point of
view7 regarding it will never goback to the idea of toleration
and an official “regulation” of a restricted district with its
concomitants of systematic vice-recruiting and police graft as
the only possible practical solution of the problem
Years of effort in peace time were unable to bring about
such a change in viewpoint. Once the United States govern
ment said that the soldiers must be kept from the evils of
prostitution and established the agencies to carry out its man
ftnd °ame SUrely’ even if missionary
work had to be done in some cases. What this will mean foV
the future of the nation in more wholesome communities in#
clean homes, in a lessening of venereal diseases, in protect-^
lion for girls in limitation of the economic loss chargeable to
prostitution, the imagination can scarcely grasp "
Surely this gain ought to be entered to war’scredit tn off 4
set losses necessarily incurred. "arscredit, to off- ^