The Elk Mountain pilot. [volume], January 19, 1922, Image 2

About The Elk Mountain pilot. [volume] (Irwin, (Ruby Camp), Gunnison County, Colo.) 1880-19??

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The Elk Mountain Pilot
1
C. T. RAWALT, Publisher
MATTIE L. MILLER, Local Editor
Entered as Second Class Matter at the Postoffice at
Crested Butte, Colorado.
Advertising rate cards furnished on application
Subscription $2.00 per Year
SUNDAY NIGHT MUSINGS
By C. T. RAWALT
DR. WILBER CRAFTS is much alarmed at what he
terms a wave of Turk immorality that is sweeping this
country. The eminent gentleman is unduly agitated.
The Turks cannot show us any new wrinkles on immor
ality, judging from what we read in the papers day by
day. When Colorado University students and Denver
High School/ boys and girls indulge in bacchnalian orgies
differing only from Fatty Arbuckle’s in that so far no
girls have had their bladders busted, we can look with
complacency on any stunts the few Turks in this country
can introduce. The Turk is now at home in the United
States. He is the original prohibitionist.
•W*
UNDER the heading “Waifs of an Empire” Kenneth
L. Roberts, in the Saturday Evening Post, speaks in a
pitiable strain on the sufferings and wrongs dealt out to
ther official class of the old reigning powers of Russia.
He grieves like a mother bending over the sick bed of
her child as he describes princes and princesses who once
wallowed in the lap of luxury, now compelled to actually
work for the food and ramient that sustains their lives.
Aside from the sober contemplation of the acknowledged
fact even in his own exclusive circles that Labor Is En
nobling and that work is a necessity and respectable, the
reader is lead to wonder if the author was ever given a
glimpse into history of other nations that passed through
the travail of revolution. Has his education been abso
lutely limited to the view point of the sacred capitalis
tic and aristocratic class? Has he ever exercised his fat
head trying to determine why we have revolutions? Has
he ever contemplated cause and effect? Of course he has
and his article now before us is the rank rot of a profes
sional propagandist. For decades Russia under the iron
hand of a Czar committed a million crimes against their
unfortunate subjects. The same force crowded the poor
and unfortunate into the world war, similarly to the way
we were crowded in. They revolted. They dethroned
their rulers and they butchered them as is always done in
cases of that sort of uprising. When the French people
rebelled against corrupt rulers they were very cruel and
deadly. Madame La Farge knitted into her death list the
names of many true friends of the people of France
merely because they had the taint of royal blood Doubt
less hosts of high minded Russians were slaughtered be
cause of their affiliation with the rulers of the Czar’s
time. The same identical condition will obtain here if
crystallized greed crowds the people too far. Possesssion
of immense w’ealth will be as sure a passport to sudden
death as was royal blood in France and official contam
ination in Russia We waste little time considering the
awful situation of the once Russian ruling class. We
have not been able to enthuse a whole lot over the relief
measures so insistently brought to attention for the Rus
sians and other perishing peoples. It seems to be the
plan of creation that at intervals a vast number of people
should be destroyed The innocent die along side the
wicked. The strong are perpetuated and the weak are
extinguished It is possibly; best. Sure it is that prob
ably half of the Europeans will die or at least be better
off if they did There is not room enough for all they
have raised and the war has decreased their opportunity
for existence. In our opinion it is time we steeled our
minds against considering foreign suffering and gave en
tire attention to domestic want. We have more interest
in whether revolution shall be forced on this country than
we have*on whether a Russian Princess or two is reduced
to washing dishes for her grub.
THE Montrose Enterprise prints a story about receiv
ing the Henry Ford articles which we are reprinting this
issue. They also cite the rather exciting news that in the
same mail they received “A letter from other quarters
warning them in strenuous language against printing any
of Ford’s propaganda for a change in our money system.”
Why did the Enterprise conceal the name of the party* or
organization issuing the order not to print? Is your pa
per yellow enough to take that sort of an order? If so
possibly you are on Big Business’ yellow list, viz: one that
can be ordered to do and not to to things with the assur
ance that the orders will be obeyed. Evidently this par
ticular order irked you to an extent that you have spilled
the beans and your boss will be just as sore over what you
did say as he, they, dr it would be if you had have dis
played the guts to expose the whole infamy. We will send
you a checik for $5.00 if you will mail us that letter. If
you accept please register.
•x*
FRANCE is apparently riding for a bad fall. She is
antagonizing all her allies and creating such conditions
that any moment may see her fighting Germany again
and this time fighting alone. She has made the U. S. sick
with her opposition to the Amcricnn plan of disarmament,
she has quarreled with Italy and now broken with Lloyd
George and ditches the allied council, announcing that she
will' settle with Germany in her own way. This can only
mean invasions and annexations. The Germans are not
yet entirely within the power of any single nation and if
France provokes fresh wArfare she will not have allies to
save her hide from the Hun. In a fight where the bal
ance of the world stands by and looks on France will be
overwhelmed and conquered.
OUR friend Charley Adams in his Montrose Press,
speaking of An ordinance that prohibits moving pictures
on Sunday in that city, and which by its terms would stop
the churches from exhibiting pictures same as the show
houses, loudly opposes that portion that would prohibit
the churches from giving their show* Charley always
did think that a formula of sanctification would gloss over
most any vice. We presume that if Fatty Arbuckle had
opened his booze party with prayer, Charley would have
found it cleansed of all stain.
THIS paper is in receipt of a specially marked copy
of Silver and Gold, official publication of the students of
the Boulder University. The edition is devoted largely to
a defense of the college from the publication of the sto
ries of drunkenness and dissipation among the students.
They make no pretense of denying that the bad things oc
curred, but they do assume what is not true, that the
public was lead to think ill of nil the students by reason
of printing the wrong doing of a few. Everyone of brains
knows that in an institution of the size of the Univer
sity there will be both boys and girls of bad morals. To
eradicate those and eliminate evil practices is what the
faculty is for as much as to give instruction in book learn
ing. It was natural for the paper to do just what it has:
Defend the institution, but we feel as if the institution
needed no defense, unless they have a sort of guilty con
science over neglected duty to an extent that made this
scandal possible. The first duty of a faculty is to get rid
of the sort of boys and girls who consider drunken de
baucheries mere incidents in their young lives. For
verily a “little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Taken
as a the whole matter stands everyone knows that 99% of
the students are decent boys and girls, striving to gain
useful knowledge. They need no defense from either the
Empire or their official organ, Silver and Gold.
•X*
WE have received a communication from the ferti
lizer trust complaining bitterly over Mr. Ford’s offer for
Muscles Shoals. TJie trust is sad because Mr. Ford is to
get so much from the governmerit. They have not overbid
him and someway we believe Mr. Ford is bidding about
the right price to beat them alh. It is truly amusing to
see the panic in which Mr. Ford throws big business every
time he offers a suggestion for human betterment. We
read the other day that Mr. Ford had a $121,000,000 bank
balance. We wish it were as many billions. Ford’s money
does not menace the world or the happiness of the people.
The money controlled by his opposition does menace both
the people and our institutions.
WHAT THEY READ
THE editor of a weekly paper sent out a questionnaire
not long ago to his readers to find out what part of the
paper they liked best. He learned
those who answered always read the personals, the edito
rials, the correspondence and the front-page articles, 94
per cent of them read the farm articles, 47 per cent the
continued story and 90 per cent the advertisements.
We expect that this is about the per cent in the case
of most papers, although we have an idea that women
readers generally are more interested in the continued
story than in the editorial page. But what should be the
most interesting fact is the large percent who read the
advertisements.
It is mighty hard to convince the average merchant
that people read ads, yet he is quite certain they spend
a lot of time reading Sears, Roebuck catalogs. All he has
to do to get the public’s attention is to tell 1 them some
thing as interesting in his ads as the mail order house
does in its catalogs.—Organized Farmer, Lake Park, Minn.
FORD INTERVIEW ON MUSCLES SHOALS
(Continued from First Page)
tablish gold by law 'as the basis of currency they could
then control the capital of the world by combining to
control the world’s gold.”
“But what have you to substitute?” I asked.
“That is where Muscle Shoals comes in,” said Mr.
Ford. “Army engineers say it will take $30,000,000 to
complete the big dam. But Congress is economical just
now and not in a mood to raise the money by taxation.
The customary alternative is 30-year bonds at 4 per cent.
The United States, the greatest government in the world,
wishing a pesky $30,000,000 to complete a great public
benefit, is forced to go to the money sellers.
“At the end of 30 years the Government not only has
to pay back the $30,000,000, but it has to pay 120 per cent
interest, literally has to pay $66,000,000 for the use of
$30,000,000 for 30 years. And all the time it is the Gov
ernment’s own money. The money sellers never created
it; they got it from the Government originally. The Gov
ernment first gave credit, rind then must pay for the use
of what it gave.
“Think of it, could anything be more childish, more
unbusinesslike? Now, I see away by which our Govern
ment can get this great work completed without paying
a nickle to the money sellers. It’s as sound as granite
and there’s just one thing hard abotu it; it’s so simple
and easy that, maybe, some folks can’t see it.
“The Government needs $30,000,000. That’s 1,500,000
S2O bills. Let the Government issue those bills and with
them pay every expense connected with completion of the
dam. The dam completed, we can set the whole works
running, and within a shorter time than you would sup
pose, the entire $30,000,000 currency issued can be retired
put of the earnings of the plant.”
“But,” I asked, “suppose the contractor would be un
willing to accept that kind of currency in payment?”
“There’s not that kind of a suppose in the situation
at all,” said Mr. Ford, smiling. “He would take Govern
ment bonds in payment, wouldn’t he? Certainly.
“Here,” said the manufacturer, pulling a S2O bill
from his pocket, “he wouldn’t hesitate about taking that
kind of money would he? Of course not. Well, what is
there behind a bond, or this bill, that make them accept
able? Simply the good faith and credit of the American
people. And S2O bills issued by the Government to com
plete this great public improvement would have just as
much of the good faith and credit of the American
people behind them as any bond or other American cur
rency ever issued. You see, it’s just a question of faith
in the American people.” -
“But your plan would upset the money system of the
world and might work incalculable harm.”
“Not necessarily; not at all. We need not abolish
anything. We need not even abolish the gold standard.
Simply forget that there is any such thing as a gold
standard, and whenever the Government needs money for
a great, serviceable and profitable public improvement,
instead of thinking of bonds with their heavy drag of in
terest charges, think of redeemable non-interest bearing
currency.
“Do you realize how the interest charges of our Gov
ernment mount up? Do you appreciate that 80 cents of
every dollar raised by taxation is spent in payment of in
terest? The national debt is nothing more nor less than
the nation’s interest pile. Every public improve
ment this country makes means an increase to the na
tional debt. Here’s away to get the improvements with
out increasing the debt. The interest load is breaking
down our whole financial system; we’ve got to stop some
where.”
“But, in a sense, there would be no security behind
this kind of money,” it was suggested.
“There would be the best security in the world. Here
you have a river capable of furnishing 1,000,000-horse
power. It has been hero for, say 100.000,000 years. It will
be here ns long as there are rnin and mountains to send
the rain into the rivers. This energy is wealth in a most
productive form. Now, which is the more imperishable,
the more secure, this power site and its development, or
the few barrels of gold necessary to make $30,000,000?
This site, with its power possibilities, will be here long
after the Treasury building is an ancient ruin.”
“But have you worked out a stnndard of values?” Mr.
Ford yas asked.
“Yes, we have. We will have that ready when Con
gress wishes to hear about this plan. It’s simply a case
of thinking and calculating in terms different from those
laid down to us by the international banking group, to
which we have grown so accustomed that we think there
is no other desirable standard.
Taste is a matter of •
tobacco quality .
We state it as our honest
belief that the tobaccos used J //
in Chesterfield are of finer
Chesterfield
CIGARETTE S
of Turkish and Domestic tobaccos —blended
Lower Prices 11
20 now 18c
10 now 9c f 'tlejj
(Two 30'a —18c) | ,
“We should change our minds on that question. The
only difference between this currency plan and the bond
plan is that there’s no interest to be paid and the money
merchants, who do nothing to build the dam and deserve
nothing, will get nothing.”
“But how is all this going to stop war?”
“Simply because if tried here at Muscle Shoals, this
plan will prove so overwhelmingly and amazingly success
ful that the American people will never again consent to
issuance of an interest bearing bond for an internal im
provement. When the Government needs money it will
raise it by issuing currency against its imperishable nat
ural wealth. Other countries, seeing our success, will do
likewise. The function of the money seller will have dis
appeared.”
“What would be the attitude of other countries about
accepting this money based on Muscle Shoals?”
“There need be no difficulty about that. Some of our
currency even today 'is not acceptable to foreign countries
in payment of debts. Gold is the international basis.
Muscle Shoals is a national, not an international matter.
This money would only be for use at home.”
“Do you expect Congress will act favorably on your
suggestion?”
“Well, I don’t know as to that. Maybe they won’t.
¥ OOK over
¥— *your supply
of stationery
0
—see if you are not
short of letterheads,
statements, or envel
opes. Order them a
few days before you
are entirely out—we
will get them to you.
And It Will Be A First Class Job
■ Give us a chance on
your next order.
i
Write, Call or Phone
We Always Give Satisfaction and
'“’Prices Are Always Better Here"
But I’ll bet the average American citizen will see the
righteousness, the soundness and the common sense, of
this thing.
“No matter what becomes of this suggestion, I shall
act so that no money speculator will make anything out
of Muscle Shoals, even if I have to take up the whole bond
issue myself. I will see that the interest goes toward
lowering the cost of the product. Understand that I am
suggesting how this project can be financed in a better
way; but if this is not done, we stand ready to do our
utmost to save the people from the enormous interest
charges by taking it ourselves and turning it back into
the plant.
“My ambition is not to own Muscle Shoals, but to
complete it, develop it, get it working, and then fix it so
that it can never be exploited for private ends but shall
always remain in the service of all the people, their own
property, operated for their own benefit.”
Editor’s Note—Readers should preserve this paper for
reference, as next week we will print Thomas Edisonfs
comments on this Ford idea. The Ford article printed
this week and the Edison article that will appear next
week are the ones the Montrose Enterprise claims it was
warned not to print. Read them both and you may be
able,to guess at the influences that wish them surpressed.