. --WVJFT5! ESV "' '."!"',OTW'"' f - S V- V 10 EVENING PUBLIC LEDGER PHILADELPHIA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1919 3smJ. jy i P". .' -- fi Euening public STcftger ' PUDLIC LEDGER COMPANY , ' . .CTn.u1 " K- cunTig. rinM 1 c0."'" ". Ludlnirton. Vice FrenMrnt: John C. Jlfrtln, Secretary anl Treurn Philip 8. Collliw. John II. WlllUma, John J. 8punon, Director. " EDITOniAI, HOaHI): ' Ciaus II. fi". Craiia. Chlrman DAVID E. BMILK1.. .ndltor JOHN C. MAnTIM.... Pmci-nl nmlnera M-inacer iMbllihed dally nt Trnuo T.nxiEnOtiilldliiir, Indrpenilcnco H.iujre. Philadelphia. A.TI.ANTIO Cliv Prrovrnion IlulMlnc Niw YnK sort M'tronolltnn Toner BrnioiT Till Korrt HulldlnT Nr. Imn lims rmtertnn Iiulldlnt; ciiicioo 1503 Tribune Buiiaine . NEWS DUnCAl'Sl WHaiSOTON niHBu. N. K, Cor. IViinm-lvanla Ave, And J llh 81, .Nrr Yomc Beaut; T.ie Sun Hulldlnic L.OMDON Schcad London Times SUBSCRIPTION" TERMS The EvrxiNf) l'tmtio Lnmra In aerved to sub scribers In Philadelphia and surrounding towns at the rate of twelve (12) cents per week, payable to the carrier. Isy mall to polnt oninlde of Philadelphia. In the united Rtntes. Canada, or United Statea pow tension, potaire free, fifty (."0 cents per month. Six ($01 dollnra pe-r year, pavnblo In advnnre. To all forelffn countries ono ($1) dollar per month. Noticf Subscriber vrlhtng nddrepg Umpired must five old as well nn new address. BELL. 3(100 WALNUT KEYSTONE, M UV 300C V Address all communication to livrnlno 1' l'lo Ledger, Independence Square. Flit'adr'.ph r. I Member of the Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRVSS Is exclu lively entitled to the use for republication of all ncics dispatches credited to U or vot othcrtdse credited in this paper, and also the local vews published therein. All rights of republication of special dis patches herein arc alio reserved. Philadelphia, Mr.)nr.li, llclnlirr I'J, 141V PATIENCE AND THE TARIFF ALBA JOHNSON'S advocacy of a re duced tariff is a bit startling to Philadelphians, who have excellent rea sons for ascribing much of the nation's prosperity to protective imposts. His position, moreover, is open to criticism os premature. 'Both free traders and high-tariff cham pions are at present handicapped in for mulating definite and authoritative poli cies regarding customs duties. World industries and world trade aie in a state of flux. After-the-wnr conditions have not crystallized. The whole problem not only demands attention by political economists and practical factors in industry, but the ex ercise of patience. Time will unravel the tariff issues more convincingly than efforts to interpret relationships which ore not yet stabilized. The debate between protection and free trade", absolute or modified, is end less because the wot Id refuses to stand still. ORDER COMES FIRST TN SUSPENDING Mayor Poorman, of -- Canton, the governor of Ohio acts upon a principle which takes precedence over the merits in any controversy. The preservation of public order is the first function of government. It was not because steel-strike riots were unsuppressed in Canton, but be cause any riots whatever were permitted to imperil the city that its bungling mayor was removed. The principle in yolved is one distinctly appealing to the Station as a whole in its present mood. Disorder must go before anything can lie settled. LOYALTY'S LANGUAGE KEY A KING of Spain, imported from Italy, once lost his throne, it is said, through inability to pronounce the Span ish "z." The incident seems fantastic, whimsical, yet in fact it touches the heart of the nationalization problem. A naturalized American who cannot speak the English language is actually an alien, in spite of his legal papers. Fortunately, Congress is under no illusions concerning a prime factor in turning out helpful and loyal citizens. Its attitude on the subject is clearly ex pressed in the unanimous report to the Senate of the bill stimulating the states to adopt the compulsory teaching of English both to illiterates and to the great numbers of Americans unable to read and write our language. Appropriations for the purpose are to be apportioned among those states which provide at least 200 hours of English per annum in their schools. Five million dol lars is appropriated by the l)ill for the first fiscal year and $12,500,000 annually thereafter. It is needless to expatiate on the vir tues of such an enterprise. The libera tion by the language key of the 8,000,000 persons in the land who are unacquainted with English will be a major security of public spirit and intelligent patriotism. . 'WARE OF POLITICAL CROOKS rpHE warning of Chairman Walton, of -1- the Committee of One Hundred, i gainst subterranean attacks upon the councilmanic ticket nominated at the Re publican primaries is not sounded too soon. There is evidence of deals and dickers to bring about the defeat of some of the independent Republican nominees in order that a majority in the Council hos tile to the new Mayor may be elected. The Charter party is to be used for put ting the deals across. In close districts it may be able to muster votes enough to defeat a Moore candidate and change the majority from one in favor of Moore to one against him. The men engineering the plan are ex pert political tricksters. They have suc ceeded thus far in keeping themselves in the background, though several men arc suspected. Their efforts can be frus trated if the voters in favor of a clean administration in the City Hail go to the polls next Tuesday and cast their ballots as they cast them on the primary day. WE LIKE WHAT WE LIKE HAVING tried opera in German, both with and without riots, New York How judicially bans it until after the peace treaty is signed. . The court decision is based on popular sentiment rather than logjc, and perhaps wisely so. Just why an enemy tongue phould bo interdicted only when it is set to music would puzzle the philosopher, especially that famous one who once 1 declared that what was too silly to be ,(aid could be sung. The public, however, is rightly the determining factor in such fi ea. ,i Americans have no liking for raw fish, v'hfch h tJie'dred wnlefde res Win"" of Polynesia. They arc under no obliga tion to apologize for u provincial palate. It is their own and should as such bo heeded. When wo really want German opera it will bo restored and unseasoned with eggs and catcalls. Meanwhile, it is interesting to noto that German music uncontaminated with Teutonic speech is being freely played throughout the hind. Even in this young mneipfil enncnti PMIndplnblnns llIlVO already applauded Beethoven, Weber nnd Wagner. - A GREAT SPANISH NOVELIST AND THE EFFECT OF WAR ON BOOKS Why "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Survives and Other Novels Are Forgotten In a Season A GROUP of intelligent men were " speculating the other day upon the effect of the war on the reading taste of the public. Various opinions were cx piesscd, but not one of the men volun teered any infoimution about the effect of the wa'- nn his own reading They all were thinking of that distant and imper sonal thing known ns "the general reader." And not one of the men attempted to tell why people read at all. If this can be discovered we shall have an answer to the question which publishers and nuthors have been talking about for the last three or four years. The arrival in Ibis country of Vicente Blaseo Ibanez. the distinguished Spanish author of "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," for a stay of six months or six years, as pleases him best, may sug gest to some one that if it had not been for the war Americans by the hundred thousand would not bo reading the "Fouj Horsemen. no woum De supernciauy right but fundamentally wrong. Blaseo Ibanez's great book is only acci dentally about the war. It is a great romance which happens to be staged with the war as the scenery. To put it in another way, as has been done by n man with a poetic imagina tion, Blaseo Ibanez has taken three human beings nnd used them as mirrors in which are reflected the tremendous tragedies going on about them, and those tragedies arc colored by the nature of the souls on which they react. It might have been staged in the Middle Ages, where Charles Reade put the scene of "The Cloister and the Hearth," and it would still have had the Fame popular appeal. Human nature has not been changed by the fighting which went on for four years. If proof of this bo needed it was afforded by the action of the queen of the Belgians at Bryn Mawr on Monday, when there was shown to her a little baby whose father had been killed in the Argonne. The tender mother heart of the queen was stirred to its depths and she took the child in her arms, caressed it and exclaimed with infinite pity, "You poor dear baby!" Women felt like that over a fatherless child centuries ago, and they will feel the same for centuries to come. The war has not changed human na ture. It has simely put it in operation under new conditions. It may peihaps have brought more of tenderness and sympathy to the surface, but these emo tions were there or they could not have been evoked. If there is a heart in a book people will read it, no matter whether its set ting is war or peace. The most popular painting at the Columbian Fair in Chi cago was "Breaking Home Ties." Sophis ticated artists looked at it with contempt. But the plain people from all over the nation stood in front of it with tears in their eyes simply because it showed to them what had happened in their own experience and what was happening in thousands of homes every day in the year. It was the mother's tragedy made real. No book, whether written in time of war or of peace, will have more than an ephemeral life if it does not lay fast hold of the fundamental emotions. We some times call "Uncle Tom's Cabin" a Civil War book, in spite of the fact that it was written several years before Fort Sumter was nred on. But Mrs. Htowe, up in Brunswick, Me., got hold of a big idea and she developed it in her immortal novel. It was a human problem, with slavery as an incident. If it had been u mere war tract like "Mr. Britling Sees It Through" it would not have survived to the present, nor would it have been trans lated into scores of languages and read by hundreds of thousands to whom slavery was nothing but a word. The war with Spain produced one book, "The Red Badge of Courage," which was popular for a while because it described the experiences of a common soldier more graphically than they had ever been de scribed before. But it is not read now for two reasons. One is that it dealt with a restricted class of men and another is that the kind of war through which Ste phen Crane's hero passed is so different from the kind of war that has just been fought that its setting is all wrong for the present generation of fighting men. But the Spanish War attracted attention to Latin America and was fojlowed by a series of novels about that part of the world, starting with Richard Harding Davis's "Soldiers of Fortune." Of course, this war has produced thou sands of books fiction, verse, history and propaganda; but as soon as the armi stice was signed the demand for most of them ceased instantly. They were liko last week's anewspaners, of no interest save to the antiquarian. Others still sell and will continue to sell. Take, for ex ample, Alan Seeger's verse with his re marks about his rendezvous with death. There is in this bit of poetry the con centration of the spirit of n high adven ture which belongs to no time and to no season. The same quality appears in some of the things that Rupert Brooke wrote. The public just now is buying Booth Tarkington's "Ramsey Milholland" be cause it finds in it an exhibition and exposition of the typical American youth who call think nnd can act, but does not talk about it. The great crisis moved Ramsey's romantic soul, but h,e was in nrtici'Jntc, Yet when he was tho first man to enlist from his college those who knew him were not at all surprised. They were kin with him and they under stood what had been going on beneath the surface of his mind, because it had been going on beneath the surface of their minds as well. The number of people who read books because they are interested in literature as such is infinitesimal wher rom . -"d ' with the number who romi dooks olcuuso wicy urc inieicsiuu in inu, iuc " I coterie of faddists who discuss the rela- tivo merits of icalistic and romantic fiction lives in an eddy of the stream of humanity moving from swaddling clothes to the shroud. What its members say and think is of great importance to them and to nobody else. The general public buys books by Harold Bell Wright and Gene Stratton Porter by the million, while they pass Henry James by on the book stall. The people whn like .lames turn up their noses at WWght and Mrs. Strutton I'orter, and the people who like these two popular novelists would not use one of th" Jnmes books except to throw at the cat. And these novelists are read in spite of the fact that they have not writ- i ten about the war, if not because of that unique riist-nclion. Blaseo Ibanez, who is already rivaling them in popularity, commends himself to tho highbrows more than they. It is merely because he happens to combine wide knowledge and a stvle of great dis tinction with an insiglit into tne numau i heart, that heait which speaks the only J universal language .yet invented. Ho disclosed his secret when he .said on his arrival in New York that he did not intend to write an "American novel," but that he would use America as a set ting for a story, which, put in other words, means that he will not; try to create American characters, but that he will write of common humanity, confident that its appeal will be as broad as hu manity itself. COAL AND WHISKY ALTHOUGH it was plain that Congress found a grim pleasure in passing the prohibition enforcement bill over the President's veto, it has not helped the "dry" cause. It has invited pressure of an extraordinary sort to force an early ratification of the peace treaty and the formal abolition of restraints imposed upon the liquor traffic by the wartime "dry" laws. It was Senator Borah who typified the spirit that prevailed in the House and Senate yesterday. The President, said he, in a characteristic tirade about the prohibition veto, was inconsistent. He complained because in relation to the proposed coal strike the President ap pears to assume that war emergencies still exist, while his veto implied that where prohibition is in question the war s over. There is a wide difference between coal and whisky. Hysterical perversion of an accepted principle of prohibition for the sake of an additional month or two of forced restraint is one thing. The crisis that threatens the industrial life of the ountry is another. The war was over, to far as any need for emergency prohi bition was concerned, when last summer's crops were harvested. War conditions will continue to affect the business inter ests of the country until peace is made between employers and employes and until trade routes are re-oalablished upon a revised basis. Mr. Borah knows all this. The actual prohibition law, as it has been accepted and approved by the State Legislatures, is to be effective in January. It is con ceivable that the President foresaw the complications that might easily arise if money was spent in vast quantities and elaborate machinery established to en force an emergency law after the emer gency has passed. The letter and spirit of the wartime act require that prohibi tion be proclaimed temporarily at an end when the treaty of peace is ratified, and the Senate is in a way to ratify the treaty at an early date. Thut is us it should That's Klght! be. Mr. P.ol; has ex tended tho "drive" for the I'liiladeliiliiu Orclieitra until tho re maining $300,000 K raided. Now, eerjbody spring to bis side nnd that of his busy work ers. For u month they lime toiled inces santly. And now, tired lint bravo, they are going to toil on a week longor. A fresh zest to them ! Hut let the public respond. These toiling men nnd women have put nside every duty nnd vwry pleasure to work for this beautiful orchestra. They have not spared themselves. They and their object now should be rewarded. Tho goal is in sight. It can easily be reached if every one will do his or her part. Let us do it ! And save the finest orchestra in America ! More interest might be tnken iu the proceedings of the committee in Berlin which is investigating responsibility for the wnr if it were not for the present military op erations iu the Baltic. hi Labrador, an Knglish explorer told students at Haverford Colli go, one could buy a fish ns big ns a man for fie cents, and he advised them to go there. Fish, they saj, makes brain, liid he mean V In the presence of thu queen of Bel gium the wife of tho major of Los Angeles Hlapped the face of the Stntc Department representative who told her "to get a hustle on." fho evidently obeyed orders. The Public Service Hallway Co. is pri vately of tho opinion that the board that recommends that they should return to a zone plan should be called an inutility board. As wartime prohibition will come to an end when the Henatc ratified the peace treaty, Senate deliberations, will take on added in terest iu unexpected quartern. Realty men who yesterday examined the land adjoining the Philadelphia and Western Railway arc of the opinion that Phiily'a outaklrts need a few more liome-frills. The enterprise and daring shown by fur thieves all point to the existence of an organised gang. Ho far it has been per mitted to gang Its ain gait. Who shall prescribe when doctors dis agree? A recent case provides the answer: Tho lawyer. The President smoothed John Barley corn's coattalla while tho House kicked. Indian Rummer wan on Indian giver. CONGRESSMAN MOORE'S LETTER Increasing Influence of Clvto Associa tions Gossip About M. W. Har grove, Dr. Maclnall, Magis trate Carson and Others rpIIK casual observer ennnot fall to bo Im pressed by the gradual increase of In fluence of the various civic associations. Originally regarded ns the playthings of those who are not quite content with munic ipal affairs, they have come to bo real forces in most of the groat municipalities. Philadelphia has been conspicuous with re spect to membership in this movement. An drew Wright Crawford is field secretary of tho American Civic Association, the daddy of tlirin nil, which hns headquarters in Washington. Connected with this national organization ns ico president are Mrs. Kilwnrd W. Riddle nnd Clinton Rogers Woodruff, both of Philadelphia. The presi dent of the iissoclntlon Is J. Horace MeFur land, of Pittsburgh. The association does not eonline its membership exclusively to the United States, since it numbers among its board of officers J. Lockio Wilson, of To ronto, Canada. Tho independent organiza tions, many of which arc now conspicuous in civics and economics, are building up a group of leaders, both men nnd women, who will ultimately linve to bo reckoned with in politics, Tho lange of notiity for these public-spirited bodies extends from tene ment house inspection and child hygiene to the stud of line nrts, and, by the way, the Widoner nrt collection Js soon to bo in spected by these civics connoisseurs. t - f rpilE Philadelphia housing people nnd the Chamber of Commerce nre getting to gether for prnctlcnl work.. The object of the Housing Association is to improve hous ing nnd to secure better city planning, and it has aroused the interest of Bishop Gar lnnd. Dr. Joseph Krnuskopf, Malcolm Lloyd, Jr., Samuel S. Fcls, David Kirsch bnum and other active spirits in voluntary public nffnirs. President Trigg, of the Chamber of Commerce, has been fairly busy lately with the industrial conference in Washington, but his interest in proper housing is well known nnd tho practical nssisinnco of the chamber doubtless will result iu much good. lyr WARNER HARGROVE, who owns " up to being a "Jersey Pinoy," makes an annual cruise up or down the coast about the time waterways conventions arc due, just to get u little relief from business and society. Hargrove also seeks this annual seclusion from the cares of office. In nor mal times he runs a general store, operates a telephone company, conducts a garage, is liiiinicipal tlork, recording magistrate, spe cial officer, member of the board of edu cation, notary public, commissioner of deeds, woe president and director of the local building and loan association, president of the athletic association, secretary of a cran berry company, secretary nnd manager of a poultry farm, and. in addition, operates a sand mine and coal nnd ice company, and is tho Camp Dix ngent for an automobile concern. His social duties include uplift conversations with Congressman William J. Browning, Dr. Robert N. Keely, John Huneker, Upton II. White, F. Zerban Brown, Dr. Charles Penrose, David J. Smyth, Judge Mcllors and other casual vis itors to the Pines. Apart from all that, Har grove is a lineal descendant of the Brown and Scattergood families, who quit England during the period of religious oppression and came over to Burlington, New Jersey, in the Willing Wind, iu 154S. UNDER Harry T. Jordan's management the Rotary Club of Philadelphia con tinues its civic activities. The latest is a "Cross at Crossings" campaign under the general direction of E. J. Ucrlet. It is con tended that there were more tbnn 2100 acci dents nway from street crossings last year and that if Phlladclphians, particularly children, could bo persuaded to cross the streets nt the crossings, the total number of accidents would be greatly reduced. So many millions of people go back nnd forth from one side of the street to the other without regard to trolley enrs or automo biles that the Rotary Club admonition can not be heeded too speedily. CONGRESSMAN EDMONDS does not like the idea advanced by the interstate nnd foreign commerce committee of putting port-to-port shipping business under regula tion by the Interstate Commerce Commis sion. "In my opinion," says the congress man, "the placing of this business under regulation in connection with the commis sion controlling the railroads will be ruinous to the coastwise business." The congress man thinks this business should remain in the hands of the shipping board with super visionary powers. ATLANTIC CITY continues to develops n popular convention resort. It has all sorts, from labor conventions to the assem blages of foreign delegates to discuss inter national trade. Ono of the interesting con ventions soon to tnko place is that of the Nutioual Coffee Roasters' Association, and William C. Scull, of Camden, nnd others are on the jump with respect to it. The coffee ronsters, who are about eight hundred in number, will have a great deal to talk about because, like the sugar men, they are now very much iu the public eye. They have the inevitable banquet and rumor has it that the Coffee Roasters' banquet is "some" banquet, especially when it comes to speech making. D .It. EDWARD MaoINALL, who is eon- ' ..JaiI with the Dennrlmeiif nf T.iitit (a a (ICHVi. ... - -, , .r. u bookworm and writer of ability, all of which is very congenial to the better half of the family. The doctor, who was formerly of c ni.tnii'Ti. resides in the Wim-fatntl. ward, where Mrs. Maclnall is secretnry of the school board, a position she has held for six years. In addition to her secre tarial work, Sirs. Maclnall has been en gaged in emergency aid and draft work and the work of the Salvation Army. MAGISTRATE ROBERT CARSON makes a good speech, and there is a rea son. Mrs. Carson is literary nnd n, good critic. Politics, civics and economies are. therefore easUy within the judge'srnnge of oratory. A book on city management is likely to have attention in the Carson home. "City Managers" are not generally known in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia. That's one reason why the changes pro vided for in the new city charter are not yet fully understood. A tour of the coastal cities, or of cities out West, however, will bring a great deal of information concern ing mayors, "managers" nnd commissioners of municipal government. It is not infre quent that trained men who have had no intimate knowledge of tho particular com munities to -which they are called are ap pointed "managers or city managers." Durell Shuster, in checking up attendance upon nn approaching convention down South, has discovered one manager" who tinder stands his business so well as to say "I have directed .tho mayor to forward to you a Hst o( delegate." etc. So it Is evident some "manager, 4. ,1BT Hority which woiiiii (WKin fimiiB ' " immiei 7-- , GERMAN RENT PROFITEERS Thousands of Families Absolutely Homeless in Berlin Be cause Unable to Pay Exorbitant Prices for Houses and Flats lty R. F. KOSPOTH Special Correspondent i tlie Uvenlnsr Public Leaner !n Switzerland CopvrtoM, 1919, bu rublio Ledger Co. pASE materialism and profiteering is --' at the root of the housing crisis that has become acute in all German towns, and particularly in Berlin, where it bids fair to lead to a catastrophe during the coming winter months. Thousands of fnmilics nre absolutely homelcsR nnd forced to sleep on benches in the public parks. These home less wanderers are by no means the usual outcasts of all great cities, but thoroughly respectable people of moderate means who nre unable to pay the exorbitant rents that arc nskod for even n modest flat. It is estimated that of the "1,000,000 inhabitants of Berlin more than 1,000,000 nro today living five in n single room. And yet there nre thousands of unoccupied apartments and rooms in the capital which their proprietors refuse to let except at usurious rates. Tho government could remedy this calamity ap preciably by turning some of the m numerable military barracks, which "dis armed" Germany no longer needs, into cheap apartment houses. Hut Ilcrr Noske has turned a deaf ear to all such suggestions and roundly declares that he wants all tho kaiser's barracks to house his new army an argument that contrasts strangely with his assurance that Germany's military strength is being steadily reduced in ac cordance with the peace terms. The only measure taken by the German "Socialist Government, to overcome the housing crisis has been to open the dark cells of the Hausvogtci Prison the oldest nnd filthiest prison in Berlin, where unfortunate politicul offenders and "enemy subjects" were con fined during the war to a small number of homeless fnmilics. A home in a prison cell for those who cannot or will not suffer the exploitation of the profiteer truly, this is German socialism that inspires western Socialists with so much envy mid admira tion ! THIS year's crops have been excellent throughout Germany, and there will, in any case, be plenty of bread to feed the people as government control of flour has not been abolished. But the juukcrs and farmers who grow the wheat-arc not exempt from the unpatriotic rapacity that char; acterizes all classes of Germans in their mis fortune. Owners of large estates situated on the western borders of the empire are making millions by secret y selling and ex porting grain to neighboring countries that until recently were at war with Germany. This profitable business has assumed such alarming proportions that the authorities have been compelled to promulgate a new law substituting imprisonment for fines iu all cases of illegal exportation of foodstuffs. nd these are the country gentlemen of .Germany, mostly belonging to the nobility, the ostensible sole true warder, of patrio ism and religion! Their patriotic nnd religious feelings have not prevented the prussinn innWra from threatening to cease to supply necty of Berlin with mill: from their estates if the municipality does not ngieo to nay higher prices, and they are quite capable Sf carrying out their menace, utterly regard ?., I the fact that it spells disease and death to hundredrot thousands of poor, In nocent children. "OROFITEERING is rife in all countries X nt tho present time. In Europe nnd America corrupt practices have crept Into buXss life during the war, and the ruth less exploitation of tho consumer has every where become a grave social and political danger. But it is in Germany that this corruption has attained its most virulent de velopment, and from Germany the deadly Wa disease is" spreading over Europe as Healthily and surely as the influenza germs ttot devastated the world with ho new morta virulence they had acquired in the putrid atmosphere of the German prisoners-camps- . mllB German Socialist government is do- 1 in nothing to fight the plague of ." i ii.. tkvuiun to destroy flor. many and involve all Buropfl in. her moral '.tle-pr, 'iVwifb !'. (M greed, of "STOP, LOOK, LISTEN!'- tcsr Z'iP"' tho German profiteer, the raising of the blockade by the Allies, a just and humane measure that was welcomed by all fair minded men, hns so far failed to relievo the distress of the Gcrmnn people and served only to facilitate and to propagate profiteer ing in nil other countries. In little Switzer land, for example, great stocks of merchan dise had been accumulated and withheld from commerce before the collapse of the central empires by speculators, who calculated that the war would last several years longer nnd prices rise accordingly. The sudden dis aster to Ludendorff's- armies nnd the con elusion of the nrmisticc brought these profiteers face to face with deserved bank' ruptcy and ruin. They held a meeting in Berne and discussed their plight quite openly. The discussion revealed the existence of hidden stocks of soap in Switzerland suffi cient to supply the country's needs for the next ten jenrs! Fifty millions frnncs' worth of shoes and stocks of clothing beyond com putation were admitted by tho profiteers to be in their possession. One modest little tailor in eastern Switzerland had laid in a stock of 100,000 ready-made suits of clothes. It was evident that if all this merchandise had to be cast upon the Swiss market now that the war was over prices would slump nnd the speculators be almost ruined. Their only chance of salvation, all the members of the assembly agreed, lav in exporting their stocks to Germany and thus preventing a glut on the Swiss market. And this they have succeeded in doing, nnd prices in Switzerland have in consequence remained as high as ever. This is a typical instance of a profiteering trick that must have been enacted many times nnd in many countries when the sudden ending of the wnr threat ened to upset the plans of grasping specu lators, and the raising of the blockade saved them nt the Inst moment from a fate they richly deserved. IN ITS effects upon the masses, the present high cost of living is the most violent of revolutionary stimulants, and Lenine's faith in the value of the profiteer ns n Bolshevik propagandist is thoroughly justified. This probably explains the extraordinary paradox that the strike tactics nt present ndopted by the' European labor leaders benefit the profiteering class far more than the working classes, whose interests they arc supposed to protect. nigher wages obtained by strikes furnish the profiteer with the most plausible excuse for damnnding higher prices ; nnd if prices diminish Socialist agitators nre deprived of their most effective propa ganda (for ' promoting proletarian unrest. Thus the profiteer and the labor agitator nre in renlity working hand in linnd, though for different ends. For the nim of the modern disciple of Mnrx in continually contributing to increase the cost of living by incessnnt strikes is, I am absolutely certain, to pre cipitate a vast economic catastrophe through out the entire world nnd to seize the dlctntor shlp in the hour of chaos. Ciemenceau says the time has come when he must tnko repose. Tho Tiger has defi nitely decided on a change of spots. J., Hampton Moore is going to have harmony in the party If he has to go after it with a club. With the new rnle Britons have put into effect, it will have to be called tho House of Lords and Ladles. The captains nnd the kings depart, but local politicians insist that oljl General Apathy is still on the job. If the Supreme Court approves the mu nicipal loan there will be .$3,250,000 for water. This will be joyful tidings for wagon riders January 1. The police trial board's most serious trial seems to be its Inability to subpoena witnesses, President Wilson is' ifioiifh. Dflt.yet ftltflnu up taking notice, -ft v The Basket of Memories THIS is the niarket of live and learn, Hero is the stall where li.y sell the spring. And here is the stand where tho memories burn, And what will you have? There is every thing! Sell me, oh, sell me, dear merchant of joy, Memories of childhood in far-away lands, And dear little visions of old playmate faces, Comrades of youth holding bands In our hands! This is the market of never again, Bouquets nnd branches of beautiful joys, So fill up your basket, ye women and men. With memories of days of the girls and the boys! Sell me, oh, sell me, dear keeper of Btalls, A lane in the country, a rose by the gate, The sweet honeysuckle all over the walls, And the rose by the path in its regal estate ! Home, with the basket aswing on your arm, Brimmed with tho dreams of the days that have been, And roads running sweet by the village and fnrm, And down through the valleys and mead ows of green! Fill high the basket, the stalls am so fine In life's dreamy market, and prices are low For all that they ask is a smile, with its wine, And away with your basket piled high you may go! Folger McKinuey, in the Baltimore Son. Two New. York men have been sen tenced to between fourjears' and eight years' imprisonment for "criminal anarchy." One, at least, of the sentences is tautological. - i Syndicalists in Paris nre planning i general strike. Hnppily, time has given i proof of the fact that the best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft ngley. , Gasoline lamps arc going to cost the city. $21,200 more next year than this. Old II. C. comes heavy on the light. Advico to voters to stop pussyfooting ought to give the apathetic pause. What Do You Know? QUIZ 1. With what slogan did the French re pel the Germans at Verdun?. 2. Whp killed Alexander Hamilton? 3. What is indigo? 4. How many Republicans voted against tho Johnson amendment to the peace treaty? t C. What was the original Polish form of Chopin's name? 0. What was a tetrarch? 7. In what war was the battle of Plasaey fought and what wcra its results? 8. What is the frnlt of tho hawthorn called? 0. Who is acting president of Bryn Mawr college? 10. How should tho "c" in the name of the Belgian national air, "La, Uraban conne," be pronounced? Answers to Yesterday's Quiz 1. Tho seven chief virtues are faith, hope, charity, prudence, fortitude, chastity aud temperance. 2. A seascape is a picturesque view of the ocean or a picture presenting- a marine view. 3. Kijuro SMdehara 1$ the new Japanese ambassador to the United States. 4. Senator Polndexter, -of Washington, hsi just announced bis candidacy for the presidency. 5. He belongs to the Republioan party, 0. Winslow Homer was a noted American painter of marine subjects. 7. Belgium's national debt was $140,000,- 000 in 1014, On the suggestion of Herbert Hoover, her war debt was canceled to the Allies, 8. A Biznris a student at Cambridge, Eng land, or Trinity College, Dublin, pay ing reduced fees and formerly charged with certain mental offices. 0. Karl Scltz, is president of Auutrlt. i J.Q,, TJip flcrman pence, treaty is dWIdtd ito t r-V "Vk' ? .. f'" . s, " "l WHy'?; r U r 7 .4". " . ,7 ?. rfei...-!UttMG& J . i , . .f . . .. u - &.''.",' . 5 .i,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers