Oklahoma Leader (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 23, Ed. 1 Saturday, September 10, 1921 Page: 8 of 8
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Editorial
Oklahoma Leader
Features
OKLAHOMA LEADER
Successor to The Oklahoma Leader (weekly).
Published every day except Sunday by The Oklahoma leader (.0.
..Business Manager
$6.00
$3.50
$2.00
$ .15
THE LEANING TOWER
Win. Macl-aren Managing Kdltor
Oscar Ameringer j Associate Kditors
Dan Hogan \
John Hagel
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
By Mail:
One Year
Six Months
Three Months
Delivered by Newsboys:
One Week
17 West Third Street, Oklahoma City. Okla.
P. O. Box 777. Telephone Maple 7600.
Entered as second class mall matter June 1, 1918, at the Post Office
at Oklahoma City. Oklahoma, under the Act of March 3, 18«J.
THEY WATCHED BUT 1)11) NOT MARCH
Industrious and willing workers built for themselves a
home, a home where some of the comforts of life could be
enjoyed, and having completed it, they issued invitations to all
other industrious and willing workers in the world to come
in and live with them, enjoying as the builders enjoyed, the
comfort and security of that home.
They came—all the workers—and they sat in its high
ceilinged rooms, they walked on its carpeted floor, they re-
clined in its cushioned chairs, romped on its spacious lawns,
partaking freely of all the comforts their hosts had provided ,
but when the lawns neede'd mowing, the windows required
new curtains, when the floors should have had carpets and
the house new paint, the guests, although enjoying all thu
delights the premises afforded, refused to help with the work,
and yet persisted in inhabiting the home.
On Labor Day, the workers, the organized mechanics and
iaborers and farmers, march in a great parade in celebration
of the common ownership of the great House of Refuge they
have builded out of their savings, their experiences, their suf-
ferings and sacrifices, and the non-union workers—they who
have refused to build, or to sacrifice, or to contribute to the
permanence and power of this great House of Refuge, stand
on the street and watch the parade go by. Even their bosses,
those who have duped them into this gross ingratitude and
base treachery against their benefactors, recognized Labor
Day—created by organized labor—and in honor of it closed
their doors. The non-union workers stand on the street and
watch the men and women march by who have lifted Labor
out of the mire, who have raised wages, improved conditions
and gained for the whole working class all that has ever been
gained.
It is hard to imagine the feelings or the thoughts of the
non-union men and women of Oklahoma City Monday when
they witnessed the demonstration their own benefactors made
in behalf of the whoie human race, themselves included.
They, who stood on the sidewalk, enjoying a holiday the
marchers had created—and went to work on the morrow
under conditions and for wages which never would have ex-
isted except for the sacrifices and suffering the marchers had
endured—if they think at all, what must they think of them-
selves?
Put not only do they reap where others have sown, not
only do they partake of privileges and enjoyments they have
refused to help create, but by their conduct they are endeav-
oring to destroy that House of Refuge—the union—which has
contributed so much to human progress and human happiness.
There are troop movements in West Virginia—but up
to the present time an anxious scanning of the news fails to
reveal- that federal troops have been sent to Pennsylvania to
subdue the Pennsylvania Railroad which is defying the gov-
ernment's Railway Labor Board.
-r
PROFITS
ioi^
MIRTH.
Mirth Ir God's medicine. Every- I
body ought to bathe in it. Grim care, !
moroseness, anxiety—all this rust of
life, ought to be Bcoured off by the
oil of mirth. It is better than
energy. Every man ought to rub
himself with it. A man without
mirth is like a wagon without
springs, in which one is caused dis-
agreeably to jolt by every pebble
over which it runs.—Beecher.
More Truth Than Poetry
By James J. Montague
(Copyright, 1921, The Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
LAST LKUS.
Private ownership of transporta-
tion is on its last legs. Railroad of-
ficials admit it. They have frankly
informed members of congress that
unless a solution of their 'multiply-
ing difficulties is discovered without
delay" many of the carriers will "lose
their grip" and go under.—Union
Advocate.
REPUBLICAN SOPHISTRY
In the old days when we Americans were buying more
goods from foreign countries than we were selling to them,
our republican economists, with their fearfully and wonder-
fully constructed brains, told us that it was a very bad state
of affairs.
We would never be happy—to hear them tell it—until
we had a "favorable balance of trade"—until the world owed
us money, instead of our owing the world money.
| | According to that theory, we should be happy now.
For, the whole world now owes us money. The greatest
of trading nations owe us money. They owe us big heaps of
money. England owes us $4,166,318,358. France owes us
S2,950,762,938. Italy owes us $1,648,034,050. Belgium owes
us $347,691,566. These are merely the amounts owed to our
government. How much the various countries and their citi-
zens owe to American citizens is a matter of conjecture—but
it is a-plenty.
The four countries above mentioned cannot even pay the
interest, let alone the principal.
Sometimes the suggestion is made that they pay in goods.
But, horrors, that would cut off the home market for goods
manufactured in our own country.
International balances are usually paid in gold. But there
is not enough currency gold in the world to pay America.
There is only about $9,000,000,000 of gold used for money—
and the United States already has about a third of it. We
have what some financiers call a "dangerous over supply" of
gold already. Clearly, payment in gold is an ignis fatuus, too.
And then, we are up a stump when it comes to selling
more goods to foreign countries—because they are unable to
pay for them.
Thus it appears that the republican economists were just
plain loony when they said it would be a fine thing to have
the world owe us money.
It certainly is loony so long as their system obtains, at
least. For there is no Wiy to have even comparative pros-
perity under capitalism except by shipping away as many of
our products as possible—because capitalism is run for the
profit of capitalists, and they take the goods away from the
workers.
Under a collective system, however, the condition would
present no difficulty—for we, the American people, would then
have a chance to consume the products ourselves.
t
t
TK 1.1. Til KM AHOt T IT.jfljS
Hotel men at their Chicago ▼on-
vention say the hotels are goirfg back
to the American plan. If they will
also include the American language
on the menu, the average diner won't
be ordering three kinds of potatoes
in the hope that one of them will be
meat. Detroit News.
SHK'S SUFFERING.
A Detroit mother with one child
stated in court that she is not able
to get along on $21,000 a year. How
much happier we all could be were it
not being compelled to read at times
of the suffering of others. Detroit
News.
(iOOI) HRITKKS OF OPINION.
\ The oily good writers of opinion
are those who instinctively repro-
duce the atmosphere of discussion,
whose sentences have the tone of
discussion, with themselves or with
an imagined group. — Randolph
Bourne.
41 ST OVERLOOKED.
Thirty-nine new minor planets
were discovered last year. That is,
they are new to us, though it is
probable that ttyey have been there
for some time now.—Cleveland Plain
Dealer.
READING OF GOOD BOOKS.
A book we may read over and over
until we remember it; and, if we for-
get it, may peruse it at our pleasure,
or at our leisure. So that good books
are a very great mercy to the world.
Richard Baxter.
I VMM. I III JOY 01 I <>| I II I .
Coal dealers again annouuee that
the price *♦!.'' remain high. Why
take the joy out of life by calling at-
tention to a disagreeable fact that
everybody recognizes?—Boston Tran-
script.
REASON.
Reason, like the sun, is com titan to
all; and it is for want of examining
all by the same light and measure,
that we are not all of the same mind;
for all have. It to that end, though
all do not use It so.—William Penn.
AN ALARMING SYMPTOM
We read a book the other day,
Which said that when a man is lazy
And likes to loaf the hours away, «
The chances are that he is crazy.
The hobo, so the writer said,
In this disturbing dissertation,
Has something wrong inside his head.
Or he would seek an occupation.
To love in shady woods to lurk,
Where flowers bloom and brooks are gurgling,
The while the toiling millions work
At plumbing, selling stocks, or burgling—
With idleness for weeks on end
Fbr any one to be contented,
In slothful ease one's time to spend—
Is proof, it seems, that one's demented.
This casts a bran new light on Ijfe;
We always fancied, in our folly,
That those who plunge in toil and strife
Were somewhat off their mental trolley.
The hobo by the brooklet's brim,
We've hailed in many a summer season
And taken off our hat to him,
He seemed to us the soul of reason.
Ourselves, in fact, at nature's call,
Have hied us in our trusty flivver
To find a place where we might sprawl
Beside some placM flowing river;
In idling 'neath a maple's shade
We've always found a joy ecstatic,
And now alas! we are afraid
That bats are sailing through our attic I
,£T r&A
FORD'S MUSSEL
SHOALS OFFER
Wall Street Journal.
The offer of Henry Ford to take
over Government property at Mus-
sel Shoals on the Tenaessee River
is analyzed in a letter to The Wall
Street Journal by Gifford Pinchot,
who says, in part:
The first part of the Ford offer
is to lease the Wilson Danr and Dam
No. 3 for 100 years, with indefinite
renewals, provided the Government
will complete them and install ma-
chinery to produce 850,000 horse-
power. Mr. Ford offers to pay 6
per cent on the $28,000,000 which
he estimates will be necessary to
complete this work, or 3-4—10 per
cent on 148,000,000. Mr. Ford's own
estimate of the whole Government
investment in dams, locks, and
power houses. Even if we add all
other annual payments (the so-
called amortization payments for the
repair, maintenance and operation of
dams, gates and locks, the total
would be equivalent to interest at
the rate of only 3-6. 10 per cent. Mr.
Ford offers also to give the Govern-
ment 300 horse power to operate the
locks. #
Please note that for the water-
power itself Mr. Ford would pay
nothing, and that he would be free
from all taxes on the property. Other
lessees of water power rights from
the Government not only bear
the total cost of building their own
dams and powerhouses and pay taxes
on them, but they also pay for the
waterpower in addition. The Ford
offer is like offering a man 3-6.10
per cent on the cost of his factory
as rent, and then asking him to
throw in a coal mine to supply fuel
for the engines for nothing.
Government Liability.
There is no allowance for depre-
ciation, and the Government would
beyond question have to pay the cost
of injury to the dam
floods or other causes. Moreover,
there is nothing in the ofTer to indi-
cate that the Government, in order
to protect its own property, would
not have to bear the expense of re-
placing enormously costly machin-
ery when it had been wor^^i
Mr. Ford's service.
The second part of the Ford offer
is to buy Nitrate Plant Number 1,
which cost the Government in round
numbers, $13,000,000; Nitrate Plant
Number 2, which cost the Govern-
ment in round numbers $70,000,000,
and other property which brings
the total cost to $85.000,0000, and to
WHAT OTHERS SAY
SOURCE OF KiNORANCE
Minnesota Dally .Star.
Lloyd George is king of Ireland. Charles Evans Hughea
is President Wilson's private secretary, and now wants to con-
quer Russia. Samuel Gompers is a poet and the head of all
strikers. Senator Lodge is a believer in conversation' with the
dead. Peonage is murder of employes, and Sinn Fein is a mys-
terious mob in Russia.
Such information, and much more of the same nature,
made up 50 per cent of the answers given by 17,500 American
students in an examination on current events. Seventh grade
public school students answered correctly only 30 per cent oil
the questions. College seniors averaged about 60 per cent.
An extremist might take exception to the judgment o£
the examiners who threw out some of the answers as wrong.
It might be argued, for instance, that Senator Lodge really
breathe:* the spirit of the dead past; that Secretary Hughea
really aims at the conquest of Russia; that peonage really
amounts to the murder of employes.
More conservative critics of these examination papera
friight trace some of the acswers directly to the "respectable"
press. There in news columns and editorial might be found
the basis for a confusion of Sinn Fein with the Russian bol-
sheviki. There one might gather that William E. Borah was a
socialist senator.
A good portion, however, of the answers cannot be credited
to radicalism or "respectability," but must be traced to directly
to our educational system. The false answers bring to mem-
ory the many conscientious teachers and professors who have
lost their positions on the faculties of our high schools and
colleges because they persisted in linking the facts of history
up with contemporary social life. They bring a recollection of
how free discussion has been stifled in the school room until
many a teacher shuns any subject which leads to question
and debate. They call to mind that mock liberalism in school
and college which permits the teaching of any subject—Plato'a
republic, the communist manifesto, or the lives of the prophets
of religion—with the sole provision that the subject be pre-
sented to the students as an abstract doctrine, with no bearing
on present day social and political institutions.
TEACH OFFICIALS RESPECT FOR LAW
The Nation.
Months ago there was a bomb explosion in Wall street. A
locks from 1 waSon said to have contained explosives was blown up. The
' newspapers declared that it was a "red" plot. But for weeks
no clue connecting the explosion with any "red" was discovered
—nothing but stories connecting the explosion with a blasting
operation being conducted at the very corner where the ex-
plosion occurred, and with a big powder company. No official
of the powder company or of the blasting firm was arrested,
in I But at intervals the old "red" story blossoms on the front pages
again, and some poor foreigner is arrested—and then forgot-
ten. We seldom hear the sequels. But of one case the New
York World for August thus tells this ending:
"After arresting Giuseppe di Filipis, the 23-year-old Bay-
onne, N. J., truckman, on the charge of being the driver of the
Wall street bomb wagon, and keeping him in a cell 14 days,
practically incommunicado, government officials went into court
yesterday, 80 days following the original arrest, and asked that
the charge be dismissed, virtually admitting that their suspic-
pay 55,000.000 for it ail. The prop- ions were unfounded. Filipis was taken into custody by agents
erty for which this offer is made in- of the Department of Justice May 17 last on information fur-
nished by Thomas J. Smith, a former lieutenant of the New
York fire department, who 'positively' identified the young
Italian as the driver of the bomb wagon. Smith had previously
'positively.* identified Tito Ligi in Scranton."
We hope that Filipis will sue the Department of Justice
eludes steam machinery to produce
160,000 horse power, which alone
Is worth far more than Mr. Ford s
offer for the whole. In addition,
the Government is to buy from the
,the t for fa,s°J arrest and thk«wi be ^ enough
. . hc '0"*oing to award substantial damages to a man confined in four dif-
ause a
in return fnr 1 I «ixc«u.y piuvcu a mist; menuner, thought he
purchased property and for .T looked llke a man whom he vaguely remembered seeing prior
ter-power without charL vr J^ 'to the exPIosion- The real trouble with Filipis was that he
offers m addition to the' plym^s ! WaS 3 forelf.ner; jle Probably spoke bad English, and very likely
p ymen.s | wore no conar< Foreigners who speak bad English, if a little
atriirtm-ofi n-aro j ummuvhi.hui >«umi6v.o i<*' n nuui uniiuitru III 1U
C over to vr Po 'd a",To """ I « incommunicado" merely bee
In return for .he ... J , . ^8Ser a,ready P,0.Ved a alse identifier, thou
mentioned above, to do three prin
cipal things:
habby and collarless, have scant rights in America today. But
t is high time that i ™* ' '
for law and justice.
UNION SHOP AT FORT WORTH
First, "to maintain Nitrate Plant |" offlcials of law justice regained respect
No. 2 ready to be operated ♦ * in
in time for war for the production
of explosives,- and in the event oT
war to turn it over to the Govern-*
ment for that purpose.
Second, "to operate Nitrate Plant
No. 2 to approximate present ca-
pacity in the production of nitrogen
and other fertilizer compound," and
in this business to limit his net profit
from the manufacture and sale of
fertilizer products to 8 per cent.
Waterpower and Fertilizer.
Third, the offer as written, sug-
tests producing but contains no di-
j rect proposal to produce, fertilizer
| for the benefit of American farmers.
That could, of course, bo corrected
in the final contract, for I have no
doubt that Mr. Ford desires to mak
discredited.
STAND \ND DKI.IYF.lt.
A New York restaurant advertises
that It will open at the historic home
of the famous Captain Kidd. Busi-
ness carried on at the old staud.
Columbia Stato.
UNIQUE
Apparently the only thing in the world which cAnnot be
successfully counterfeited is beer.
TOO LATE
The waning of the jazz craze is going to release a lot of
brass just when we no longer need it for war purposes.
FRONTIER KTJQI KTTK.
Fresh from Boston, the lawyer in
the frontier town had just finished
a glowing summing up for the de-
fense. There ensued a long pnuse,
and the easterner turned in some
embarrassment to the judge.
"Your hohor," he asked, "will
you charge the jury?"
"Oh. 110. I guess not." answered
the judge benignantly. "They ain't
got much anyway, so I let them keep
all they can make on the side.'
The American Region Weekly
POOR IN AI/rKI HIA.
"I wish," said Mrs. Makely, "that
you would tell us how you manage
with the poor in Altruria."
"We have none," was the reply.
"But the comparatively poor-—you
have some people who are richer
than others?" /
"No. We should regard that as
the worst inch-ism."
"What is inclvism?"
I interpreted "bad citizenship."—
William Dean Howells in "A' Trav-
eler From Altruria."
Cleveland Citizen. «
Down in Fort Worth, Texas, some of the professional
trouble breeders started to inaugurate the so-called "American
plan" and a formidable association of business bodies got to-
gether and solemnly resolved that the poor, oppressed non-
union worker would be taken to their breasts and the skids
would be put under the union agitators, not because the latter
demanded the highest wages and decent working and living
conditions—oh, no!—but to prove'that they had hearts that
bled for those "free and independent" workers who refused to
organize and submit to the coercion of labor bosses. The
alleged "American plan" signs began to appear in business
houses everywhere and the promoters of the propaganda, who
were getting a nice piece of change for directing their cam-
paign, were waiting to see the unionists become paralyzed with
I fertilizer at a total net profit of 8 Iterr01' an(1 dl'°P their C1U'ds by the hundreds' But theX waited
per cent. Nitrate plant No 2 how I 'n vain' Instead they heard about a number of labor con-
ever, is not adapted to making fer ! ferences and soon thereafter retail business became rotten in
tillzer, but only cyaaimid one of i Fort Worth> while mail orfler houses of Chicago and Kansas
several materials used for the pro ! City be«an to send in carloads of stuff to new customers. Al-
duction of fertilizer, and not one ofj most over niRht the "American Plan" signs and cards dis-
the best at that. | appeared and now a vigorous advertising "home buying" cam-
The fact is that the Ford offe. ! PaiEn }s bcing waged and the open shop gang are thoroughly
is not mainly a fertilizer proposi-
tion. It Is seven parts waterpower I
to one part fertilizer, even if the j
fertilizer part should work out. For. |
if nitrate plant number 2 were to be j
permanently employed in the manu-
facture of fertilizer it would con-
sume but 100,000 horsepower out of
1 the 850,000 installation. This is the
heart of the whole matter.
The amount of power Mr. Ford
could develop, under his offer, is
greater by half than all that is now
being developed at Niagara Falls. If
Mr. Ford were to pay for it at the
rates charged by other compa-
nies that build their own works, as
Mr. Ford would not, it would cost
him about $150,000 a year.
Beyond question nitrate plant
number 2 ought to be maintained in
condition for producing explosives
in case of war. Most certainly it
ought to be* used for making fertil-
izer for American farmers. The
wisdom of developing the water-
power on the Tennessee and its trib-
utaries is beyond question. But all
these things can be done with fair-
ness to the public.
CO-OPERATION
CO-OPERATIVE LAUNDERING BY MAIL
All-American Co-ope
The Citizens' Co-peratlve Laun-
dry, organized by union labor of Lit-
tle Rock, Arkansas, announces a
mail order service by which it can
serve rural co-operators who want
their laundry done in a model estab-
lishment at minimum cost. Since the
parcel post charges on a ten-pound
package amount to but 15 cents
within a radius of 150 miles, this co-
operative laundry can rapidly extend
the splendid service which it has for j
some time rendered to the city work-
ers.
Up in Septtle the Model Co-opera-
tive Laundry, likewise established by
union labor, has proved so success-
ful that a second laundry has had
to be organized to care for the over-
rative Commission.
flow work. Co-operative laundrlef
have long been highly successful in
Europe, and there is every reason
why labor unions and eo-operativ<
societies should promote them in thie
country. The three main advantages
of co-operative laundries are: (1)
they, remove much#of the wash-day
drudgery from the workingman'a
home; (2) they effect a considerabli
saving in the laundry bill, (the nel
profit reported by the National Fed-
eration of Co-operative laundries ol
England for the past year is 12V4 per
cent); and (3) they provide employ-
ment at a living wage and under
model working conditions for one ni
the worst-exploited groups of work*
ers - the laundry employes.
* . < *
V /
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MacLaren, William. Oklahoma Leader (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 2, No. 23, Ed. 1 Saturday, September 10, 1921, newspaper, September 10, 1921; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc109539/m1/8/: accessed May 3, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.