The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1916-08-10
MILLS NEW YORK LETTER
New York, Aug. 5, 1916.

fire, with shrapnel hurting through the
air and exploding all about the tip of
Manhattan Island, skyscrapers rocking
frantically under the force of titanic
conclusions and plate glass showering
the streets. Happily the moment for
the munitions explosion, 2:08 o'clock
Sunday morning, was admirably
chosen to minimize loss of life, for at
the hour lower Manhattan is depopu-
lated and the bay is clear of craft.
But the widespread area of the con-
cussions gave nearly ten million peo--
pie a vivid impression of the fury of
modern warfare.
The almost instantaneous deStruc-
ton of property variously estimated
at from Is to 40 millions, with small
chance of losers recovering from the
munitions people, raises again the
question whether there is any ultimate
good to the people in the orgy of the
munitions business. While the house
of Morgan and mere handful of men
have been raking in riches faster than
they can count, American lives have
been sacrificed in several hundred ex-
plosions, American property has been
damaged and the American conscience
has been cankered by the greed for
gold minted out of human blood.
Curious enough the city was rocked
to it's very foundations by the tremend-
Gus explosion just as the Sunday news
papers were glorying in the huge ex-
port business of this port. They
were pointing out that New York
was the only two-billion dollar port
in the woodland just then-bang-
up goes huge quantity of the deadly
stuff that forms nearly one-sixth of
the exports. Now the cry is not one
of pride, but of fear. The boasts have
changed to demands that the shipment
of munitions to the allies be carried on
from some other less popuIOuS port.
Another curious feature of the great
blow-up was the incidental revelation
of the fact that New York is the only
large city in the world that does not
have any morning newspapers. When
100000 people looked at the Sunday
newspapers to find out about the ex-
plosion that had shaken them up at
2 am, they found not line about the
catastrophe, for the New York dailies
are midnight papers, not morning
newspapers at ALL.
The threat of a tie up of all the
transportation lines of the city is more
terrifying than munitions explosions,
for this city is more dependent upon
it's street car lines and overhead and
underground trains than any city in
the world. It's business district is so
situated, the distances are so great
that all the machinery of trade and in
dustry would be hopelessly crippled if
the transportation should be dimin-
ished to an appreciate extent.
The trouble started in the suburbs
where long hours and many abuses
constituted real grievances, but the
union leaders have seized the oppor-
tunity to enroll the better paid and
better treated employees of the city
lines, hoping to unionize all the trans
portation systems. The company
managers declare they will never
agree to the "closed shop" but they
know full well that unless they man
stir up a mighty demand for public
ownership and operation of public
utilities. For there are never any
strikes among letter carriers.
Probably too much was looked for.
The public expected to be electrified
and wasn't. Mr.. Hughes speech of ac-
ceptance has fallen fiat. The event
was staged with great care. A re-
united Republican party was to be
typified in the audience and was to
receive with overlooking enthusiasm
the utterances of their standard
bearer. But not once did the applause
rise in sufficient volume or endure long
enough to Indicate that Mr.. Hughes
had made anything like a hit. What
enthusiasm there was was shared by
Col. Roosevelt, who had far better
time than the candidate. But in one
respect the occasion eclipsed every
other similar functiOn-wealth was
there in force, capitalists, corporation
managers, financiers. Never has po-
litical gathering brought together such
a throng of millionaires. But the man
whose fortune runs into seven and
eight figures casts only one vote.
Mr.. Hughes endeavored to make the
Mexican situation the dominant issue
of the campaign. But before the
month has worn away he may find that
candidates don't make the issues. Cir
cumstances do that. Issues are things
that arise and have to be met. Issues
are not the creatures of candidates
but their masters-their benefactors
sometimes, as often their executioners.
Still the plague of infantile par
alysis holds the city in it's grip, while
the learned experts lay it all to Gear
riers"-the people, sick and well, dis
seminating the germs. 1t is strange
how unanimously they ignore the one
fact that knocks out this whole theory
the fact that hardly ever is one case
followed by another in the same house.
If there was anything at all in the
prevalent theories of the manner of
infection, the plague would run
through families and neighborhoods-
which it does not. If the cases were
tabulated with the facts as to drain
age, garbage and flies, it would be dis
covered that an overwhelming major
ity of the cases occur where filth and