The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1917-01-04

houses of the Danish Parliament tool
the final action which is to brini
about a transference of sovereignty
There are still formalities to be OBJ
served; we have to arrange for tho
payment of the price agreed upon, anc
the diplomatic exchanges have still &c
come. But to all intents and pur-
poses the three islands are ours, ano
it remains for the United States to
give to these new territories and the
people inhabiting them an administers
ton which will make them glad to be
under a new flag. The task will not
be a simple one. For the economic
conditions at st. Thomas and on the
other islands are not favorable and
the people will expect much.
II is difficult to imagine any benefit
that can come from so horrible thing
as war and yet if reports from the
European capitals are to be believed
mar may be teaching a sort of democ-
racy that scarcely could come any
other way. Generally the rich expect
to reap the profits. That was so in
our own war of the Rebellion. Very
few Of the rich actually went to the
front. Even when the government had
to resort to a draft to fill the depleted
ranks, provision was made that
on the payment of certain sum of
money the drafted man would be ex-
cused from actual service and so the
people with enough money to pay for
exemption rarely saw service. Also
the rich were favored pecuniarily.
When the credit of the nation was run
ming low and it was necessary to re-
sort to government notes with which
to pay bills the men who were doing
the fighting and the suffering were
paid in these notes which had pur-
chasing power sometimes as low as
one-third the purchasing power of a
gold dollar. But no serious effort
ever was made by financiers to make
up to these men in the ranks the diff
ference between the nominal value of
their pay and its actual purchasing
value. However, the men who bought
the government bonds saw to it that
the bonds they had paid for with these
same deprecated government notes,
were redeemed in gold 1t has almost
always been so. The people who suf
fer least generally demand and re-
ceive the most. No doubt this is true
to large extent even yet in Europe,
but the strain there seems to have
become so great that even the soft
handed aristocracy is being compelled
10 do at least part of its share. That
seems to be true to an extent in the
other countries involved. There is a
Zeal of talk about a social readjust-
ment after the war is over. Of course
t may not come to much but good 1
leal of thinking is going on. The men
Who have suffered in the hell of the
trenches have received hard but
'ather enlightening education. A great
many of them are asking why, if they
must be called on TO endure so much
lgony and suffering in order that !
heir respective governments may live,
should they not have larger share
# the benefits their governments J
nave to bestow after the war is over. /
Must they 90 back from the blood and
)ain and indescribable horrors they
ave experienced, to a life of mono
onous toll and poverty such as they )
lad led before the war began? If so
What has all the hardship and suffer =
ny ayailed them? This war also has
orced certain economies TO make up
or the terrible waste, and this has
that if there We're no 9
waste it would be quite possible to :.
,roduce even in Europe with its
rowded population, enough to keep
II the inhabitants in comfort, if not :,
n luxury. SO it appears now that =.
here may be two results of the war
hat will be beneficial. First, there \
nay be leveling up in society. The
ich aristocracy will have to give up
oore, and the common herd will get Al
lore. Second, a good deal Of waste s.
nay be stopped and production vastly n
ncreased. In England, for example, h
here is talk of turning the vast plea
ure parks of the rich into farming
md in order that the people may t,
ave more and cheaper food. In Ger a
lany the government, driven by hard S
ecessity, is seeing TO it that all the 2