The Washington herald., 1917-03-15
Interesting Chats
From Hotel Lobbies

American people are great imitators, -
said DR.. ]. L Bechtel. of New York
City, stopping at the Willard. DR.. Bech.
tel is a well-known authority on social
and economic problems. They initiate, u
said the doctor, whenever it Is profit.
able. In the other hand, when the for
eigner comes to this country, he sets
about to initiate the American In dress
and manners. But he does not initiate
the American in extragance and disre-
spect for money. And so many have
asked why the foreigners, after a few
years in this country, can amass a small
fortune. They exercise the same thrift
that was practised by them through
necessity in the old country.
Nowadays the pocketbook of the ma
tive American Is affected. He must imi.
tate the foreigner in cutting down his
living expenses. He must from neces-
sity have a small garden and grow a
few vegetables for his table. He did
not try this until he was hard hit The
immigrant has been doing this for ages
and ages.
"A tour Of the country would reveal
the fact that ninety per cent Of the
small gardens in the United States are
the work of the foreigner. naturalized
or not. Most OF the prosperous farms
in the country are operated by one
time immigrants. Is 1t any wonder the
power and the native American stands
still or goes backwards?
The American Is at last forced ia
begin practicing the same kind OF econ
Omy that has been the heritage OF nearly
all European immigrants to this coun-
try. Our native dignity has cost Us
a lot of money. We may not be toe
proud to fight, but the majority of US
are too proud to perspire a little. There
is enough space available in the East
ern States for gardening by hometown
ers and renters to eliminate the Western
crops altogether, if we were not toe
proud"
TT is evident that the railroad
brotherhoods have little hope of, the
Supreme Court upholding their eight
hour law" said Ralph Ergood, a prom
inent attorney of Boston, registered
at the Ebbitt.
while there is hardly a chance of
their having inside information" re-
marked Mr.. Ergood. 'ft is probable
that they realize they obtained from
their machine-gun legislation little
more than a piece of paper. A little
thinking on the part of the railroad
men. who are determined to strike.
would have averted the present
trouble.
Evidently. their leaders know little
about law. They thought they knew
their man. but their man knew them
we'll enough to be sure that they would
accept a piece of legislation that we
see now is not likely to be worth the
paper it is written on. A threatened
strike just at election time would
have killed forever the chances for a
Democratic President or a Congress.
Unless things are very smoothly han
died. the railroad men are going to
earn a nationwide condemnation of
their attitude and sicken the whole
country of the present administration.
How many of these would-be strikers
would now chalk their cars. urging
the public to vote for Wilson.
"It is an outrage that the whole
system of the country should be tied
up for the revenge of Just 20 per cent
of the railroad employees, this per-
centage representing the best paid
men.
The old slogan, The public be
damned has come to life again. A
group of men, who would attempt to
paralyze their country when it is prac-
tically at war, ought to face a firing
squad. 1t might do well to find out
how much German money is behind
the strikers"