Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-10-29
No Other American Commu-
nifty Makes Greater War
Sacrifices in Blood or
Treasure, in Men Sent to
the Trenches or Money to
Back Them.
FAIR PLAY FOR CAPITAL
editorial Correspondence of The star.)
THEODORE w. MOVES,

THEODORE w. MOVES.
The last summer has been full of Bit
ter days for the people of Washing
ton; gloriously bitter in the cheerful
endurance of necessary patriotic war
sacrifices with other good Americans;
humiliatingly bitter through discrim-
mating, slurring, hurtful legislation,
unnecessarily imposed or threatened,
and through the slanderous vilifica-
tion of Washingtonians which has ac-
companied it.
No other American community has
responded, the record shows. more
heartily and more completely than
Washington to the call for patriotic
war sacrifices, to be offered on the
nations altar. whether in blood or
treasure, whether in men sent to the
trenches or in money to hack, sustain
and strengthen them until the war is
won.
On the other hand no other Amer
servedly and UNANIMOUSLY slandered
by baseless allegations of lack of
patriotism.
Washington Clerks No Slackers.
Civilian workers for the govern
ment. in peace or war, constitute a
numerous. intelligent and highly
valued element of the city's popuIa-
ton. They have long been petitioners
for an equitable increase of their sal
ary scale. which for years has been
confessedly inadequate and at a
standstin, while notable increases
have been made in all other branches
of labor, especially organized labor
Their distress and need have been
accentuated by war conditions and
the resulting higher and higher cost
of living. In response to their rea-
sonable and respectful petition their
legislature on one occasion voted to IN
crease their hours of work without in
creasing correspondingly their compen-
sation.
They had been working. in addition
to scheduled normal seven-hour day.
as much of overtime without pay in
the war service as the national neces-
SPY By vote Of Congress (nullified. how
ever, in the end by the Presidents
veto) the normal day was compul-
sorify'-increased from seven to eight
allowed. Washington workers asked
for bread and received a stone, and
when they reconstructed against this
substitution they were denounced MS
..slackerS'' by the House leader of this
campaign against them.
Washington workers were thus sub
iected in congressional intent at
least to the Industrial minimum eight
hour day. without the usual indus
trial protection against overtime
labor. through an extraordinary scale
of overtime pay They were, put ton on
elsewhere. so far as disadvantages
were concerned: and denied organized
labor's counteracting benefits.
IL rfor, 1nY, v~tF f.a1 Ia hnr a
works overtime without pay and
pat-iotically without complaint, that
does not strike. or threaten to strike
or think of striking in war. war time may
mfahous becoming so be
put in the national pillory and to be
Undeserved slur on Local Patri-
otism.
Similarly the property owners and
landlords of the city are universally
and undeservedly slandered as unpa-
triotic in the discussion of anti
profiteering legislation.
These property owners and taxpay-
ers were slurred for years in the
House as underaSsesSed and under
taxed, as mendicantS SubSiSting unpa-
triotically on the nations bounty.
This slander was dissipated the mo-
gressional fiscal committee, exam
ined thoroughly into the facts.
So it will be with the recent SLAM
ders upon the property owners, the
landlords and the whole community as
rent profiteers or the accomplices of
such prohteers. sympathizing with
and protecting them.
Rental profiteers. like food and fuel
profiteers. are a tiny fraction of the
population. who practice extortion
of the community. Nine-tenths of
Washington. as of every other large
American city. is sore all over from
the eXactions of the high cost of war
living. We are indignant and resent
full. The profiteer. whether at the ex-
pense of the government or the indi-
vidual. whether he operates in muni-
tions or ships. in food. fuel or rents, is
today'S "black beast"
Universal Slander.
Chairman Ben Johnson has EXTEND
ed the stigma, stain and slander of
rentals profiteering, as principal or
accomplice, from a few landlords to
Washington landlords in general, from
the landlord class to the community in
general, and from all Washingtonians
who protest against his grossly unfair
legislative principles and methods
even to senators and representatives
who venture to propose fairer,
wiser form Of fair-rents legislation
than that which he has devised.
When he ISLANDERS senators, who can
fight back. the enormity of his offense
is at once perceived. Why is not the
offense greater when his defamation
is applied with absolute impunity to
q eoommunity which the Constitution
ties hand and foot and turns over
helpless to injury and insult on the
part of any strong and influential ma
tional legislator who is willing to de-
base himself by abuse of the far
reaching power in respect to the
Capital-community with which he Is
intrusted by. the Constitution?
Mr.. johnson denounces the property
owners and landlords of Washington
as the most unpatriotic people in the
whole world He poses as peculiarly
the protector Of the boys in the
trenches and of the civilian war
workers.
washingtJn's Unsurpassed War
Record.
Mr.. Johnsons Washington con-
stituency has sent more boys to the