Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-27
FACTS AND COMMENT

their holdings were worth. They have received many a grain of com fort and a pretty satisfactory hint of fair treatment this past week, when l the administrations railroad bill pass. | ed the senate without even the for. lmality of roll cali. Amendment af- ter amendment was voted down and the bill, embodying the presidents very liberal ideas as to fair treatment 1 of security holders, will doubtless pass l the house without essential aftera.- ftion. The chief features of the bill are. the president may guarantee to the roads an annual sum qual to their average income for the years 1915. 1916 and 1917. He may alter rates and put them into effect immediately,
 although such rates are subject to later review by the interstate com-
 merce commission He may make
 loans to the roads for extensions and
 improvements and may purchase their securities from a half billion dollar fund appropriated for this very pur- pose. He is authorized to set aside land disregard all laws that conflict
 with his authority or hamper the ef- feetive operation of the roads. The bill also provides that government
 control is to cease not more than eighteen months after the proclama- ! lhouse and becomes law, the security holders will have a definite idea of the present worth of their holdings land a definite promise for the future, lwhile the American public will have Ia chance to see what maximum of service the great transportation sys- tenn of the country is capable of rem ;dering when freed from all legal hin- .drances and in possession of adequate means for the purchase of long needed facilities. Already Mir. McAdoo is pro-
 posing to divert practically all through passenger travel to the New York Central, leaving the Pennsylva- uia lines comparatively free for car rying steel and coal to the seaboard. Of course such move will take from the travelling public the choice of .routes. but adequate service will be rendered oyer the route designated and the sacrifice of personal prefer fence will in this case be the travellers
 bit toward winning the war.
 In these strenuous times when men
 women and children are supposed to he working. economizing and saving
 for the one great object ahead, it is
 dfsheartening to know that certain groups of people are still putting their own material advantage above the
 success of their country. The great strike of the carpenters in the ship yards of the east is a case in point
 These men. led by the president oi
 their union, w. l.. Hutcheson, have , used the nations necessity as an op. portunity to exact higher pay fol themselves and the principle of tho \ closed shop for their organization t This man Hutcheson, replying to ; : vigorous challenge to his patriotism . from the chairman of the shipping board, declared that he was uratie tt get his men back to work unless thei demands were met. It was only sfte ! a yet sharper telegram from Presi g dent Wilson closing with the cues = tion: twill you cooperate or will vol Iobstruct," that he condescended to in s duce the carpenters to return to thei ' task and leave the matter of wages t , Lthe labor adjustment board. Ever . then I1t!. .cheSon's acq1iescence was k only partial. as he persisted in hi = demand for the closed shop. Asked i t he did not realize that his attitud Twas delaying the production Of ships = the most vital need of his country a . this crisis in her fortunes he replied
 That of course is incidental"
 'Tncidentar'-the country's need . not essential to us, only incidental t '. our ease and comfort! The attitud e of both labor and capital has too ofte yl assumed this pose; but it has remain l led for President William l.. Hutcheso Ia Of the United Brotherhood of Carpen .t ters and Joiners of America to mak U g. phrase that is an adequate measur -a of such patriotism!
 Jericho fourteen miles northeast ( It Jerusalem, has been occupied by Aus % tralian troops of Gen. Allenbys fcrc l. The capture was quite as complet it though possibly nok as spectacular a If when the ancient walls of this old cit "a fell before the trumpet blasts ~ Joshua's army. The town itself III now of little importance but a gre: n concrete bridge over the Jordan bui Id by the Germans since the war bega d makes the place a valuable nilital n. post on Gen. Allenby's advance nortf ! ward. The Turks after the capture Jerusalem in December had retreate 1S northward through Jericho and the fa
 of this place means that the Britis
 have swept the country bare of r
 fsistance from the Mediterranean coa ,+ to the River Jordan, while the Ara1
 operating against the common foe ( T. the east of the river carry the line
 conquest clear across to the desert
 Arabia.
 to Trotzky had no sooner left Bres
 Litovsk after proudly refusing to sit
 the peace agreement dictated by tl - German negotiators, than the armi 7h of Germany were set in motion iowa m the interior of Russia. The sole O he position offered was a statement sig
 ed by L4enine and Trotzky and SC
 by wireless to Berlin protestil ny against 'the fact that the Germ. K government has directed its trool ha against the Russian republic whi
 has declared that the war is at an e
 and which is demobilizing it's armi
 on all fronts" Such a step could T ny have been anticipated. the stateme we went on, because neither directly as indirectly has either party given t
 formal notice necessary for the te
 imitation of the arnistice. Under t me circumstances Russia is forced to si yer the peace agreement. aVi Not for moment did the receipt
 this wireless message delay the Ge
 man advance, but the German lead
 Gen. Hoffman. while acknowledgil 'o its receipt replied that, as a wirel, er- message is necessarily unsigned, sss envoy must come to him at his hea
 quarters and there personally gi
 assent to the peace propositions. A 1as meantime the German forces moy ard on! All along the 600 mile front u ata moved. From the Baltic Islands
 gently seized, detachments crossed
 Finland and opposed the Bolshev
 T.. and their Red Guards that had bs u trying to destroy the promising l
 It ginnings of Finnish republic. Otl thy detachnents crossed into Esthoria,
 InorthernmoSt one of RuSSia'S Ba'
 provinces. occupied the, city of L ng- and then proceeded to take Reval, int great Russian naval base. These