Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1918-01-07


Brisbane. the great editor, was Al
most right when he printed in his
papers few days ago: "They
should all be sent back to Wall
street. where they came FROM
Human beings are indeed inter-
esting. have attempted to tell
about a few Of them in the above.
These Washington quips OF behavior
should be known to the country. II
is my business toAhelp spread the
truth.
And SO, while i am writing a
sort Of observation-disclosures instead
Of a mere newspaper story, few
more peeps under the cover may be
entertaining. The trouble with us
writer's here in Washington is that
we give SO much attention to news
and that being our work We grow
to accept the standards that exist
as commonplace AMI uninterestins.
So will saw away with my Mother
Grundy epistle. ag IS
McAdoo Big Man.
At the top Of the headlines this
week comes Mr.. McAdoo. You may
have seen McAdoo, as he has been
chasing about, a good deal OF late.
,McAdoo has been long time adj
justing himself in Washington. There
has evidently been asgood deal Of
reluctance in admlttins that he !, is
"a big man." But thai has all been
settled finally. in favor Of McAdoo.
He's a whopper;; a tall. skinny fell
low, with big head and lots in it;
and fists ready to smash at any
thing. McAdoo's speech has the
honey-dew OF his native south, but
when he says get busy" It means as
much as the most rancous cowboy
vocal triumph. McAdoo has set aside
"a few rooms in the treasury build-
ing. drafted some OF his political
allies like John Shelton Williams.
and started in to run the railroads.
Its the heaviest job that anyone has
tackled since Atlas carried the
world around on his shoulders. Con-
gress and the interstate commerce
commission, and half the politicians
in the country haNe lade q failure
Of running the railroads. And 70 It
was quite natural that McAdoo, who
Is regarded az a huge success in
nearly everything, should have had
the railroads wished onto him. Some
how one cant help believing that
he will make success OF It. The
result is in the future.s and the edi-
tor who said that "McAdoo would be
president II he got away with this
Job. and deader than q smelt Il he
failed" was a mighty good gues-
ser. Can McAdoo, working with a
group Of hand-picked politicians,
bring greater efficiency into the rail-
road system than the trained rail-
road executives? It Is an interest,"
ing experiment, to say the least. But
I'll be blamed il am going to att
tempt to tell you how 1t ID going to
come out II you know. tell me.
We also have with US on this AUS
picious occasion : whole hock Of
congressional Investigations. Food.
fuel, sugar. guns. railroads. ships.
the army. navy-ahd nearly every
thing else is being probed. All these
things are very Interesting. The
congressman are not really looking
for trouble. as e the usual case
where there are Investigations. The
process represents the wartime
method Of obtaining the most desir-
able class of information that Is
needed by congress in carrying on
its legislative plans. incidentally. II
some Of the profiteers are smoked
out. everyone will be glad-because
everyone wants the .rogues to be ex-
posed. and everybody wants to see
the country protected against the
enemy from Within" as we'll as
from the enemy without.