The Washington herald., 1918-03-22

No one with an ounce OF brains
pretends to think that there are not
some reasons for the growth of So
cial and other forms of dissatis-
faction in this nation.
There are reasons for it, too, one
has to admit in all candor. One can
not dismiss the subject by pooh
pooling" nor can he declaim loudly
in the name of patriotism and then
blow on his bands and bring results
| that make it appear otherwise.
We have run across one of the
reasons right here in our midst. A
| lady named Ogleby writes to the
New Republic and sets IT out in this
fashion-and who can hesitate
| about getting warm under the col
lar when he reads it? She says,
| with reference to an Ordnance De-
partment officer now working here:
"Washington is over-crowded.
High government officials are forced
to seek housing in the suburbs. But
my friends husband has brought
with him no one but his wife and
her maid, the two children and
their nurses. the butler and the Sec
H.
and the kitchen maid. the upstairs
maid, the laundress and her assist
ant, the yard man. his wife's chauf-
feur and her footman. At times he
even drives his own car. and he, has
given up meat on Tuesdays and
wheat on Wednesdays. Then. too.
he is only paying $4,000 a year for
a house that last year rented for
| $500.
They say il takes the work of
/ sixteen persons in Europe to keep
cne man at the front. If that is SO,
and IL it takes eighteen persons
not counting those outside his
household who produce his food
and clothinE--to keep one clerk in
the Ordnance Department in Wash
ingtoa, how many persons Will it
take in America to keep one man
at the front?"
Many of us know of many cases.
| most of them not as bad as this
but some of them quite as bad as
one wants to run into and still ad-
| here to the law that one must not
punish ones neighbor for being a
profiteer but shall leave it to the
| law to do so. .s
Social unrest will continue to
grow in the country at a time like
this, if this is persisted, in much
more.
Our own dear Brisbane wants us
| to Porto Riconize in the matter of
| drinks and allow our folk to have
21-2 per cent beer when and where
| we will-but naughty whisky. new
er. He actually says men will not
be teetotalers no matter what your
| laws" But the fact is the record
in every prohibition State shows
that they are. Not all of the men,
| of course, for not ALL men will
do anything alike that we know of.
| But actually thousands and thou
| sands of men who thought they
| couldn't and wouldn't get along
without something to drink are do
| ing so and are mighty glad of 1t.
| It's a trifie contrary to the Bris-
| banesque doctrine. to be sure, but
| it's true Just the same.
Just to show how some things are
done in other departments than the
| War Department, the other day Sec
retary Houston and Herbert Hoover
| named a committee to give advice
on farm products and live stock
matters. They selected men with
| regard to geographical location and
with regard to the agricultural i'm
portance of States. But they left
| out from representation on the
committee the State which raises
more corn and wheat and hogs and
| cattle in the aggregate than any
other State in the Union-Nebraska.
| Either one or both of 'em prob
ably knew better but neither one
or the other thought carefully
about the situation. Fact is. prob
ably neither one of the office heads
saw the list and consequently didn't
have an opportunity to even pass
upon 1t.
There is one inexplicable thing
about the telephone situation which
should be answered Quickly, but
which we think the company can
not answer satisfactorily to the
public no matter how many times