The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1918-02-21
"KIDDING- THE GALLERIES

Inc ADDRESS OF senator hiram
johnson ostensibly on the railroad
question Tuesday, is a fine sample
of how man by rambling from the
issue and playing to what he quite
enormously assumes to be the gull
bility and ignorance of the masses can
miss a chance to make. a real record
for himself.
The issue of government ownership
of railroads and public utilities is
coming alive" The trend is in that
direction and the chances are at least
even that after the war, should gov
eminent operation prove successful.
the nation will retain the lines perm
anently Hence, the question OF val
uation is vital and pertinent. Hence,
too, friends of government ownership
should be at this time interested prin-
cipally in securing legislation that
will make the present operation sue
cessful. There is a powerful ele-
ment in both parties in congress who
want the roads returned to their priv
ate owners, practically unregulated
Government ownership cannot carry
at this time Under the circumstances
the sensible thing for both the govern
ment ownership men and those in
doubt who want the theory tried out
fairly is to unite on the amendment
offered by Senator Thompson. of
Kansas, embodying the original pro
posal of the administration, that the
government retain absolute control of
the roads until terminated by affirm
alive congressional action after the
war.
Under such circumstances it is re-
grettable that Senator Johnson who
has always posed as something of an
expert on the railroad question should
have found it necessary to indulge in
hot air" and grand stand tactics"
such as have, according to report,
usually characterized his California
campaigns while on the stump. 1t is
also unfortunate that he muddled into
a furious and more or less incoher-
ent criticism of the whole conduct of
the war and assumed, as he did, that
all facts, or all parts of facts, how
ever misleading, which some orator
might wish to proclaim, should be
shouted from the house-tops even in
regard to military plans and condi-
tions, information relative to which
might be of the highest importance to
the enemy.
DEPRESSING without reason from his
railroad talk he furiously asseverated
the falsehood that 'if any individual
with best motives sought to lay bare a
wrong forthwith he was charged with
giving aid and comfort to the enemy"
and insinuated with equal lack of
veracity that the half truths, quarter
truths, wilful distortions and garbled
facts given out by others were pub
lished with an honest purpose and
with view of enlightening the pub
lie. The California man thus quite
obscured the main purpose of his talk
in an instructive manner, the railroad
bill pending in the upper house.
There may be reasons why the pro-
posal to take the average earnings
for three previous years as the regular
compensation for the roads is giving
them an undue advantage. If so, il
was quite right and proper to point
this out. But the illustration used to
drive home the point was very unfor-
tunate. He said:
Men go to the trenches today .for
$50 month-men whose earning ca
pacity in the past three years has beer
infinitely greater than that sum. We
do not stop to inquire how much the
human beings have earned in the pas
three years. We say to them 'youl
country demands you. You must, 4
necessary die, and your country con
siders not at all your earning capac
ity of the past, nor your possibilitie,
of the future In the name of patri
otism we send these young men, al
is just to fight the battles of the re
public. We give them the pittanc,
of $50 a month If any man on THU
floor suggested their earning capac
fly for the past three years should b.
the measure of their compensation II
this time of crisis, he would be laugh
ed to scorn."
OF course. this is bunk" and rathe
stale bunk" at that. The fallacy o