Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-09-11
The Changing
World

In the Chicago street car strike it
was found that motor vehicles were
able to take care Of the congestion of
j the loop district and without serious
! loss of time or money to the people
who ordinarily were served by street
cars. There is no question but that
! the street car is a passing institution
all over the world. 1t must give way
i to the motor bus and to various motor
| vehicles The presence of rails on the
streets, and the infiexibility which the
! rails give to the route of the car, the
presence of trolleys and electric ma
chinery of various kinds on the high
ways, makes the street car for urban
i transportation an obsolete form. 1t
will give way very soon to the modern
motor driven vehicle. If you have any
stock in street cars, get rid of it. It
is a passing phase Of our national life.
* x *
Probably we should not do it. 1t
lis as wrong to take Mexico as it was
to take America away from the In
dams. The Indians had the right; we
had the guns So we took America
land the Indians left The weaker
civilization gave way to the stronger
1t always viii happen thus It is
wrong, but the stars in their courses
will it,
8. Americans are curiously pious
people politically They always are
swearing by the tin, wood end stone
gods and they are against expansion;
L that they believe in developing Ameri-
ca first; that they abhor imperialism
But when the time comes they find 9
way. They make the jump. They buy
4 islands, anex states, conquer provinces
and subdue nations, all in the name OF
a higher civilization. And they do pro
duce the higher civilization. So Mexico
must count her days, and remember
, that she will follow the Moundbuilders
and the Iriquois and the Texans.
* * *
4 Events move swiftly Last week
| woman suffrage was in more or less
! doubt Yesterday it was assured By
the vote of the Arkansas Legislature
ratifying the amendment During tht
, week also the Supreme Court has up
J held the act of the Tennessee legisla
ture in giving women presidential ant
municipal suffrage. If the women o
Tennessee have suffrage they will SCI
to it that Tennessee ratifies the amend
ment. That takes two states from tht
possible thirteen Southern states which
were needed to ratify the amendment
Now, if all the Southern states yet t
vote, vote against the amendment
they will not be able to defeat tht
amendment. There will be no trouble
in the Northern states; the Republican
politicians will see to that. So we may
as well get used to the fact that wOmeI
are going to have the BALLOT next veal
in the presidential campaign. Events
do move swiftly. prohibition and won
an suffrage all in a yeartwo consti
tutional amendments radically chang
ing our attitude toward life and morals
is a fairly swift jump for one lively,
months.
Indeed, the fact that four amend
ments woman suffrage, prohibition
the income tax amendment and TIL
direct election of United States sena
!, tors all have come in less than /;
decade, indicates how fast America i
moving with the current of the worlt
toword democratic control in politics
!. in economics and in morals
! Heretofore America has been mid
die class country. The right of TIL
consumer was the paramount right il
all industrial disputes. Labor based
: its right to higher wages on the fac
that labor as consumer was unable Il
live on low wages. Labor was en-
couraged in it's demands for higher
wages because its higher wages would
lift labor into the middle class. TIL,
whole aim Of our industrial life has
been the middle class aim lift up
to pull down from unfair peaks me1
who rose by greed and theft and spe
scial privilege were at the mOmen
legalized and to make America {
great commonwealth Of men and wo
'Inen with about the same econmi'
status. Our chief aim in life was the
1evelling aim: To raise labor up; tt
& KEEP powerful capital from misusing
its power. The consumer was king.
a, But now we have a brand new phase
! of things: Labor lis. seeking to control
not in the interests of the consumer
but in the interests of labor. We have
the railroad men asking for the nation
! alfzation Of the railroads, not to give
us better rates and better service
which is the middle class aim but te
give labor better wages. This is quite
the European attitude of labor It is
a social and political attitude, not ar
economic attitude. It looks to the
/ abolition of the capital class. 1t would
justify strikes for political purposes
as they are now being called in Eng
land and France and Italy Now strikes