Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-12-18
WHEN ALL THE WORLDS AKIN

realization that there are no more
local" problems.
American problems are the uni
yersal problems of the war and these
problems which Congress and the
people are facing today are the same
problems which all parliaments and
all nations of the world are facing.
And curiously enough the Germans
are facing the same problems that
their victors are facing.
Stated in economic terms no one
won the war, for all hands are
equally hit by it's results. The vic
tors are suffering as much as the
vanquished. War as a means Of set
Ting disputes is gorgeous joke.
1t has settled nothing in the way of
economic advantage for any nation
or for any group of nations.
1t has merely unsettled all the
boundaries in the world, all the
economic balances in the world, all
the social traditions OF the world,
all the industrial equilibrium in the
world.
So we find all over the world GER
tain universal phenomena. First, we
find the nations Of the world franti-
cally trying to cut down expenses. In
the United States the Republicans
frankly have quit trying. They are try
ing to save high taxes as an issue for
next year, rather than to abolish the
high taxes this year when they have
a majority in both houses. But this
is mere camouf1age.
They can't stop the onrush of taxes
through the bunghole Of the budget
barrel.
The other day Lloyd George made
practically the same decision. The
chancellor of the exchequer of the
Lloyd George cabinet, in public adj
dress, said that England was headed
straight for bankruptcy. Whereupon
Lloyd George told the heads OF the
government that those officials who
could not make reductions in their
budgets would have to make way for
others who could.
But now he processes that he is
unable to touch what he calls "per-
manent expenditures and most OF
the British expenditures seem per-
manent,
France and Belgium are in exactly
tn esame conditionf1 France has a
budget four or five billion francs
more than her income. France is
borrowing money 20 pay the interest
on her war debt just as Germany is;
and just as italy and Serbia are do
ing.
Even the neutral countries are as
deeply affected as those which en-
tered the war Spain, which always
is tottering on the brink of reyolu-
ton, has one foot over the brink
and the trouble is high taxes and in
sufficient income Holland has a
sudden increase Of taxes, and is as
puzzled to reduce taxes as the war
wrecked countries. The truth can
not be stated too often that war Is
a social plague and when it infests
the world one is immune and nc
one escapes it's devastation.
But high taxes form only one
phase of the universal world phe
nomenon. The unrest of labor is
equally worldwide and the unrest is
manifest in exactly the same way
that it is manifest in America. There
are two labor parties in every coun
try in the world, the radicals of labor
who are preaching revolution; and
the conservatives Of labor-who are
demanding higher wages.
The radical group is political il
its aims; the conservative group i
economic. And the middle Class
which has choice Of losing its form
of government or of closing its form
nomic distinction from the laborinl
class, sees little difference betweel