Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-19
DOlUn to Brass TdckS
the Editor OF the Telegraph {:

To the Editor OF the Telegraph:
The letter of Mrs. Hartwell ap-
pearing in the Telegraph" the
other evening was read and ap-
preciated very much by the writer
Coming out as 1t did on the ami
versary of Lincoln's birthday, II
vividly recalled Lincoln's great Get
tysburg address.
Where is the school boy who can
not recite this off hand? Compare
it and it's sentiment with the self
complaisant assertions of woodrow
Wilson and the extraordinary e1orts
he puts forth to call attention to
me and my fourteen points.
With his record for fooling the
people, it would appear that he TOOK
leaf out of p. T. Barnum's BOOK
and figured that the people liked
to be fooled" At any rate we know
that it was the slogan "he kept us
out of war" that reelected HIM
When Senator Chamberlain in an
address in New York criticised some
of Wilson's inconsistencies, he was
taken to task by Woodrow. When
Chamberlain returned to Washing
ton he took occasion in the Senate
to justify his assertions. In crlu-
cism of his action a Senator talso
democrat) admitted that every
thing pointed to war; for us as FAR
back as 1914. yet the campaign oil
1916 was made on the platform oil
he kept us out of war"
If things were to be called by
their correct names, we would nave
to call their campaign slogan py i
nasty name.
If on the other hand, the party
in power had looked the situation
souarelv in the face and prepared
for the inevitable, by setting the ma
chinery going and preparing for
what they now admit was inevitable
it looks to the writer as though
thousands of lives might have been
saved. Their failure to prepare for
eventualities looks as though they
were accessories to the fact OF the
useless wastage of life and wealth.
Today Wilson is certainly "mired
in the mud of political intrigue" for
he has been asked bluntly will
YOUR country fully and unreservedly
support your policies. Will the
United States in support of his doc
trines, dispatch military and naval
forces to Europe or elsewhere when
so directed by the executive of the
League of Nations" or will we per-
nit anything of this sort that in
any way conflicts with the Monroe
Doctrine?
The Japanese are noted the world
over for their athletic feats, par
ticu'arly their "tumbling" but the
leader of the Democratic party can
pull off as many political flip-fops"
as they can along athletic lines and
the party has the nerve to face the
people and ask for more power. lee
way and money to spend without
question or restriction.
If | remember correctly in con-
nection with the investigation, of
the Packers. that it was admitted
that the $1O0,000.000 asked for to
"buy food for starving Europe, was
also intended to keep the market
from breaking, in so far as provi-
sions were concerned.
L. F. Swift admitted when ques-
toned by Mr.. Heeney, that if this
was not done that his firm would
loose approximately S2,500,000.
think that he stated that the packers
were promised that they would be
protected"
Take the managemen of the
railroads. by the general use of ter
minals and ticket Offices and the
adjustment of soliciting agencies,
the administration saved money. but
while saving with a "spoon they were
loosing it by the shovelful else
where.
The cartoon that appeared in the
Telegraph" Feb. ~. is verv GOOD
and in itself is a lesson. II with
the advance of passenger and freight
rates and the curtailing of expense
at other points the roads are still
operated at a loss, then 1t is high
time to devise some other way OF
management. or perhaps change
managers. From the speech of SEN
ator Penrose at Washington yester-
day. / quote there is a pending
resolution calling for $4,000, 900 to
enable railroads to handle food and
coal" He further states that he
thinks that the Bolshevist govern
ment in Petrograd could have run
the railroads better than the repre-
sentatiyes of the American people
have run them in the last eighteen
months" He also spoke of railroad d
securities as being hardly safe In
vestments for a savings bank and
that many banks had been unloading
them on the market. He sums UP
the loss of operating the railroads
by laundering inefficient government
control as approximating ss00,0OO,-
600.
am not quite certain as to the
exact figures. but as recall 1t there
was a sum of $5,000,000 set aside