The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-09-25
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL
BY ]. E. Jones.

the representatives of capital and la
Dor meets in Washington, some n
should endeavor to find out the real
reason why there were more strikes
in the United States last month than
during any previous month during re-
cent years. The. president, in his ad-
dresses, is hopeful that the causes of
discomfort will be located and an
nointed with government balm. The
Washington statesmen are in search
of the trouble" and like the tramp
looking for work, praying that they
won't find it. One short year ago ev-
erybody knew who was to blame, and
Mr.. Wilson pointed it out: mo in
trigues Of the enemy can ever divide
our unity by means of those industrial
quarrels and class dissensions which
he (the Germany has tried so diligent-
ly to foment," declared the president.
We were accustomed, particularly in
Washington, to dismiss discomfort
with a gesture and lay it all up against
German propaganda" And in each
and every instance when industrial
Quarrels" threatened, the Wal Labor
Board, with Mr.. Taft at it's head,
showed wages up another peg. But
the beneficiaries of most wage in
creases have complained that the pur-
chasing power of money has skunk
80 fast that their new long pay checks
do not get them any further han their
old short ones.
Everyone admitted in our most
troubled days that labor had fully met
it's responsibilities in the progress of
human democracies. A good many,
who were not ungrudging, said thai
capital had also fully met that same
responsibility.
"Ah, but capital profteered," OBJ
served the Cynic.
Correct, but so did labor" respond
ed Truth.
But both, as a whole, remained true
to their responsibilities to human de-
mocracies," %interposed Impartiality.
Granting all this" inquiries E Plur-
ibus Unum, who's doing the intriguing
now, for everybody knows that any
man in this country has the right toI
cease work for any reason that may
be sufficient unto himself; but there
are mighty few employers who can
fire him, Notwithstanding which there
is under-production at a time when
the high cost of living is pinching
everywhere"
"Ah, lay it up to distribution, we've
got to have a goat now that German
propaganda isn't in good working
order" growled Cynic.
"But why is production below nor
mai 1t a time when unemployment
has given place to a decided scarcity
of women as we'll as men, in industry"
insisted Truth.
Its a cinch that somebody is still
intriguing" asserted E Pluribus Unum.
It is a clear case for the big con-
ference, with the American public in
the grandstand. Somebody is getting
away with the goods" and the big
industrial showdown between the
principals of labor and capital uncover
the intriguers. ,
Grass rugs are in as general use as
swivel chairs in the government build
ings at Washington-and while swivel
chairs have won fame and blame, grass
rugs have softened and enriched the
lanes and corridors of war buildings,
and the stone and marble edifices used
by the departments of the government
are also adorned by the rugs that made
Oshkosh famous. The first carpet was
created, not made; and Adam and Eve
used to stroll across its velvetry sur
face, while they looked into one an
others dreamy yes and saw apples.
Thus the first parents were the origi-
nal discoveries of grass carpetings. In
succeeding centuries people went out
into the deserts and wsste places
where they lost the art of joy-walking.
But the time came when inquiring in
t~ellects solved the problem as to why
the marshes of Wisconsin and Mime
sofa were luxuriant in a vegetable
growth known to botanists as carix
s~tricta, and to the home folks as wire
grass. The answer was grass rugs.
Deltox, as it develops through the sur,
veys made by the Agricultural Depart
ment, which has prepared interesting
thesis on the subject of carix strict,
is as logical to commerce and indus
try as was the fall of the kaiser to
the higher civilization of the universe.
Most natural products that grow in
profusion have a definite place in the
scheme of creation, which eventually
inventive genius unfolds; and we
may expect that some day somebody
will answer the demand of a big eli
entele by selling cactus done up in
packages de luxe, thus separating that
wasteful product from its exclusive
place as the background for movie
films. Wire grass was nearly as far
removed as cactus from the useful
purposes Of society before the grass
rugs were perfected. ready for of.
fees, homes and bungalows, by the
inventive creations at Oshkosh. Ordi
nary grass has joints and branches,
and will not stand friction, crump-
1sn~ on u,aor-sk &C. , cArx ~ k-0 -