Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-05-02
THE DEFINITION TOTAL

The Great Joy Ride is expanding.
Mr.. Baker the Washington Post in
forms us. is accompanied on his "trip to
Europe by fifteen members OF the
House Military Committee. The mis-
sion of the Fifteen is to inspect
They will inspect not only in France
but in Italy. Belgium, Great Britain
and Germany.
Their tour abroad is not to be con-
founded with the ordinary tourist
tour. The ordinary tourist fOOts his
own bills. The bills of the Congress
Sional tourist are footed by the plain
American taxpayer. he taxpayer
perforce stays at home. This of
course is as it should be. The business
of the taxpayer is to pay taxes. He
can't pay taxes unless he works. He
can't work unless he stays at home.
On the other hand. the business OF the
congressional JOY Rider Tourist is to
inspect" L he taxpayer stays at
home and works and pays taxes The
Governmental Joy Rider Tourist goes
abroad. tours and ''inspects." n just
and equitable division of a b 0 +.
Shaking song affaire. as the touring
congressman may put it in French.
tempered possibly by slight Missouri
accent. when they get back from their
travels.
1t will take fully six weeks, it is an
ticipated for the Congressman to do all
the 'imspccting' There is Il lot of it
to d0-scenery. hotel cuisines, the pro
greSSivc restoration Of de luxe rail
road travel interesting battlefields and
what not. And then some time will be
lost of course. pottering around Amer
lean camps and army headquarters.
Altogether, six weeks time is none too
long for Il satisfactory short tour
abroad under present conditions. In
Guiding the ocean trip both ways, say
two months in all Probably the
whole expedition will not cost the tax
payers over S100.000-mere chicken
feed" as compared with the majestic
total cost of removing and maintaining
the + Xpcutive and Departmental
branches Of our Government 5000 miles
the incidental population of StenOgra
pliers. clerks. specialists. professors
and experts" and with the inevitable
train Of wives. daughters. sons and
sOnS-m-law The taxpayer will see the
prOpriety of tightening his belt and
buckling down to real work when he
gets this demnitiOn total of the entire
Joy Ride before him.
As to what this total viii he there is
nothing certain save that it will be
Whopper. In addition to their salaries
-cOpiOuS no dOubt-each and every
one of the professors and experts and
specialists gets eight dollars day for
expenses. There has been no recent
census of thees groups, but the ''eX
pertS'' and specialists alone are present
in Serried battalionS. They are eX
perts and specialists in pretty much
everything. including piety and moral
Ity. as eXemplified by the pulchritudi-
nous Heron. One Of them is even Il
territorial specialist. If you ask us
what Il ''tcrritOrial specialist" is, we
give it mp. But that is what this
specialist" is. He says SO himself.
He has got it on his card. Eight dol
lars Il day spending money over and
above salary is what each of these pro
feSsors. experts and specialists.
irrespective of sex. draws from the
American taxpayer for processing. eX
porting and specializing in Paris for
half year or SO. And the same lib
eral allowance above salary goes to
every clerk, stenographer and routine
work employee. Sons daughters and
&onS-in-law, unattached. may or may
not come in. on this. We are not in
formed. Possibly some of them do.