Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-24
WILL BRITISH POLITICIANS
EMPTY AMERICAN COAL BINS?
The Relation Between Cabinet crises IN
Europe and Twenty Cent Pie
in the U. S.

y
| L in Australia threw an inkwell, with eX-
ceIlent aim. at Premier Hughes; Msieu
! Clemenceau almost lost his Job as tiger
of France; strikers almost paralyzed the
| straw hat business in England and wiped
! ont more than a million dollars worth OF
propertv. and coal production in Britain
! ceased almost completely because of the
| biggest walkout in the history of the IN
| dustry.
It may seem difficult to trace rela-
ton between such Incidents and the soar
ing cost, Of coal and clothing and food
stanIns in the United States-to find the
connection between successive cabinet
crises in Europe and the tWenty-cent pie
Of the moment in America or the ten
cent coffee that is the seventh wonder OF
the nght-Iunch world But the relation
exists definitely enough and it must be
clearly understood to acquire hghtlng
knowledge of the profteer and his ways
Mr.. Hughes, with ink in his eye; Lloyd
George brcathlessly riding a tempest that
refused to he snubbed into quietude;
Clemenceau and his ministers as they slip
from crisis to crisis and the leaders III
finance and industry who advise these
statesmen arc not unlike our own Henry
Ford. They have to answer to the world
for the promises of too enthusiastic press
agents. Liberty and light, peace ana
prosperity were promised to Europe as
the fruits of victory. These blessings
have not been delivered. Sensible men
knew all along that they could not be
delivered immcdiatel ely-that you cannot
order great gifts such as these, f. o. b.
Paradise, for dispenSation on given day
Mr.. Hughes had what you might call
an inkling of the truth when the soldiers
wrecked his office But it was Clemen'
ceau who clearly suggested the plight OF
all statesmen when he said piteously that
il is easier to make war than to make
peace.
There is no peace as yet in the minds
of men. The greater part of the world IS
still idle and nonproductive. 1t is wait
ing for the blessings that its leaders
promised The economic system OF
Europe was wrecked or dislOcated. 1t is
rusty or broken. The machine grinds
and strains with every effort to set it IN
motion again. And so, though peace was
signed over eight months ago, we are
only now drifting into one of the most
trying periods of the war
The British mine strike is a natural
and inevitable consequence of the great
struggle. 1t is moved by a sentiment
grown out of four years of strife and
sacrifice. The miners have rebelcd
l.
They want the mines natiOnalized. Ma
tionalization of utilities has never been
success in any country and the miners
know it. But they believe that anything
is preferable to a system under which
they must endure low wages, insufficient
| food and life in slums to pay immense
| dividends to men who do not work at all.
The British Government is unwilling or
| unready to act upon recommendations
made recently by its own coal commits
sion. And meanwhile England is hur-
riedly preparing to take half a million
tons of American coal.
England, too, is actually preparing to
import American textiles. Like the rest
Of Europe. the British require food and
other commodities. The United States
will contribute heavily to these various
needs Of the old world. Formerly the
British produced cotton and woolen fab
rics more choaply than they could be pro-
duced in the United States. Now they
are producing little or nothing in the
textile industry.
Before we worry about the petty
profiteers it is necessary to look at the
larger aspect of the question. How much
do we owe the people of Europe? How
much are we willing to sacrifice in their
behalf? What shall we allow in general
exports, in foreign shipments of food,
coal and clothing before we demand a
congressional investigation and limited
embargo?
With half the world clamOring for the
necessities of life, it was strange to see
Germany and Austria and Russia endur,
ing enforced idleness because of a com.
mercia blockade that lasted for eight
months after the armistice was signed
The inkwell that hit Mr.. Hughes, the
hardening antagonism which liberia
groups in England manifest toward
Lloyd George, the drift of popular opin
ion which threatened the prestige o.
Clemenceau, the strikes in England anC
on the Continent are more or less definite
expressions of blind resentment in peo
pies who were not prepared to endur,
further want and desolation after thei
four years of torment.
No one told them that further trial
would indeed be necessary, that furthe
strain and sacrifice would be unavoidable
after period in which the whole worll
gave itself up to waste and destruction
They were left to learn by experience
They suspect that Germany and Austrii
were walled off and kept in a state of in
dustrial paralysis after the armistice TO
other than military reasons.
They often are without the material t.
work with. The war consumed it all