Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-21
THE STORY THE WEEK HAS TOLD

Hugo tells a plausible story of his capture
his rencounter with Villa and his subsequent re-
lease without ransom---a fact which relieved
the CarranZa government of an ADDITIONAL COM
plication in it's relationship with the United
States. With the international phase of the in
cident disposed of there remains only the inter-
est the evidence that villa has not yet crossed
that border from which there would be no re-
turn to his hills. He is reported as in perfect
physical condition. his smile. familiar IN all
stories where he is not crossed. is again men
toned. He asked his captive to come back for
Christmas dinner with him! We may, with
proprety.. deprecate and even abhor the prac-
tees of Pancho but there are few of us so far
removed from boyhood's ambitions as not
to recognize that here is one who, in his GENIAL
moments. acts up to one-time conception
of what proper bandit should be.
Venustiano CarranZa whatever else he may
be, is nobody's fool. He evidences this fact in
his reply to Secretary Lansings near-ultimatum
in the matter of Consular Agent Jenkins This
reply, in the hands of the State Depart
ment, has many shortcomings. Foremost
among these is its 'sassiness." to use homely
expression. But the fact is that. looking at the
Mexican reply with open mind, there may be
something to their side of the The note
says for example, that the belief of the Ameri-
government in the innocence of Jenkins is
not sufficient, according to Mexican laws, to
establish such innocence" One cannot help but
wonder if our reply, with the situation reversed
would not have been somewhat along the same
lines. The United States has plenty of simon
pure grievances against CarranZa. 1t may be
that the latest addition to the list shall amount
to nothing more than that he has made
scious that wrong for once ourselves
x
Attorney General Palmer has been at it
again. This time it is the Big Five of the
packing firms of the nation which he has per-
suaded to be good. An agreement has been
from them which places them under per-
manent injunction to retire from all business
except that of meat packing and dairy products
They are to sell. under government supervision
their holdings in private stockyards: in stock
yard railroads and terminals; in market papers;
dispose of their interests in cold storage plants
extra to those needed for their own meat prod
ucts forever disassocate themselves with all
retail meat business and all unrelated lines,
and perpetually submit to the jurisdiction of
the United States district court under injunc-
ton combine with themselves any
else to monopolize any food product in the
United States. These and other less important
things they to do They to do them, the
packers claim because they wish to cooperate
periodically during the trying years ahead
The Attorney General does not say why they
to do them, but he smiles and says they
to do them, anyway.
From all sides come expressions of belief
that body blow has been landed upon the
swollen waistband of old H. c. L. Quick de-
clines in food prices expected. Whether
these first enthusiastic expectations to be
fully and promptly realized not remains to be
seen. One must not forget that there many
other elements conSpiring to keep the props n
der prices, elements far more difficult to reach
and control than are five huge packing houses.
But whatever the immediate extent of reaction
to Mr.. Pamers achievement, none will deny him
the credit which is his for insuring the nation
against whatever threat the packers offered to
it's future prosperity. without the long drawn
out processes of bitterly contested legal battle
So swiftly do forget that today the coal
strike, which fortnight ago threat tened the
nation with famine and sickness and DEATH is
drifting into that dim realm of consciousness
men call memory. With the lifting of the strict
rationing of COAL the assurance that more than
80 per cent of the miners had returned their
tasks some days ago, and the return of our lives
to the normal, familiar basis the dread that was
so real so little time ago has become unreal;
the hot wrath that in our hearts that such
thing could be, grown COOL 1t is not best
that this should be
The story has yet been fully told of by
a margin the nation averted the
greatest industrial disaster with which it has
ever been threatened. 1t is not we'll that the
significance of that threat be lost. For there
is work ahead to be done-the work of insuring
the nation against the recurrence of a similar
crisis in its deStinieS. And it is only through
your insistence Jim and Jane, voiced in full
consciousness of what you faced two weeks
ago that that work will be done