Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1919-04-23
FACTS AND COMMENT

railway employees as did his predeces-
sor. Mr.. McAdoo. Regardless of the
rapidly increasing deficits in govern
ment railway operation an advance
amounting to s65,0000 900 a year has
been granted to the members of the i
big four" brotherhoods. the same |
men who blazed the way to higher
wages by act Of congress. The process
began in 1916. BY the threat of a gen. I
eral railway strike the four brother
hoods of engineers. firemen, cCnduc- |
tors and trainmen so worked on the !
administration ca Inc eve of ma i
tional electio thai congress WAS dra-
&c oned into passing the Adamson laW'l
81 arting the men engaged in ia'rr- |
state railroadias sWetty nearly all they |
hod demanded. When the grounl was
Cnce broken other Railway. EMP Dyes |
naturally senght increases untI. The
companies found themselves paying |
s359O 900 more wages annually than
before the process began. This, how
ever, was only the beginning. Since
the government took over the roads at
the end of 1917. 500, 100000 per year
has been added to the payroll. making.
total increase in three years of more
| than billion and a quarter. The ave-
rage advance during these three years
has been $3.50 per employe.
| The administration is not to be crit
| ic; .ed foi making wartime advances
| in wages War makes its own prices
| for labor as well as for @h,is m'd
these prices may not fairly be COM
pared with those prevailing in time of
| peace England also has been COM
| PEELED to grant her railway men in
| creases averaging $3.50 per man per
year But the administration is to be
severely condemned for granting IN
creases on demand without making 1t
| clear both to the employees benefited
and to the general public that the
money to meet these increases must
come out of the business of tranpor-
tation and not out of the United States
| treasury. 1t is perhaps too much to-
expect that any administration will
voluntarily assume the odlum OF IN
creasing passenger and freight rates
| to the point where they will meet the
cost of operation, but steps should be
taken to acquaint both travellers and
| shippers with the inevitable advances
| that they must pay. An adminlStra-
| ton is not honest with itself or with
| the nation if it appropriates the pop
ularity that follows higher wages and
strives to avoid the unpopularity that
| must come from those who pay the
bills.
The fifth war loan which is now be-
ing offered to the public was a sur
prise both in amount and in the lib
eral rate of interest. -Four and hall
billion, less by one fourth than was
asked for last fall. will be enough to
finish the job and no oversubscrip-
lions will be accepted. The POSSIBLE
ity of buying United States bonds
i bearing four and three quarters per
cent. interest is a privilege indeed, and
apart from any reasons of patriotism,
the Offering ought to be snapped up
at once. The total number of United
States bondholders has risen from a
few hundred thousand until it is al
ready well over twenty million, and no
mortal can tell what the number will
be when the campaign for the Victory
loan is over. Twenty million bond
holders mean that one person in five
is financially interested in the peNpet-
uation of the United States govern
ment. Many Of these people are for
the first time in their lives capitalists,
and thus will never be found among
the bolsheviki or others OF whatever
name who would take from those who
have resolutely econumized and saved
in order to give to those who have
not. Apart front arousing patriotism
and financing the war. the nation is
permanently 10 the good by the num-
Der of citizens who have taken stock
in her.
Though France is not to acquire the
Saar valley as her own she is to have
the coal therefrem for a period of fif7
teen years in compensation for her
own mines of the Lens district that
the Germans completely ruined Al
the end of the fifteen years a popular
vote of the inhabitants is TO be taken
| to determine the political future of the
, region. This solution while providing
I. L. I'll
restoration OF her industrial life, does
not violate the principle of self deter
mination. Premier Clemenceau has
thus done the gracious thing in yield
: ing his immediate claim to the valley
and the allies have been enabled tC
, keep their fixed resolution that there
, shall be no more forcible annexations
, of unwilling populations.
: Fiume remains as the chief stumb-
I ling block in the way of harmony. The
; big four have held one session after
: another and Italy shows no sign OF
; abating her claim to all that was Sc
i cretly promised her by Great Britain
e and France before her remuneration o.
e the triple alliance and her espousal o.
t the cause of the entente. That secre
treaty gave to Italy all the Adriatit
coast and islands that were then the
territory of Austria Hungary. At tina
time the entente had yet to hear anC
Q accept President Wilson's fourteen
D points as a basis for peace. nor wat
= there any Jugoslavia seeking access t.
c the sea. AS the situation has now de
@ veloped, the fulfillment of Italy
II claims would actually violate poin
= eleven which would accord to Serb;
= free and secure access to the sea; AM
e it would violate the spirit of point one
= in that it would be an adherence t
: the now discredited methods of secre
n diplomacy. Therefore though Lloy
# George and CleInenceau are in favo
: of offering Italy some compromise
>, President Wilson has set his face lik
= flint against making the slightest con
IL cession. There the matter hangs in
e asmuch as it requires unanimous con
d sent among the big four to max
their recommendations binding.
The fate of the former kaiser, thong
far less important than many of tn
is questions now before the peace con
is ference, cannot fail to hold the in
% terest of all whom his mad course ha
SO deeply injured. The theory of soy
=. ereignty has ever been that the mon
IL arch represents his people and is NJ
l. answerable for his acts. inasmuch 6
they are not his own but those of h
20 nation. In William Hohenzollern
IN own case it is evident that he coul
never have gone to war or carried
on without the united German peop
e at his back. If it be argued that /
Ut deceived his people and usurpe
at powers that were not his by right, IL
answer is that these acts would PROF
w erly fall within the jurisdiction of
10 German court. Great as have bee
&c his offenses against humanity, the
40 exists no legal machinery for bringir
him To jnSticp To
to occasion would SAVIOR strongly of e.
of most factn nrnceedIlre som nthinnr a