The Washington times., 1920-08-31
Today
One Discovery.
U. S. Wages and Europe.
John D., Jr., travelling.
Lame Amendment.
' ARTHUR BRISBANE.


(Copy1sht. isssJ
A great waterfall has been dis
covered on a Government reserve
IN the Cascade Mountains. only
forty miles from the big city Of
Portland. No white man has ever
reported it.
There is money in that water
fall, lots of 1t, and soon there Will
be another discovery within forty
miles of Portland; namely, the dis
covsry Of Q good reason why the
Government should allow private
individuals to own the waterfall
and peddle out power for all that
the traffic viii bear.
OF all we send abroad, more than
half now 10 manufactured articles
Locked up in the goods shipped TO
Europe are hundreds Of millions
paid to American labor. In the year
just passed, this country sold to
Europe four thousand million dol
lars worth of MANUFACTURED
goods, four times as much as IN
1914. Thus, because Of the war.
! labor here is kept employed and
Europe Is helping to pay its high
wages
But il will not always be thus.
France has restored four thousand
factories, will soon restore thou
sands more. All Europe, to escape
bankruptcy, Is manufacturing
feverishly. It soon will be able to
supply its own wants, and then
sell to MS, for our high paid money,
for whatever 1t can get.
A man working for thirty francs
q day across the ocean, at the pres
ent rate Of exchange, is making
less than two dollars in our money.
A German mechanic earning fifty
marks q day earns less than one
dollar of our money.
American workmen and Ameri-
can manufacturers will do well to
pay attention to these figures. In
cidentally they will be interested
in what Mr.. Harding says about
the necessity ofprotecting Ameri-
can industries and American work
men. That necessity is coming.
Business men who consider
themselves "deep on the inside"
will tell you that this country at
this moment is going through an
industrial readjustment of a seri-
Gus kind. Business men call it "a
silent pafiic." One of the ablest
financiers Of Wall Street calls it
IAN orderly panic"
However, we are not QUITE
without resources. Mr.. Williams,
Comptroller Of the Currency, tells
YOU that we have about seven
thousand million dollars in the ma
tional banks, to say nothing Of tho
thousands of millions in savings
banks, private banks, and in cir
culation-plus 500 millions hoard
cd, away from banks.
II the banks would stop discour-
aging new enterprises by danger
GUS profiteering in usurious inter-
est rates, following the example
set by the Government through the
Federal Reserve Bank; If the busi-
ness men would realize that this
is the day of great opportunity
and 60 ahead, instead Of shivering
like a cat out of water; if work
men, especially, would realize that
all a workman can make in a day,
in the long run, is what some other
workman PRODUCES, we would
not need to worry about any
silent" or orderly" panic.
Mr.. John d. Rockefeller, jr.,
started with his family on a trip
to the West. Many newspapers,
and this particular column, an
nounced that the son of the worlds
richest man went travelling in a
special train Of cars, one car fitted
up as gymnasium for the chill
dren. The fact is that Mr.. Rookie
feller travelled in an ordinary
Pullman car, which took care of a
party of ten. There wasn't any
gymnasium car, the gymnasium
consisting of one handball with
which the Rockefeller children
played in the corridor of the car.
A statement Of the facts may
not interest Mr.. Rockefeller, but
it does interest the public and
those who will write history in the
future.
Those future writers will under
stand that there was no violent OBJ
lection, in this age, to the accumu-
lation of vast sums Of money by
individuals of the Rockefeller type,
for three reasons:
First, in making the money Mr..
Rockefeller developed a gigantic
industry and actually reduced
prices.
Second, in establishing his busi-
ness he proved that competition is
not necessary to efficiency. Of
that proof people will make good
use some day.
Third, men Of the Rockefeller
type, as young Mr.. Rockefeller
proves, do not set a bad example
in ostentation and squandering
money. The Rockefeller type