davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
vate operation must again demon
strate It's superiority. 1t cannot
afford to rest it's case on past rec
<~<Jc
Slandering the Navy

The latest entry by Speaker Sweet
in the book of his self-revelation is
his statement that "if the people of
tho United States realized the ex-
tent to which socialist ideas have
permeated the navy they would not
sleep nights until every vestige of a
socialist idea was eliminated from
the first line of defense"
A loose-talking preacher found 1t
desirable to leave a town in Penn
sylvania he was evangelizing be-
cause of the unpopularity of his
statement that many of the men who
served in the American army abroad
were "scum and riffraff." Speaker
Sweet was not rebuked in a similar
way, but if he is quoted correctly
his words were even more insulting
to the men Of the navy.
What the Speaker means by $50
cialistic ideas" he does not say
probably he has no clear notion Of
what he means. If he means that
"they are opposed las he says other
Socialists are to our flag, they are
opposed to purity, to motherhood, to
womankind, to the Church and the
homc''-if these are the things the
Speaker means, then it is safe to
wager a share Of Crucible Steel that
he will not dare go aboard a war
ship and repeat his statements.
Mr.. Sweet adds to insufferable
arrogance unspeakable ignorance.
He denies he is playing politics. Per-
haps he is not Politics usually has
CLEANS Of intelligence. The impress
sion he makes is that of a little man
inebriated with the sense of his own
importance-a creature who would
be boss if he knew how.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13

collection of the indemnity from Ger
many, is an Independent interna-
tional body. Its vast powers are to
be exercised, practically, by tho
representatives on it Of France,
Great Britain, Italy and the United
States lin case, Of course, that the
United States ratifics the treaty..
If the treaty is to be modified with
out rcsubnhssion to all the sigma
tories it will have to be done, conse-
quently, by the united action Of
France, Great Britain, Italy and the
United States - and possibly Bel
gium--on the reparations commits
sion, or by the united action of the
nine powers represented in the
league council.
France has more at stake than any
other power in putting the treaty
into effect without modification of
the reparations chapter. She con-
SNhptNt w puIiCilNlCL (CIIdl CCIIl~
torial guarantees against a possible
renewal Of German aggression in re-
turn for the signing of the Franco
BritishAmerican treaty of alliance.
That treaty has been ratified by
Great Britain. But until the United
States ratifies it it will not become
effective, even between France and
Great Britain. For France to agree
to alter the terms of the peace before
the tripartite alliance is established
is not to be expected.
1t seems clear, then, that present
talk of revision is merely long-range
speculation. The treaty will have to
be tried out before the political
necessity Of revision can be convinc-
ingly shown.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
The Telephone Problem

We think the telephone company
misconceives the nature Of the criti-
clsms that are being leveled at it's
service. There is every disposition,
we believe, on the public's part to
make allowances for the handicaps
under which the company has been
operating since last August, when
1he government returned the system
to private operation. No one ex-
Pects, at once, a return to the mar
velous efficiency of the years before
the war which made our telephone
the wonder of visitors from abroad
and from many American cities
lime obviously will be required to
regain this perfection. A wear
seems short enough period to al
low for this task.
But 1t does not seem too much to
expect progress on the way; and if
is exactly this progress which. in
general observation, is lacking. To
the contrary, there will be found
many who feel that the service hos
retrograded since last autumn. We
are leaving aside the question of the
present emergency which has wit
messed a collapse of the telephone
unparalleled in our city's experience
and fraught with grave danoer
lhe point is that before the Gin,
appeared service was at its loves,
efficiency. Rightly or wrongly. the
pupllc has attributed this condition
more to inefficient personnel than
inadequate facilities. If this dag.
nosls IS correct, why should such .
iallure OF personnel persist. seem.
ihgiy even grow worse, a year and
more after the armistice and 6vs
months after Mr.. Burleson's do.
structlve hand was removed?
These widespread beliefs canno,
De met by advertisements snch &C
'hose put forward by the telephone
company. The public is in no mood
Tor warnings and threats from =
puolic utility that seems unable te
take the first steps toward return
of pre-war efficiency. There is nc
demand for a retut 1f the un,a,
mented public operation. But pri,
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
lnternationalist or Egoist2

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: have read in your issue of
February 10 "The President Analyzed, /"
Instead, however, of Mr.. Wilson's be-
ing an internationalist is he not an
cgoist? Has his thought at any time
been other than for himself and his
personal ambition? Was not his am
bition the same as that of the German
Kaiser, that is, the domination of the
earth? Did he not go to Paris in
an attempt to become the president of
the world, using underhand ways and
propaganda, as the German Emperor
used military ways and propaganda,
to become lord of the earth?
Wilhelm failed to reach Paris,
thanks to an awakened and battling
world. Wilson got there, but, thanks
to the Republican Senator'S, failed to
attain his ambition.
M. E. BUTLER.
New York, Feb. II, 1920.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
Our Wasted Food
Il Plan for the Elimination of Need
less Costs

less Costs
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: If a manufacturer Of automo-
blles knew that siderable part of
his product would rust to pieces in
his factory yard, that portion would
be so damaged in transit as to be value
less on arrival at destination and that
further portion would be so handled
by the city dealer as to be ruined for
use he would lose patience with those
who urged him to produce more.
Being a business man, he would take
steps to remedy such a situation.
The distribution of food is, to-day,
in an exactly parallel position.
We are producing ample food, more
than ample food, for the entire coun-
try, but, because of our wasteful meth
DDS of distribution, the consumer is
paying high price and the farmer re-
ceiving low one.
In addition to the railroads, which
move our food, it passes on an average
through at least three hands before
reaching the consumer, each of these
necessary under present conditions and
each requiring and entitled to a profit.
The problem of improving on the
present system is too large for solu-
tion by any one man, but a Republican
President, whose first interest was the
service of the people of the United
Cfaf INC
manity,' would appoint as Secretary
Of Agriculture a practical man. not
school teacher, and as Secretary of
Commerce a business man, instead of
a conversationalist.
These two, not confning themselves
to professors of political economy and
pacifst lawyers. would appoint a
committee, composed of farmers, trans
portatlon men, commission dealers,
wholesalers, and retailers, which would
work out a plan under which at least
one profit could be eliminated and the
present waste greatly reduced.
Such plan necessarily would be
based largely on the furnishing of ac-
curate daily reports of supplies in
markets and in transit, as we'll as of
demand from each center-not to men
tion survey of the countrys yearly
needs, published before instead of
after the farmer has done his plant
ing.
The government is the only agency
which can furnish this information, and
while fewer employees of the Depart
mcnt Of Agriculture would sit COM
fortably at their desks in Washington
writing learned essays on the "Bugs
of the Panama Canal Zone" more of
them would be in the field collecting
information of value, for which we
now pay, but do not get.
A safe prophecy is that the govern
ment, having worked out a plan and
arranged to furnish the vital infor-
nation, would leave its execution to
the business of the country and a
further safe prophecy is that, given
one more term of an Administration
like the present, there will be no busi-
ness left.
FRANK r. CHAMBERS JR.
Featherstone, Va, Feb. 7, 1920.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
The Soldier Dead
Field of Honor the Sane, Logi-
coI Solution
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: At a meeting of the Bring
Back -Soldier-Dead League on Fri
day night at the stuyvesant High
School Building, reports from the dele
gates sent to Washington TO urge the
passage of the bill authorizing the re-
turn of the soldier dead in France were
heard. Also the assurance was brought
from Colonel Pierce, of the Graves
Registration Service, that the percen-
tage OF errors in identification would
be so small and the certainty that each
person would receive his own relative
was so positive that no one should have
any doubt on that score.
Several people in the audience at
tempted to tell those assembled that
just such promises had been made By
Colonel Pierce after the Spanish
American War, but that the most an
paillng mistakes were made in spite
OF his assurances, and that the opening
Of cotfins in many cases at that time
showed, instead OF American soldiers
the remains of Filipincs and Chinese
coolies. Some one also tried to tell the
audience of the condition under which
many of the boys whose remains they
were asking to have returned were
buried, and how absolutely impossible
1t would be for them to expect that
there would be anything in the caskets
that would be consigned to them.
These well-meaning persons were
hooted and jeered at, and almost
eJected from the auditorium because
'hey were suspected of designs on the
plans OF the leaders of this movement
TO brlng back $4,000 caskets to this
country, ostensibly containing the re
mans OF our soldier dead in France.
wed rather be fooled than denied
the right to bring back the bodies of
our boys If we want them was the
sentiment expressed to silence any
truthful statements as to the imprac-
tlcablllty of the whole plan.
The government even in its desire to
us promise to bring back the
oead' and the public in its deep sym
patny Tor the hearts desire Of bereaved
parents, has considered with reluct-
ance the idea Of the return of the dead.
out II, as the sentiment of this meet
ing showed, there are very sordid
motives at the source of this move
ment' 1T might be we'll if CONGRESS-
would consider the measure in the
light of its national rather than its
so'eiS personal import before it passes
the bill. ''''o0~
Inc idea of Field of Honor in
france where all our soldier dead NAV
be assembled is the sane. logical solu-
uon OF the problem, even Cor those
'y'hg outside the war zone. and how
any parent can consider with eoua-
niihity the desecrating alternative of
haV'ng the body moved about like a
p.eoe OF cargo, subjected to all the in
a'en'''es .aes OF handling over SO many.
thousands of miles of uncertain trans
portation, is difficult to understand by
1t cold Star mother whose love for her
80" could never be questioned.
BLANCHE K. WHEELER.
brooklyn, Feb Il, 1920.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
German Workers Learning

The Metdllorbeiter -Zeitung, the
official organ of the German Metal
Workers Federation, one of the
largest and most influential of the
German trade unions, finds that the
slops of Marxism furnish but thin
diet for the German workingman,
and cries out against further accept
ance of the delusions of industrial
democracy.
Specialization" it says, "will do
no good unless it brings with it
great increase in the production of
goods" And socializatlon, so far as
tried, is VIGOROUSLY followed by de-
creased production. The hasty So
cializer of industry, especially the
socializer who would use force to
establish his system, is the greatest
e"emy of the proletariat.
This is saying something. Lovers
of the human species object not so
much to what Bolshevism does to the
bourgeoisie as to what it does to
the masses. The Red Terror has
murdered perhaps $4,000 of the best
of Russia who would not submit to
Bolshevism, but the less ideaIistlc
and more selfish intellectuals have
given life allegiance to Lenine, and
now, as managers of nationalized
factories, as officers Of Lenine's
armies, as members of Russia's en-
larged bureaucracy, get the big
rations and cynically pick the bones
of spurious communism. 1t is the
myriad death roll of the workers of
Russia which is the great horror.
The charred bones Of duchesses
and helpless princelings in aban-
doned mine shafts and the bodies OF
patriots like Kolchak tossed on "Red"
bayonets touch imaginations, but the
bodies of starved millions-here is
the evidence of Bolshevism's greatest
crime. Not what the projectors of
tbs system intended but the inevi-
table consequences of the system are
it's condemnation.
And as specialization that checks
production is inimical to the COM
mon men, so also are wage increases
which check production. Commodi-
ties rise more easily in price than
wages. The workman is a victim
when the vicious spiral mounts up
ward. So Germany has found it,
and 80 the organ of the German
metal workers exclaims that "the
mere raising of wages and salaries
is purely illusory." The only way
generally to advance real wages is
to increase production per worker.
When any particular group of wage
workers makes successful grab
when production is low and prices
therefore high, it profteers at the
expense of other workers. General
wages can never be kept abreast of
rising commodity prices. With
fewer things made, the standard of
living comes down. Sound trades
unionism demands policy to put
prices down rather than to push
them further up.
e Wage equalixations are, of course,
necessary when there is a disturb
ance of price level. But it is diff
cult to see how the principle of equal
lzation can be appealed to to justify
"a new increase of railroad workers.
whose nominal wages are up 1O6 per
cent, whereas living costs are up but
80 per cent. To increase their
wages first would be further to dis
@eGualize, and thus start spiral twist
ing upward once more.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
Stars and Spirits

Stars and Spirits
An affectionate interest in the
stars is a special taste, we concede,
and calling them by their official
titles presupposes zest for remote
facts quite cut of the ordinary. A
columnist who knew his modern lit
crature by the shelfload might
never have heard Of the Northern
Cross; and many a poet and poetess
has doubtless slipped Vega or Aide
baran into line who had not the
faintest notion when to look for
either.
But the planets are nearer; and
they are far more familiar to mod
ern tongues largely by reason of
their being named after gods and
goddesses still very much alive.
Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter,
Saturn-what other minor gods
lave we Excepting Charlie Chap
lin and Mary Pickford) in this year
of grace two thousand years, more
Or less, since Greece was Greece and
Rome Rome? So the project of talk
ing with these spots has thrill hard
to equal since flying became bore.
Personally we own to being a dozen
times more thrilled over the bare
possibility of wireless message
from Mars than over all the record
ed chatter that Sir Oliver Lodge and
Ouija have ever pulled out Of the
Spirits"
1t is the known quality of the inter
stellar stuff that appeals, we sup
pose. Imagination helps one not at
all in that silly world of the spirits
which they describe so vaguely in
the few moments they can be per-
suaded to tear themselves away from
the more engrossing subjects of
Aunt Eliza's hemstitched handker
chief and little Tommy's penknife
that he left in the woodshed. The
distances of the planets are beyond
accurate imagination-nor does it
help much to start a train for Mars
and tell how many years it will take
to get there, as our popular scien-
lists are fond Of doing But one can
at least see Mars, and anybody who
has ever craned his neck at the
heavens has fetched back rudi
mentary, almost q physical, sense Of
vastness that comes close to putting
the planets on our mental map.
And once imagined the Ding runs
away with the mind. Exchanging
languages would be simplicity itself
for our experts who solved the
Rosetta stone. And thereafter whole
literatures would arrive rapidly
enough to be serialized by the Sun
day papers. Not since the great
eras of discovery, when the Phnni
clans put out to sea from the east
ern end of the Mediterranean, or
when Columbus and the Cabots
sailed westward across the Atlantic
have similar moments been offered
to the jaded human race. With
such chances fermenting in our own
familiar cosmos, who has time to
fuss with the chatter of the spirit"
Bandarlog, whoever and whatever
they may be?
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
Work VS.. Enthusiasm
(Fron. RI, r.

FROM The Kansas City Tinses)
- describing the indifferent attitude Of
~ mans toward work. a Hamburg re-
po,' says it required eight DAYS to-
1A'oao 'ne cargo of an American vessel
az .nae port. If the job had been thel
,ooe'ng OF a French village it is believed
- "ould not have taken the same xorcs)
more than thirty minutes.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
Is Ma,y1na Right,
To the Editor of The Tr;b,,

10 the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: l read in Mrs. Wadswor.b,s
paper, "The Woman Patriot" that on
account of Mary Garrett Hav. Mrs
hobart and other women Republicans
were leaving the party.
| asked mamma, and she says Mrs
Hobart couldn't have left the narty
when Mrs. Wadsworth wrote about
her' because New Jersey, where Mrs
hobart lives, didn't have suffrage tben
Mamma says Miss Hay and other women
ike her got the vote for women. and
that if you can't vote you CAM ho
Republican.
Is mamma right?
SA cEclLY BROWN.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
rue LOYALTY
(From The Hartford Cournnt

!hose Democrats of North Dakota
VINO are thankful for and devoted to
the leadership of Wilson and Bryan"
seem to think they know how to ride
two horses at the same time. When
they follow up this pacific declaration
by promise to support the San Fran
cisco nominee. they surely do all that
loyal Democrats can be expected to do
and that is some.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
srMrrn or TuE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to tho
for republication Of all dispatches credited
to II or not otherwise credited In this paper, and
also tho local Of spontaneous origin published
herein.
Al. rights os republication Of al, other matter
herein also reserved.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13

Mr. Moffett could not have wr;t+er
Possessed" if there mad been no such
words as sensual or sensualitv. He
uses them freely and indiscriminatelv
and half the time we have onlv the
vaguest idea of what he is talking
about. 1t also is our opinion that he
doesn't know, either.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
SUBSCRIPTION RArEs-ny MAN. inclu
GUARANTY

xeu can gorchass msrehandse advertised IN IHE
tloA resvIts In any case THE Tribune guarantees
70 pay your money back upon request. No red tape.
No auibbnq. We mako good promptly II tho
aAveFt3eeT does not.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13

Add Theory Of the Leisure Glass:
"Thc other day." writes Manuclo, ~
was standing in a high grade provision
shop when the telephone rang-Mrs
So-and-so speaking. Would they mind
sending their delivery boy out to find
a taxi for her. And, mind it or not,
they sent him."
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
The Coming Tower
Invalided

Invalided
IIc often stood beside his gate
An honest faced old man.
When days were fair,
Early and late,
AS chanccd by I'd mark him there
Not bent but tremulous,
Clasping the pickcts; and his eyes
would scan
The railway line. Ever intently thus
He stood. Sometimes coaxing Irish
smile
Was turned my way. "Comc, rest
awhilel"
He'd call, and beckon with his cane;
And we would talk as afternoons would
wane.
He told how In the middle night he
woke
And knew his strength had vanished
at stroke,
And how he gave one broken, bitter cry,
Praying that ere the morning he might
die.
But he had learned to bear 1t; liked
the sun;
And had not lost his olH-timc love of
fun.
Hc had been track boss, so he said,
Before his legs were dead,
With six or eight spry lads to do
The tasks he bid them to;
Had lived hearty life, keeping his
section trim;
In all the years, no man complained
of him.
But, now he was laid by, others would be
Doing his work-no doubt as we'll as he;
All he could do now was, when days
were fine,
To stand there, gazing up and down
the line
Of what he saw, no longer part E.
Plutarch l think, advised: Cat not
thy heart" @. S. B.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
By
Heywood Broun

true, and what is true everybody
knows. The book is of a somewhat
florid complexion throughout, but the
authors moral attitude toward every
thing which happens is always of the
highest order.
One theory Of theology in particular
completely baffled US. In chapter thir-
teen Roberta Wallis, one of the most
iniquitous characters in the book,
stands in her bedroom in her night
gown and drinks toast. Defiance to
the powers of evil" Seraphine, the
trance medium, who is q person of the
most impeccable religious convictions,
is present at this scene and reports,
with shudder ] watched these two
tragically led young women as they
stood there draped in white and drank
this sacrilegious toast" Now WHY. we
wonder, should defiance to the powers
Of evil" be sacrilegious. We always
thought the powers of evil were fair
game for anybody's attack. We didn't
know they had friend in town. How
ever, Seraphine was right, for when she
came to the apartment in the morning
she found Roberta in her bed cher
face convulsed with look of inde-
sc1lbable terror-deadi"
The hotel doctor, poor fool, called it
heart failure
The trouble with the final chapter
on "The truth about women that no.
body tells" is that it is full of all sorts
Oh general statements concerning "all
men" and "all women" We take ex-
ceptlon, and ask for an appeal on the
following counts: THE beauty of =
selfish woman fades quicklvo: "even
the bravest of our advanced women
thinkers know in their hearts that
they writhe under the pity or scorD Of
their sister women; "the double
standard has done more harm 70 the
world than all the wars of history:
the ghastly truth is-this is the truth
which has filled the world with tears
that the average full-blooded male Cit
zen is poiygamous in his instinct and
to some extent in his practice"
We might accept this if the author
would leave out the tears and say "the
average male citizen likes to think
and still more likes to have everybody
else think, that he is polygamous in his
instinct, and to some extent in his prac-
tice."
Mr. MOffet+ Gould 4
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
The Baleful Dime Nove,

Sir: You may be right in your appraisal
OF the influence of the dime novel, but I'm
for the opposition.
My introduction to the Deadwood Dick
Jesse James, Tip Top Weekly branch Of
literature came through chance frendshin
with our butchers boy.
That boy now owns his own meat market
and when l see the prices he asks and pots
for his meats, there is no doubt in my mind
as to when he was inoculated with the germ
OF the hold-up man and the bank robber.
New-York tribune., 1920-02-13
The Diary of Our Own Samuel Pepys

February 10-All the morning at the
office, at work with diligence, and
home as early as might be to my
wife, and read to her some old stories
Of R. Lardner's, which made her
laugh and forget her pain. With my
hands l made shadows upon the WALL
as l learned out Of book when l
was lad, and nightly amused to
watch our cat jump at them.
1.-THE streets full of dappled grey
snow, and slush, and too few men to
clear it away. Nor has the garbage
been taken away for six days, and
lies in many streets, and l hope we
shall not have plague. A. Chapman
to see me, and tells me he is writing
leaders for the Telegram. Read "Old
Man Murtrie," Of Don Marquis's, the
best piece, meseems, any one ever
wrote; and my wife liked it, too. r.
Kirby to luncheon, and home early,
and worked at my scrivening all the
evening.
ia quiet day in the office, owing
to the holiday, which is one Of few
feel reverence for. Hard at nv
writing, and fashioned some verses.
but misliked them, and threw them
away.