The Washington times., 1920-02-26
To-day.
Sum Kim Snake Heads.
Colby No Rubber Stamp.
Feeble warning Notes"
No Master Mind In Crime
By ARTHUR BRISBANE
(Copyriaht. lS1e.l

Mr.. Sum Kim. Chief Of the
Kayuse Indians OF Oregon, Is dead
in Chicago. He blew out the gas.
There in prossic language you
have the real history Of the noble
red man. He blew out the gas
from the beginning, instead Of try
ing to understand IT.
On Sum Kim's chest. fastened
by a string around his neck. they
found four little leather bags, in
each bag the dried head of a
snake.
Chief Sum Kim believed those
snake heads could protect him in
all sorts of ways. He was mis-
taken; they couldn't even hiss
warning about blowing out the
gas.
Clergymen, teachers, professors
of journalism, your text on igno-
rance, and her sister, superstition,
is supplied by the Indian Chief
four little leather bags, snake
heads and escaping gas.
Bainbridge Colby, as Secretary
of State, will be an improvement
on many of his predecessors. Those
that know him believe him to be
more deeply interested in the
United States than in the British
Islands, convinced that this nation
has reached maturity and is mt to
govern itself.
Mr.. Colby has made his own
success and reputation by hard
work. With the right opportunity
he will make a first-class Secre-
tary Of State, but he will not make
q good rubber stamp.
More worry about decreasing
population on the farms. Govern
ment statistics from New York
State show farm hands fewer by
II per cent, farm-owning popula-
toin by 3 per cent.
A reduction in the population
that provides food is serious. Gov
ernment may well "sound a warn
ing note"
But warning notes OF them
selves are not valuable.
Government, State and national,
should do something.
Food production is more a mat
ter of machinery than Of men. II
you now multiplied farm labor BY
ten and took away harvesting ma
chimes, your grain production
would vanish.
II you multiplied by i've the men
working on potato farms. took
away the potato diggers aud put
men to picking potato bcYs by
hand or distributing paris green
from watering pots. potatoes would
cost forty dollars a bartel instead
of ten.
Can Government do anything
OF course, 1t can. 1t does when
really interested.
1t soon found a billion and q
quarter for aircraft profiteers and
forty other billions when 1t got
excited about war.
This next national election
should give to narrow-minded gov
ernment such a kick as would force
it to interest itself in the problem
Of feeding Americans as much as
it recently interested itself in the
problem Of killing Germans.
Roads should be made good to
save farmers waste of time In
hauling.
Governments should provide, at
cost. a full supply of tractors to
help farmers work. The little
farmer cannot afford an expensive
tractor, used three weeks in the
year and left rusting for forty
nine weeks. Government should
proceed with something more ef-
fective than pretty platitudes
against those that profiteer at the
farmers expense in the sale Of
fertilizer and other necessities.
Gasoline is as important on the
farm as horsepower. Its price
should be controlled by Govern
ment- Government oil lands
owned by the people should be
developed by the Government to
protect the people from oil trust
extortion, not farmed out to start
a new brand of extortion.
There is a limit beyond which
scarcity and high price of food
cannot go without serious conse-
quences. The danger line is not
far. off, and the time for warning
notes" is past.
The police are hunting "the
master mind" in bond robbcries
amounting to millions. No such
mind will be found. Criminals
have weak minds, sometimes made
dangerous by a form of insanity
or a drug habit that ignores
danger and operates for a while
with success because of its reck-
lessness.