The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-03-11


United States Government a half
billion. 1t will cost more than that,
when corporations get the bsauti-
full new tax-dodging scheme W
working order. &
"The Americans are docils ! k
ple," as Lord Northcliffe says
And this, of all countries. is most
conservative, not to say REACTION
ary, safest for those whoa4A1pw
material is the foolish. easily man
aged common people.
But a few more such Supreme
Court decisions as this and even
the American worm win turn.
You could read on yesterdays
front page of the j. p. Morgan
paper, Crowds swarm to pay in
come tax. LABORING MEN
PREDOMINANT among those
waiting to contribute to Govern
ment." .s.1.
Pretty picture, isn't it? Labor
ing men standing in line to help
pay expense Of the Government.
And profiteers that took their hum
dreds of millions out Of the Cows
ernment leaning back and laughr
ing over a Supreme Court decision
that enables them to pay as little
or as much as they choose, or moth
ing at all, toward Government ex-
pense.
The total war debt of the world.
reckoned by the allies, is officially
I Announced at two hundred thou
sand millions. 1t sounds and is
big But it is only about one hun
dred dollars apiece for every man,
fMpman and child on the earth.
Hard work, without any profteer-
ing, could wipe the whole thing
out in five years.
But you know the story of the
frog in the well. He hops up one
foot. slips back nine inches. The
school boys problem is How long
VIII it take the frog to hop out Of
a well sixty feet deep?"
The common people toad, with
the load OF debt on his back, hops
up one foot. and the public ,plun-
derers push him back eleven inches
and half. How long will 1t take
him to hop out Of debt? .
The fashion makers of Paris do
what they can to help the situa-
ton by inventing "a new weekly
hat"
Every Monday the lady who
knows the Importance Of looking
her best" can have a new hat on
her head. This fills men with hor-
ror. But many men for q hun
dred thousand years have been
seven different kinds of fool every
week. They might allow the wom-
en- one day weekly.
Another fashion note, to help you
keep up to date. The King of Eng
land has his trousers pressed with
creases on the side. His father,
King Edward, did it. The English
show intelligence, arranging mat
tiers so that their King has solved
his heavy problem when he shifts
the crease in his trousers from the
front to the side. The Germans
would have saved money had they
done the same with their Emperor.
That Emperor's son, by the way,
is taking boxing lessons, and is
especially interested in the "up-
percut." What a wonderful les
son the Frenchman, Carpenter,
would give, free. if the Crown
Prince asked him!
"Now commences war;" says the
fiery D'Annunzio. Venice will not
allow the hungry children Of
Fiume to enter the city. DAN
nunzio says he will take them
there in a man-of-war and fire on
anybody that objects; and he will
probably do it. That is the kind
of poet he is. His promise Of war
there-unusual war-a poet fight
ing his own country.
And French newspapers accus-
ing him Of trying to monopolize
business, combining with anybody
and everybody to build up English
trade and freeze out recent allies.
II takes more than a treaty OF
peace to change a wolf into a
lamb or a good business man into
a good altruist.
Big news, and surprising, is the
announcement that South Africa
contemplates setting up republic
and separating from the British
empire.
The history Of little republics,
in Greece and Italy and elsewhere,
as Guizot points out, is history Of
endless fights and final failure. 1t
takes a really big people to go II
alone. Little boats on a rough sea,
with big ships humping around.
oh