The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-12-26
Today
What viii Russia Do?
No Pardon for Debs.
Wall Street Groans.
Schwab Says "Cheer Up."
BY ARTHUR BRISBANE
Icopyrisht. 1870.

I-Dy ARTHUR DnIoDhNI -
Copyright. ls2e.
With Christmas gone by, the
next thing is the new year, with
the plunge into the cold water OF
uncertainty.
The biggest question for the
world at large is what will Rus
sia do with no war on any front?
Having shaken of the dogs that
barked and snapped around him,
will the big bear be content? Con-
tent to settle down and keep house,
or will he start attacking those
that attacked him-because he
presumed TO govern himself as he
saw Mt?
China is arranging friendly
relations with the Bolsheviki; a
large part of Armenia has turned
to Sovietism and Russia, promptly
repudiating foreign loans--and
specifically loans made by this
country. That may take the edge
on the Administrators eagerness
to make other Armenian loans.
The money might buy guns to
shoot us or our friends later.
Russia seems to mediate an at
tack on the republic OF Georgia,
and the allies that have learned
something about dead or dying"
Russia are removing their missions
by warship. As long rs Lenin
and TrotSky keep the Russians
fighting they probably can control
them, barring absolute economic
bankruptcy. If they tried to settle
down, the fighting might come
from within.
Russia is far of, but what Rus
sia does or may do will affect
every person in America. We are
paying now for the stupidity that
blockaded Russia and prevented
shipping and selling our goods.
Mr.. Tumulty, secretary to the
President, is quoted to this effect:
THE President will not pardon
Debs, because he is convinced that
Debs is unrepentant."
How would you reason that out?
II Debs was repentant, 1t would
mean he had been guilty OF a crime
against his country. II guilty OF
such a crime, he ought NOT to be
pardoned. If guilty only OF free
speech" which the Constitution
permits, Debs, OF course, could not
be repentant Only yellow dog
would repent OF exercising his
Constitutional right.
The President knows from Nor
man Hapgood, his friend, whom he
appointed to the diplomatic serv-
ice, that Mr. Debs. suffering from
heart disease, may die in prison
at any moment. This must make
it difficult for the President. him
self an invalid. to withhold from
Debs, political prisoner, a clem-
ency universally exercised by Eu-
ropean nations.
MIR. Hapgood, who is not
Socialist, is one of many convinced
that Eugene Debs is in Jail for
saying what he thought, and for
nothing else.
In old days, when everybody
believed in the Judgment of God"
ruling all finite details, it would
have been said that if Debs died
before the President that would
prove Debs to be in the wrong, and
vice versa.
The glad Christmas season did
not, however, pass without exer-
else of Federal clemency.
Clarence Brown, an Indian, kill
ed another Indian in prison in
1907 and was sentenced to life i'm
prisonment. He is pardoned. E.
c. Rivers, in Jail for selling drugs
10 miserable addicts, is also par
doned.
You may suggest that if Debs
would engage in the drug trade or
murder some one in prison, he
might be set free. But Debs is
not that sort of a man. He would
rather stay in prison.
Presumably the Indian murder
er and the dr. seller are "re-
pentant."
w neH bilS DJoSh bhCudnSt
closed on Christmas eve, a few
brokers, following custom, tried to
cheer and be gay. Groans from
the others stifled their gayety. 1t
was as sad a Wall Street Christ
mas as has been seen since Russell
Sage was starting in,
But Charles M. Schwab says the
bad times of the moment will do
good in the long run. He feels like
the Scotchman, in rough weather
and a small boat, who said, "It's
seeckinin' to be seeck, but it's
good for ye-'
Schwab is right. The world
will be better off when it finishes
with this passing sickness. First
tho nations killed each other,
spending two hundred and fifty
billions in the process. Then mil
lions, dead Of influenza, were
added to the millions dead in war.
Next, as though nothing had hap
pened, the nations began spending
money frantically, to celebrate the
fact that the world was nearly
bankrupt.
Aff<r eurb dehauch ne that