The Washington times., 1920-09-16

Should Be 100000 to l.
U. s. Passenger Service.
One Week to Live.
Soldiers and Heroes.
By ARTHUR BRISBANE

10y AWihOn pnAoD@N-i
Copyright isis)
In Wall Street the betting is D
TO ! on Harding. The question is:
What generous soul is putting up
the one without the slightest chance
Of getting 1t back!
The issue in this election is the
war League of Nations, which
would take from the United States
the independence that it won In
177e, and hand it back to a group
of foreign nations controlled by
England.
That the people Of the United
States will not vote to give up their
independence is q 100000 to i
(not 5 to - bet.
Thanks to Mr.. Burleson, Gov
ernment ownership Of passenger
service has begun-in a small way,
II Is true, but in the right place.
Contracts have been let to Chi
cago firm, and flying cars with
wicker chairs, enclosed in glass
and steel, will carry passengers as
well as mail, and the United States
will be the owner Of the transpor-
tation.
As soon as the thing is sue
cess, private ownership" will step
in and kindly explain that the Gov
ernment is not able to do anything
well. 1t is to be hoped that those
soon to be in charge Of the Gov
ernment will have the energy, once
started, to keep on.
The most weak k-kneed thing ever
heard of was done by the Demo
cratic Administration in handing
back railroads to private owners,
after spending billions of the peo-
ple's money rebuilding and re-
oquipping the roads and paying
the highest profit to the private
owners.
Mayor McSwiney has gone with
out food for thirty-four days. His
mental courage and interest in the
fight that he is making may keep
him alive ten days more. He prob
ably cannot live longer than that.
He probably will die in the
course of the coming week if Eng
lands attitude does not change.
Meanwhile, the Irish correspond
ent of the London Times, owned
by the son Of an Irish woman, says
that If McSwiney dies it will make
IL impossible for the Irish and
English difficulty to be success
fully arranged or compromised.
That, undoubtedly, is true. Every
Irishman feels toward McSwiney
now as though he were his own
son or brother. When he dies,
every Irishman will feel that he
has been murdered.
The harm that will be done to
England and to English represen-
tatives in Ireland, should McSwiney
die, is clear to everybody. What
good England hopes to achieve by
allowing him to die is not clear
here. There must exist an under
current of hatred in England not
understood in this country.
News" so-called, from Russia
tells of serious rioting against the
Bolshevik government at Petro-
grad and "six of the Bolshevist
commissioners" drowned. This is
a variation in news Of that kind.
Usually Lenine kills Trotzky, or
Trotzky kills Lenine. Neither has
done that for some months.
Another kind of news, represent
ing facts more closely, says the
Russians are getting together an
army of four millions and three
quarters, and that General Wran-
gel, who was supposed to restore
ancient conditions and force pay
ment of Russian bonds, has again
been kicked out of the place where
he most recently was.
All OF this does not affect the
United States much, as long as we
keep our men out of Siberia and
our country out of the League of
Nations.
But when you read about that
Russian army of four and three
quarters millions, you understand
how glad other countries would
be IL they could trap old Uncle
Sam into the League of Nations,
and make it his business to take
care Of that Bolshevik crowd and
finance that war.
Two more flying men in the Gov
ernment mail service are killed
burned to death. This fills with
horror those that learned to read
quite calmly about death in war.
Friends OF the dead flyers have
the satisfaction of knowing that
they were soldiers and heroes in
the truest sense, men fighting to
achieve progress for all time-not
lighting against other men, in
qusrrels to be renewed indefinitely.
Every tunnel built, almost every
great building, means one to
hundred yorkmen's deaths Per-