The Washington times., 1921-01-28
Today
Burning a Living Man.
What Helps Misery2
Blood From a Stone.
Cremation Cheats GhOul'
By ARTHUR BRISBANE
lCopyri3ht. ND

How do human beings feel when
they burn a negro at the stake,
as they did two days ago, accord
ing to news from Memphisf
What are the emotions Of the
crowd as they watch a man twist
and burn. hear his screams, and
his horrible begging for mercy?
The fact Is that the mob, at q
burning, are not human beings st
all, but as Professor Shaler shows,
In his book on the mob, they are
wolves with the spirit Of the pack,
and nothing else. They are not
worse than other men or different
from them-simply transformed
for the moment. Shaler says that
with certain stimulation a gather
ing Of the gentlest men in the
world could be changed into a MUIR
dering mob, and it is probably true.
Kind-hearted ladies and gentle
men sat down to a meal consist
ing OF the bark of trees, potato
tops. chaff, corn cobs, leaves. and
twigs. Upon that food fifteen mil
lion starving Chinese are now
living" and they have no other.
The starvation banquet was
planned to stimulate charity. and
probably did.
But. fortunately. II is not neces-
sary that man should starve to
make him sympathize with the
starving, or that he should be
ignorant to sympathize with the
ignorant, or poor to help the poor.
The worlds best work has been
done by those that never felt the
misery they relieved. Educated
men, not ignorant men, have de-
manded and obtained free educa-
tion for the poor. Shareholders
freed their slaves before any Gov
ernment did 1t. And the most
brutal In treatment of slaves was
the former slave promoted to be
overseer. Familiarity breeds con-
tempt, not sympathy.
The Illinois free employment
bureau says there are 356 unem-
ployed men for every "open job"
in the State. That is a matter to
/ be looked into, very earnestly, by
those that have anything to lose
through social discomfort.
You may smile at discomfort
based on theory, and disregard
y"the power Of q socialistl' But
look out for. disccAtent, bredsin real
misery, among men willing to
work. 1t 10 dangerous. Americans
know too much to remain hungry
for long. See to them. :
The allies are busy now, figuring
out how much blood can be ex-
tracted from stone. or how much
money can be got out of Germany.
In 1870, when Germany won, Bis
marck took back from France, AL
sace-Lorraine, which France had
previously, taken from Germany,
and one thousand million dollars.
This time Germany is beaten,
Alsace and Lorraine are taken
back once more, with a lot Of other
territory, ships, mines, colonies,
gold coin, locomotives, freight cars,
cows, etc. The French suggest
that Germany pay in addition one
hundred thousand million dollars
in gold marks. It is also sug-
gested that twelve thousand mil
hon gold marks be paid this year.
The English suggest, more SEN
sibly, that they take all that Ger
many has, instead Of wasting time
trying to take what she hasn't
got, It is likely that Germany
will agree to pay something like
forty billion gold marks, spread
out over a number of years with
out interest. Even that will be
difficult.
Seven men were driven from
the grave of Senator Kean of New
Jersey, just as they had reached
a concrete lining, in their effort
to steal the body.
Cremation would stop body
snatching. Passed through the
fire, and sent up into the air, all
except few ashes, the body would
be beyond stealing. 1t is foolish
to fear that cremation, now, might
interfere with resurrection later.
The Power that can collect the
body from the worms and the dust
Of the earth can collect it from the
air.
New efforts to settle the tenn
perance question in Quebec inter-
est this country, for after ten or
twenty years Of bootleg whiskey
we may be looking for some new
plan.
Quebec will allow hotels to sell
wine between 6 o'clock in the
morning and 8 at night.
In mining districts, where the
men do heavy work, strong ale
will be sold. Light beer will be
allowed, but all under strict con-
troll of government Whiskey is