The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-01-14
NOT BArTLEsHIPs, BUT BREAD


but the closing weeks, at least. have
witnessed movement for a curtail-
ment of military expenditures, initia-
ted in the United States by Senator
Borah's resolutions proposing that the
United States, Great Britain and ia
pan enter upon a five-year agreement
for reduced naval construction. The
Borah resolution might possibly have
passed out as only an amiable gesture,
had 1t not been galvanized into par
amount issue by the New York
Worlds vigorous disarmament cam
palgn, which has secured for the idea
the Endorsement of representative
spokesman of many nations, and mo-
bilized, in addition, considerable
public sentiment.
There is nothing sentimental in the
proposal for a drastic reduction in ma
val plans and programs. The vision
ary's benediction of pax vobiscum is
not its inspiration. 1t is a sternly
practical proposition. The nations
cannot afford to spend money on ma
vies and armies. There is far more
pressing demand upon their resources
the demand of strangulated trade,
stagnant business, silent factories, I'M
employment, national insolvency, and
whole peoples starving and lacking
the means of producing food.
The restitution of Middle Europe is
appalling, and its blight has flung an
economic shadow across the world
Those nations are the wards ofS ma
tons more fortunately placed,
though the circumstances of all the
nations, excepting our own, are close
to bankruptcy. The duty Of guardian
ship thrust upon the nations that are
still going concerns" is not to be un-
dertaken in spirit of philanthropy.
1t is matter of stupendous business
magnitude and Importance to us and
to the other nations that Middle Eu-
rope shall be enabled to earn its own
way as soon as possible and again
contribute to, and participate in, the
worlds prosperity. Until that is done
there can be no sound prosperity any
where. In view of that obvious fact,
it battles understanding how the
craftsmanship of any nation can au-
thoriZe the spending on navies of bill
lions which should be applied to re-
constructing the world.
The situation in its entirety clearly
shows that the people must interest
themselves in the management of their
public affairs" not merely as matter
of good citizenship but as a matter of
self-preservation. Today at Wash
ington our legislators are fatuously
trying to relieve the farmer by slo-
venly bit of tariff tinkering. They
might just as well consult the ouija
board. The so-called emergency tar
if bill will accomplish nothing for
the farmer. Already other lines of
industry are protesting it. Automo-
bile manufacturers fear that other ma
tons will retaliate by putting a pro-
hibitive tax on our products that we
put on theirs. Their fears are well
founded. Notice to that effect has
already been served on us. Even the
steel industry, once the most clamor-
Gus of all for tariff privileges, shares
the apprehension of the automobile
people and joins them in saying that
American industry needs markets,
not protection.
The farmer is in the same situation
as the automobile or steel manufac-
turer. The farmer needs markets for
his products. He cannot prosper
without markets. How are we to get
markets? Manifestly we can't vet
them by making trade Impossible.
We can't get them by trusting blind
ly to the magic of antiquated tariff
legislation. We can only get markets
by cutting out every unnecessary,
avoidable expenditure and employing
our money in the rehabilitation of the
nations and peoples who need our
manufactured goods and our farm
products but cannot buy them be-
cause they are penniless.
Plain, hard, common business sense
that is what is needed in public af-
fairs. The proposal for disarmament
means that we shall stop squandering
billions on militarism and invest
those billions in putting the world
back on self-supporting basis, so
that the farmer can sell his wheat and
cotton, our factories can sell their
surplus products and the wholesome
process of profitable trading shall
again leap back to life.
The world doesn't want battleships
it wants bread.-St. Louis Post
Dispatch.
We reproduce the above editorial
from the st. Louis Post-Dispatch and
ask our readers to read it. 1t deals
with disarmament of nations. The
people are not clamoring for more
battleships or armament. They are
clamoring for bread and lasting
peace. The adoption of the League
of Nations means that nations go to-
gether and agree to disarm, and when
the Nations disarm, the danger of the
horrors of future wars has been re-
moved. That is one of the things the
League of Nations provides for. But
during the political campaign last
summer and fall the people were
frightened by the lies told by the pro-
fessional politicians and published by
INSCRIPTIONS and partistn newspapers
They succeeded in making the people
believe the falsehood they told. But
now comes another day--the day for
maligning the President and abusing
the Democratic administration is now
past. A new deal is on. 1t is up to
the Republican politicians to render
an account of themselves. They can
no longer play the game of the carp
ing critic. Neither can they shield