davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
Expensive Half
One Who Does Not lake Kindly to
the Half-Nickel Idea

10 the Editor Of The Tribune.
! Sir: In advocating the coinage of
half-nickel The Tribune and some of
it's readers fail to consider what a
change in our change making facilities
would entail in labor and expense and
that the burden would eventually fall
on the consumer.
The total cost would be staggering
Tho old saying penny wise and
pound foolish" woud apply, also the one
about saving at the spigot and wasting
at the bung.
The ruling on every account book
and paper would need to be changed
and all cash registers and adding ma
chimes would become obsolete if the
| new order we're carried to it's logical
conclusion, and after our accounting
system had been made over the addi
tional cost of running it would become
just as much a part Of the overhead
as any other expense.
ent goes without saying, but COM
petition usually limits profits and pre-
vents unreasonable gains.
One of your spondents makes
the amazing assertion that when we
get the half nickel 1.-TWO and onc-half
cents will do the work OF three cents,
and that is saving of 20 cents on
the dollar" He also deems it apropos
to mention that when gasoline is quoted
with half-ccnt he finds himself ask
ing for even gallons.
Another writer "went to the trouble
to figure out the extra profit to one
storekeeper on certain number of
customers buying half pound of but
ter, and it amounted to SIP week"
Now submit that the extra profit he
speaks Of exists only N his own imaSi-
nation, for the simple reason that to
wait upon half-pound customers re-
quires as much time and nearly as
much wrapping paper and twine as if
they bought in pound lots, ani that
this is taken into consideration when
the pound price is fixed. It follows
that in many cases if we had half
cent the unit price might be cent
more, or a fractional advance be
quoted for half the quantity.
Because a dealer offers pound of
butter, for instance, for AZ cents
there is no warrant for the assumption
that his price FOR q half pound 10 231s
cents and that he is G. tting more than
his right when he collects "a cents.
1t is a deplorpble fact that those
who can least afford it-cuyers in
small quantities-are compelled to pay
relatively higher prizes for the neces-
saries Of life, but the medy does not
lie in the issuance Of half-cents, be-
CD -se the extra cost of dispensing in
small quantities is relatively higher.
j. Fl. NETTLETON.
New Milford, Conn, March 20, 1871,
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
France Repaid in 1876
Our Generous Ally Was Reimbursed
for Revolutionary Loans

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: On January 10, 1896, Oliver VOL
colt, the Secretary of the Treasury,
submitted to the House of Represents
tlves "A statement showing the insl
liquidations of the French loans and
their full reimbursement at the Treas
ury," etc. The debit items amounted
to S2,602, 2,096.49, the credit items to ST.
602,o96.49. The last credit item Is:
Payment to the said agent by Treas
ury warrant No. 5l32, dated 90 July,
1895, for sixteen dollars and four cents
being the balance due the Republic Of
France on loan Of money and other
supplies obtained by the United States
OF the government Of France during
the late war" This item closes the as-
count.
The "said agent was one "Janet
Swan, esq, duly authorized by the
Committee of Public Safety Of the Na-
tionaT Convention" All this was pub
lished in 1882, under authority of Con-
gress, in American State Papers, Vol
VII, page $50. These state papers may
be found, no doubt, in many public
libraries.
Previous statements had been made
and reported to Congress of our IN.
debtedness to France by Secretaries
Alexander Hamilton and Wolcott, show
ing all loans of money, claims for sup
plies, ETC., and ell partial payments
Finally, April Is, 1900, the Secretary
submitted to a committee Of Congress
. complete statement of all our fnan-
cial transactions with foreign coun-
tries, and among them the French debt
showing it fully settled. All loans o.
money and claims for supplies are fuiiy
set forth, and all payments made, WIN
interest. The total amounts, pro ano
con, are stated to be s9,176, 1858.
No doubt the Treasury officials ult-
mately will dig up this old warrant ano
find it duly indorsed by James SWaH'
GEORGE w. J0LLf.
Owensboro, KY. March 26, 1871
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
Primary Reform
Recent Candidate Doubts Il,
} Pending Bills VIII .Helc :

To the Editor Of The Tribune
Sir:. As candidate for ;nd;e,., .
fee at the last primary, may / sr,,' :, y
am opinion on the pending le0;,,.s
to reform the primary? The Gov.s s'1
is urging this legislation to be,r !.
electorate, not the party organ;,.x g
My experience, however, just;ss.
IN saying that the proposed les,., &
ton would have the reverse es..t @
At present, provided a petitia.
signed by reasonable number !,
authorized voters the latter cao
sent any name for the people,. ~
fragc; this regardless Of wbe,s.s~ = :
Is or Is not the organization ,ead., :
choice. The presumption is tb,. J.
party voters will vote for tn. ...s
dates Of the organization leader, ~ !.
the leaders err in their choice o. :.
didates the party voters have o,..
tunity Of being heard through ~, =
primary. Thus the Judgment !, - =
rank and file can be obtained.
It is true that the bulk Of the v,...
do not bother with the primary. n.
is, however, weakness of tha ~
vidual rather than a defect in r.. ~
Does the new legislation corr.es i,
defect? 1t does not. If anythi,s !.
still further restricts the prsm.r :
more firmly recognizing the parry = +.
vention and only permitting an anna -
to the voter not on a candidate =. :
on the delegates to select a cand,a.,.
If voter is disinciined to tra,l,.
himself to vote for candidat. !.
will be still more reluctant to vos. =.
delegate who, in turn, is to ,..~
the candidate. You make direct all.
ton by the people still more d;ss,as
We have had in the recent past man.
successful primary contests. VIII.
there are still fraad and ;ness.,;..
methods in the primary, the w.y ~,
is to improve the primary. The MA
poseo Dill would drug 1t into. i'm.
becility.
Tammany Hal! stands for orssu,,
ton politics, but it must be admiH,,
it has recognized the right Of IN n.
dependent Democrat to stand up IN 4.
primaries and appeal to the ur,
adherents for their support. The Ia.
Legislature substantially tried ,sE
weaken the primary-Governor SmiN
vetoed the bill. The Republican part,
proclaims greater independence, but
we now have situation where al,
belle words, for it is the Republics,
party chat is seeking to emascuIs.e
tho primary law.
l. MONTEFIORE LEVY
New York, March 2S, 1921.
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
A Call for Baby Carriages

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Our relief and nursing bureaus
have $500 tenement families under
their care, and in nearly every home
there are aittle children. Many of
these babies and toddlers get very lit
tie fresh air, because their mothers
are not strong enough to carry them
tar and they never have enough money
to buy a carriage.
There are many people in New York
with baby carriages in their store
rooms, people who would be glad to
send the carriages, which their own
children have outgrown, to those to
whom they would be great blessing.
Their partly used go-carts and car
riages~ will be more than welcome if
sent to the relief bureau, the New
York Association for Improving the
Condition of the Poor, 105 East
Twenty Street.
BAILEY B. BURRITT,
General Director A. I. C, P.
New York, March 90, 1921.
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
our great institutional endcavors ap-
preciatcd this truth at its full i'm
nnrfaf1rci
The Dis;llusioners

We must own to a little feeling Of
irritation toward that mounting
group of writer's who might roughly
be named the "Now It Can Be Told"
group. Mr.. Sinclair Lewis expressed
their point Of view frankly and accu-
rately in his lecture at the Town
Hall wherein he fell upon the Tired
Business Man tooth and nail.
Now, it must be remembered that
Mr.. Lewis once wrote a most excel
lent volume designed to satisfy this
very monster whom he exccrated in
this lecture. 1t was called Free Air
and rippled along delectably and
enthusiastically over the prairies. We
say this without intention to DO de-
rogatory. A ripping narrative of
love and adventure is to be esteemed
above vast quantities Of more solemn
trash. But Mr.. Sinclair thinks other
wise now. At tsome point in his career
he switched to the view that the 7. B.
M. is a most reprehensible. creature.
The trouble seems to be that such
q handspring in literary convictions
is seriously disturbing to outlook,
judgment, art. Main Street is an
excellent job; but it would be just
about ten times better if it aimed not
to tear the cover off Main Street and
disillusion and shock and reform but
to tell that most rare Of all articles
the truth. We suspect that there is
inevitable working of the psychology
Of reaction here. Just as Sir Philip
Gibbs, who wrote most glowingly, too
glowingly, of war while it was ON,
now writes most depressingly, too
depressingly, of everything connect
ed with war, in Now It Can Be Told,
30 Mr.. Lewis, who emptied his soul
Of sugar in Free Air, had nothing
but pickles and vinegar left for Main
Street.
Mr.. Lewis now proposes to write
"mean, vicious, disillusioning" book
about New York. Instead We sug-
gest that he write true book about
New York. If it is the pricking of
illusions that Mr.. Lewis is after we
can assure him that feather Of
truth is worth all the propaganda
ever written.
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31

ardent iionarchists, his arrival is
apparently deemed inopportune. The
Prime Minister, Count Teleky, has
endeavored to shoe him away, and it
is reported that he Is now under the
protection OF Colonel Lehar, rabld
imperialist and brother of tho man
who wrote "The Merry Widow"
Charles seemingly has an attack
Of imperial spring fever-the sap in
him has temporarily risen, and his
fancy turns to thoughts Of a return.
If the Greek Tino could come back
any pretonder may hope.
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
Capitalism and Sabotage

"To use a term that has been ap-
piled solely to labor" moans Fred.
eric c. Howe in his latest book, ssthe
economic life of the world is being
destroyed by sabotage. Through
!, sabotage capitalism is destroying
itself. It is making it impossible
for the interdependent world to &c
-on. The same thing happened in a
somewhat different way after the
wars Of Rome and Carthage"
~ Poor Rome and Carthage! If
nations have ghosts and these hear
: what is said of them, and see them.
selves paraded to point morals and
to bolster the ideas Of every voluble
: pamphleteer, how Rome must suffer!
: NO complete enumeration has been
asrnade, but at low estimate Rome
perished from at least a thousand
causes. With such . complication
Wcf Ss disorders weakening her most
y wonderful is it that she survived n
fortnight!
1e Sabotage" is 4 good word, and its
; arrival enriched the vocabulary
A term was needed to describe the
process Of covert attacks ON ma.
.schinery and deliberate Stacking On
elcbs-a sort Of crime bearing the
same relation to bomb planting that
the sneak thief does to the burglar
..-~ But it has not been permitted te
= retain its original signifcation. II
I has been enlarged by metaphor and
stretched BY loose use. It has be.
come an epithet. 1t is SO watered
in meaning as,to be little more than
general term OF teproach.
As Il you can't think of anything
else abusive to say call what you
don't like sabotage. It's free en-
ployment shows your learning and
the naodernity Of your thought. /.
So Mr.. Howe, who is 9 veteran of
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
Alien Land Laws Spreadins

To the Editor OF The Tribune.
Sir: Allow me to thank you .r
the article by Professor Carver rel
tive to the Japanese situation.
= You have noted that the Stats ss
Washington has just enacted an aljes
land law similar to the Californis
law by a vote of II to 10 in Tho
House and SO to 2 in the Ssnsts.
Similar bills have passed both house.
in Texas and Arizona and one house
each in Idaho, Oregon, Colorado icon
stitutionalA amendment. and Nebsaska.
The bill was defeated in the Senate
in Oregon and Idafo-by 3 votes IN
the latter--out Of fear that it would
embarrass the President in his nsro-
tiations with Japan, The bill Is still
pending in Nebraska and Colorado.
PHILIP TINDALL
Seattle, Wash, March %, 1921.
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
The Progress Of Probation

An admirable review of the proba-
ton service has been made by Edwin
j. Cooley, chief probation officer of
the magistrates courts in this city
and president Of the National Pr oba-
ton Association. He is careful not
to claim too much. He insists that
the service must be maintained in a
fluid state, to benefit by every source
of advice and discovery, from psy-
chologist and priest, from social
worker, industrial manager-every
one engaged with this human prob
lem Of redeeming men and women.
In his view, and Judging by the
rapid progress Of the past years,
there is every likelihood that proba
tion may in the long run outstrip the
penal institution. Ultimately the in
stitution might become the place of
detention only for the morally in
durable, large or small number as
experiment may establish.
This is not at all revolutionary in
spirit. Probation is too often spoken
of as if it did away with all re-
straint, all punishment. It does
nothing of the kind. The sort of
supervision that the probation officer
gives constitutes a constant re-
straint. The liberty of the convicted
person is seriously limited. He must
report at frequent intervals. He is
aware that his conduct is under fre-
quent observation. His case is really
parallel to that of trusty in any
jail-only, for the sake of his moral
development, he is permitted to be at
large. Accurately speaking, proba-
tion constitutes halfway stage be-
tween institutional restraint and full
freedom.
We are especially glad to see that
Mr.. Cooley stresses the necessity for
high personnel, capable of effective
personal influence:
"The probation officer is the repre-
sentative of ! great conserving insti-
tuition of society. 1t is he who has
the direct contact with tho probation
er and represents to him the spirit
and the authority Of the law. As
piece of logical ingenuity the admin
istrative system may be the best OBJ
tainable, but, unless the probation
officer is we'll trained, capable and
sympathetic in his relationship to his
charges, all else is as sounding brass.
This powerful and almost universal
impulse of niagnanimity toward those
who err must be focused, crystallized
and organized so as to obtain definite
and permanent results"
Here, as in every other great re-
form or endeavor, success in the last
analysis comes down to question of
personnel. The theory of probation
may be admirable; it may be admin
istered with wisdom at the top; the
community may support it gener-
ously; but unless the actual contact
with the criminal is made by de-
voted, able men and women nothing
can be accomplished. Would that all
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
, Editor Of The Tribune,

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: In view Of the difficulties Of
making enormous payments across in
ternational frontiers, it. has long
secmeH to mo strange that no sugges-
tion should have been made publicly
that Germany be allowed co pay part
Of her bill of damages by transfers
of stocks and securities representing
property interests in Germany. The
dispatch from Paris in ono of your
recent issues indicates that this idea
is at least being considered.
To the man on the street, with no
special competency in these questions,
Germany seems to all intents and pur-
poses insolvent. She is intrinsically
rich, potentially capable Of great
productivencss, but her paper money
is worth only about one-twentieth of
Its face, her domestic war debt the
same, and it seems impossible that her
currency can ever be restored to par,
that her domestic debt can ever be
paid in gold or that she can ever re-
gain the gold basis without repudia-
tion of large part Of her debt or an
acceptance Of a lowered value for her
currency by great deduction in the
gold content of the mark.
Insolvency Methods
If Germany is insolvent, owing our
allies what is equivalent in present
cash value to $4,000, 900 or more,
with interest, which she cannot pay
in any useful time.- would it not be
we'll to consider applying to her some
of the methods that we in this coun-
try are SO accustomed to applying to
an insolvent corporation and so at
tempt to reorganize her finances from
top to bottom? In sound financial
circles we should never think of re-
organizing an insolvcnt railroad or in
dustrial corporation on the basis of
keeping alive huge indebtedness and
risking doubts of it's future payment.
We would fund a part Of it in stock
or deferred securities. We you'd limit
the new debt to an amount which the
reorganizcd enterprise could certain
ly pay. We would thus try to re-
habilitate the concerns credit and de-
pend on the new prosperity thus set
in motion to give a value to our de-
fe"red claims without either discourage
ing or overwhelming the debtor.
Ready Cash Needed
And so here. What the Allied ma
tions need just now, more than any
thing, is ready cash to enable them
quickly to restore their devastated
regions and industries. If an issue of
bonds were eXacted from Germany in
a limited amount, bearing a reasonable
and attractive rate OF interest (and as
an external debt taking precedence
over all other debit, apd if Germany's
finances were otherwise settled, these
bonds could undoubtedly be foated in
the markets Of the world gradually
over the next one to- five years, thus
furnishing with something of prompt
ness the funds so urgently needed by
the Allies. Especially could this be
done if the Allied nations to which
these bonds were allocated should
respectively indorse them before sale.
And such an issue could be so limited
in amount as to be secure if large
part of the remainder of the debt could
be funded into stocks of going con-
Germs In Germany.
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
Another Presidents Father

To<the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Nathaniel Fillmore, born at
Bennington, VT, April 10, 177I, pio-
neer and frontiersman in central New
York, in Cayuga County, where his
son Millard was born in a log cabin,
January z, 1800-his cradle being a
maple-sugar sap trough-saw this son
in the White House in 1850, and gave
as the recipe for an American boys
arriving at the White housekeeping
him up in sap trough An
other father who greeted his son in
the Executive Mansioni
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIs.
Biographer.
New York, March 20, 1921.
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
The Traction Act

! - The traction bill yesterday signed
by Governor Miller does not solve
ihe traction problem. 1t merely Gre
- afes new machinery to effect solu-
tion.
~, 1t is to be remarked again that all
tesebe act does is to transfer from the
city to state commission power to
: deal with the traction problem. The
eHylan administration did nothing
did not try to do anything. SO au-
thority is taken from it and lodged
elsewhere.
a-sY How the new traction overload will
q use it's authority is not indicated. No
s'snlan is outlined-no specific instruc-
ton given. There is merely sigma
:. ture of general power of attorney
q in favor of the commission to be
named by Governor Miller.
~ Whether fares are to be lowered
on raised is not declared, nor wheth-
.. er there is to be unification of serv-
: ice, nor when or how the commission
lis to act in any particular matter.
...s In view of the confusion Of the
public, it is well to make these state
+. ,sfnents emphatically. Those who
- 'aave a selfish political interest in
misrepresentation will further at
tempt to mix up the public.
s'as When the commission, after inves-
litigation and rumination, makes up
It's mind to adopt some definite plan,
~ and after it has successfully run the
: gantlet of what promises to be pro-
- -, tracted litigation, then, but not until
i'e then, will the city know what has
been determined for it.
:. , a. When will this time arrive? No
one can predict with confidence. 1t
7; seems scarcely possible to expect any
:, actual settlement, or anything con-
acrete to give judgment on until
some months hence.
(. s'.' = Probably the date of the municipal
CAC~t1Oti WA1t nave pstoSSu Oc1OlO Vie
.'underbrush is cleared away. Then,
in view of the results of that cleo
Lion, the Legislature may be led to
change its control policy.
Thus it is still mystery, If speed
swas desired, why the first step was
. not to appoint a commission to study
~ and to report back definite plan
Z. AS the case is the Republican or
+ Il ganization will have no affirmative
I. record nor offer any specific prom
Use. 1t is likely to have the disad.
yantages of defensive position and
lie compelled to meet all sorts OF
! wild charges.
.. But something can be done te
minimize this poor strategy. This
something else is to have public in
S..sestigation of the Hylan administra
y ,6ion and thus show why it was i'm
possible to trust the settlement of The
traction question to it.
New-York tribune., 1921-03-31
Have Any Been Caught?

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Why wouldn't it be a good pisl
for the newspapers, instead Of eacn os.
giving to the public only sensations
reports of hold-ups and robberles' .
addition to this kind of news TO prinf
list of the different robbers who nave
been caught? This would warn men san
boys that they are likely TO be caugns
the same as the fellow who is listed
I feel sure that if little space Se1e
devoted in display type each day -
a list Of thieves and robbers who nase
been arrested and put in Jail il wou'a
do whole lot to discourage cyimins'
thoughts in others.
NJ. c. o'BRIEN.
Brooklyn, March %, 1921 Il