Durant weekly news. (Durant, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 190?-1944, 1922-07-21

NNNII
REMEDY IN YOUR HANDS

REMEDY IN YOUR HANDS
have hcru d,,"a 'uJuN uu,,. ut..
particularly since th> .."r.r. nr-au
"W'hat is the remedy tor y" r.''''.u .uh
and Situa'i icn of government business
that you have desert rdt What Cin
we, the average man ~ woman wllhS
cut Influence, and with no kn""i"d."
of politics. what can we do about it,
Well the answer is that yen can do
everything about IL The remedy hes
wholly within your own hands HN
have tried Iu point out in each On"
of the articles that have preceded
this one II Is II remedy easy to pre-.
scribe hut, I confess. difficult to put
Into effect
Difficult. mean. In the sens" that
you will have to give NJ tim" from
your own onGroSSing private affairs To
pay some attention TO what you prob
ably think of as public affairs and. as
such, not concerning you. The whole
point have to make is that public
affairs are your affairs.
do not suggest that you 20 INTO
politics do not suggest t'ldt YOU
attend political meetings. 10 NJg-
gcst that you take an interest. q I,r"ct
personal interest. in III" nu~.l",' of
government as distinguished from the
politics Of government.
A part of the remedy yon ask f"r
the conduct Of the business Of Z vrrn-
ment has hccn applied when lie facts
h. 4 i.i,, IL
cast and made known to every tax
Iayer. BAD conditions are in way
TO be rclnedied when they become
known.
But some hundreds of you lave
written me and asked: "Ilow can we
help? What can we do?" Let's take
concrete case.
Congress has committed itself TO the
policy of building twenty iirst-ClaSS
battleships IN tn" next few years.
Armed an1 equipped. those hattlcSlips
will cost in the nrglborh"0l of SID
900, 900 each. That will make n total
cost of SMD,Oo0,oo0: that is. Just short
Of a billion dollars.
Do you approve that expenditure?
Do you think we ought to spend our
money that way DO You thiuk We
ought TO spend ~ or 30 per cent
Of our total national income for wars,
past. present and prospective? That
is what we are doing. If you approve
Of II you have only to sit still ana
say nothing. If you dlSapprove of 1t.
lat ynur pnpprnSStpup Ennw
You live IN congressional district
and every two years you send a man
here to Washington to attend TO your
public business Do you know hiIn?
DO you know what he is doing here?
Your state has two senators. who also
represent you here If they do not
represcn! you fairly. YOU can keep
them N home. Whatever n majority
Of you want you can have.
To this moment Il majority have
approved. at least by silence. tn" great
military expenditures that hav" been
made from the money you have paid
in taxes. If now Nou have come TO
the conclusion that II Is too much, You
have only to say So.
4,
on the limitation OF armament which
President Harding called arose fun.
dn'."uially ont Of the circumstance
thai all of the sO-callcd hiG nations
are paying more than they can afford
to pay by way of preparation for war2
The endcavor TO find formula TO
limit nrmamcntS is another way of
saying that the nations are trying to
hnd a way to save money. Since the
war the great powers are all living
in debt. All Of theu,. except ourselves
owe more than they can pay. In all
OF them. including the United States
government expenses are running be-
yond government income. 4 nation
can no more stand that sort of thine
than a private person or private
business.
II you Will devote half hour oI
an hour every evening to thinking
about and talking about public bust
prompt response you will get II there
II any question you want to ask. write
70 your congressman or to either one
Of your senators. That will cost yoJ
two cents for postage stamp. and 4
won't cost him anything to reply. fol
his letters 90 through the malls free
That is one way of helping to remed!
the present condition.