Evening star., 1922-12-12
USINESS is business" The
United States has been
importing coal from Eng

K United States has been
importing coal from Eng
land within the last. three
or four months, because Of our coal
strike. We now have barely so per
cent of our normal demand, yet the
federal fuel director. c. z. spens. ad-
vocates. before the House interstate
and foreign commerce committee, that
no embargo should be put on the ex-
portation Of coal to Canada. Mr..
Spens bases his support OF the ex-
porting Of coal upon an alleged
agreement between President Hard
ing and the Canadian government.
prior to the establishment Of his coal
control ONCE. He favors treating
Canada in a "neighborly manner"
anyhow. and advocates selling coal to
her even while Americans are cut
down.
In ~enl~ 70 this. Representative
John Jacob Ro~-rs nf Massachus"tts
M fnts ou' that Carado evidently does
NOT take the same reiEhhorly attitude
when 1t comes to our getting her pulp
wood for the manufacture Of paper.
1t is ar~"ed that II we must warm
Canada with our much coal
she should let US have pulp wood free
Of duty. Here apnears tn he an ideal
situation fo- applying the Mckinley
idea of tariff reciprocity. The much
taIkad-of Canadian reciprocity pact
Of 1911 was not real reciprocity. for
Mrkinley's reciprocity was the idea
that we should give a concession Of
tariff to impn~ts which We cannot
n-odure in exchange for a rArinrocal
! conression by the other cnuntr" on
cnod~ 'uhir', v-e n-crnre Int whicl,
ara rot ~~odn"~d IL the rHrin-ocatin~
~o,,Yt-~ WIZ cho"ld we give Canad"
coal ~1cert in t-adA for her pulp DUTY
free on both items?
X y !; x
The experiment of twin mail boxes
for receiving the mail upon the
streets has proved so successful that
It will be extended throughout the
country. One box is marked to re-
ceive only letters addressed to local
parties and the other for all out-of-
town mail It Is found that the pub
lie. even from the start. have s.na-
rated ~ DER cent Of the letters. That
savAs labor and time in sending the
mail to its destination.
= i. r ::
There ave ma ny suggestions for tax
ing tourists who come into the Dis
trict or into a state. because the tour
| ist has 10. shared in the expense Of
. the upkeep of the highways he uses
| Maryland taxes Wasringtonians who
drive their automobiles even just
across the District line.
The whole principle Of such tara
,:on is irconsistent with the fu-da-
',ental idea Of the unitv Of the whole
United States. Gran. that the pass
ing tourist has not helped nav fo- the
~ rtic"lar road over which ne trav-
els: thousands of local peon!e haze
rot paid IN oronort'on 70 their use
~ il. States are forbidden by the
nroductS Of other states except when
they can prove that they are merely
exercising police powers t6r ssnitary
reasons. Maryland collects no tariffs
on four. Cor example. sent into MAJ
land from Minnesota. although the
ma rufa cture- pays no taxes in Mary
land and is in competition with -four
ground in Baltimore.
1t might bring more profit TO the
District of Columbia if. instead of
driving visitors away by annoying
automobile taxes. they were encour-
agad to come and camp here. in suit
able locations. and trade with our
merchants. visit the governmental de-
partments and comprehend better the
functions of their government and the
beauties Of the capital. OF course
they should be registered for iden-
tifcation in case of traffic accidents.
but that is mere police regulation
which could be covered by a nominal
fee
The fact tl,at a state has invested in
good roads is no justification for her
taxing visitors: the good roads may
become more profitable in proportion
to their success in Turing visitors.
for expositions or conventions merely
upon the expectation that the thou
sands Of visitors TO be attracted Will
trade while in the cities. and SO the
investment will return good profits
Let good roads be treated as expo
sitions or other great attractions. and
the profits will exceed the present
ity with the rest OF the country IS
considered
The United States now holds more
than ss.l75.ooo.0oe gold. The entire
, worlds supply of gold. inclusive of
the above, is $4,000. 100000: hence We
have more than a third Of it all. But
suppose we had not an ounce of gold.
and held. instead. more than a third
Of all the food and clothing and i'm
plements Of production-and suppose
some little country in Europe held all
the gold now in our vaults. Would
that change make us any less the
financial dictators of the world! That
little nation. with all the excess OF
gold, would find it of little use unless
we would sell her food and other