The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1922-12-22

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Again the Christmas season has
come with it's obligation to child
hood that not only your own child
rem but the children Of the world
shall be made happy and well. In
your Christmas giving, don't forget
the orphanages, the children's hos
pitfalls and the day nurseries. Money
for their endowment is Christmas
gift to the childhood of the world.
The Child is the saint of this
festival, sacred to the beginning of
all that is best in life-love, tender
ness, care, unsel6shness, Goodness,
fraternity and charity. Christina
is the festival of the Home, which
is made sanctuary for the soul as
it essays the great adventure be-
tween the two eternities. May it
be merry for each of our readers in
whose homes children dwell; may
it be happy for all our readers with
the happiness of many Christmas
OF the past to be added to this last
happy festival, and the Joy of
giving.
Germany says she can't pay the
indemnity and France says she
must. England and Italy occupy
the sidelines until they all come in
dor a conference, which gets no
where and then the things start
all over. Now Mussolini says Ger
many can pay and wants part of it
herself. England is not so sure
If we don't get another war out of
Europe's boiling cauldron, we will
be a fortunate world. There is
Just ray of light in the present
con liberation Of a moratorium for
Germany which France is willing to
grant, but only On the terms that
France takes possession of some
German territory, including rich
mines, to make sure Germany pays
when the moratorium ends. Eng
land seems to be unwilling to have
military guarantees given France
by Germany. Without doubt this
is not out of tenderness for Ger
many but for considerations for
England's welfare. Europe seems
to have slipped the bonds of the
alliance now the war is over and
each country is greedily looking
out for Number One. It's dis
couraging but not hopeless as for
the present they are keeping out
of war.
Why this wave of constitution
tinkering? Why not let the con-
stitution remain a document of
basic principles of government and
let the laws take care of the rest of
the government? If a law is con-
trary to the underlying principles
of government, Incorporating it in
to. the document may make it
constitutional but it won't make
it right. Every amendment we
have so far incorporated into our
constitution, contrary to it's intent
has become a dead letter or caused
us endless trouble. The ideas of
the fathers that the least possible
government to secure law and order
was the best government has never
been improved upon. Also there is
a theory that the best government
is local self-government as far as
possible to preserve. the interests
of the larger groups. The progress
Sives are now encouraging little
more constitutional tinkering when
the eighteenth and nineteenth
amendments are not yet assimu7
lated.
Margaret Slattery has endowed
the middle classes with a new name
Of "middlebrows", which is the
happy mean between the lowbrows
and the highbrows, possibly with
ont the limitations of either. The
middlebrows evidently bring hea t
to their intelligence. The middle
brows have the mission of bringing
the individual factions into better
harmony and thereby preventing
the groupe misunderstanding which
has been so sure a source of trouble.
Mrs. Clara Philips used a ham
mer to kill her victim and probably
saw to escape from jail, but un-
less her brains are wooden and her
conscience dead metal she will reap
the torture which intelligence and