The Democratic advocate., 1922-05-12
WASHINGTON LETTER
BY Wallace Bassford
Especial Correspondent

Washington, d. c., April 29.-When
the Arms Conference gathered in
Washington, as provided by the Dem
ocratic Congress and President in the
Naval Act of 1916, revamped by the
Borah Resolution, President Harding
said: In soberest reflection, the
worlds hundreds of millions who pay
in peace and die in war wish their
statesman to turn the expenditures
for destruction into means of con-
struction, aimed at higher state for
those who live and follow after
noble sentiment, endorsed by every
one who had no personal pOcketboOk
to fill through Il big army or navy.
and would have entitled the President
to the credit due for its utterance, if
events had shown that he meant it.
When the Naval Bill was reported to
the House it provided for $1,000 men
to handle our diminished navy, and
Chairman Kelly demonstrated that
the number was sufficient. Then came
Nick Longworth with a letter from
Harding asking that the number of
men be increased by 5000 and the
House. with Harding'S words at the
Arms Conference still ringing in its
ears, voted the increase! What is the
result? 1t is that the naval eXpendi-
lures for the next fiscal year. instead
of being decreased from $4,000, 900.
the figures for the present year, will
run about ten millions higher. This
is due partly to the increase in per-
sOnnel above Chairman kelley's fig
ures, and partly to authorized" ex-
in the bill, amounting TO about $67.-
100000. This is peculiar Legislative
device used to make larger funds
available while showing economics"
in the bill.
The outcome at Genoa seems
seriously threatened by reason of
this government holding aloOf from
this effAt to pacify the turbulent and
unsettled conditions in Europe Hard
ing has allowed Lloyd-George, the
greatest statesman of his time and
probably of all times, to tackle the
tremendous problem alone and un-
aided; if he succeeds it places him
upon a high pedestal of glory from
which all time will not take him
down. The best theory put forward in
Washington to account for Harding's
participation is that he feared he
would be accused of doing the thing
that Woodrow Wilson would have
done under the circumstances.
The coal strike has been allowed to
run on several weeks, with nothing
done by the administration looking
toward its settlement. More than ZOO
900 men are directly affected by it.
without taking into consideration the
industrial plants daily shutting down
because of coal shortage. The best
figures obtainable indicate that g..
100000 workers are out of employ
ment in the United States. While Wall
Street CANDLES in stocks at the rate
OF millions of shares per day on mon
ey borrowed from the banks at 81
per cent, able-to-work young men
are begging dime for food within
stones throw of the White House
grounds in Washington.
The Republican Congress still hag-
giles with the soldiers over their hon
MS, with the outcome as uncertain as
the weather, while the business world
awaits with like uncertainty the new
tariff bill. Last winter the leaders
talked of adjourning Congress the
first day of May; the month is here
and adjournment is one of the events
so far in the future that it is not
even discussed in Washington. And
the country waits, and waits. and
waits. while this business adminis-
tration' does business in a very un-
businesslike manner.
Former Senator Beveridge seems to
have split the Republicans of Indiana
into two warning camps. Mayor Lew
Shank of Indianapolis is firing office
holders under the city administration
if they do not come to the front for
Reveridge, while the Harding admin