The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-08-12
Today
If Big 4" Should Strike. The 5-Cent Cigar,
 Welcome. Governor Edwards
 Insurance. Bargain Bonds.
 By ARTHUR BRISBANE

Insurance.
 Bargain Bonds.
 | By ARTHUR BRISBANE
 If the Big Four" decided to strike, every railroad would close down. with no 'ifs or buts." The Pres ident has told you men can't be compelled to work.
 Here and there Big Four" organi- cations have quit. Mir. Stone, head of the engineers. objects to his men working under supervision of sol- diers with loaded rifles, when the men are not even on strike. "We won't have our men shot up." says he.
 Men owning railroads. that have never done a day's real work in their lives. find 1t difficult to under clear to them.
 Suppose the owners, as they sit directing railroads In their Wall  street offices, found them=elves working under the supervision of union leaders with loaded "automa- tics" in their hands. Suppose here and there & shot were fired and an owner dropped dead in his nicely furnished office.
 How would the owners like it7 Wouldn't they say, Call my iim- cuisine. am going home to stay until these armed men leave my dcsk."
 The 5-cent cigar has returned after wartime retirement Ruskin said: When a young man has cigar in his mouth, he thinks he is doing something. Many men prob ably think they practice saintly economy when they buy 5-cent cigars.
 The late George M. Pullman told this writer that when he determined to get money to build his first sleeping car. he first of all gave up the extravagance of smoking 5-cent cigars
 Times change.
 The state of New Jersey, with Mir Edwards as governor, runs publicly-owned insurance enterprise. Employers pay the insurance. In- jured workers get the benefits.
 Now Governor Edwards announces cut of 20 per cent in the states charge for liability insurance, and predicts an increase next winter of the benefits paid to men injured at their work.
 That's a sample of evils of pub lie ownership" of which you hear occasionally. How does it impress you?
 Roumania will sell in the United States bonds offered at G." You pay s67o and get s1,ooo bond. Roumania is fine country. abound ing in wealth. Her people are Lonor- able and industrious. but
 Three hundred and thirty dollars is a big premium for loan of s670. Roumania nestles within the grip of Russia. If that monster bear comes back to full strength, Rou- mania will be grabbed. If that hap pens and Trotzky says, I'm not in terested in redeeming those cut rate Roumanian bonds" please don't ask the United States to send your fellow citizens to be shot in the eff fort to collect your money.
 Our government did that for the financial fools that bought the czar's bonds. but probably wouldn't do it again.
 With coal mines closed. mules are brought to the surface. many eating grass and seeing the sun for the first time in years. Veterinarians or Hazelton, Pa. defy the old state ment that mules kept underground in dark mine tunnels lose their sight. After 20 years in the dark mules can see.
 Veterinarians of a different kind ought to examine the two-legged mules that watch the stock ticker, while they run mines and railroads. and see what effect that las on tbeir sight.
 Hides will come in free because shoe factories want cheap leather. There are many shoe factories in Senator Lodges state, and If the farmers got protection on hides. Lodge might be beaten. The Senate. to oblige the gentleman. puts hides or the free list. That is the way Congress adjusts. In the interest of politics. the tariff. vitally impor- tant to every citizen.
 They are talking a great deal about the constitution at San Fran cisco's American Bar asso,lation meeting. A committee of the learn ed gentlemen says:
 NO man is so poor or obscure that he cannot in the hour of threatened injury turn to the con- stitution as his protection al ainst the wrongful acts of the rich and socially prominent
 It's good constitution, but that statement by the lawyers Is pretty buncombe. Every one of them <nows that man poor and obscure can be