The Washington times., 1922-08-18
Oday,
Hon. John. Aged 5.
planning" Is One Thing.
Good TImes-For Whom?
Stealing Rivers.

Stealing Rivers.
il-By ARTHUR BRISBANE
(copyrisht. isas.)
The Farmers Loan and Trust
Company sends 100000 to
the Honorable John Jacob
Astor. John Jacob is FIVE years
old. The money represents q
small fraction Of a trust cre-
ated BY his grandfather, Will
liam Waldorf.
sLittle John never worked, Of
course. His father and grand
father never worked. The
grandfather lived in England,
where judicious spending Of
American money made him q
lord.
Millions Of American mothers
through several generations,
producing millions Of babies
that were not called 'fhonor-
able,s created q demand for
real estate that built up the
Astor millions. and, barring
cataclysm, little Honorable
Johns can have millions q year
sent from America to England
indefinitely.
That makes single-taxers Of
some, but needn't. It doesn't
make any difference whether
money goes from rents or divi-
dends on railroads, as long AZ It
is spent by those that do moth
dng.
Il isn't serious yet. This ma
ton can afford a few tens OF
millions a year for the foolish
and unpatriotic. But that Ii
the sort of thing that sent Ire
land to ruin, sending to Eng
land all the money the Irish
people could get together.
One Of these days it might
become interesting here.
Meanwhile, Providence works
wisely. IL the right to leave
money to their children makes
men work, let them have the
right-for the present. The
work Is needed. A few Astor
fayorites don't count.
President Harding decided
what was right In the railroad
strike. He asked the men to 60
back to work, retaining their
seniority rights. The men said
~Yes;" the railroad owners said
"No." -.
Then the President asked the
men TO 70 back without their
lkeniority rights. The men said
ssyo.s but probably they will
70 back. Corporations are hav-
ing their turn. -i'-
The latest heading is, "Hard-
inr plans to curb coal prof
iteers." PLANNING to curb is
one thing curbing e another.
In England or Franco they
would make law, and profiteers
breaking 1t would 60 to jail.
We don't do that here, because
profiteers have more to do with
making laws than people buy
lno nnaI
That's the American system.
An industrial leader predicts
good times with the end Of the
strike" But, says he, "labor
costs must be cut"
What are good times, II not
rood times for all, and especial
" for those that labor?
And whence do industrialists
imagine that good times come?
n Good times depend on the
spending power of the masses
That power depends on
they never have really good
times in China, where men work
for ten or fifteen cents q day,
or half that.
To demand good work for
rood pay is just. To demand
GOOD times by cutting down
wages, reserving the good times
FOR q carefully selected few, Is
stupid, in addition to being
brutal.
Stealing rivers is the new COM
plaint Of nation against nation.
We have discussions as to the
water and power this country
and Canada should take from
the Great Lakes and from
Niagara.
Chicago wanted to turn a river
around and make It 20 the other
way, taking sewage away from
the lake instead Of into 1t. and
Canada objected.
v Various rivers rise IN the
/ pyrenees, great wall between
France and Spain. The Segre,
rising on French territory, flows
down through Spain. The French
Intend TO turn the river around,
make Il stay in France and
flow down the French side Of
the Pyrenees, to be used for
v,oxer. irritation. and naviga-