The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-31
Y oday Russia, France and U.
 s. A. Girls Are the Same. Saving on 400, GOO. Harden Is Wrong.
 By ARTHUR BRISBANE
By ARTHUR BRISBANE

AA6A A(AA 16 w VIOAks
 By ARTHUR BRISBANE
 Tardieu and other important Frenchmen say that France must be careful about going to The Hague and dealing with Russia, because Americas attitude toward Russia is reflection of the French attitude"
 That's a mistake. Americas at titude toward Russia is a reflection of the attitude of American finan- eiers foolish enough to buy the czar.s bonds.
 We resemble France in one way:
 We are refusing to recognize the government of Russia. in an effort to blackmail Russia into paying the debts of the Czar. This nation did not pay the debts of the south after the north won. There is no reason why Russia. having got rid of the Czar and the Grand Dukes. should pay their debts. Republicans in France and America foolish enough to lend to an autocracy should and probably will lose their money. It will be an education to them.
 Bishop Gailor, head of the Protest ant Episcopal church in America. says that much nonsense is talked about the young women of this period, called "flappers." GirYs today, says he, are just as good as they ever were. That ia quite true: Girls now indicate . little more freely what they feel and think than they used to. That's the only difference; they think and feel the same.
 The good Bishop also says that prohibition Is farce. That is not quite true. whiskey is still sold. un- fortuneateiy, and even worse whiskey than the kind that used to be sold. And the drug habit Is growing. But thers are no longer whiskey-selling saloons on every corner; four staring at each other from four corners.
 You can get whiskey If you want it. but you must look for 1t. It Is no longer thrust at you. There is no farce about that.
 Another cut in wages for the rail- road mon will save s4s,ooo,ooo for railroad owners.
 There are various ways of making money. Henry Ford illustrates ono way. He raises wages and cuts the price of his goods. The railroads. out of date. badly managed. stupidly competing, represent the other way. They yaise the cost of tickets and freight and cut down the wages.
 This latest cut will take cents an hour from the wages of 4o0.00 men--nearly all "common laborers."
 If the men work nine hours. that means <5 cents day. It is small sum to the man that lives on divi- dends from railroad stocks or interest on bonds. But 1t Is a large sum for the woman that clothes and feeds the family of the common laborer."
 Forty eight million dollars year is the latest cut in wages. Four hundred million dollars a year was the last cut.
 Intelligence could make the raii- roads profitable without any cuts, Rut intelligence Is one thing the fs8nroad management of this country hasn't got. The people of the coun- try haven't even got the intelligence to take the railroads over and run them. Therefore the 100000 "commc1 iaborers" must resign themselves to the cut of cents per hour, which is the modern American plan"
 The Moline Flow works and Henry Ford have agents in Russia, planning to resume business there. Ford ex- expects to have an assembling plant in Petrogrand and another in Moscow. It will take quite few rubles to pay Ford wages. That Is the way to deal with Russia, even from the capitalis- tic point of view. Get business go- ing. make the Russians rich. There Is nothing like wealth to prcify radicalism.
 There is considerable agitation in Congress because the Department of Justice is accused of hiring detec- lives "to trail members of Congress and officials The department knows best why 1t Is trailing the various official gentlemen. But why do they howl about 1t. If they attend to business and then go home, trail- ing wont to them any harm Where do they wander that they fear trail ingf
 Maximf1ian Harden says that mo snvoys were ever so insuited as were the Germans at Genoa" That is foolish. but on that occasion it was the turn pf Fance. After the war of 1870 no people were ever so insulsed as were the French" The Germans were not gentle in their methods when they sathered in Versailles with heavy boots and laid down the law. They took five thousand miiliaa a frances from ItAnce-and got the money. France is trying to take one hundred and thirty two thousa nd million gold marks from Germany, and won't get the, money. Part of the debt has to be taken out in in sults.
 The German insults of 1870 were repaid after 1917. The insults of Genoa will doubtless be repaid later on, perhaps. in about 70 years.