New Ulm review., 1922-03-08

lauded as no other soldiers ever were
extolled in this country as they went
forth to die or to be MANNED. And in
every speech they were given to under
stand that should any Of them be sent
home alive the Republic would see to it
that they would be accounted heroes to
the end of time and that, so far as
governmental aid went, the highest pos
sible subordination Of all other interests
to theirs would be speedily established
as a rule of conduct of the whole nation.
This was the promise. Everybody IS
familiar with the realities. i.t
After the first few boatl Dads got home,
organized wealth, particularly the milllo-
naire class, the Gold Coasters of the whole
country, seemed to have suddenly lost
interest in the heroes. 1t WASH t long
before soldier in uniform didn't attract
as much attention as Pekinese pup
in the lap of some high society queen.
The boys quickly were forgotten. In
stead Of starting a great movement to
properly look after them, the Wall Street
ers and their crews throughout the land,
who had piled up untold millions in war
profits on the "cost-plus" plan by which
the taxpayers were robbed right and left
while their boys were dying in France,
speedily organized to keep what they had
scooped in during the holocaust and for
the most part Ito see to it that the over
seas veterans didn't get a bonus.
This is the plain truth Of the situa-
ton. That is why the soldiers have. been
kicked about like a bunch of old shoes
for these three years. Wall Street mo-
bilized over night to keep the agencies of
government from making them divide
up their spoils by way Of decent taxa
ton. Estimates of excess war profits
pocketed by the New York looters and
their allies run as high as $4,000, 100000
twenty billions of dollars in excess Of
what was fair profit!
Things came their way with an ease
that must have surprised even the in
siders in Wall Street the giants who sit
back in their exquisitely furnished Offices
and play with the finances, the pros
perity, of the whole nation as the whim
seizes them I
Not only were they soon securely
buttressed against government readjust-
ment of their earnings, but they set out
to get their hands deeper into the Treasury
of the United States. The billions Of
dollars poured out Of the Treasury to
the railroads is an old story. It is still
going on, because there are several Bill
lions of dollars of watered railroad Sc
curities and the barons must have fresh
funds with which to make their coupons
good. Exorbitantly high freight rates,
so high that they amount to confscation
of the property of the farmer and the
shipper, were mainland without the
slightest effort. That was so easy that
they went after more and from out the
Treasury Of the nation came more mil
lions millions that are still pouring out 80
millions Of the taxpayers money.
But not one red cent for a bonus to
the soldiers!
|. What happened in the shipping in
dustry is familiar story. More than
three billions of dollars were poured into
that terribly managed enterprise. The
taxpayers still are putting up hundreds
Of millions for this experiment, which
would have been worth it if an American
merchant marine comparable to that Of
England had been put in operation. For
some strange reason Big Business has
blocked even this splendid undertaking,
probably because Great Britain was op-
posed to it So faras the soldiers are
concerned, the thing to remember about
the Shipping Board, in addition to the
billions Of waste or worse, is that up to
last summer at least contracts let for mer-
chant ships before the war ended were
still in force and shipbuilding interests,
three years after the war ended, still
were at work on ships that we're to have
been used in the war. Why? Because
the bonuses must be paid to Big Busi-
ness.
z# That is to say, it was more important
IN Wall Streets ewes that SchWahl and /