The Washington times., 1922-11-15


WILLIAM HARD slavery. the
eourts set his act
aside. They call II void. Similarly
the Irish Free State treaty with
Britain Is void from the standpoint
| of the natural and unalienable right
| of the Irish nation to independence.
| Therefore IL Is proper and necessary
| to continue the struggle for the
Irish republic"
This Is clearly a highly theoreti-
| cal idea. IL would prevent the
Irish people from ever going into
the British Empire even IL they
found II to be greatly to their ad'
.antage to do so. sirs. MacSwiney
| Is a young woman with the clear
eyes and the fresh color and the
quick untroubled Laughter of a
little girl. Material advantages
mean nothing to her. The Ameri.
can Government and the British
government in their international
conferences on the subject OF what
to do with her will perhaps decide
not only to permit her, but to re-
quest and urge her to walk on
Connecticut avenue. Walking on
Connecticut avenue is the least
dangerous thing she does.
The Administration at Washington
is in box on the subject Of economy
and efficiency. The voters In the
| last election did not seem TO be great
| ly moved by any enthusiasm for
economy and efficiency. The Admin
! istration has done a great deal TO
spend the peoples money more care
fully and scientifically. The people
did not seem much to care. Thus
one of the Administrators best ar
guments for itself went down. Now
1t seems likely that the Adminstra.
tion's plans for reorganizing the Gov.
ernmental departments will go down
in Congress.
Many people in Congress are
strongly opposed to increasing the
power of the Interior Department
belonging to Mr.. Fall at the expense
of the power of the Agricultural De-
! partment belonging to Mr.. Wallace.
They prefer Mr.. Wallace. They say
that in theory perhaps the. Forestry
| Bureau ought to be given to Mr..
Fall but that in practice they have
more confidence in Mr.. Wallace's
management Of it. Personal or
practical considerations of this sort
seem likely to wreck the larger part
of the whole logical theory on which
| the proposed reorganization Of the
departments 10 based.
Admittedly in any case the pro-
posed reorganization Is going to have
| q stormy time. So is the ship
subsidy bill. So Is Senator Cum
minis administration railroad reforma-
| ton plan. There is no Administra-
| ton measure going to Congress
which 10 not going into violent
weather. Unless there is a miracle
| this weather will prevent the enact
mept Of much necessary legislation,
| and dthe Congress which was elected
this month will be called into special
session shortly after the present
Congress expires next March.
The chief subterranean event now
| going on in the United States is the
railroad shopmen's strike. which
continues unsettled on something
more than half the mileage of the
railroads Of the United States, and
which continues extremely genuine
and extremely expensive.
IL has become a noiseless strike.
but Il none the less remains an
actual strike and II In costing Ger.
tain numerous railroads an enorm.
GUS total Of money. Their new
workers are In many cases more
expensive to them than their old
union workers were and in GER
tain cases they are losing traffic
to the roads yhich have taken the
union workers back.
that when the Interstate Com
merce Commission next undertakes
to reduce railroad freight rates and
when the railroads come in to show
why freight rates cannot be re-
duced they will be obliged to re-
veal the cost Of this long resistance
Il will be shown to have been a
prodigious cost. It will perhaps he
shown to have been much larger
than the cost would have been OF
paying the wages which the union
shopmen demanded.
Moreover, the chances Of busting
the unions get worse every day.
On the roads which have taken the
union workers back the nonunion
workers have for the most part
simply evaporated. They are not
there. On the remaining roads,
which have not taken the union
workers back, the great scheme OF
forming anti.union unions under
company supervision Ia In many
cases IN full swing; but this scheme
( IL one which is like 2.75 beer. Ex-
perience shows that Il tends in the
end to produce a thirst for the real
article.
Already in certain such instances
the men are secretly Joining the
I. w. w. The prospect is that
presently the roads will all be
unionized again and what will re-
main will be the question:
Shall the railroad stockholders
bear the cost Of protracting the