Evening star., 1923-01-24
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL v. COLLINS.

The argument Of Secretary Weeks
that the price at which merchandise
Is sold by the commissary stores to
soldiers does not differ materially
challenged by advocates of the Brook
mart measure. No merchant can pay
his overhead and sell goods at merely
10 per cent above manufacturers' cost.
Merchants must pay their help and a
course. must have a profit. There is
undoubtedly considerable difference,
therefore, in the commissary price
and the retail merchants price, but
that Is not a sufficient reason for the
governments entering upon a policy
of socialistic merchandising and kill
ing private enterprise. The two
forms of business could never exist
In competition, for the merchant must
stand expense which Senator Brook
hart quite overlooks in asking that
the government become his competi-
tor.
II this socialism be adopted for the
District of Columbia, how long would
1t be before the people of Des Moines
and other cities of Senator Brook
hart's state would become clamorous
for socialistic competition with their
1t be before bankruptcy would sweep
over the country and millions of en-
ployes of private enterprises would be
thrown out of employment? How
long would it be before the govern
ment, in mercantile business OF all
kinds, would discover that it might
also manufacture its goods? How
long would 1t be before sovietsm
would paralyZe America as 1t has
done to Russia? Then how long be-
fore the idle millions would demand
should take the factories out of the
hands of the government. and the
| soviets would undertake to run the
idle factories. though without either
capital or executive experience?
The Brookhart bill appears inno-
cent and reasonable upon its surface,
but 1t has within 1t all the germs of
overwhelming revolution because II
ignores every principle of economics
, and esta ablished business. The first
principle of a republic is that the
government should do nothing that
private individuals, singly or asso-
ciated together. can do successfully
The government should never COM
pete with the individual To do 30
is socialism and communism, not de-
mocracy.
For the commissary to supply the
Army and Navy with merchandise,
for their own use. is merely part OF
their compensation for service. That
is an entirely different matter from
selling to the whole population.
1t is pitiful to see thousands of pa
triotic, intelligent women spending
their energies as they are doing in
the National League of Woman
Voters. resolving that war Is
crime" They are to hold meetings
to teach that war is a crime-which
nobody does deny-when they might
do real good by discovering that one
third of the men of America are
lamely and questionable" that they
are not At to carry rife and guard
their mothers and sisters from ma
rauding brutes. There is so much
work-real work-for women to take
hold of and do, as only women can do.
that it is pitiful to see SO many senu-
mentalize and sigh and resolve"
over absolute vacuities such as out
lawing war" as If war had not been
an outlaw since Cain killed Abel
good American women. They have
helped so marvelously in the past
that their usefulness is beyond ques-
tion. How can they fritter energy
over "outlaWing war?
America calls for women to help
purify her every public and private
institution-the movies. the litera-
ture. What wonders might follow II
the standards of.fction were purified
so that every family magazine"
might be read aloud in the family
America needs the touch of pure
womanhood in the guidance Of young
women and young men. that their
ideals might be noble. America cries
out for its womanhood to help the
Wallfe Reeds. who are living a hell
on earth because they have been
trapped into the opium devils lairs.
We want atesInen-whether in
trousers or petticoats-but the great
world questions which have wrenched
the heart of civilization for thou
sands of years. while mankind has
been cropping up from the prehistoric
times, will not be settled-wilI not
he affected-by few thousand
groups sitting about round tables and
telling each other that war is an out
law.
Why not tell that heat burns. that
the sun shines, that gravitation holds
fast all matter? War is a result not
a cause. Sin of national covetous-
ness is the outlaw, and that grows in
the individual hearts. Pride of rulers
is the outlaw; and where does pride
thrive? Cowardice and deceit and
falsehood are outlaws. and they
spring up in the cringing hearts of
individuals.
There is work for women as well as
men in the ennobling of personal
character. in the purifying of indi-
vidual hearts. That does not sound
so grandiloquent as resolving" to
teach internationalism and code of
treason to ones own country. whose
institutions are all that make the
difference in the safety of the women
and men as contrasted with bar
barism and savagery.