Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1923-07-20
COMMENT AND CRITI-
CISM ABOUT THINGS
DOING IN THE WORLD

The Moderator oil the presbyterian
church comes forth to tell us that
what Thomas Jefferson said a long
time ago is no good any more. Jeifer-
son said that governments derive
their just powers from the consent of
the governed.
The preacher is wrong. What
Thomas Jefferson said is as true now
as when he said it-and Furthermore
it works i'm practice. The declaration
has in no way ''fallen to pieces"
The just powers still come from the
governed; though there are some UNI
just powers that government puts
across without asking the governed
much about ii.
What we are driving at is to get
government so ii won't have any UNI
just powers.
The governed in the United States
can fix powers of government to suit
! themselves and when they fizZle the
| job or somebody puts something over,
it's case of the governed being
| asleep on their feet.
Mighty little is put over against the
wishes of the people when the people
|
| awake.
And people who don't bother to
! find out things and who go to sleep
on the job haven't much of kick
coming when things go wrong. There
Is no all-high power that Is guar
anteeing that somebody is going to
read our minds and run our govern
ment in apple-pie order while we go
away on vacation of "a couple of
eyars and forget our responsibilities.
! The preacher is wrong. Just pow
er scome from the governed, just as
| always-but the governed sometimes
gets sleepy and then the raw deals
are put over.
Indictments against the United
/ Mine Workers are now quashed.
These indictments are over two years
| old and have cost the miners more
than 100000. Now all have been
thrown in the junk heap, along with
a choice collection of injunctions and
contempt cases. The slate is clean.
But why were those cases kept
alive for more than two years? Why
were they never brought to trial?
Chances are that the government
knew it couldn't convict and so didn't
try. The club was kept hanging over
the dood-and that's about the whole
story.
Nobody needs thank the attorney
general for quashing these indict-
ments. The thing to do is to ask him
why he waited so darned long.
] = =
Eastman Kodak Company has S4,-
100000 for dividends on stock and
Sl,7O0,000 more to distribute to
workers under some kind of profit
sharing scheme.
Why not fix wages higher in the
first place and relieve the workers of
the feeling that their income is a
gamble In which they may or may not
be lucky?
While cogitating about the mat
ter, however, remember that the
amount ready for dividends to stock
holders is about three times as large
as the amount that will go into bon
uses for workers-and the workers
are much more numerous than the
stockholders, which makes each indi.
vidual share for the workers a great
dea smaller than the share of each
individual stakeholder. This is one
reason why so many people think il
is sign Of luck to own stocks.
Leon Trotsky has discovered some.
thing of great importance. He has
discovered that it will be a long time
before there is a revolution in the
United States. He has said so in a
speech.
Now there have been indications
that Trotsky didn't always know this.
During the war he came to America
and took room in the Bronx. where
he learned all about the country. He
became thoroughly familiar with that
vast aud typical expanse lying be-
tween 1onkers and the lower east
side of Manhattan Island. He got so
he knew the country like a book.
When Trotsky spoke, the good COM
rades sat up and listened and looked
as II there was an oracle in their
! midst. Trotsky was the foods and
there was no doubt about that. What
he didn't know about America when
he finally sailed away to become Ma
poleon of the bolshevik army wasn't
worth knowing.
Right away Trotsky began predict
ing the revolution for America. As