Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1923-11-15
This Week
Monsieur's Arithmetic Bad
There and Here
Men and Wolves
The Doctor Mill
By Arthur Brisbane

of getting the money that France owes
you. Consider the stupendpus sun
France owes you"
The amOunt that France owes us
is a little over four billion dollars.
Loucheur may be right, payment
may be impossible.
But this puzzles you. Poincare
consenting to conference, says there
mustn't be any suggestion of cutting
down the amount he thinks Germany
should pay. That amount is thirty
billions.
If France can't pay "the stupendous
sum" of four billions, how can Ger
many pay more than seven times as
much? VIII the world conference ans.
wer that question?
Ordinary arithmetic won't answer.
| Cotton sold off a little, but it is
still above 80, and if you want it
you might as well buy it now. 1t is
going to be scarce commodity.
Fortunately, the cotton growers
will get a somewhat better price, not
because they deserve it, as they do,
but because the crop is small. .s's
1t seems we are getting poorer, es-
pecially the richest among us. Only
pne man in the United States this
year pays tax on income, of five mil
lion dollars. The government doesn't
tell who that one is. Income tax re-
ports are kept secret. The tax that
lie property.
Only twenty-One Americans report
ed incomes of one million dollars or
more.
In 1920 seventy reported incomes of
million. The solitary income of five
millions represents 5 percent on one
hundred million dollars. Several Amer
leans would laugh if you offered them
hundred million for everything they
own. This doesn't mean illegal or
criminal evasion of income tax. The
laws are drawn so that they reach
small men, doctors, lawyers, moderate
sized business men. They don't reach
the really great fortunes. Everybody
knows that several great fortunes,
Henry Ford's, John d. Rockefeller's,
and two or three others are worth
many times one hundred million dol
lars. But the money is in corpora
lions. The owners of the corporations
do not draw the money out. They
reinvest it, a good thing, when it
is reinvested in labor-giving enter
prises, not so good when invested in
bonds that pay no tax whatever.
If the election of anybody for pres
ident would hurt your business or
your feelings, "Lloyd's" of England
will insure you against that election.
One concern paid down $4,000 and
Lloyd's agreed to pay 100000 in case
of Ford's electiOn-issuing a policy,
which is a good way of Disgusting a
bet.
The question is: Can Ford, by any
chance, stampede the Democratic con-
vention? Political leaders believe that
if Ford had regular nomination 1T
would be impossible to beat him. II
the Democrats believe it earnestly in
1924, and if Ford had somebody who
could produce "Cross of Gold" speech
for him, stampeding the convention
might not be difficult. What poll
ticians want, first of all, is to win.
Last week Communists were march
ing on Berlin to upset the republican
government.
In this blessed country, at about
the same time, the public was learn
ing of a tobacco combination amount
ing to two hundred and fifty millions
of dollars, combining big interests,
simplifying business-an excellent,
provided the public keeps track of
what is done.
Over in Europe they are tearing
things to pieces. Here we are build
ing up Happy we.
With a loaf of bread in Germany
costing five billion marks-which
would have been 81 ,250,000,O00 in the
old days-the intellectual allies are be-
ginning to set aside all question OF
reparations. They are wondering
whether they can hold Germany to-
gether and prevent the appearance OF
another and worse Russia"
The learned Harvard Professor
Shaler in his book on the mob de-
clares that even gathering of clergy
men by certain influences could be
turned into murderous lynching mop.
Our animal ancestors are still awe
in the brains that we inherit from
them.
The st. Louis Star renders great
service to the country in its exposure
of a medical diploma mill, turning
loose upon the country an army OF
dangerous men equipped with "di-
plomasv authorizing them to practise
medicine and destroy life.
Medical men who have been con-
tent TO sit on state boards, confinlng
their activities to attacks on other
schools of healing, never finding time
to investigate their own house and put
II in order. ought also to be Interested