The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1941-02-21
G EN- < RAJ.
HUGH s.
JOH N SON
!. .G!!!'!!:Yc,'''::,:,''
wNvsrvss
Washington, d. O.
FOR WHAT?'

What is needed by our war-mind-
ed men is some slogan of high pur-
pose like sMake the world safe
for democracy" That one is just
a little like offering cheese to the
mouse caught in cheese baited
trap. He doesn't want any more
cheese. So the trial balloons are go
ing up on another one-"Union
Now"
i wrote a piece on the ballyhoo
for a federation Of English speak
ing peoples. In 1t I used the ex-
preston "Union Now" and said that
what is now proposed is to unite
US with the British empire under
something like the Articles of Con-
federation under which the - Col
onies fought the Revolution (which
means, of course, in addition to
''Union Now" "War Now" ! ar
gued that all the Articles made
was league Of nations proved by
both Of them and the later inter.
national league to be futile and UNI
workable.
That column drew indignant deni-
ais including one from Clarence
Strait, the author Of "Union Now"
These denials complained that the
proposal is not to entangle ours with
the destiny of other nations in any
futile league. No, sir. We are 60
ing all the way into an United
States Of Earth, in which America
is to be only one state among many
bound. not by weak articles Of con-
federation, but by a document like
the Constitution of the United States.
The distinguishing features Of that
Constitution are-no secession; con-
troll in superstate Of interstate
commerce, all foreign relations, tax
alton and spending, the right to
make war, to keep troops and ships
of war and the denial of those rights
and controls to the several states
including the U. S. A.
All right. If I misconstrued Mr..
STREET, I am sorry. But I didn't
misconstrue the others and ! didn't
Imisconstrue Mr.. STREET. very much.
They say, and so think does he,
that this is only an eventual result.
Right now all we need is ''articles
of confederation" with these other
nations but Gas in and after our
Revolution) "as soon as the war is
won" under the new confederation,
we shall create with them a real
federation, on the plan Of the Amer
|ican Constitution and rub Uncle
Sam out as an independent entity.
It is all consistent. First these
people sell us into war when it
isn't necessary and, without waiting
for Mr.. Hitler to sell our country
down the river, they want us to do
it ourselves. We commit national
Ihari-kari, dilute our strength with
the weakness Of the world and dis
sipate the wealth and advantage our
fathers fought and labored to create
here, to the four winds Of heaven
and the five continents Of earth.
GOVERNMENT CONTROLS
So my old buddy Leon Henderson
told the lumber industry that $50 a
thousand was an outrageous price
for southern pine, that $25 was
enough, that if they didn't get the
price down he was going to do some
thing about it-and then stamped
angrily not only out Of the room
but out of Washington. 81
! think Leon was about 100 per
cent right on his facts and inten-
ltions-that, somehow, this tendency
toward soaring prices must be
socked every time it sticks its head
up and that, exactly as in World
War !, it has already started, among
other places, in wholly unjustif-
able lumber prices.
But to control this danger, govern
ment has got to get in step with
itself. Leon must have forgotten
that he was not back in his old MIRA
days, when government could talk
to industry as a unit and tell it, as
Leon frequently and properly did,
to police and discipline itself and,
in the public interest, to purge its
membership of improper practices.
He could do that then because MIRA
made such joint action by govern
ment and any organized industry
lawful.
1t is lawful no longer. Leon
should have a little talk with Thur
man. The latter, Mr.. Arnold, is
trying to put industrial gents in jail
--or at least getting grand jury in
dictments against respectable citi-
zens for potential felonies-if they
act as an industry to do, for exam
pie, what Leon commanded the lum-
Der industry to do. It is and has
been declared by all our courts to
be just as fragrant an offense to the
antitrust acts for industrial gents
to combine to put prices down as to
put prices up. The former practice
has proved to be the most effective
weapon of the big fellows to slaugh-
ter competition of the high-cost pro-
duction Of little fellows in business.
There is basic fault here which
MIRA tried to solve. No other ma