The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1942-01-08
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CIVILIAN EXPENDITURES
SHOULD BE CAREFUL
PATERSON


CIVILIAN EXPENDITURES
SHOULD BE CAREFUL
WHILE WE must spend many
billions for war, Senator Byrd is in
sistent that civilian operations of the
government be reduced to effect a
saving of two billion dollars a year.
Secretary Morgenthau, whose job it
is to find the money to pay for ships,
planes, tanks, guns and all the
equipment needed to defeat the
Axis powers, is also insisting on
less expense for the civilian activi-
ties of the government. He would
be fairly well satisfied with saving
of one billion dollars.
1t was not so many years ago
when America experienced its first
billion-dollar congress. AS re-
member it, it was shortly after the
turn of the present century. It ere
ated roar, especially from the
rural sections. People believed we
were headed straight for the rocks
of national bankruptcy. Even be-
fore we were spending as much as
a billion dollars any peace-time
year, we seemed to have all the
governmental activities we needed.
While we must, and will approve of
every needed war expenditure, we
might try bit of the simple life of
yesteryear as it pertains to civil
ian activities of government. Aside
from some of the minority groups,
people undoubtedly would approve.
RUSSIA'S COMMUNISM
THE WORLD thinks of Russia as
"communistic," but it is not. Com
munism in Russia died with Lenin
and the liquidation" by Stain of
thousands of Lenin followers, big
and little. Today Russia is more
totalitarian fascist than is Italy. The
Soviets do not rule Russia. Stain,
alone, is the ruler. He is more die
tator than Hitler or Mussolini.
Hitler did not attack Russia be-
cause of a fear of communism, but
because he did fear Stain as pow
erful European rival who was not
providing sufficient support for the
Hitler cause. It was a case of the
falling out of two of a kind and the
allied nations can well accept the
result as an aid to democracy in
time of need. We can do that with
out approving totalitarianism in
Russia, any more than we approve
of it in Germany, Italy or Japan.
We are but the benefciaries of a
fight between rivals.
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
IN TIME OF WAR there is no
place, or no excuse for the carping
fault finder. Then, of all times,
there is need for sane, construc-
tive criticism. In the spring of 1918,
George Creel told me that Presi-
dent Wilson had instructed him to
encourage constructive criticism, as
out of it much good could come to
the American cause. President Will
son then had, as President Roose-
welt has now, the unified support of
the American people.
TOURISTS WARY
THE WAR interfered with Ameri-
cas- winter vacation plans. Vaca-
ton spots are largely on the East,
West and South coasts, and tourists
visualize any of these points open
to possible German or Jap blitz.
Early tourists damned transporta-
ton facilities in their efforts to get
back home, but neither the Ger
mans nor the Japs have as yet
arrived, and our army and navy are
on guard.
JOBS AND INVESTMENT
TO PROVIDE for the average job
in America, an investment of more
than $4,000 in factories and tools is
necessary. The job is not possible
without the investment, and the in
vestment is worthless without the
worker. On an average, the invest
ment receives less than $500 a year,
and the average worker receives
some three times that amount.
MONTHS AT A TIME
ALONE WITH BIRDS
WHEN AT HOME, Duke Trempe
lives at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich, but
he is seldom at home. Usually he
is off somewhere following his hob
by, and that hobby is birds.
I first met Duke in Honolulu. He
had just returned there after a
three-month stay on a small, unin-
habited coral reef several hundred
miles north of Hawaii. For those
three months his only companions
were the birds, of which there were
millions. Duke wished to know
where they come from and where
they go. To get that information he
catches birds when young, places
bands on their legs, and in time
some of them may be picked up in
some far corner of the Pacific, and
Duke may hear of it.
Duke wanted to go with Admiral
Byrd to Little America to study pen
gums, but the admiral did not think
penguins of sufficient Importance to
warrant such study.
LABOR sRACKETEER' WANTED
PROFESSIONAL WRITER'S of
America should form an A. F. of l..
or CLIO. union and force those con-
nected with the government to pay
dues for the privilege of competing
in the writing field. From the Pres
ident and his family and cabinet, on
down, employees of the government
are filling the pages of magazines
and periodicals and causing profess
sional writer's children to go with
out shoes. The professionals need a
labor racketeer to properly organize