{ title: 'Watertown re-union. (Watertown, N.Y.) 1866-1918, December 08, 1917, Page 6, Image 6', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85054450/1917-12-08/ed-1/seq-6/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85054450/1917-12-08/ed-1/seq-6.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85054450/1917-12-08/ed-1/seq-6/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85054450/1917-12-08/ed-1/seq-6/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
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SSESt35KMfeMCffie3i«Mtt3 ..',.jitirrr'oiffir—ii'tr-TT- i r r 'JiS^^^^/ij^i^al^Skii^lammtll^mmMim in m; I'f u 5«t.W ... ,»i».iiiliiiiiiiii«.t'«'#ii««M»pi«mn»pW / THE WATERTOWN RE-UNION. Wealth, as defined at present, con- sists of a cellar full of-coal and po- tatoes. ' .. At, least, 8-eent postage will tend to discourage those \please remit\ corre- spondents. That new French gas must make the Germans sorry they ever invented • t rightfulness. * One of Russia's disadvantages is that it has no national gaine to build a democracy around. Secretary Baker correctly fixes the time \when the war will end; it will end when we win it. The burning question just now is whether coal is coming down other ways besides via the chute. . Soldiers can get on with all sorts of clothes for a While, but when it conies to munitions, they must be,, made to fit. New York city's budget for 191S calls for the trifling sum of $237,954,- 549.57. What on earth is the 57 cents for? We have no ill feeling toward the •woman who pays $35 for a pair of shoes—but we do -hope they pinch her feet. »Many a member of congress finds when he goes home that while he has been talking his constituents have been thinking. \Most men do. not regard marriage seriously,\ says Professor Elkus. That must mean that most men are not married. Of all the things he might have looked forward to, Nick Romanoff nev- er expected to eat Christmas dinner In Siberia. An SO-foot whale has lately been •caught off the northwest const. This will probably dispose of another sub- marine rumor. \Bread is more valuable than money i In Gi'eece,\ announces ri paper head- line. Isn't that always true, every- where in the world? In some\ of the training camps the soldiers are being taught to sing. The amateur efforts of an army trying to sing is likely to be as demoralizing to the Germans as » 42-centimeter. * , Three-cent postage may improve the declining art of letter' writing. One would hesitate to spend three per- fectly good pennies to say: \Weather fine. Sleeping under blankets. Wish you were here!\ Germany is accused of importing sand and gravel for the construction of concrete \pill boxes\ through Hol- land! It has been suspected for some time that the Teutonic supply of \sand\ was running short. These specifications for meals that cost 20 cents each for a family of five persons are Interesting. One of the difficulties of, a 20-cent meal, however, Is that the ingredients will cost some- where between $3.50 and $7.98. Geography is being much changed by the war, but it is. not the only school study which is suffering. Such words as invincible, impenetrable, unconquer- able, 'impregnable and unalterable are losing much of their ante-bellum mean- ing. ' , Means are said to have been found to control the hookworm, but that oth- er pest of the South, the boll weevil, continues its ravages. One pair of those new hobnailed shoes for trench warfare weighs seven pounds. They are evidently not built for retreating purposes. To the modern prognostlcator who always sees the end of the war and after, we prefer_ the Arab phildsopher who observed \No being in the world has seen the light of tomorrow.\ But what are the soldiers going to do with those bright pink and vivid green sweaters? Or are they the new selfish sweaters? Sweden has adopted measures to limit the height of women's shoes. Here some limit to the price would be more helpful. When you see son at the woodpile, daughter washing dishes, and mother putting the finishing touches on the baby's toilet. It is a sign somebody has solved the servant problem. Emotion Mistaken for Wisdom in. a Large Proportion of Legislation By U. S. Senator George Sutherland, Former Prdideol of tWAmeric*n Bir Association J H I 'were asked to name the characteristic which more than any other distinguishes our present-day political instrinitions> I ant not sure\ that I should not answer, \The passion, for making,- laws.\ There are 48 small of moderate-sized legislative bodies iii the .TJiiited States engaged a good deal of the 'time, and one very large national legislature working overtime at this amiable occupation, their habitual output being not far frpm fifteen thousand statutes each year. The prevailing' obsession seems to be that statutes, like the crops, enrich the country in proportion to their volume. Unfortunately for this notion, however, the average legislatoi does not always know what he is sowing and the harvest which frequently results is made up of strange and unexpected plants whose appearance is as astonishing to the legislator as it ia disconcerting t o his 'constituents, This situation, I am bound t o say, is not wholly unrelated to a more or less prevalent superstition entertained by the electorate that previous training in legislative affairs is a superfluous adjunct of the legislative\ mind, M'hich should enter upon its task with the teweet inexperience ..of a bride coming to the altar. As rotation in crops—if I may return to. the agriculture figure—improves the soil, so rotation in office is supposed to improve the government. The comparison, however, is illusory since.- the legislator resembles the farmer who cultivates the crops rather than: the cr6ps_ themselves, and previous experience, even of the most thorough, character, on the part of the farmer has never hitherto been supposed to destroy his availability for continued service. I think it was the late Mr. Carlyle, who is reported to have made the rather cynical observation that the only acts of parliament which were! entitled to. commendation -were those by which previous acts of parlia-: ment were repealed. I am not prepared to go quite that far, though I am prepared to say that in my judgment an extraordinarily large pro-, portion of the statutes which, have been passed from time to time in our various legislative bodies might be repealed without the slightest detri- ment to the general welfare. The trouble with much of our legislation is that the legislator has mistaken emotion for wisdom, impulse for knowledge, and good inten- tion for sound judgment. \He means •well\ is a sweet and wholesome thing in the field of ethics. It may be of small consequence, or of no con- sequence at all, i n the domain of law. \He means well\ may save the legislator from the afflictions of an accusing conscience, but it does not protect the community from the affliction of mischievous and meddlesome 1 .statutes. i Unselfish Cooperation and not Fault Finding Will Win War for America By RfiPRESENTATIVE PAT HARRISON of Mississippi • WAR TRUCK INSPECTED BY THE PRESIDENT The'picture shows President Wilson inspecting the first of the heavy war trucks built for the government. This truck and another like it, one buijt at Rochester, N. Y., and the other at Lima, O., were formally accepted by Secretary of War Baker after he had driven one of them along Pennsyl- vania avenue in front of the White House. the trucks were built according to designs prepared by the quartermas- ter's department, the automotive products section of the council of national defense and the Society of Automotive Engineers. The motive power will be supplied by the wonderful new Liberty motor created for the government. The construction of these trucks represents the combined work of 12 motor truck plants and 62 automobile parts factories. Some 35,000 of these stand, ardized trucks are to be built for the use of the United States in war. BIG TRADE FIELD IN WEST INDIES Islands Buy More Goods From United States Than All South America. BUSINESS CAN BE EXPANDED Co-operation, not fault-finding, is now the duty of Americans. The president of the United States .is in this time of war charged with the gravest and most responsible duties. In the administration of new and untried laws and the operation of the greatly increased military and naval forces of the country, together with all the vast number of additional matters rendered necessary by the war, no doubt mistakes -will be made. It would be a miracle if they were not. But the critic, espe- cially if he be a leader of men whose duty i t is to play an important part in' molding public opinion—r-the critic imd the fault finder whose only activities are criticizing and. fault-finding with those who are adminis- tering the law and carrying on the numerous vast operations incident to war—is not a truly good soldier or a good leader or a loyal American. The disintegration of Russia, which has been so costly to the entente allied cause, and which will materially delay the successful termination of the war, should be a striking lesson to those Americans who are inclined to criticize and find fault with those whose duties and functions are to carry the war to a successful and victofious end. Great and large powers necessarily must be conferred upon the executive of the nation at this time. The delegation of such powers in ordinary times would not be dreamed of. But promptness and efficiency are imperative now and to obtain the highest efficiency, t o strike with the power and might of the nation, we must delegate for the time unusual authority to the executive head. , America's course in this war is of tremendous importance to the peace and safety and freedom of the world. Never in our history were unselfish co-operation and patriotic unity and devotion t o duty so much needed. All true Americans will work together for the country's good, which means now all humanity's good. Those who do not are not true Americans. American People Cannot Consider Any Peace Proposed by Prussia By STEPHEN S. WISE. Rabbi of the Ftee Synagogue of New York The name \Sammy\ for the soldiers seems to stick. They did not care for it; but neitner did Tommy Atkins care for his. And his is still sticking. Germany says her relations with the neutrals are very satisfactory. What Germany likes about neutrals is their willingness to aefcept her apologies. In a very short time foreign lan- guage newspapers will be content to publish in the plain English that everybody In America will be speak- ing. Physicians say chances of long life are good for those who belonged large families. Each one keeps alive to see what happens to the others. In one of the provinces of Prance the German tiflicers have deprived the inhabitants of their clocks. Taking time by the forelock, as It were. We cannot and will not consider peace at the instance of Prussia or of any witting or unwitting agents of Prussia. The only peace the American people at any time will be prepared to consider is a peace which must be disastrous to every hope of Prussia's rulers or a peace made over their heads and perhaps their bodies with the German people, returned t o reason and humaneness after the dethrone- ment of the war-mad lords, who have been suffered to defile and to damn the whole German people. The president not merely willed to keep us out of war but throughout inearly three years of irritation and insult, of contumely and outrage, he achieved the miracle of keeping us out of the war. Why did the president lead us into war ? Because, he saw that we were not so much challenged ito war as to defend the elementary sanctities of life i n the only terms in- telligible to that band of militarists who had brought hurt to half the world and shame unutterable to their dumbly trusting peoples. Groups other than the uncompromising pacifists are to be found in the leadership of the people's council, and these, mindful of the serious- ness of my charge, I accuse of readiness to accept an outcome of the war, which would not bring peace to men but seal the dominance of the sword in the world. „_ • j Uncle Sam's Experts Say Manufactur- ers Do Not Realize the Impor- tance of This Great Market. The principal function of ,the bureau of foreign and domestic commerce of Uncle Sam's department of commerce Is to help the business man and manu- facturer of the United States obtain data of special interest t,o himself and to help increase the export trade of the country. In this connection, the bureau maintains a number of high- class special agents, whose duty it is to visit foreign countries and obtain Information of special interest to the different trades. \One of the most Interesting studies that have recently been made is that of the West Indies as an export field. It is interesting to note in this con- nection that in the islands of the West Indian archipelago there are approxi- mately 9,000,000 people to be furnished with the necessities of life. Manufac- turing in these islands is virtually neg- ligible. Their industries are concerned with the exploitation of agricultural, mineral and forest resources. It was found by those making the study that vast quantities of manufactured goods must be bought from the great ex- porting nations of the world. As a source of supply for these require- ments the United States occupies a peculiarly favorable position. Figures Show Extent of Trade. Many manufacturers of this country do not realize fully.the importance of the West Indies as a market for Amer- ican goods, it is claimed, and this Is one of the reasons that the Investiga- tion was made by the bureau. The po- sition of the archipelago in the foreign trade of the United States may be best illustrated by comparisons with other fields. In the past fiscal year of 1916 this country sold to the West Indies, Including Porto Rico, more goods than the entire continent of South America, the figures being $191,195,791 and* ^177,628,611, respectively. In that year Cuba alone bought from the United States more than Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Para- guay together. The West Indies took nearly eleven times as much as the Central American republics of Guate- mala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua and Gosta Bica combined. Experts of the bureau say that China is rightly regarded as one of the prin- cipal fields for commercial effort by American exporters; yet in. the fiscal year 1916 the groat Oriental republic, with its 400,000*000. people,; purchased from the United' States less than ( one- ; seventh as much as was taken, by the islands of the Antilles. The West ln^ dies, in fact, took considerably more than two-thirds as much as the entire, continent of Asia and all the islands of the East Indies. Field Can Be Developed. It can, therefore, be seen, the ex- ports declare, that the West Indian islands constitute an export field of genuine importance to the people of the United States; a field, moreover, that is susceptible of great develop- ment. Hay ti and the Dominican repub- lic, for example, are ( countriesl rich in agricultural and other possibilities, needing only stable conditions and the Judicious utilization of capital to pro- duce many articles .that are eagerly sought i n tin,markets Of the world. ENTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS Many Indian Children Now At« tend State Institutions. Uncle Sam Encourages Movement and Pays Tuition of Those Whose Par- ents Are Not Taxpayers. The course of study which has been arranged by Uncle Sam's Indian office for the Indian children on the reserva- tions throughout the United States is such that its academical features will enable pupils readily to enter the pub- lic schools without retarding their progress and is designed to subserve the general policy of the bureau of en- couraging the attendance of- Indian children in the state schools. There are now upward of 30,000 In- dian children in^the public schools of the country, and under the provision of the law for paying their tuition, equal to the per capita' cost for white pupils, and provided the Indian par- ents pay no taxes, the number is rap- idly increasing, and .objection to such attendance by white parents is said by officials of the Indian bureau ti. be di- minishing. * • While it is admittedly true that In- dian children do not receive in the public schools generally the advan- tages of industrial training and prac- tice afforded by the government board- ing schools, this policy is considered justified by the 1 fact that their inter- mingling with white pupils offers many opportunities for acquiring the arts and manners and conventions of civ- ilized life that do not come to them in exclusively Indian schools. However, it appears that state schools are not accessible to a very large number of Indian children of school age for whom federal provision will be neces- sary for some time to come, and for these a very thorough and entirely practical scheme of Industrial train- ing was made an important part of the.new course of study which has been inaugurated by the bureau. This course provides, among other special features, very complete in- struction In the use of English, so that the pupil shall not only be able to speak and write it readily, but do his thinking hi English; this because his future promises an inseparable con- nection with an English-speaking civil- ization. Again, emphasis is placed upon a knowlede of the laws of health and sanitation. Bodily vigor, physical exercises, including athletics and all proper gymnasium sports, are made prominent. *••••••••••••••••••••••••• • a : Marine Private Paid More, • Than a Russian Colonel • — • According to statistics in a • war bulletin, issued by the Na- J tional Geographic society, a firsts • class private in the United J States marine corps serving • abroad, draws ?41 a year more J than a Russian colonel; $64 a • year more than a German lleii- • tenant for the first three years-; • ?31 a year more than a first lieu- 2 tenant of the Austrian arny, and '• S19 more than a junior lieuten- 2 ant in the service of Italy. . • Philippine Foreign Trade Grows: - The total foreign trade of. the Phil- ippine islands for the first six months of 1917 was nearly $8,500,000 'in ex- cess of that for the Corresponding months of the preceding year, Uncle Sam's reports show. Of this increase nearly $7,000,000 is credited to im- ' ports. It Is stated that the total quan- tity of imports for the 1917 period was less than in 1916, and that tha excess in values Is made up entirely by the increased prices of imports. mSHWOTQN CITY Food Administration Machine -Moves Perfectly W ASHINGTON.-^Food is the one thing that you can't get at the food admin r istration building. Jn fact, it is even hard to borrwy a match there! Herbert e; Hoover's food administration is one of America's most powerful war machines. It has been said! that .\ ' - food will win the War and the world' acknowledges that.America holds the balance of the food, ' ' The machinery of the. food admin- istration is one huge typewriter. It seems that, the f bod 1 campaign is be- ing waged by, rattling typewriters and multiple machines. • Hoover has made his work a personal work, he sends hundreds of letters each and every day to hundreds of persons of influ- ence iri'the food world, io accomplish all of this h e has established a corps of correspondents of experience on every food commodity. There are some .75 men connected with the food adminis- tration-who are food' experts. Each one of these is virtually a letter writer,. carrying on a great, campaign through the mails. Through the answers to these letters Hpoyer feels the' food pulse of the nation- Publicity is another big factor in the food administration machine. Every channel of publicity from the daily newspaper to the religious journal is em- ployed. A staff of 125 writers have been enlisted to pour out article after article for every sort of publication. These are sent^ where they, will do the most good and there isn't any wasted material, either, for material is' issue* only where it is used. The publicity department employs' 200 persons. Motion pictures are also a part in the machine. Half a dozen expert motion-picture producers are giving their services in mapping out a screejj campaign to save food. Efficiency Is the watchword. \Verbal orders don't go,\ Is the sign hung on every desk and affairs move with a precision and accuracy. ' Turkey Buzzard the \Real lining\ in the Air A IRSHIPS are a wonder, all right, but—consider the buzzard that came t<t town! One cannot swear to it, of course, but, as it was just after the <?aprdni flight, and old Mr. Turkey B. made the same circles and swoops in tha same sky, it may be—just'may bes mind—that he' felt called on to come up from the piney woods to show.. Washington the difference between air- ships and the real thing. Anyhow, a buzzard came to town. , And in one high-up window the same human batchy-masculine gendet —that had Watched the Italian flyer made an audience for the bird, with this difference: The man captured: Intellectual homage, while the buzzard merely served to recall buzzards gene before, buzzards of Western desert romances and of the Southern barnyard. \Takes ine back to the time when I was a kid, and another boy and? my \ • , \We call them carrion crows where I come from. You don't want to be anywhere hear one, but when it comes tcj flying he beats any other bird that. cuts the air \ \They are known as vultures in South America. When I was ii* Panama \ And the one feminine microbe in the crowd, but not of It,, sat at another window and, by the magic of the swirling, swooping, splendid thing up in the- patch of blue, visioned once more: A lithely picturesque brown boy, his out- stretched arms and body swaying to a black woman's hand-beating rhythm off the \tukkey\ buzzard dance—the silver moon light—the shadowy- green hills? of Maryland so forever far away . Which just helps to show that everything in this world commands an in- terest of some sort, whether it be a Caproni, the latest born of science, or just an old black-winged, red-wattled turkey buzzard that was flying around creation before the birth of the ark. None Escapes the Enterprising Book Salesman T HE governor of a great state who renounced his office and came to Wash- ington as a senator and smilingly stated that for once he had come where he couldn't be disturbed by book salesmen and peddlers of various kinds, found to his amazement that they can break In and solicit him eyen in the senate office building. They do not troop in in unbroken strings, how- ever, but they manage to gefin now and then and tackle the senators or their secretaries. Only the other day a high-class salesman, with all equip- ment concealed about his person, shot past the door and for half a day's labor in the big building turned in or- ders for half a'hundred sets of books, It Is said. His plan was to step into each office quite demurely and exhibit a list of books; The list Was penne* in long hand and as ,the prospective buyer tbok the list the salesman said, \Have you read these books?\ If the p. b. said \Yes\ or \Sure\ or \Uh-huh part of 'em,\ that was ienough. \All right, you're likely to be interested in a little proposition I have. If you had said you were hot familiar with this list I would have stepped out and gone on my way. But this makes me think you're a student, and I'm going tq, lay this before you,\ he said. ' , And so the canvass went merrily on while the salesman displayed Ms stock, after drawing on most of his pockets. He kept up a running fire of conversation, he was droll with real humor in his' occasional sallies—in short he was a salesman worth while and he obtained the orders. In just one office he disclosed his identity—he is really an author of some repute, and he i s play- ing the role in order to get material for another \best seller.\ Constant Changes in Government Departments, T WO hundred thousand applicants for federal appointments have been examined by the civil service commission in the course of a year andE 65,000 of these have been certified, a majority of them for service in Washing- ton. The navy department, last Jan- ,200,000 APPLY FOfc ftPPOIHTriEflTS^^I 65/)00 CERTIFIED uaiy, had 225 telephone instruments; connected with nine trunk lines. Now it has 485 Instruments and 23 trunk lines. And yet the cry is for more clerks, still more clerks. .Temporary buildings are in course of construction, or are to be begun shortly. Congress has appropriated $2,000,000 for* one 1 of these, to disfigure the ,mall-^$2,006,- 000 for a temporary building built of lumber, to care for the clerical over- flow from'the war department alone. Not only are the new clerks coming in by the myriads, old clerks and other government emplqyees are disappearing from their haunts and newcomers are taking their places. A careful estimate ha's it that 12;000 have joined the military forces, taken more lucrative employment in private life, or, left the government service for other reasons. It cannot be said that this vast amount of new material adjusts itself with precision and promptness to the nation's demand's^ but yet the business of the government is being carried on with fairly satisfactory results. Elsewhere, Washington industry is demoralized. The departments are' populated by people whom nobody knows; old timers, who were ttife. stand-bys 'of the newspaper correspondents, disappear without warning and \spurlos and men of strange mien occupy their desks. No, sir, i t isn't the old Washington at all.. •\\-•*'! -•*;( tT**W**^MWWMiyis
