THE O’NEILL FRONTIER
_ °‘ H- CRONIN' Publisher.
O'NEILL. NEBRASKA
we?1 1 ... ■ ■—
Mrs. .Aravle TTatcVilgan. almost pennffer s
widow of an Armenian college profvssor
slain by the Turks, arrived in New York
last week with her two children. 2 and 10
years old. in search of “Mrs.Hagoplan.”
a school teacher in California. She sup
posed California was “within walking dis
tance of New York.' she told a represen
tative of the Travelers’ Aid Society who
took her in charge.
We are indebted to the Txmdon Times
for the information that President Wilson,
“at a very critical period of his illness,
some time ago. himself entertained the
idea of resigning, hut his present condi
tion is such now that he lias apparently
abandoned the idea, which the cabinet
does not favor. The message to con
gress was. it Is understood, written from
notes dictated hy the president. Grave
symtoms of uremic poisoning marked
the most serious stage of his sickness.”
Enactment of laws to penalize violators
of contracts between capital and labor is
suggested by l’hil S. Hanna, spokesman
for the coal operators before President
Wilson’s coal commission. “Pollctive
bargaining without responsibility is a •
farce,” he said. “The miners are irre- I
sponsible. Our contracts with them are I
not respected generally or locally.”
Action for $1,000,000 damages, has been
started against the Canadian minister of
customs and other members of t lie do
minion cabinet, by the Fort Francis Pulp
& Paper Company, on the ground that the
government prohibited the export of paper
from the local mills. Mill officials declare
they may close down their plants unless
the order is revoked.
A committee has Just been formed with
T. P. O’Connor, the widely known member
of iMtrliarnent. as president, to conduct
an energetic campaign to the end that the
Turks shall never again govern areas in
habited by Christians. “Only a few weeks
ago.” he said, “I helped to gather the
mutilated bodies of some .'500 or 400 little
Christian children for Christian burial in
Asia Minor.”
The governors of Arizona, Idaho and
New Mexico and a number of senators
and representatives will assist in the wel
come home tomorrow in New York, of the
last of the American expeditionary forces
to leave France. The Rocky Mountain
Club, “The eastern home of western men,”
has charge of the receptions.
American Legion members of Oklahoma
City, dissatisfied witli arrangements for
tbe care of their tubercular comrades,
have decided to form a corporation with
a capital stock of $10,000 to take over a
building and convert it into a hospital for
war veterans. Others interested in aid
ing soldiers, may contribute in addition
to the legionalres.
Every seventh and eighth grade student
In Chicago is in future required to memor
ize the “American Creed” which will be
furnished the schools by the Illinois so
ciety of the Sons of the Revolution.
The Great I^akes naval station reports
W0 new “flu” cases.
▲t the clothiers’ convention In Chicago
this week, M. L. Rothchild, a Chicago re
tailer told his fellow merchants that it
was their “duty to protect their customers
and tell them not to buy. A boycott from
the consumer is probably the only solu
tion of the high prices problem, he said.
Fourteen thousand persons were shot
by the bolshevists of Russia during the
first three months of 1919 by order of the
extraordinary committee at Moscow, ac
cording to 'an Official note published in
the bolsheviat organ “Isvestria.”
••Going into the silences is becoming a
popular indoor sport in the United King
dom. The game Is played usually between
married couples who find themselves
chafing under the heavenly bonds but
who haven't reached the divorce court
stage.
One of the wonders of the British Jrairy
Association show, according to the Lon
don Daily News, was a Danish appliance
for keeping milk fresh for two years or
more. No preservatives are used. The
apparatus is known as a "homogenlzor,"
and the preserving force is a pressure of
Z.COO pounds to the square inch.
English newspapers, as a rule are still
continuing to ridicule the prohibition
campaign being directed by American
workers In that country. Some of the
papers have made decidedly hostile at
tacks on the Invaders from the United
States, claiming that1 England can run her
own affairs without assistance from out
side.
Italy is crying.aloud for American tour
ists. as well as those of England and
France. In spite of the fact that they have
no room for tourists, as the population
of the cities has Increased nt an amazing
rate during the war.
Italians who made a lot of money in tills
country during and before the war ami
returned to Italy since the armistice to
spend It are hurrying back to America as
fast as the ships can bring them, says a
New York dispatch.
Field Marshal von Illndenburg bids fair
to become a millionaire from his writings,
according to the new Berlin Gazette, it is
reported, that ho has sold some of his
works in America for *60,00f>.
Delegates to the international seamen's
union at Its annual convention are urging
enforcement of the seamen's act which
requites 16 per cent of crews of United
States to speak the English language
The immediate formation of n national
party. Including the unionists and the rem
nant of the liberal organization, to pre
sent an effective front to tile laborites Is
suggested In London.
Sales to South American countries in
creased by $136,000,000 at the rate of about
60 per cent in the last year. Argentina and
per cent in the last year. Argentina and
Brazil shew a gain of over $f>0.000.i«0 each.
The National Shoe Retailers' Association
says it will offer the government h na
tional vigilance committee to police the
retail shoe business and aid the depart
ment of justice in gunning down profi
teers.
Lord Leconfield. who donated his home
In Mayfair for use as an American offi
cers’ club for two years, has given Scttw
fell Pike, the highest mountain summit, in
England, to the nation in honor ol British
soldiers of the world war.
With 'hundreds of aliens oelng shipped
from all parts- of the country to Ellis
Island for deportation as dangerous radi
cals, it was 'reported today that loo.oou
Immigrants are expected on incoming ves
sels this month.
The United States ranks second to
Great Britain in the number of merchant
vessels entering the port of Buenos Aires
In 1919, Norway being third.
Italian Catholics have adopted the white
carnation os their badge, to distinguish
them from the socialists, who have always
used the red carnation.
Suggesting the scarcity of automobiles
In England, an advertisement in a recent
London Times says: “Wanted, the worst
Ford in England."
There are about 1.C0U American soldiSr
hurled in Germany, about 200 of whom
died in prison catqps- The remainder died
while serving with the army ot’ occupa
tion.
Three thousand disabled service men are }
taking courses m agric-nlt tre tr.der the I
(all .lai U-e a led ( eue.w.uu cuucel teeu- J
IS ON TRIAL FOR ‘
Principal of Schools at Dodge.
Neb., Admits Making Use
of Piece of Kub
ber Hose.
Fremont, Neb., Jan. -U. In district
court William l*. Wolf, principal <>f tne
schools at Dodge, is being tried on a
charge of assault and battery. The
«asc grows out of a whipping adminis
tered by the principal upon Adolph
Renter, jr., the son of a prominent ciii
! zen of the tow n.
Wolf, on the witness stand yesterday
admitted that hr- whipped the boy for
live minutes with a rubber hose, doub
ling the hose, which was six feet in
length. On cross examination, Wolf
resented the frequent use of the word
“whipping" by the county attorney,
exclaiming that he dkV not “h-.e that
word." The county attorney then
consented to say that ‘the boy was
spanked with a rubber hose.”
Adolph Renter, father of the boy, said
tins* young Adolph came home from
school with large welts on his buck,
hips and legs. He testified that be took
the bov before the school board mem
bers at Dodge, then to a physician s of
fice and the following day to Fremont,
where he laid them at ter before the
county attorney and cause a complaint
to be sworn against Wolf, charging as
sault and battery.
LITTLE FEAR EXPRESSED
FOR SAFETY OF PATES
West Point, fjfeb.. Jan. 2G.- The ad
ventures of Robert Pates arid his
bride in Chicago,, related in press dis
patches, causes no surprise here, but
the facta are somewhat disturbed.
Pates is a young farmer of this vicin
ity, the son of the lute Robert Pates,
who died some years ago leaving a
considerable estate. He has been sickly
for some time past, \vith presumably
a tubercular Infection. During the
past few months he has been observed
Jo be very despondent. He was married
iiere last Monday to Miss Mary Rode,
it most estimable young woman of this
city. He is not believed lo have had
$5,000 in his possession in Chicago, but
simply a Travelers’ Check for a few
hundred dollars. He is of good char
acter and stands well in the commu
nity.
- -4
NEBRASKA FIREMEN
ELECT NEW OFFICERS
Scottsbluff, Neb., Jan. 26.—Robert
Lewis, of Humphrey, was unanimously
elected president of the Nebraska Vol
unteer Firemen’s association for the
ensuing year. Other officers elected
were; C. R. Frasier, of Gothenburg,
first vice president; Joint Martin, Fre
mont. second vice president; E. A.
Miller Kearney, re-elected secretary
for the 21sl term; F. 15. Tobin, Sidney,
re-elected treasurer for the fourth
term; the Rev. Walter C. Rundin,
Mitchell, re-elected chaplain for the
fourth term.
The bourtl of control will consist of
Jake Goehring, Seward; Harry Ayers,
Mitchell; Burt Galley, Columbus;
Charley Hartford, Norfolk, and W. H.
Tillery, Lexington.
—4
PRACTICAL EXAMPLE OF
DEPRECIATED GERMAN MARK
Omaha, Neb., Jan. 26.—On January 7,
11)16, IJ. B. Gross, an Omaha pawn
broker, paid $170 to an express com
pany for a draft which he mailed to his
father, M. Gross, in Calfa, Palestine.
The draft called for MiG German marks,
so that Mr. Gross, senior, would have
no trouble with the exchange.
Mr. Gross recently was surprised
when the draft was returned with the
announcement that it had ben held up
because of the war. Mr. Gross then
went to the express oflice to get ills
$170. The express oflice counted out
$15. The pawnbroker was told that the
German mark, like all things German,
hud dropped in prestige and value.
4
CONVICTED OF FORGERY
COMMITTED 10 YEARS AGO
G'remojit, Neb., Jan. 26. —James G.
Emerson will go to the penitentiary to
serve time for a forgery committed
over 10 years ago. A jury in district
court Thursday found him guilty. In
May, 1910, Emerson walked into the
Commercial National Bank and se
cured $192 by presenting a bogus
paper He was arrested at Arlington
tlie following day. In his pockets was
found over $5,000. He escaped by for
feiting bond anil was caught a few
months ago at Boone, la. Emerson is
65 years of age and is refined in ap
pearance.
WEST POINT MAN AND
MONEY ARE MISSING
Omaha. Neb., Jan. 26.—Lucile Neal
West Point, Neb., asked the police to
hunt her husband, who had gone out
to see the sights with $5,000 in ills
pocket and failed to return.
They were bound east and arriving
at the Northwestern depot he decided
to go out for a while and look the city
over. After waiting several hours she
notified police.
OPERATOR ANdToMPANy"
MONEY ARE MISSING
Grand Island. Neb., Jan. 26.—H. H
Wolfe. 30 years old, relief operator for
the Burlington railroad ut Cairo, 19
miles northwest of here, disappeared
with $3,000 in currency sent by the
Grand Island National bank to the
Farmers' State bank at Cairo, and fror
$100 to $200 belonging to Ihe raiirou
company.
NEGRO GIRL SLASHED
FATHER WITH RAZOR
Omaha. Neb., Jan. 24.—Lucile Neal
13 years old, slashed her lather, Ruber
Neal, about the head, neck and arm
with a razor when he is said to hav
s .irted to beat the girl's mother witl
a i i uh. Ail ar. in ,, o, a.
The girl „aie at rested and be krd e
a charge of cutlin . to wound. Juvi
uiie oflicors took cl .age of her.
Tiie father was rushed to St. Jose; !
hospital ia ;hr pol ce pa'e.ol. tin
„.uns .ay ho il’.
Constitutional Convention Post
pones Action on Cedar Coun
ty Delegate’s Measure
Aimed at Parochials.
TJncoln, Neb., Jan. 23. -r- The two
drastic educational measures proposed
by Judge W. F. Bryant, delegate from
Cedar county, which proposed to make
every child of school age attend the
public schools designed to close up all
the parochials and lo define secular
instructon whch is burred by the
present constitution, were definitely
postponed by the state constitutional
convention.
Mr. Bryant made a strong tight. He
said that there are now 17,000 chil
dren in parochials and the number is
growing. He said it was a menace
that must be halted, claming the pub
lic schools weld together citizenship,
which is necessary to the welfare of
the state. No roll call w'as hud, the
vote being overwhelming.
The convention set down for a
special order next Tuesday a new in
itiative and referendum section, The
doubling of the vote by the addition
of women to the electorate makes the
percentages too high, as viewed by
friends of these measures, and the
tight now is whether to lower the per
centage or provide definite figures.
20,000 to initiate new laws, 25,000 to
initiate new constitutional amend
ments and 15,000 to refer laws passed
by the legislature.
—f—
JURY TRIAL QUESTION
UP TO SUPREME COURT
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 23.—The su
preme court had put to it today the
question of whether a jury trial can
be denied in magistrate and police
courts to persons charged with minor
offenses against the state prohibitory
luw. Fred Bell was lined $100 and
costs in a Lancaster county justice
court on a charge of transporting liq
uor and the same for illegal posses
sion, after he had demanded and been
refused a jury trial.
The matter is admitted by the law
yers to be a close question, although
the prohibitory law itself denies such
a trial by jury before magistrates and
police judges. The rule of law is that
the constitutional right to a trial by
jury applies only in cases in which the
prerogative existed at the common law
or was secured by statute at the time
the constitution was adopted and not
in those cases where the right and the
remedy to it are thereafter created by
statute nor where the cause was al
ready the subject of equity jurispru
dence.
CONGRESSMAN EVANS TO
ENTER RACE AGAIN
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 23.—R. E. Evans
of Dakota City, present member of
congress from the Third district, hfcs
signified his desire for a second term.
He filed Thursday afternoon with the
secretary of state as a candidate for
re-nomination. M. O. McLaughlin,
representing the fourth district, and
W. S. Andrews of the Fifth, also filed
for re-nominations. All are republi
cans.
Twenty-five residents of Randolph,
Cedar county, have filed with the sec
retary of state a petition placing Grant
L. Shumway of Scottsbluff in nomina
tion for governor on the democratic
ticket. Mr. Shumway was land com
missioner for two years, and was de
feated for re-election at the 1918 elec
tion.
R. C. Harris, republican, has filed
for re-election as state senator from
the Fifteenth district, composed of the
counties of Jefferson and Thayer.
—♦
HAIL INSURANCE TO BE
PAID IN INSTALLMENTS
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 23. — Following
protests from friends of state hail in
surance that the policy of waiting till
all the premiums were collected before
paying any part of the losses would
kill off the law, Secretary Hart of the
Insurance department announces that
. he will pay half of ull claims as soon
,'ts a sufficient sum is in the hands of
of the state treasurer.
The adjusted claims total $086,000.
The premiums are collected as per
onal taxes, and of these collections,
the treasurer now has but $285,00. As
soon as this reaches $350,000, or half
of the premiums collectible, half of
each claim will be paid.
—♦—
IS RECOVERING FROM
PAINFUL INJURIES
Bridgeport, Nob., Jan. 23. — Henry
Idlienthal, a woritman on the now rail
road bridge, fell in a sitting position
on a projecting steel roil at the top of
one of the piers, a nil the rod penetrated
the lower part of his body several
Inches. The man hung suspended from
the rod until his fellow workmen could
remove him. An operation was at first
thought necessary to save his life, but
was later found to be unnecessary and
be is recovering.
GOVERNOR McKELVIE TO
SPEAK AT SEATTLE, WASH.
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 23.—Gov. Samuel
It. McKelvle has accepted an invitation
to bo a guest at the banquet pf the
Young Men’s Republican club at Se
attle Wash., February 12, speaking as
the representative of Nebraska and as
a delegate of the national committee.
WAYNK—Orville Thompson, IS, died a
few days ago from injuries sustained last
fall In a football game.
REDS HAVE CUT OFF
CRIMEAN PENINSULA
London, Jan. 23.—Russian soviet
forces have virtually cut off the Cri
mean peninsula from the mainland, ac
cording to an official statement issued
at the war office in Moscow and re
ceived here by wireless.
Another Moscow dispatch reports
anii-bolshevist forces evacuating Ml sc. -
abrthgard in the northern part of the
government ot Kherson, and hurriedly
retreating toward the Black sea coast
Nebraska National C4u.ard to
Be Made Up of Persons
Known to Be 100 Per
Cent American.
Lincoln, Neb.. Jim. 23.—Following a
two days’ conference of represent;*
lives of civic organizations, churches
and manufacturers to which the report
ers were not invited, the announcement i
is made that a U0 day drive will begin
at once for the purpose of getting a
national guard organization formed.
This is in charge of a state committee
of safety and public welfare, the mem
bers of which are commissioned by the
governor to do the recruiting. The plan
is to make this a selective proposition.
None hut 100 per cent Americans will
be chosen, and these wiP tn •
to enlist. There will be no open enlist
ment as in the past.
This contereiiv.^ ..as the result of a
number of secret meetings in the state,
addressed by the adjutant general, in
which he told of the dangerous condi
tions he found that menaced the con
tinuance of tile institutions of democ
racy. The business interests are par
ticularly interested, and all employers
are to be asked to sign a card guaran
teeing that employes who join the
guard will receive full pay while on
drills, in camps of instruction and on
duty.
—f—
TENANT ON FARM GETS
DEAD MAN’S ESTATE
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 23.—The will of
Lonzo Stuckey, who took his own life
on his farm near Martell on January
15, has been filed for probate in county
court. The will was made a number
of years ago and leaves the entire es
tate to the tenant and friend of de
ceased, Joseph Bohmont.
The estate consists of personal prop
erty worth $4,500 and the farm of 120
acres in Lancaster county, with other
real estate in Yuma county, Colorado.
-4- —
TO URGE QUICK ACTION
ON COLE’S APPEAL
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 23.—Attorney
General Davis will send a man to St.
Louis to appear before the circuit
court of appeals next Tuesday to
urge immediate consideration of the
appeal of Alson B. Cole, convicted of
murder, who was saved from the elec
tric chair last Friday by the appeal.
Federal Judge Munger, of Nebraska
held that the application for a writ of
habeas corpus, which brought into
consideration the question of whether
the state law had been followed in his
trial after his confession, had been
filed too late.
Cole's attorneys have 60 days to file
the transcript, and they say they will
take the full time. The attorney gen
eral says that he will present to the
court the fact that the sole purpose of
the appeal is to hold off the execution
in the hope that capital punishment
may be abolished or something else
happens before it is finally decided.
UNUSUAL PLEA MADE
TO SUPREME COURT
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 23.—Benjamin
Meyers, a garage dealer of Cuming
county, presented his appeal to the
supreme court today from a conviction
there of grand larceny. Meyers says
that he wasn’t guilty, and that the
evidence that convicted him and gained
him a one to seven-year sentence was
largely furnished by Charles Wheeler,
who confessed to being an accomplice.
The charge was the larceny of auto
mobile casings.
Meyers' attorneys presented several
technical defenses, one of them decid
edly unusual. The stenographer who
drew up the information put the date
of the alleged crime as December 4,
1018. Later the state was permitted
to amend and make it 1918, or 900
years later. The defendant's attorneys
said that it is an ancient rule of law
that the time of an offense is an essen
tial part of an information, and that
as their client was charged with hav
ing done this in the Eleventh century
they had no reason to believe the pros
ecuting attorney meant 1918, and that
anyway the statute of limitations had
run against an offense committed 903
years ago.
-+
NEBRASKA FAMILY FOUND
IN PITIABLE CONDITION
O'Neill, Neb., Jan. 23.—Mrs. Ella
Herrick, wife of Emery Herrick here,
and their two sons and one daughter
have been sent to the asylum for.the
insane at Norfolk by county authori
ties. Herrick, who is reputed to be a
relative of Myron T. Herrick, of Ohio
Is under surveillance and observance
as to his own sanity. Three small chil
dren of the couple have been taken
from the father by the county authori
ties and placed in the homes of friends
and relatives, that they may have a
chance.
That the condition of misery and
want in which the family was found
\vas not due to circumstances over
which Herrick had no control is evi
denced by the fact that he is the
owner of a fine stock and hay ranch
of 240 acres about nine miles southwest
of the city, from which the family had
moved to town last fall. The ranch Is
worth from $40 to $80 an acre and
readily would command a price of $50
straight, did he desire to sell it. A son
of the family now is living on the
place.
—4—
A transport loaded with undesirables
from New England will sail from Boston
soon.
BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
ELECTS NEW OFFICERS
Lincoln, Neb., Jan. US. - J. F. McArdlt
of Omaha, was elected president of the
state board of agriculture and Fep
tember 10 was fixed as the time for
the state fair, at the annual meeting
of the board here. Other officers cho
sen follow: First vice presiden
Charles Graff. Tlancroft: second vie.
president, George Jackson, Nelson:
treasurer. Jacob Fans. Chaleo, scare
wry; Id. it. Danielson, Lincoln.
The Human Factor— j
A Workingman’s Estimate j
I - h- • - • • *
Carol Wight, in the Atlantic Monthly.
(In considering (lie bitter struggle now in progress between capital and labor,
discussion usually turns on economic principles, while little attention Is paid to the
Intractable human factor very often dominant. Thinking of this, the editor wrote
to a friendly corresi ondent, who, after receiving a classical education, was obliged
for his health's sake to give up his position a dozen years ago, and seek his livelihood
In the open air as a carpenter and mason. Ar botlf these trades he has acquired
technical skill. The man knows men. We think his answer to our letter worth
printing in full.—The Editors.]
From my observation at close range. I believe that society is being made
to stand and deliver. The profiteer set the- example, the workingman followed
with alacrity, and everyone who can is now trying to "get his," and the eco
nomic dance of death is in full swing. Hence wages and prices are no criterion
ol the value of work done or of a commodity sold, i erected a small building
for a man some lime ago and charged him 10 per cent less than the regular
wage, for I knew he was under heavy expense at the time, and I thought it
was only decent so to do. Again, J taught a friend trigonometry last winter
for nothing. He wanted to pay me, but 1 was more than paid by the pleasure
of it. I was getting good pay, too, from the government at the time, and was
in no actual need of the money: and in spite of the saying of an economist,
that “a man who would give his labor for nothing is a social monster,” 1 know
there are many workmen who feel as I do and act as 1 do when they get a.
chance. Furthermore, if society chooses to pay me more for ctriving nails into
a board than it pays the man or woman who drives ideas and ideals into the
heads of its children, society, it would seem to me. will some day have to go to
school to a dictator. When the functions of society are disturbed, the laws that
are exponential of those functions are disturbed, too. The law of “supply and
demand” has its limitations, and so has the present, popular law of "supply
and be damnod.”
Let me get down to particulars. One Sunday morning in the tropics, I
was resting from my work, looking out over the marble surface of the cloud
reflecting ocean—for it was flat calm—when a group of waiters started to
grind a big ice cream freezer; and, as the work was heavy, they cajoled a
stoker, with the promise of a quarter and some ice cream, to turn it for them.
The coal smeared half naked wretch, who was glad to get up where he could,
breathe any cooler air, ground away joyfully, and the sweat ran off him like
oily ink, so foul with coal dust he was. At last the freezer stiffened and the
job was done, and he was recompensed by being kicked bodily down the com
panion way and told to go to hell, where he belonged. I hunted him up later
and found him at his dinner, a kind of hash, which was dumped on a dirty
coal besmirched board. Those who did not own knife, fork or spoon ate this
with their hands. I gave him the quarter, and the only response was a stare
and the question: “How the hell did you ever ship on this bloody wagon?"
From that moment I understood the profound meaning of the motto of
once great steamship line: “To sail the seas is necessary, to live is not
necessary.”
Coming into New York harbor, on another voyage. I found myself gazing
at a man who had been helping wash down the decks. Bare footed, bare head
ed, a splendid specimen of physical power, he stood glaring at one of the pas
sengers who was quietly reading a magazine as he leaned against a rail. The
lips of my fellow toiler of the sea writhed and his eyes dilated. Suddenly,
walking straight up to the passenger, he snatched the magazine and broke out:
"I can read as well as you!” And he began running his finger up and down
the page, and blurting out incoherent attempts at something which, whatever
it was, did not come from those, to him, undecipherable pages. The passenger
smiled contemptuously, gave him a tip, if you can call it that, and turned on.
his heel. I have never seen a wilder look of chagrin and despair than came
over that man’s face as he crumpled the magazine and slunk down the com
panion way that led to the “glory hole.”
Though I tried to find him, I never saw him again, and yet in a sense 1
have never lost sight either of him or his fellow sufferer, the stoker, for 1 see
these two types again and again in strange places and strange disguises. For
instance, last winter, as I was returning one evening from my work in the
foundry at League Island navy yard, a man in the crowded trolley car sud
denly tore open his very handsome silk shirt and began pulling out a portion
of his undershirt, also of silk. Then he stretched the heavy ribbed material
with both hands, and told us he had paid $18 for his undershirt, and as long as
he lived would never wear anything cheaper. The crowd, composed
of workingmen and working women, cheered. Then another man told us very
abruptly that his wife was a lady and that he had bought her a dress ”or $140,
and that before she went without such a dress he would—here he lunged at a
woman and intimated in a very vivid pantomime that he would tear /the dress
off some more bountifully provided woman to supply any aeficiency in his
wife’s wardrobe. This also was highly pleasing to the crowd.
Now it would be easy to describe all this in a comic vein; but when you
realize the pitiable perversion of the very human idea of providing for one's
wife, it seems anything but comic. And so I thought as I gazed cn the flushed
faces riant with their new wealth: “Here at last my oid friends from the
stoke hole and the forecastle have forced their way on deck, and what will be
come of the ship once their hands hold the helm? And not the ship only, but
the officers and the passengers, and those who have consigned their wares to
her hold?”
It is oecoming daily, hourly, more difficult to guide such people. I could
multiply similar types indefinitely; but here is another type less tractable to
bit or bridle, perhaps. This man is a Neapolitan. He was standing on a lad
der, cleaning a window. Quite forgetful of his task—although hd was very in
dustrious—he was singing in a wonderfully sweet tenor voice the well known
“La donna e mobile,” from ’’Rigoletto." Along comes an electrician, kicks the
ladder from under him, calls him a fool of a-“Wop.-' and tells him to
“cut it out, and sing something up to date.” Several of us intervened and
averted a fight, but the Neapolitan would not be pacified till lie had given his
assailant a piece of his mind. He spoke very good English, much better than
his tormentor's, who had showered him with an unusual amount of abuse.
“You call me a fool.” he began; “I know two languages and speak and read
two, and you know only one. I know the ways of two countries and you know
the ways of only one. 1 came across the ocean. You have never left Phila
delphia. Y'ou tell me I never go to church, or to the lodge, or to vote. IVell,
I have been to many churches, but only once to any one. 1 go to the socialist
meeting, but only once. I go to the political meeting, but only once.
It is always the same—always, at all the churches and all the
meetings. The priest and the minister say; "Give us your money.’ The
politician says: 'Give us your vote.’ So does, the socialist. So does the an
archist. They give you heaven in the next world, hell here, nothing else, . . .
All these people take from me, they don’t give to me. You don't see it. I see
it. You are the fool, not me.”
By accident I found out how to manage a man like this. One lunch hour
I wrote out a few lines of Dante that I happened to remember: “Per me si va
nella cilta dolente,” down to "voi che entrate.” (The inscription above the
door of hell: “Through me you go into the sorrowful city. ... Ye who
enter.”,' 1 showed them to him. He read them overy very gravely, very
slowly. Then his face lighted up. "That is tine, fine. You write that, Char
ley? You are my friend!” And he shook hands with me eagerly.
I explained at last that he was doing me too much honor, that they were
written by a countryman of his own.
“You are my friend just the same,” he insisted, "my very good friend. I
would do a lot for you.”
Well, the sad part of all this is that nearly all these men have lost faith In
the integrity of the “upper classes." "Give me where I may stand, and I will
move the earth.” But where is this standing room to be found .today? The
rising tides of violence and lawlessness are lapping it incessantly. If the
average man believes our courts are crooked, he will resort to any means to
obtain his own ends rather than trust to that in which ho has no faith. There
can be no permanent progress till that faith is restored and fortified: and if it
is not restored, another jurist may have to pronounce the mournful verdict:
"Wliy go into details about politics? The whole country is going to rack and
ruin."
Is there not something radically wrong in our educational ideals? We
teach men and women trades, we teach them professions; these arc all most'
essential, but they put men into competition with one another, into sharp con
trast with one another; for, let democracy disguise it as it will, there is a dif
ferent dignity to different professions and trades,, and one calling (no less than
one star) differeth from another calling in glory. These are in a sense cen
trifugal social forces, and we need opposing "humanities," which, though they
lead to no specific calling perhaps, nevertheless supplied the forces that united
all men in love of justice and truth, in respect for law, in the practice of tol
eration and mercy and charity, which softened the edge of power, gave a
grace to weakness, and allotted a place and a portion to poverty and limited
capacity. Once more society, upheaved by war, seems to be undergoing a new
differentiation, and the real question of the day is: Suppose we do not like our
new social differential coefficient when we get it, what are wo going to do
abotu .1? How are we going to reverse the process? How arc we going to
perform the integration? For "integrating is a process of finding our way
back, as compared with differentiating.” . . .
In reality, all labor, whether of head or hand, is simply a service, and it is
a dishonest service if you exact more than you give, whether in service re
turned or money paid; for "money is only a documentary claim on the labor of
others." After our essential wants are provided for, there is no greater satis
faction in life than reverence, and there is no human faculty that has a wider
field in the world around us. in heaven above us, and in the hearts and arts of our
fedlow men and women. Teach all men to serve rightly real art, real litera
ture, real science, real labor, and share all these with them, and you need not
fear they will tear your tapestries, loot your libraries, or fling sand into tile
wheels of your machinery, industrial or social; much less, crush human life
Society must stop sending Her children to the anarchist for instruction- she
must teach them herself. Men have been taught to hate, to kill to dcstrov
It is time they were taught to love, to cherish, to construct. Destruction is a
closed curve, and only leads back to the ruin it has wrought. Construction s
an infinite spiral that attains heaven at last and vanishes among the stars
Many men (and women) who are trustees of the higher values in life are
already acting in this faith. They may ho bankers, they mav he judges thev
may be editors, they may he scholars, they may he mechanics—their faith
has not been formulated, its articles have not been codified and so it is cv r
pliable and advances with the times; but it hinds together in moral harmonv
the two opposite poles of human life, the individual and tie aa,, i!vicI "»
these .exists lor and presupposes the other. They are like the keverge -nd ob
verse of the same coin, and when both arc sound tu t0:vi rincs t’-je and will
be acur-namo to. p*u iu aui»u.
