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Show This Week by Arthur Brisbane In the Age of Billions Old Bill Did Not Know More Land? What For? If Suddenly Rich, What? Congress number seventy-thref goes home after appropriating for variegated spending between six thousand eight hundred million ; and seven thousand million dol- j lars. No congress ever appropriated so much in peace times. In addition to spending about seven thousand million dollars, this congress guaranteed approximately approxi-mately seven thousand millions more in home mortgages and farm bonds and set up a two thousand million "stabilization fund." We are living in the era cf "billions." With Congress gone home, President Presi-dent Roosevelt is lord of all he surveys, which is no great change He was pretty much that before the adjournment. We have no dictator in the United States, and shall not have one unless something some-thing strange and unusual happens, hap-pens, but the President has as much of a dictator's power as ne chooses to ue. C ngress, with unimortant exceptions, ex-ceptions, obeyed orders while in iesMo.1, and the country will look to the President now to initiate and put through whatever he civ-oses That situation probably probab-ly does not suit him. It involves great responsibility. "Old Bill," dead in London, was a carrier pigeon. He carried mes-ages during the first year a the big war from the British army and air forces in France and Belgium back to London, and lest a leg. Brought back to Encland bv an invalid soldier, he enjoved life for many years, and new has laudatory "obituary notices" no-tices" in English papers. "Old Bill" flew back and iortn in the big war and lest a leg without ever knowing why he was flying or why he had to lose that leg. But "Old Bill" was no more ignorant than a majority of the soldiers ever whose heads he flew on errands that he did not understand. un-derstand. A member of the British house of commons suggests that, failing cash payment, we might accept something in the way of territory. The Briti-h will net give up any territory if they can hold on to it, which they can easily do in this case. And apart from that, what good would it do us to acquire mere territory and have some foolish congressman insist on giving giv-ing it away? We could not possibly get from the British anything any-thing as valuable as the Philippines, Philip-pines, and we are doing our best to get rid oftthem. What would youd do if you suddenly found yourself quite rich, with a prospect of "easy: riches" to come? Mr. Max Baer,! new holder of the heavyweight prize-fighting championship, according ac-cording to the New York Evening Journal, bought himself thirty-five thirty-five new suits of clothes, "in tan, gray and pastel shades." There was a great crowd waiting outside out-side the tailor shop to cheer him, and he wrote his autograph on a one-dollar bill for a young girl. Fame is a wonderful thing. The young "Count cf Paris," who might be king of France if the French people suddenly lost their wits, believes that he, so fai as he knows a direct descendant cf Hugh Capet, will soon be called to the French throne. He says: "You would be astonished if you know how weary France is of A" x - J . Xa Vf K A . -H I A x A'1 CvA A;:"" A , v A 'Or ARTHUR BRISBANE the present regime." The young pretender to the throne might be surprised if lie could knew how weary France was of her kings before she got rid of them, and how fortunate he is that the common sense- of tne French will keep him talking, not reigning. President. Rccsevelt, in a letter snt to West Virginia, expresses satisfaction with the achievements of NRA. "We have spread employment, we have raised pay, and we are not through yet. It is a nctable record of recovery recov-ery It has led the way for ether nations, and has produced widespread and, I believe, permanent perm-anent results. Certainly we have a right to celebrate this anniversary." annivers-ary." Washington Singer, whose father invented a sewing machine, left a fortune of $5,534,890 in England, where he raced his horses r British government takes an tate duty" of about . two Im?' "dollars from the heirs. A T1 rate, it does not take onit ,at vast accumulations to melt especially as "the bigger the e.T?' the higher the percentage tak Our government has borrowed n," idea, made necessary by a st faculty for spending develop pcliticians. a by The big, dangerous steel is for the time averted thant the President's wise unobbT'0 mediations, and thanks estS to the wl?e advice given v men by William Green, Dririthe of the American Federation ! Labor. 1 |