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Show I H 77? SPECTATOR fl 1 I! V ' PEAKING of I ml ' thrlt J havo been I C J ! 1 wondering as to I - 1 1 whether thrift Is 1 i I being practiced 'J"r'""Tag?Hl In Washington. Almost every day there is an appeal from some governmental gov-ernmental department to save, to con-servo, con-servo, and we are doing it cheerfully and willingly; but are they doing this in Washington?" This is the question asked The Spectator by a well known Salt Laker who is a large holder of Liberty Bonds of each issue and who has gone the limit in Baby Bonds for himself and each member of his family. fam-ily. Then he continued: "At all times, economy is a virtue; at this moment, a virtuous neecssity. But all the people are not economical. (Many are because the war has not been general gen-eral in its distribution of prosperity. Wages have been advanced in many instances which placed the recipient in affluence where before almost poverty pov-erty had prevailed. There had been no Incentive to save; in fact, they $& could not have saved had they so de-fiffiv de-fiffiv sired, for the small pay received ne-Hf ne-Hf cessitated a hand-to mouth living. ?' Now things have changed. HL "In many places in the coutnry, not, HL however, in this mountain country Hp where we live, money is almost grow- iMRt ng on trees' Is P,cke(I UP apparently y without effort, hence extravagance in $P every way. I was down east, as you mP know, just a few weeks ago, and W everybody seemed to be rolling in JA ,, wealth, wage earner as well as bene- iml$ flciaries in government contracts. Ww There was a prodigality such as I jyP have never before seen. You and I xfiT' lived in Civil War times, when every blgfe one was more or less extravagant; but fcffil making a comparison of those days 8hB& with the present, people during the ifflU Civil War were misers. WSm "What are the examples that are jKPK- set before the wage earner? He asks 'SBsT himself the question, 'why should I BtjJK" save?' As he goes to his work he Jhhl' reads that a steel company supplying Ekc material for government use has de- Hp, clared a dividend of millions of dol- K lars, therefore he asks himnlf, "why mMi did the government that is daily send- jBJi ; ing out urgent appeals to mo to econ- Bfek omize permit the exactions of such WSf payments for its material afi would mtjjk return these enormous dividends? jagp Has Uncle Sam been practicing econ- Hlft omy that economy which ho asks BBfj! me to practice? HL Again he reads of the millions and 'kBI millions of dollars that the packing Jjffitk interests, or rather the pool of pack- IbK' ers, have returned to them in profits, WKkE his information coming from reports msm$ of trade investigating inquiries, and fflw. again ho asks himself, 'why should I Qm economize, why should we stint our- lit1 selves at home; government contracts with the packers enable them to reap this enormous harvest of do'lars. Has the government practiced the thrift in the matter of awarding these contracts con-tracts that it asks me to practice?" "But why point out more? The facts speak for themselves. There is profiteering profi-teering on a scale that no one would have dreamed of two years ago. And I ask myself the question, as does the wage earner, Is thrift being practiced in Washington?" There is a big row and rumpus brewing among the rank and file of Salt Lake county Democracy, the hewers hew-ers of wood and the drawers of water expressing a great deal of anxiety as to the coming election this fall. Heretofore Here-tofore the big round simoleon in the shape of a dollar has cut a great deal of ice, so to speak, in Salt Lake county coun-ty politics. This in -particular during the past few years, since the amalgamated amalga-mated combination now holding down the jobs in the county building took possession. This year it will not figure, fig-ure, and the result is a wailing and gnashing of teeth. The Corrupt Practice Prac-tice Act is the stone in the way, and the law which the Democratic legislature legisla-ture enacted has acted like a boomerang boomer-ang and has come back to plague the party. Like much other legislation enacted, a great deal of it vicious, the Corrupt Practice Act was passed as a Holier Than Thou one to preserve the purity of elections. Now that the ward heelers heel-ers have discovered that it shuts off the money flow from the political mill race there is a stream of profanity and an avalanche of adverbs hurled at the solons that framed and passed the bill that is astonishing even to a Democrat, used as he is to all this. Not only is there a war upon the part of the ward heelers, but the underlings un-derlings in the several county offices are up in arms. Ever since they have held down the job given them they have paid every month 5 per cent of their salaries into a pool which was to be used as a campaign fund. Of those temporarily employed ten cents per day is deducted from the pay check when it is given them. This fund has grown to a big one, and there is a kick upon the part of all against paying any further. The employees are asking why the assessment? assess-ment? The heelers ask where do we come In? Meanwhile the fund grows. Why? "Bamberger Will Tour." This grat ifylng(?) information is being spread broadcast over the state of Ut. under un-der the envelope of the Commissioner of Public Economy, possibly the intent in-tent being to conserve postage for the executive of the state. This is woi Ic ing for the purpose of furthering war interests with a vengeance. The fact that Simon will make a tour of the state, particularly southern south-ern Utah, as detailed In the document, will no doubt bo hailed with delight by the residents of the southern part of the state, and the further fact that he will visit Zion Canyon and the grand canyon will no doubt cause the citizens of that part of the state to sit up nights awaitng the arrival of the governor. The fact that the information in-formation is sent out in envelopes bearing the return stamp of the Commissioner Com-missioner of Commercial Economy is intended no doubt to impress tno people peo-ple that the trip is a government mission. mis-sion. Information that the governor is to tour the state is not given out here, but is sent to the country press to disseminate. One of the letters or articles was sent to the editor of the Carbon County News at Price, and the editor of that paper treats the matter under the head of "Great Is Diana," also "Simon," in the following manner: man-ner: "One of the biggest jokes that has come to the desk of the editor of the News-Advocate for a long time was an envelope bearing the return stamp of the Commission of Commercial Economy and evidently containing matter folded and inserted by employees em-ployees of that office who are supposed to be doing work for further war interests. inter-ests. Expecting to find some important announcement for Commissioner W. F. Jensen, just imagine our surprise when we found the envelope to contain con-tain an article headed 'Bamberger Will Tour." Perusal brought out the tact that Simon will make a tour of the southern part of Utah, going to the grand canyon for a vacation. He will also visit Little Zion Canyon and probably inspect a few roads, the Piute Pi-ute project and dam. There is nothing noth-ing to indicate that either the state or the government will derive any benefit from Simon's jaunt. He will be accompanied by his .wife and daughter and it is purely a summer vacation of a family that can afford it. Why it Is played up to the press of the state out of a federal office is something we cannot answer. Simon dearly loves to see his name in the papers, but he is going at it in a poor way." These are days of conservation, but why use stationery which is supposed sup-posed to be for governmental business busi-ness of the United States the envelope enve-lope bearing the admonition "Penalty for private use to avoid payment of postage, $300," to advertise n vacation of the governor? It is petty things like this that place the executive in an embarrassing position, to say the least. |