| Show f Released by Western Newspaper Union i CONGRESSIONAL MILLS 1 i CONTINUE TO GRIND WHEN BRUCE RUCE BARTON of New NewYork York city ran for congress it was wason lit on a platform of f repeal laws rather f F than to enact new ones He was elected and though he tried he did not get many if U 1 any laws repealed The congressional mill continues to grind For example during the first days day's session of the present congress there were more snore than 1800 bills intro introduced in the house and senate Fortunately For For- Fortunately no great number of them will ever be passed or in fact voted upon in either cither the house or senate Few of them arc of any consequence to the general welfare of the nation Most of them are of importance to toa toa toa a very limited number of people Largely they were introduced at the request of some one who was a potential po vote producer in the district of a congressman or the state of a senator Each of those 1800 bills represents represents a consumption of time in con con- congress congress gress cress and each represents a cost to the people of the United States Each must be read and referred to and considered by a senate or house com corn committee thus taking the presumably valuable time of members of the two houses The great majority of such bills never get beyond the com corn committees to which they are arc referred rc erred They are shelved but copies of them have been printed at public expense They are arc also printed in the Con Con- Congressional Congressional gressional Record The congress congress- congressman man or senator did not make a speech about the bill he introduced but he requests permission to have havethe havethe havethe the speech he might have made printed in the Record It is granted and insertion of that speech means more cost When printed in the Rec Rec- Record Record Record ord the senator or congressman may order reprints and these he mails to his constituents The public pub pub- public lic lie pays for the printing and mail mail- ing It all means waste of time and much needless expense but it is' is a apart apart apart part of the price we pay for freedom free free- freedom dom for a republican form of gov gov- government Our freedom and the privilege of governing ourselves is worth all aU of that and much more Just the same Bruce Barton had a wonderful idea as to repealing old laws rather than enacting new ones We have cursed ourselves with too many needless and meaningless laws OBEYING ORDERS AND GIVING THEM 1 TIME Early spring of 1917 Place Inside a Chicago club By direction of a club member a waiter walter placed a glass of liquor on onan onan onan an unoccupied table A young man wearing the uniform of a student at atan an army officers officer's training camp stopped beside the table and drank the liquor As he did so so an army officer an instructor at Fort Sheri Sheri- Sheridan Sheridan Sheridan dan Training camp entered the room The young man rejoined his companions with whom he had been I talking His father a member of the club who resented the order which precluded him from providing a drink of liquor for his son or the son from Indulging in liquor while in training and who had directed that the glass be placed on the table continued the card game in which he was playing paying laying The army officer seated himself in a chair and after making a memorandum on a card from his pocket began reading a newspaper The young man did not graduate and did not receive a commission He stood high In everything but dis dis- dis- dis He had not obeyed orders He had taken a drink of liquor He went into the army as a drafted sol sol- soldier sol sol- soldier dier and as such was on the front lines in France on the last day of the war Thirty minutes before the fir fir- firIng firing Ing lug ceased on November 11 11 1918 a aGerman aGerman aGerman German bullet found him and he is buried burled in France If U he be had not taken that drink of liquor in disobedience of orders he be would have been an officer and would not have been where that Ger Ger- German German German man bullet would have found him He might have survived the war The boys boy's father lived to lament his connivance and his encouragement encourage ment of his only sons son's disobedience The moral of the incident If 1 any Is 15 that it does not pay to disobey orders The army does not believe that any man is qualified to give orders who has not learned first to obey orders S STO TO SAVE CIPHERS in these days of astronomical figures we no long long- longer er write it as We now put it as billion dollars There are no longer ciphers enough to do the Job and anything less than billions is not worth talking about S S WHAT A TEMPEST IN A TEA TEAPOT POT there was over recognition of that title of emperor and now it itIs ItIs Is just plain King Victor Emanuel again The Italian empire has dis disappeared dis- dis disappeared appeared with the exception of little Albania thanks Albania thanks to a bad guess on the part of Mussolini HOW WILL PA AND MA AMER AMER- AMERICA ICA like it U when Johann the Hun goes marching home to a job for t. t which they furnish the pay while John America walks a police beat In Berlin f. f t |
