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Show THE PROGRESSIVE INDEPENDENT IIIIIIIIIIIIH1H4HH' WHO WAS WHO? I: G cunerouiL ii By CALVIN COOUDGE ownership of property Involves n risk. No low, no regulation, no government supervision, no skill In management, has ever been devised that eonld protect Invested property from temporary fluctuation and occasional loan These are the hasards of our finite existence. Only omniscience can guard against them. But that does not excuse us from making the most of what we have and doing the best we can. While no one can tell with certainty is the blame to be assessed! It is to point out any general moral We laps any widespread dishonesty. may say it was the result of greed and selfishness. But what body Is to be specifically charged with that! Were the wage earners too greedy in getting all what will happen to any particular prop- they could for their work? Were the erty or what the market will do at any managers of enterprise, big and little, too greedy in trying to operate at a profit? Were the farmers too greedy in their efforts to make more money by tilling more land and enlarging their production? Even if we could convict society on a general charge of sell! shoes we could not point to any element that consciously brought about a condition of felling price If all the anqr in tha coaatry wore divided equally of the serious results that come from the experience through which our country has been passing for the past two years is loss of faith. Because some have put their trust In things which they have found do not always endure, they draw tha hasty and unwarranted conclusion that it la useless to have faith in anything. They propose to abandon all standard seek only the easiest course, and live merely for the present; on tha theory that they may as well eat, drink, and bo merry, for tomorrow they diet It cannot he denied that many people have had an experience which at first thought seems to warrant such an attitude. They had profitable employment on which they believed they could rely for a permanent Income. That has gone, and they are unable to secure work. They had a house which ultimately they expected would he their own and would make a homo for themselves and their family. They have been unable to meet the payments due on It and have seen It taken from them. Others have found that Investments on which they relied for provision for their old age have turned out to be of much less veins than had been Some have met with losses supposed. through the failure of banks in which they had money deposited. It is easy, in these circumstances; for the individual to conclude that these disasters have arisen through no fault of his own, that it must be the fault of someone; and he Is inclined to blame something he loosely calls society. Sometimes a feeling of injustice results in a threat of defiance against constituted authority. Among all these people; those who most strongly sppeal to our sympathies, those who seem most warranted in their discouragement, are the ones who want work and cannot find it But even they should take the larger view of their situation. It is no new experience for a wage earner to be without employment Such a condition has always beat temporary. It win be temporary now. Surely the country will go back to work; back to production and consumption. The condition of the wage earner in America has long been the despair of all the rest of the world. Some hope should be derived from what has been and some confidence entertained that the same again hn be. ' In Ufa, we must take the risk of bring responsible for the result If we could lay the blame for present conditions in our own country or in the world on society at large, against whom But a new element has entered into the situation of the unemployed. Heretofore; few have known anything about it, few have cared anything about it and nobody has done anything about It Now the whole nation Is aroused. There is scarcely a hamlet in the land where there is not an organisation and active public effort for the relief of the unemployed. They will be cared for in an unprecedented way. We have had a tremendous spiritual awakening concerning our duty to relieve human Buffering. It la true some homes have been lost through default of payments. That risk is always incurred when property is bought on credit But even in this field, where one home has been lost an enormous number have been retained. Their owners now find themselves securely and comfortably housed because they saved money and bought when they had an income; instead of pending all their money on rents and expensive living. St all those who have bought homes in the last twenty years could be assembled, it would be found, in spite of some failures, that as a class; they were distinctly better off than their neighbors. Tha desire to build and own a home is one of the primal human instincts. It is especially strong in women. Even the present age of hotel apartments and flats is not likely to eradicate so strong a natural longing. But those who have given up the effort in despair or disgust certainly must live somewhere if not in their own house then in the house of someone else; Their real position in the world is disclosed by supposing that everyone rise followed their example; The whole race would be without shelter in about a generation. Those who have coma to the conclusion that they will do nothing to make themselves a home are injuring themsrivcs most; but they are also injuring the whole community. Any such scheme of things as their actions presuppose could not be put into effect. Nature and reason are both opposed to it When we examine the complaints of those who have lost through investments we find that they fall into three classes: Some lost because they were plainly swindled. We are enacting more and more laws and setting up more and more regulations and safeguards to prevent a recurrence of such abuse Tha practice of swindling is very old, and larceny has never been eradicated from any community where property was abundant But because someone does wrong does not prove that we shall all abandon trying to do right Others have used poor Judgment in investment Usually they have been tempted to take huge risks by the hope of making large gain Borne did not make great profits while many more suffered heavy loese Those who trust to chance must abide by the results ol chance. They have no legitimate complaint against anyone but themselves. Still other using all tha Judgment possible for human beings and guided by the best financial advice obtainable, have seen their investments seriously impaired. But this simply n what everyone should know; that even pif when surrounded by all the safeguards and all the Integrity which tt is possible to secure; the I 111 if, Comstock ' 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 MR. DOOLEY AND MR. HENNESSY XTIGHT after night Finley Peter IN Duong need to while away down. in James MeGsrryte saloon on Dearborn street in Chicago. Week after week there came from hf pen those humorous conversations between Mr. Dooley and Mr. Henneasy which, thronghont the late nineties and the early nineteen hundreds carried a half comic, half philosophical commentary on tha news of the day which proved a common sense and healthful Influence on the thought of the entire country. Mr. Dooley waa supposedly MS 0 By Loom ' pat terned on James McGarry himself, as far at least as his rich brogue wee concerned ; In thought and word be was undoubtedly hie author, FinMr. HInmssy" ley Peter Dunn waa John J. McKenna, veteran politician of "Archie road, today chief inspector of Illinois employment agencle end for half a century tne newspaper man's beet source of Information npon Interesting events In Chicagos history. Mr. Hennesaya share In the conversations was merely to supply Just the obvtons commonplace remark needed to set Mr. Dooley's easy tongue wagging, seemingly Inspired, in long expostulations of current event with a wisdom that served to set the opinion of many readers end humor that served to smooth over much of the bitter partisanship of the day when party politics needed Jut such treatment H. . . the from barm, Mr. HenLord save neasy wonld piously remark, and Mr. Dooley wonld be off: Ye ought to know the history tv platform . . . Yura ago, Mr. many years ago, they was a race between th dlmmlcrats an' tb raypubllcans . . u Hln-nlss- y, how much would you get? particular time, the best financial Judgment expects that, while further losses may accrue, sometime the general level of good standard properties will rise, so that some- of the present losses will be reduced. Future prices at which property will sell are always uncertain. There is no one to be blamed for what is unavoidably true. The great fact of life la uncertainty. The only thing we can do is to recognise the uncertainty and govern ourselves ac- country. We have found out that we were not so Mg as we thought we wet We were riding too Ugh. We shall have to keep nearer fee ground. We may not feel so elated but we shall be much safer. g Economic is very important, but cordingly. It is true that a considerable number of peo- perhaps it is not so Important as we thought it ple have Buffered through bank failures. In a ws If it Is used as it ought to be, to minister time of declining prices the banks that have to spiritual we cannot have too much not been well managed always have difficulty. of But if it is made a vehicle for stimulating Borne also that through no fault of their own greed and selflshnes idleness and Ignorance, have met losses have been compelled to dose. extravagance and waste, destructive alike to But that does not mean a total loss to depositor body and soul, it defeats Itself and vanish e Sometimes the loss is heavy, but sometimes pay- until, through adversity, we can learn to make ment la made in full, in any case, funds are a better use of prosperity. tied up and much inconvenience result The development of fee real character of men Our national banking system is as sound as and women can go on in bad times as well as in ' of generations experience have been able to good fens After all, that is fee important thing. Most of the states fellow a similar make Neither fee world at large nor our own most system. The nature of Investments is regulated favored nation is going to discover some miracuby law, and most banks are carefully super- lous formula which, all at one will remove the vised, rigidly controlled, and frequently exam- possibility of hardship, want and deprivation ined by government agent While absolute from .fee human rac With all fee power of safety haa been impossible to secure; it is prob- mass production, we are a long way from uniable that the records of money deposited in prop- versal luxury. But In fee United States we erly regulated banks in this country would show have approached the line of universal conveniover a series of years that it has been in the ence. Our system has produced a distribution safest place to keep fund of wealth so that those having Incomes of five well-bein- well-bein- it it O Banks are an absolute necessity for the transaction of business. If it were possible to conceive of all of them bring dosed, starvation would fece most of us inside of ten day They exist to facilitate the process of exchange, which is the basis of all business. They are one of the main sources of credit on which our economic welfare largely depend It la apparent that if their source of currency were cut off by people taking money out of banks and hoarding it locking it up, or hiding it away, our banking system soon would become deranged and the whole nation would begin to suffer losses. Loans would have to be called, mortgages canceled, prices would fall, wages decline, credit would full, and a general panic would be produced. If all fee people attempted to draw fedr money from the bulk all commerce would be reduced to barter, and universal bankruptcy would pre- vail. While particular banks may become unsound, we can fed adequately certain that our banking system as a whole win not become unsound. If it ever did, we should find that the money we had hidden away had become unsound also. It would not be possible to buy anything with It All exchange would be at an end. Even payments by the federal government would have to be suspended. While keeping money in banks Involves some risk, because possession of property always Involves risk it is a risk that must be take Compared with the certain calamity that would result if the people drew all money out of bank the risk can be considered as negligible; Those who are engaged In hoarding currency are probably no safer as a class than those who keep their funds in fee bank They are injuring themselves and everybody els They are In fee position of not taking their part of fee risks of life and are trying to make themselves safe by letting others carry their risks for them. a great O personal comfort if we could lay all the blame for our misfortunes upon some source outside oursrive That is why it Is easy to convince some of us that we have not failed, but society has failed. Of eourse, It would fellow that if society were to be blamed for our It might be failure feat some society must be credited with our successe If we want to look at it that way we shall have to admit that on the whole, society in this country has done very Our country, over its span of hiswell by u tory, has been considerable of a succes But while there is a relationship of all of u which we term society, that differs from each ot u Just as a house differs from the individual bricks in it, yet people are not brick and moral responsibility cannot be shifted to other It must rest with the Individual. The same society produced Paul and Juda Washington and Arnold, Lincoln and Tweed, Edison and the gang leader. If wo are to be free to make our own choices V V lack of confidence, business failure and hard time These were the last things that anybody wanted. The most wo can say la that there has been a general lack of Judgment so widespreaiTks to involve practically fee whole unemployment, thousand dollars or let according to fee latest are said to receive 87 per available record cent of fee total national Income. If they were give in addition, fee entire Income of all those who receive more, the Increase would be only about seven hundred dollar Great as our resources are, they have a distinct limitation. Thera is not wealth enough in our country to taka care of our people without fee ablest possible management and the hardest kind of work cm the part of all of us. There Is no government In the world that can remove this burden from its Inhabitant O Under the pressure of events there are some who have become sullen and resentful. They are inclined to refuse to make an effort to pay their taxes and their Interest If they earn anything, they propose to spend It They have lost faith in fee standards by which they have lived. Such people have made a great mistake. They have been born into the wrong universe for them. They belong in some place where there are no risks to be faced, where a backbone would be considered excess bsggage, where l. courage and perseverance, effort and self-denia- V WILD BILL called him "Wild Bill but his name wasn't William at all, and Instead of being wild, ha was most of the time-o- ne THEY of tha quietest, softest spoken men tn the whole history of fee frontier. Hie real name wee James Butler Hlckok, a native of Dllnol who served as a apy for the Union army In Missouri daring the Civil war and later aa an Overland stage driver and a scout for United States army troops In the Indian wars ta the West Tha name "Wild BUI was tacked on to him because of a desperate d battle be waa supe posed to have fought with the gang" while he waa employed by fee stage company. Tbs only trouble with the story la that each a fight aa baa been described by many writers never took place. Official recordain the Nebraska Historical society show that Hlckok killed one man naiiied McCanle a peaceful settler, and the manner of the killing was such as to reflect little If any credit upon Hlckok. Later as a marshal In varlona Kansas town Hlckok made a brila peace officer, beliant record ing noted for the deadlines of hie aim with a pistol This enhanced bis reputation aa Wild Bill, but It alio led to his downfall Eventually a would-b- e bad man, who dared not face Hlckok, slipped up behind him aa be eat at a card game lu Dead-woo8.' D one day In 1870 and shot him down. -- hand-to-han- u V V V UNCLE TOM tombstone, of accumulated rubbish and vegetation recently by a government weed Inspector working near Dresden. Ontario, Canada, revealed the final resting place of Rev. Joslab Henson, regarded as the original of Uncle Tom, hero of Harriet Beecher Stowe'a "Uncle Toms Cabin." The tombstone Is In an old cemetery Jnat five miles off the main automobile highway east of Chatham, during Civil war days a great gathering place for runaway slave who had come up from fee Sontb via the underground railway. In Canada they were safe from the dread fugitive alave laws which facilitated their capture and return In the On fee tombstone la fee InState scription: Along-forgotte- n Industry and thrift are not virtues in them to be cultivated for their own sakea selve The absurdity of this position Is revealed hr consldering what would result if everybody d adopted fee same attitude. There is no power than can guarantee us eee nomic security. We think we want relief froqc toil and worry, forgetful that all our real satisfactions are in our achievement If we will but make the effort to develop them. If we will apply ourselves folfefnlly to our task we shall all find we have powers we did not know we possessed. We shall come nearest to achieving our own economic security by the practice of the homely virtues of Industry and thrift; of buying a few things we can pay ter, rather than many which leave us loaded with dangerous debts we can never pay; of small savings securely Invested at moderate return rather than spectacular financial performance The beet recipe for financial security Is to five "In memory ot Rtv. Joalah Honsoa within our mean This is our ancient faith. We Died May IKS Bora July 1 ITS have found nothing better. If we should undertake to put Into operation Ax II year 10 months and I day" any scheme based on the assumption that the world owes all of us a living, wo would soon It waa In 1850, when Tom was find the world was bankrupt If we fry to adopt some plan that will eliminate fee changes and In Boston on hie way to Canada, risks of life, we are likely to find that revesees feat Mr Stowe saw him, 8he waa win come Just the sam We shan be better off ao impressed, so go the report by If we work on the old standard that we owe a hla story of fee brutality of certain duty to the world to earn our own living; and slave owner and by his descripInstead of supposing we can abolish reverse pretion of fee way In which hla own paring to meet them. Under this homely, sate, father bed been beaten to death, and seasoned system we shall probably find we aba resolved then and there hare the best chance of taking care of ourselves feat and securing the greatest distribution of wealth. to put him Into print aa fee embodiment of her protest against fee (World Coprrlfht, 1111. by Grivh CseUds whole system of slavery. AS Kisbtf XescrTttL) (A 1111, W Urn Smpww Pal.) A Musician ef (Prevued by the National Qeonraphie IX Society. WaahlnKton. (WNU Service.! C-- l THE Whoa Who of former INman Ger- Africa, now mandates under the control of fee various European nation Cameroon stands out aa one of fee most Interesting. Wedged In between French and British territory at fee Inner corner of fee Gulf of Guinea on the western coast. It was Kam-ern- n Now It has to fee German became French mandate and la governed along with French Equatorial Africa, a sizable empire under the tricolor. Cameroun la a vast terltory Itself. It touches fee sea tor a distance of about 12S mllq end then fans out gigantically to reach the Sahara to the north, the Oahangnl river to the east, and Gabon colony at ita lower boundary. The steamer which carries fee colonies In obtraveler to this jective passes through e channel between fee huge guardian masses of fee Island of Fernando Po on one aide and Monnt Cameroon on the other, and tnrna eastward Into the mouth of a broad estuary. To the south stretches sn endless vista of low mangrove swamp. On the left, 60 miles away, la the mountain, Its peak rarely vis- ible In so humid s climate. Id midstream, to the annoyance of the captain, la the wreckage of two German ships deliberately sunk at the beginning of the Worjd war to obstruct passage. After several alow miles up bestream. Donate, the comes visible. It lies on a flab topped, not very lofty promontory along a glaring beach and hilly ridge; The effect, especially after month of sea. Is charming. Douala Is Attraetlv The big house of the chief of the local administrative division of the mandate appears whit elegant, and richly shaded In the foreground. Behind the mansion, np and down fee hill, are other sturdy, pretty stucco residence mango, palm, and breadfruit trees overhanging them; and, of course, along fee water front are the Inevitable and Inevitably ugly trading "factorie their "big-town- ," galvanized Iron roofs shimmering In fee violence of the sun. On closer examination Douala proves at once the prettiest and fee plainest of West African cities. It la a question of neighborhood. On the palm of the flat Douala promontory the German established an exclusive white residential quarter, complete with park bandstand, and double or quadruple lines of trees on every street Along fee wrist and forearm, to continue the metaphor, they planned a native and trading section which eonld continue Intend nprlver as tar as it liked. Incorporating as It grew the existing villages of Akwa, .Deldo, New Bell New Akwa, and New Deldo. (In times these town names threaten to become repetition) . This arrangement, substantially, has kept up. though the French government has made no effort to enforce It. The section Immediately around the park, enlivened by fee presence of several cafe la the beet shnded, most serenely quiet and lovely bit of town on the coast For the rest for the miles of deep, hot sand along tha river's edge, the Innumerable hideous stores and warehouse the noisy recklessness of dilapidated auto trucks sad even more dilapidated native laborers one can say little that la kind. It Is commercially flourishing and trade Is growing at least It Is the one logical outlet for the produce of the entire Interior, and the harIn thirty years the bor Is excellent population has grown from negligibility to over 25,000 mors than 1,000 of whom are European To the Interior by Rail. Donate will never be proud of Ita climate, in the dry season It Is hot breathless beyond belief, a temperature of 80 degrees Is absolutely chilly. And In the rainy season one sloshes about in high boots and raincoat through an almost continual downpour, which, mysteriously, does little to modify the temperature. The average annual rainfall here la mors than 18 feet and at one pises oa tbs seacoast fee precipitation the Cameroun. reaches fee phenomenal 86 figure of feet The two Cameroun railway! center at Donate. One rune das north for 100 miles to the terminal town The other, which of Kkongsamba. bne no connection with the first goes eastward for 100 mile to the new administrative capital, Yaounde. To reach the terminus of fee first Cliemln de Fer dn Nord one crosses the Douala river to the village of Bonaberi. The dally train, following the Ignoble custom of civilisation, leaves at a fiendishly early hour, an hour when the fleecy dawn mists 11s on fee river, permeate ones clothe and unglue the labels from fee bag-ga- g Passengers of both colors Intensely dislike each other, as Is natural before breakfast, and embarkation Is accompanied by profanity In something over thirty language , The engine barns wood, frequently such trifles as ebony and mahogany, and the rain of blazing sparks makes it Incumbent upon the passengers to remain close within fee carriage Almost at one however, the multiplicity and grandeur of Cameroun becomes manifest, and one can no i longer be dull All the way to Nkongsamba the s line cllmba upward, slowly for of the distance, then theer-lFor the first six hours the route lies through fee region of fee great equatorial forest At either side of the narrow cut rear np mighty, regimented tree The tope flaring flat and wide to take fee sun, are often 200 feet above the grand. Some of the tranke are four feet through and all are wrapped and tangled in vines that make a contlnuou eternal pattern. Bushe weed terns the else of apple tree choke the ground. Everything la green, superbly living In Immortal rammer. Plantations and Upland Occasionally the forest breaks and the train passes plantations of tobacco (certalh grades of Cameroun wrapper sell for $2.50 a pound ' wholesale), banana, palm oil and cacao. Leu frequently, there are native villages of half a dozen ramshackle "long house" of the Bantu and now and then larger typ towns with the ubiquitous corrugated Iron factory In evldenc Then, on higher ground, the train begins to go through open clearstretches of lush, rolling ing meadowtend of a sort unimaginable in ordinary tropical bush." The trees begin to dwindle, fee vegetation thins down end becomes more orderly. At e tew miles from Nkongsamba there Is no more Jungle, only whnt northerner wonld accurately call "wood The equatorial forest, in leu then 100 miles and, more Importantly, with 8,000 feet of altt-tuhas been forced rat From Nkongnmba en onto goes 137 miles north and a little east to fee native city of Foumban. It Is a lovely road, speaking strictly from the standpoint of scenery, not road- the threo-quarter- y. d bed. After a tiring days drive In s bumpy truck, Foumban la astonishing, so complete in Ita contrast with what has gone before. The city stands upon a hill and la surrounded by an elaborate aystem of ancient trench fortifications dating from fee The years of the Fulah raider which have been planted tree along every street, give It a wooded effect wholly absent among fee One neighboring gran meadow has an Immediate Impression of order, prosperity, civilization. Many of the houses of Foumban d brick and are are of roofed with native tiles or grass thatch. The compound fences are neatly constructed. The market, made of brick and Ul la modern In type and perfectly dun. At fee center of the town la an Imposing three-stor- y structure set In the midst of elaborate garden It Is the palace of NJoya, sultan of the Bamoum and overlord of Fonmbnn. Everything order, brick and garden Is Indigenous Fon inborn existed when fee whits man was no more than a myth. Even now outside Influences have touched tt only slightly. sun-drie- |