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Show THE 4 CITIZEN Nor have we listed all the points of likeness between the Wilsonian and old Roman program. V." During the war the people were entertained with games, specvaudeville. tacles and open-ai- r In these prodays we might expect the war-tim- e gram to be abandoned, but it has proved too valuable politically. Our army and navy flyers flit from town to town giving exhibitions to the populace. Whenever there is a drive of any kind the government is glad to aid with entertainment. v It is a rather imperial way of keeping the Democratic party popular, but Wilson has found that it works well. What would become of that genial Democratic Party if he should suddenly loose his spending money? Would he suffer the fate of the proverbial wastrel? Would he lose his popularity? Would the farmer, kept contented every month of the year even down to and including election day, forget that he once helped the Democratic party ..waste millions? Would the railway employe forget the increase in wages and denounce the Democratic party as a bum? Would the war profiteers of great wealth throw him overboard? But there seems slight ground for fearing that the Wilson program will be abandoned or curtailed. In fact, we seem to see how it is to be continued on an elaborate scale. Even the pursuit of the profiteer will not stand in the way. How easy it will be to increase the wages of the railway men even if only by a trifling amount ? How easy it will be to reduce prices a little, or, at least, hold them in check? And then, with all the audacity that marked his conduct in 1916 when he. claimed that he had kept us out of war, President Wilson, politician par excellence, will claim the credit for his party and perhaps for his own candidacy. He. will pursue and prosecute some profiteers, but not the railway workers, not the farmers and not the wholesalers. He will blame the retailers and let us catch them and thrash them if we can. . Having embarked on this uneasy and uncertain sea of prophecy, we will go a little farther. We will say that the prosecution of the packers will end in a fizzle and that the protected beef trust will be one of the heartiest and most influential backers of Wilson and the Democratic party. To those who like artifice in politics as exhibited by a master craftsman we recommend the tactics of President Wilson from now until the next national election. We had written this editorial thus far when we were attracted by a picture of a clown in The Deaborn Independent, which is Henry Fords paper. Over the picture and the story was this heading : The So apropos does this Clown In the World. Only Government-pai- d story appear to be that we herewith append enough of it to show just what kind of an impresario Uncle Sam is getting to be : post-bellu- m - . . The government dipped into every kind of business during the war, and now, with peace, it is in the clown business. Not that it has taken over all the circuses In the country. No, indeed, though there are many men in Washington fitted through long political training to be lion tamers and snake charmers. Its circus equipment consists of just one clown. His name is Cho Cho, and his performances are free. He held one in a school in New York City the other day. It was vacation time, and the children were at play in the school courtyard when a clown, with painted face, and wearing the circus red and white costume, came into the place with a handspring. There was a teachers platform in the school room, and with many a loud Hello, hello, hello, he ambled down the aisle. The children responded with cheers which turned into loud laughter when he made many futile attempts to reach the stage. The laughter became a roar when he reached it by falling over it, and climbing up, turned to them with a wry grimace on his queerly painted face. They clambered quickly into their seats. Something, they realized, that was interesting, was about to happen. And it did, and it was, for during the d fifteen minutes that he performed not one of those eyes strayed to any other part of the room. He had the attention that every orator longs for, but that few receive. This was proof one that to interest children in something serious, the thought must be presented to them as a game. Cho Cho carried a basket of vegetables on one arm. This had added to the fun, for he tripped over an onion, tried to climb a carrot, and made funny faces at the radish in his hand on that perilous walk from the door. Facing the children now, he held up the radish. Do you eat this? he asked. Scores of hands went up, showing that radishes were a favorite vegetable with many of the youngsters. Pickles and peppers in turn were brought out, and more hands went up, and many waved violently, the children hoping in this way to attract his attention, and perhaps be given a cucumber or a pepper or a radish. Children should not eat radishes, peppers and cucumbers, emphatically declared Cho Cho. They are not good for children, and he drove his message borne with a funny grimace, with a rubbing of his stomach with his hand, at wide-opene- the same time holding the forbidden vegetables aloft in the other hand to impress the children with the particular part of the anatomy that would register . a protest. as He then took from his basket such vegetables and fruits beans, potatoes, out called children their names, and them and as he the spread peaches, apples certain distinction going, of course, to the child that was quickest and: loudest with his lung power. These, he said, are good for children, and such a. happy, contented look came over his face that they screamed with laughter again. How many drink milk? he asked. Practically every little hand .went up. If you drink one pint a day, youll smile to see how much you weigh,' he replied, and then gave a moo like a cow. The children shouted in glee. Never drink tea or. coffee, he said, with a solemn face and warning gesture, and not a child but realized the enormity of the offense. Cho Cho belongs to the Child Health Organization of New York City, which loaned him to the government. The employment of a clown to interest children was the inspiration of a New York woman. He is the only clown in the world engaged in this work, and after going through all the New York schools, he will make tours of other cities. Many schools have sent in requests to have Cho Cho visit them to enlist the children in a national health contest. The dos and donts of the average lesson on hygiene and cleanliness are a bore to the small boy and girl; Cho Cho is proving there is a better plan by appealing to the play instinct of the child by making health a real game. ' :- - PROFITEERING UNIVERSAL publicity is relied upon by the packers to of any charge. The theory is that if the packers repeat in rapid succession I didnt, I didnt or we didnt, we didnt often enough every accusation, governmental or other, will be forgotten by the public in the hypnotizing din of iteration. One of the most vocal of the corporation choristers, declares that the high price of shoes is due to the shortage of hides. He says that agents of his company have ransacked Russia, Siberia, Kamchatka, Timbuctoo or some such places and have discovered that animals no longer grow hides, or something to that effect. In a word, hides are not to be had and, therefore, the demand greatly exceeds the supply. Consequently shoes are high. The packers know that the public has a short memory and realize the value of talking when the publics recollection begins to dim. Only ten days ago the report of the Federal Trade commission was summarized and given to the public. In it the commission ascribes the high prices of shoes to the greed of packers, tanners, makers and retailers. All traders have a passion for profiteering. If I dont profiteer my competitor will and I soon will be out of business or at least outdistanced by my rivals, is about the way the retailer PERSISTENT argues. The packer profiteers like the old hand that he is at the game. For many years he has mastered the markets, buying live stock at low prices and selling his products at high prices. The live stock business has been precarious ; the packing business has always been safeguarded by methods .of security. Up to 1902 it was safeguarded by pools which were combinations in restraint of trade. When- the pools were abandoned other methods were introduced to make profits cer- tain and large. Poors Manual for shows that the profits of Armour & Co. were $6,028,196 in 1913 and $21,293,564 in 1917. It shows that the profits of Swift & Co. were $9;250,000 in 1913 and $34,650,000 in 1917. The United States census report shows that the packing industry was by long odds the richest industry of the country in 1914, the total value of its products in that year being $1,600,000,000. In the same year the total value of the iron and steel industrys products was 1918 about $900,000,000. J. Ogden Armour, testifying before the House Committee on Interstate Commerce, said that his company transacted a yearly business of more than $800,000,000 while Swift & Company transacted a business of about $1,000,000,000. It is beside the question for the packers to say that they make only a small fraction on each pound of beef. By controlling the stock yards and refigerating cars they have made themselves masters of the food business of the country. is hides, from which One of their most profitable shoes are made. In its introduction to the summary of its report thef Federal Trade commission says; The Federal Trade commission has found that the high price of shoes cannot be justified by underlying economic coni' ditions. The commission after exhaustive inquiry into the by-produ- cts . |