OCR Text |
Show THE CITIZEN .... number of employes, and over 23 per cent in amount of wages f paid. . The woollen manufacturing industry shows an increase of 14 per cent in number of employes and 26 per cent in amount of wages , 0 . . paid. The paper and pulp industry shows an increase of over 11 per cent, in number of employes and over 22 per cent in amount of ' wages paid, t r Railroads, Class I, show, an increase of nearly 15 per cent in. number of employes and over 22 per cent in amount of wages paid. Not a day passes but that the news columns of the daily papers contain information regarding advance in wages in various industries. The most recent advances affecting a large class of employes was the 11 per cent increase to over 200,000 packing house employes and a similar increase to over 8,000 employes of the Bethlehem Steel company. Increases all along the line have been reported in textile industries, metal and machinery workers, and particularly in the building trades. The average wage in building trades today for all classes, of laborers is $1.25 to $1.50 per hour. In the eastern sections of the country the demands of building trade unions have reached a point where there is serious curtailment of construction work. In New York, Boston and elsewhere building trade unions are demanding $12 to $18 a day, with a bonus. Moreover, they are getting it. The building trades of Boston have demanded the conscale with a minimum wage of $11 a day. tractors sign a two-ye- 5 Americans, and like individuals, they also differ in opinions. Their, efforts ought to be to make converts and hold out a welcome: hand. A government that is fearless and invites criticism, same as individuals, is the one to survive in the end. The right, will prevail in . , spite of what we may or try to do. . . . " CHOOSING. ' v . . . - The conference at Santiago, Chili has come to an end.. It will result in a close understanding among the republics represented, and a truer appreciation of the position held by the United States in new world affairs. A proposition for a league of western nations was presented, but received scant attention when the oppositio of this country was regisered. The Monroe Doctrine was recognized as a more efficient safeguard from old world intrusion than any other arrangement that might be devised. ; What a difference of opinion. The new world does not care to organize and relies exclusively; upon the Monroe. Doctrine for protection. In Europe they want a league of nations. If the United States gets mixed up in Europe, what becomes of the Monroe Doctrine? We would have one vote. If the European nations decided that they wanted a slice of South America and voted for such, where would we be? We can take our choice, but we cannot have both. Pan-Americ- an . ar HIRAMS ANSWER. Lord Robert Cecil has returned to England and his first words are a warning to the British advocates of the league of nations not to place too much reliance on America coming in. Cecil came, he saw, and he was bunkered. He got away with more impudence than any Britisher who has yet visited this country to tell us how to run our affairs,- and it is probably too much to hope that some other Lord or Lady will not be relayed to this country to keep up the work of advising us as to what we should do. When Senator Hiram Johnson was asked, during his visit to London, what he thought of the Ruhr occupation by the French he replied that' it was none of his, business. Johnson did not have the effrontery to tour Europe telling the Europeans how to run their affairs. If he had done so the chances are he would have been ordered out of France or Great Britain. Why should we sit back and permit these foreign propagandists to abuse us and make fun of us, when all they desire is an opportunity to use us to pull their chestnuts out of the fire? - CRITICISM. Nathaniel A. E. Lesburg, president of the National Republican club, if he had his way would force Senators Borah, Johnson and La Follette out of the Republican party into the Democratic party. Lesburg takes exceptions to these senators in speaking their minds. sorry day when a Republican cannot criticise another d It sure will beor a his Republican party. We have not yet seen the man who cannot be criticisd, and if criticism means ouster proceedings, why, then the party had better quit right now. Criticism is what leads towards perfection. All three senators are good Republicans, and we know they are good Americans. They were among the leaders which kept this country from joining the league of nations, an organization which wanted our money and our soldiers to fight their territorial battles on worn out battlefields of Europe. The Citizen is of the opinion that Senator Johnson could poll a heavier vote for president of the United States than any man today. Not because he is a better Republican, a better man, or more O fitted for the place, but like our departed Teddy Roosevelt, he is not afraid to say what he believes is right, and that is the kind of a man the common people like. We' have too many spokesmen in the party who are always endeavoring to say who shall belong and who shall not belong. We have two big parties in this country and they are made up of . , REFORMER. Senator Brookhart of Iowa sought nomination and election as a Republican. It has not taken him long to renounce Republicanism in favr of blocism and to abandon the principles of Republicanism for a program of enforced if force and can be mentioned together. What Senator Brookhart publicly proposes and has agitated speeches and interviews is that the Rochdale system, a method of distribution developed through voluntary effort in England, be forced upon the people of theUnited States by legislative fiat. All other forms of distribution are at the same time to be stamped out by the government through denial of interstate transportation to all products not handled by the official organization. The forcing upon the American people by law of a European industrial system which doesnt seem to have made the producer, so prosperous over there that any one is emigrating from Iowa to England or Denmark in search of a higher degree of prosperity, is as fundamentally in principal as any doctrine preached by Lenine and Trotsky. The latest figures of the British ministry of labor estimate average unemployment at 1,250,000 for the next eighteen months and that the drain on the unemployment insurance fund will be about 22,500,000 pounds by April, 1924. Since 1920, 125,000,000 pounds have been expended for unemployment insurance in. Great Britain. co-operati- on, co-operat- ion in-rece- co-operati- ve, i . , 4 , co-operat- un-Ameri- ive can If Henry Ford is getting more for the production of his cars than they warrant, then what are the other automobile manufacturers getting? Ford pays his mechanics the highest of wages and if he still can make such big profits, there must certainly be something radical wrong with prices charged, not only for automobiles but for other articles manufactured as well. Certain interests have been hammering Ford for all they are worth, but the fact still remains that Fords employes live in comfortable homes, are well paid, never strike and do not have to belong to unions to force a living wage. What a different world this would be, if the same could be said of all large industries. And further, Ford has made it possible for the poor man to own a car, and his price is lower than the lowest. Roger Babson, the romantic economist, who a few months ago was predicting dire calamities to follow the nactment of a protective tariff law, is now writing pieces for the papers warning the business men of the country against the possible evil effects of too much prosperity under such a tariff. National Republican. nt |