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Show An Independent Paper Published Under :: the Management of T. L. Holman :: EDITORIALS B Y JUDGE C. C. GOOD WIN f fy After The War iriS do (not expect that Germany will do any-VJL any-VJL thing to provoko actual hostilities wnn the United States. She has troubles enough without that. We suspect that the French admiral is right: that Germany is gathering all her forces to make a supreme effort sometime in the near future; that she intends to marshall all her power, on land, in the air, and on the sea, to bring the war to a successful conclusion; and that if she fails, she will make another effort to negotiate peace. Should that transpire, she will not want the United States to take part as an enemy. But if our present alarm results in stimulating our preparedness program to the point of an actual ac-tual mobilization of war, it will be of vast benefit bene-fit to the government anld to our people. It will give all concerned a new knowledge of the nation's na-tion's capacity to meet a real war's requirements. It will at the same time show in what we are weak, and supply a hint of what we most need by way of preparedness. Already it has been made clear that our republic re-public cannot any more live behind the Chinese wall of "no foreign complications." Our's is a world power and we are bound henceforth to have a deep interest in what the other powers are doing. Had a little common knowledge ruled in our trade relations with oversea countries during dur-ing the past thirty years, New York would today be the world's commercial center. We should have had a great merchant marine and great financial enterprises in full swing in many foreign for-eign countries; and, more impouant still, these countries would have been acquainted with our ways, and our flag would have been i lamiliar to them as the British flag now is. Were that the situation now, there would be a general turning turn-ing to New York City as the world's clearing house. These facts ought to be clear to our ? authorities by this time, so clear that they would I finally prompt some sensible legislation. Our great field should be South America. Our people produce so much that those states need, and they in turn produce so many commanding products that our country needs. They possess so mucli fine land that is now yielding nothing and which the poor of the earth would be glad to cultivate They1 have so many cities, roads and . bridges to be built, that long prior to mis time our business relations with them should have been most intimate, and our connections and enterprises there should have been multiplied kr, many fold. During all the strain of the present war, Great Britain has kept her merchant ships run-r run-r ning steady to those ports. She holds tho trade of those countries as to be one of her chief assets. as-sets. When the present war is over she hopes to resume the old program, to send a loaded ship , i to, say, Rio; to add tho freight to its original cost; to exchange the cargo for, say, coffee; to return the ship with her cargo to, say, Liverpool; Liver-pool; there to exchange that cargo with freight from Rio added, for American wheat with freight added, and then send it to New York with another an-other freight added. All the time for a quarter of a century past, we have been submitting to that kind of business, busi-ness, and like blank idiots have accepted it as the right tiling. And the foremost newspaper of New York City has kept saying that it was the proper tiling to do. Will that business be resumed re-sumed with the close of the war? It surely looks as though it would, for some nations are like somnambulists, they walk with wide open eyes and see nothing. The Progressive Leaders JHB inconsistencies of human nature are wonderful. Some years ago the Progressives Progres-sives led by Hiram Johnson took the great state of California in charge. Their slogans were "reform" and "progress." They won, with the result re-sult that the state has been robbed in a way that ought to send a hecatomb of the state of-flcers of-flcers to the penitentiary. They are the same ones that gave Wilson the presidency in 1912, and especially in 1916. The moral of it all is this: do not rery lmplic-ity lmplic-ity upon men who suddenly become great reformerswith reform-erswith their mouths. Up to date the Progressive Progres-sive party has, to a considerable extent, been made up of men who, while shouting "Progress," have not had one thought in their mind that has not been prompted by a desire for personal gain, either of station or perquisites, or both. In this we have no thought of local affairs. The election last fall made it plain that the dominant dom-inant power of the state intended to resume business busi-ness at the old stand, and gave notice that tho man who, trusting to his abilities or services, spends money and time in an effort to obtain office is an idiot too dense to deserve pity. But the Progressives who started out in 1912 to reform things are entitled to tno supreme contempt of their countrymen. It was a bold bluff intended entirely for personal per-sonal aggrandizement, and it was founded solely on a (belief that a misrepresentation of facts might, if sufficiently urged with bare-faced assurance, as-surance, win. It resulted simply in putting the Democracy in power in 1912, and again in 191G, and our advice to the remnants of the party left is to go over to the Democracy, bag and baggage, and make its future fights in that alliance. Up to date, the whole bunch has been an omen of disaster dis-aster to all the best interests of tho country. In Mexico irHAT of Mexico? The more serious news J from Europe and the submarine attacks on merchant ships on the Atlantic and Mediterranean have diverted p'ention from Mexico. But the rbports tell us that the poor wretches from that distressed country by hundreds are streaming over the line into Arizona and New Mexico, to escape the bandits that are fighting , JJJJ.-.j J i inJr in i -i r in MJfJ-tftlil- j. iwj i.i LmrrY j n 4 each other at long range and living off tho poor L'H who have nothing left to give. l Sometime there will be a comprehension of ll tho real facts which are that those poor creatures f H jnust be given a chance to earn a living in peace, JiH and that the merciless blatherskites who are mak- f ing a hell of that region must be suppressed. The "H further fact must also bo recognized that there Is not one honest thought on the part of those mur- M derous loafers except to raise hades and live on M the earnings of the poor. M This applies to Carranza as much as to Villa. They are all of the same class, and are simply at tH heart braggarts and loafers and looters. They are ' as unfit to direct the affairs of tho government I M of a state as so many buck Indians. Their right ' place is in jail or on a reservation, for they have M proven that they have not the first element of I M real enlightenment and progress in their depraved ' M souls. M It would be a real mercy for the United States H to take tho northern tier of Mexican states under H control, establish order and give the poor wretches i M there a chance to earn a living in peace'! Ul !' As To Mine Taxation ), irE believe that Governor Bamberger Intends I H vly to be absolutely just in the conduct of his H high office. But the governor is human and H hence, not quite infallible. At the Progressive H love feast on Monday night last he is reported ' H as saying (amid an uproar of applause) : H "I mean to put mining lands upon the same H basis of taxation as other property of the state; not tho prico paid tho state or the government, but the actual valuation of the property." I How is the governor to ascertain that actual value? By what the stocks are selling for to- day, or last week, or the possibility of what they H will sell for next week? Can an actual value be j H reduced 75 per cent on a mere rumor cabled from M Berlin or London? M Then tho governor deplored tho fact that the M proposed infamous amendment to the constitu- M tion, which in effect placed the assessment of j M mines in tho discretion of county assessors, was M defeated, and added: "They spent ?8U,000, I am H told, in defeating the amendment." H Who spent that $30,000, and how? Wo hap- H pen to know something about tho inside of that "M fight and are disposed to seriously question the , governor's statement. Besides, the people them- selves defeated tho amendment, and who would M be so foolish as to maintain that the people, as M against their own direct intorests, could bo bought M and controlled at the polls for such a paltry sum. M The statement is preposterous and it is poor i argument, as well. ' As wo view the situation, the vote of last No- M vember did more than merely defeat tho pro- M posed amendment: it absolved the Democratic .M party from keeping whatever pledge its platform M carried to dabble further in an attempt to cripple M the mining industry in Utah. H The governor is quoted further as saying: iM "The mining companies are not bearing their M share of taxation. In Arizona last year the mln- jH ing property was taxed on a valuation of 261,- jH jfl H 000,000, or a little more than 44 per cent of the r total tax oi! the state. In Utah the valuation was H $31,000,000, or G.14 per cent of the state tax." Hj Well how long since the legislators of Ari- Hi! 'zona have become distinguished as political eeon- H omists? H' The flrst four volumes covering tnreu uuuared H years of Arizona's history down to 1870 is just Hi out. It is a history of two hundred and fifty Hv years of wars an,d murders, and not a ghost of W progress until the first mines were opened and B worked. B Could mining he stopped in Utah and Arizona B today, in a single decade they would bo little B more than stock ranges. B There is a principle behind mining which the B governor ignores. He is a shrewd business man, B alert to make money by any fair means. Now B let us take one example for illustration. A little B bonanza was opened on the Emma property some B' five and forty years ago. and worked out. The Bj money it yielded electrified Utah, and it was, al- B most every cent, invested here and has been pay- Bl ing taxes ever since. During all the years since H( it was worked out, explorations have been going j on and thousands and tens of thousands of dol- B lars have been spent in vain in the effort to find B if that orebody opened out again in the depths. B Governor Bamberger has been cognizant of all B tills as it has gone on during the past forty years. B Was there over a moment when ho would have B invested one dollar in it? Hardly. About two K years ago a. game plunger took hold of the prop- B orty and proceeded to spend $40,000 a month for Hi eighteen months. B After that had been going on for, say, seven- B teen months, would the governor have put in a Bi dollar to continue the work? Hardly. Then the Bj diamond drill struck ore. It continued and soon Bj took on the proportions of a bonanza. Now had B the amendment, the defeat of which the governor B; deplores, carried, it would have been the province H of a man who knows no more about mines and Bj .mining, or the principle at stake, or the rules K that should govern, than Nicodemus knew of the Hi second birth, to assess that property. Does the Bj governor think that would have assured a square B deal? B A and B are farmers, having adjoining farms B which they bought at ?2.50 per acre. A is a BJ slouchy farmer and does not half cultivate his H land. B is an accomplished farmer; he has spent H thousands of dollars in leveling his land and H bringing It up to a high state of cultivation, and Hji raises twice as much as A does per acre. Should B' his farm bo assessed at double the valuation of H But there is another principle. A mine Is a B helpless thing. To open and work it anil reduce B its ores is a steady drain. Men and teams have B to bo constantly employed, material bought, and B a mighty riBk taken of losing all, until perhaps in B one case out of ten an orebody is developed. Then H, that orebody is a new treasure given to the B world, and in proportion to its amount makes the B property of all those who have property near H ' more valuable. B . The men who put in the constitution the fund- H' 1 amental law governing mining taxation in Utah, Bt were not clod-hoppers. They knew what they Bj were doing and considered the question in all its ! bearings. Their work should stand until men equally competent are found to propose changes in that B' organic law. H B' The Sword Fish XT is said that the sword fish by way of self entertainment has a habit of astonishing the" whale by coming up from below him in the H sea and driving his sword up into the vitals of the H;: mammal. For protection, a small fish pilots the Hti whale and is supposed to give it warning when a Hi1 sword fish is near. B MMv i B Since Darwin promulgated the germ theory and Lister made tho treatment plain, physicians have a way of fighting dangerous germs in tho blood of victims by injecting a more ferocious germ into tho blood to destroy tho intruder. The life of many a typhoid patiSnt has been Baved through this treatment. In those two examples can be seen the nature of the two forces that work against tho lives of men. In the first case, it can be further seen what nature does to protect tho neipiess; in tho second, what science has done and is doing to drive disease from the world. When fulminating powder was invented and to use It a gun was made, the gun practically drove the bow and arrow out of business. When tho revolver was invented the ordinary gun becomo useless for close fighting. But when a genius invented the automatic pistol the old-fashioned old-fashioned revolver lost half its terrors, for a rustic rus-tic could fire twice as rapidly with tho one as an expert could fire with the other. This last example cited carries the idea that-the that-the way to avoid the effect of a dangerous Invention In-vention is to create something more dangerous and use it against the other. As David Harum said: "See what the other fellow intends to do, and do it first." Just now, Germany is using the tactics of the sword fish with her submarines, and men are speculating as to the changes that can be wrought BHBHBHBflHHBBBMBBBI by even, weak nations in defense against this terrible ter-rible new destroyer. , But the remedy should dawn on the brain of some genius. Something quicker in action and just as effective should be invented to meet tho submarine on better than even terms and put it out of commission. Tho eventual remedy we think will come through electricity; a current to gp bo trained on the submarine at a distance and explode the explosives which it carries. That will bo sending into its arteries a germ to kill all tho germs of evil that it carries. But just now, something effective is needed at once, and the first thought is that it must be to tho submarine what the automatic pistol is to the old-fashioned revolver. Tho proclaimed intention of Germany to sink every ship carrying food or munitions to the allies cannot be changed by protests. Tho only way Is to meet the force which sho will employ to execute exe-cute her designs by a swifter and more effective I one. ft I To a landsman tho thought first presented is to send tho ships in small squadrons and convoy them with swift destroyers in front, off the beams and in their rear, with orders to tho destroyers to run down and shell without parley any submarine sub-marine that comes to tho surface. When a subsea craft comes to the surface and without waiting a moment sinks a helpless merchant ship, me only way to do is to overwhelm it with fire in tho first moment of its appearance so to speak, before It can cock its revolver. Of course, this would be reducing war to absolute ab-solute savagery, but that has already been done by Germany when it dictated to nations that were not parties to it quarrel with some other nations, where they cannot sail their ships, on penalty ot having their ships destroyed if the edict is violated. vio-lated. Perhaps this last horror is necessary to stop the crime of killing more men, starving more children chil-dren and breaking the hearts of more women; all to satisfy the ambitious, the land lust, and the loot of kings. John A, Bookwalter VERY sorrowful to many people here wan the news last week of the death of John A. Bookwalter, at Springfield, Ohio. He lived here in his youth, several years in i the nineties, and so gifted, genial and winsome was he that he drew to him the hearts of all who knew him well. Among these was an in- i ner circle of young men, a l'ttle coterie to whom j the world opening before them seemed to prom- ise days filled with sunshine and nights filled 1 with stars. I By a strange fate, that little band nearly all passed on, and now "Bookie," one of the best 1 loved of all, has gone. To those who are left, I the memories are all saddened that the day which at dawn promised so much, should have so much i storm, so many clouds as It advanced. After returning to his old home in Ohio, Mr. Bookwalter inherited a fortune and became the head of a great manufacturing company. But that did not change his nature In the least, except ex-cept to make him more considerate of those less iortunate than himself. He soon became president presi-dent of the company, which position he held until un-til liis final summons came. He told those around h'm that he did not feel well; then he went to his home and in five days was dead of pneumonia. He left ( a wife and son, and a home which his death has left most desolate. Peace to poor "Bookie." y |