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Show I; ZBGHT OR QUIT I I'1 '( HpHE League of Nations begins with a collosal and typical failure. i r JL When we say this we assume that the entente allies associated frf with the United States are virtually the league, for necessarily these l nations will control the league in its first stages,' While planning to govern colonies by means of mandatories, col- M onies on the continents and in the isles of the Pacific, the league has p failed to perform even its first task properly. It has permitted the I, jjp! Bolsheviki of Russia to outnumber and defeat the allied forces in the ' y Archangel zone and to capture Kiev in Ukrania. 4 " If it be pleaded that the Russian bungle is due to uncertainty y among the allies, to lack of policy or to disagree'ment the plea will not S win appreciation anywhere in the world. To put forth such pleas is to make a mockery of the league. jjj? The Russian disaster appears to be due more to irresolution than J to anything else. Seemingly the allies, including the United States, ' Lj do not know what they want dorie in Russia and Siberia. A few sol- P- diers have been stationed at points thousands of miles apart, along a i periphery which touches Archangel, Vladivostok and the Black sea. A few thousand troops have been sent to accomplish something no u one seems to know what in an empire that contains a population of k 180,000,000. jjr More or less obscurely the allies have realized that the Bolshe-I" Bolshe-I" viki are sworn and implacable enemies of our republican institutions Jl and of our present civilization in general. They have announced pf themselves as the destroyers and have boasted that they would wreck F the world and build it up again on a new, elysian model. They do not &"- ask for peace, but for war. The very nature of their doctrine is a deft de-ft mand that free governments everywhere shall stand and deliver, sur- render unconditionally. That means either of two things : j . To fight or to quit. i Civilization can take its choice. It must decide either to leave 1 Russia to the Bolsheviki or to fight them to a finish. If the allies , abandon Russia they will do it in the face of a threat that the Bolshe- viki will attempt to spread their system throughout the world. Alii Al-ii ready Bolshevism is asserting its strength, if not its supremacy, in Germany. Its doctrines are even voiced with enthusiasm by thou-j thou-j - sands of men in England, France and Italy. i j The struggle between free institutions and anarchy has been r launched. The United States government is in a quandary. If it is to take I part in the struggle must it continue to keep its troops in Russia? If t it withdraws its troops will it not be abandoning the League of Na- f tions and shutting itself up in its old isolation, leaving its allies to 1 V combat alone the new ittionster of class despotism? Right now the ? United States must make its choice either to maintain a big army in I Russia and fight to the end or to quit, and in quitting, to violate at I least one of the obligations of a League of Nations. I I" , True, it may be argued that the League of Nations is not designed i to interfere with the internal affairs of any established government. I L We could excuse our withdrawal on that score and say that the Rus- i f sians should be left to settle their own differences. j 11 If we should proclaim that decision we would be accused by our r f allies unless they joined with us in the decision of dishonorable ! conduct and cowardice. I. The allies cannot make up their minds what they ought to do in H Russia. No doubt they sometimes feel that even if they took their H troops out of Russia the Bolsheviki eventually would be conquered H by a concert of the sane people of Russia. On the other hand they jH fear that they would simply be abandoning a conflagration which has H all the means of spreading over the world. H But can anything be more certain than that the United States H and its associated powers that is to say, the League of Nations H must decide without delay whether they will accept the challenge of H the Reds? They must decide to leave the Bolsheviki to themselves H and their plans for world dominion or they must decide to fight. In our own country, if Bolshevism should take a more menacing H form, the decision would be made quickly. The people would fight. H But it is one thing to fight at home to vanquish something worse than M the black slavery which flourished in the South and another to fight a M new war abroad, perhaps on a big scale. Yet if the League of Nations . has any obligation more sacred and binding than another it is to com- H bat those forces which are making for anarchy throughout the world. M We are confronted by the same problem that baffled us for so M many months during the world war. Shall we fight abroad, or shall M we keep our forces at home for self-defense. H Now that we are a part of the League of Nations the logical H thing to do is to be guided by the decision of the league. But we are H informed that contribution of military forces is to be voluntary only M economic measures such as theoycott and tariffs, are to be obli- H gatory. -H Apparently economic measures would not be of much avail H against the Bolsheviki. There would always be the danger of in- H juring our friends as well as our enemies if we turned the thumb- H screws of economic pressure. H The most effective means of conquering the menace of Bolshe- jH vism is to fight it by every means at the disposal of the League of H Nations, but it begins to appear that such a conflict will be no such H petty warfare as the allies have imagined. H The world stands today at the crossroads of decision. It must H fight, compromise or surrender. H M GENERAL YOUNG AS A STATESMAN M IN a sincere desire to help the young soldier we took occasion last y H week to warn them against joining war organizations jromoted by ' 1 'irresponsible, unreliable and hair-brained persons. We suggested that 1 they should wait until such high-minded leaders as General R. W. Young led the way. H And hardly had the words dripped from our pen and frozen into irrevocable type than General Young delivered a speech which dis- 1 tressed us greatly. We desire to apologize to the young soldier for 1 our enthusiasm in paying homage to Statesman Young rather than to H General Young. To use a fashion of speech which is popular now- adays General Young, as a statesman, is a good soldier. M Yet we found something startlingly consistent in the general's commendation of socialism," for was he not defending the national ad- W SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, FEBRUARY 8, 1919. 1 H B' ministration at the Very time he was speaking in such efflorescent B i eulogy of socialism? And is not the administration so deep in social- ism as to be almost beyond hope of salvation? H It was thoroughly consistent of a good Democrat of the class of H1 1919 tb link socialism with a defense of a party which is committed to government ownership of the railroads, telegraph and telephone sys- H' terns, express companies and shipping. He could hardly speak a good H word for this latest brand of democracy without saying many words H! in praise of socialism. H We do not believe that the general commended himself to the H people of Utah as a statesman when he professed to find in German H socialism a model for America. True, the general said nothing about K socialism's being a "madc-in-Germany" product. Lest the people be Hf deceived vwe will say it for him, and we shall cite some proofs. Bj When the United States leaped into the war American-born so- K cialist chieftains broke away from the party because they discovered K that it was vassal to the Hun. A former candidate for president of Kif the United States on the socialist ticket quit the party, avowing that j it was controlled by foreigners who sympahized with and supported K the German cause. m v Modern socialism originated in Germany with Karl Marx and his B ( associates. It was a thoroughly Teutonic idea. Everybody was to V live according to a pattern and work for the state. The result would , be freedom and contentment. A German can be contented and even , thinks himself free when he is dominated by that good Teutonic deity H "Verboten." Socialism is the deification of the "Verboten" idea. It j could succeed only if enforced by the most absolute of autocracies. H The slip of a few cogs in the gigantic machine would utterly wreck it. : General Young was anxious to define the difference between so- B , cialism and Bolshevism. In theory, perhaps, there may be some M difference, but we must judge of men by their actions and not by their H theories. Hg Take a Utah instance. When Iiillstrom, the murderer, was about H to pay the penalty of his crime he was backed not only by I. W. W. H but by numerous socialists of the state. If General Young will in- Hj vestigate he will find that socialists are by no means averse to Bolshe- H vists and I. W. W. Occasionally some socialist of an American turn H of mind will be as zealous as was General Young in defining the dif- H ferences between socialism and I. W. W.ism. But many socialists are H sympathetic toward the I. W. W., not because the I. W. W. are phil- H osophic socialists but because the I. W. W. were pro-German and H sought the defeat of the United States. B The I. W. W. arc not Bolshevists in all their theories, but actually Hj they stand for the same general ideas. The Bolsheviki are the blood Hg brothers of the radical German socialists. Lenine and Trotzky were Hg socialists in the pay of the German government. Socialism of the Hij German, or dominant type, was subsidized throughout the world by H the Wilhelmstrasse to do the work, consciously or unconsciously, of H the Hun despotism. H Although clear-minded socialists whose hearts were Amer- H ican discovered the true nature of the socialistic organizations, Gen- Hj eral Young returns from France to counsel us that socialism "repre- fM sents the best interests of the common people." During the war it JM represented the best interests of militarism and kaiserism while mas- H querading as an instrument to throw off the despotism of capital. H Nothing brought so much sorrow and rage to the souls of the Hun- H minded socialists of this country as the defeat of the kaiser. In H their secret hours they still "hoch" for Wilhelm. H ! r 3p K H ECONOMIC DISLOCATION. (Tf CONOMICALLY our condition would have been better had the J war dwindled slowly to an ending. The main cause of the in- h dustrial dislocation was the sudden coming of peace. By shedding H more -blood the world might have been able to adjust itself to the H changing order gradually and with less hardship to the hundred mil- H lions who stayed at home. H Peace found us unprepared. We had anticipated at least one M year more 61 war. The swift collapse of Germany was not forseen H even by the keenest military experts. And before Germany was ut- terly beaten the allies granted an armistice which stopped the fighting. -' Peace came and with it a dislocation and congestion which no I human prevision could have prevented. This will not serve as an ' fi excuse for the administration at Washington which might easily have made more extensive preparations than it did to 'Offset the post-bellum post-bellum reaction. But, on the whole, no amount of sagacity, far- s. sightedness and energy could have radically altered the situation in which we find ourselves. The congestion of the copper market is perhaps the most striking example of what the sudden change from war to peace meant for industry. in-dustry. Today there are one billion pounds of unsould copper on hand, copper produced at a cost based on a high price. There is no chance of getting the same high price for the surplus copper or anywhere near that price until the entire complex situation is straightened out both in this country and in the overstocked countries of Europe. But there is one thing that all should keep in mind. The period of readjustment must come to an end. Like war it must have a conclusion. con-clusion. The perils that loom so menacingly are incident to readjust- 7 ment and will vanish with the restoration of the economic balance. BONUS FOR COWARDS. J 7 UNJUST convictions and unduly severe sentences in the army have 4 aroused the American Bar association to formulate a protest and demand a review of all court martial cases. The secretary of war J is said to be deeply impressed arid willing to support the movement. The people probably wilnindorse the movement knowing that militarism seldom has been conducive of exact justice. At the same time they will object to that kind of political mawkishness which induced in-duced Secretary Baker, not long ago, to release 112 conscientious ob- jectors and to order that they, "be honorably restored" to duty "and immediately discharged from the army." . Perhaps some of them were of the sincere type of objectors de- --' serving mercy, but it is fair to assume that most of them were of the kind to which the stigma of disloyalty should attach until the end of their days. Many of the "conscientious objectors," as all of us can recall, were of the I. W. W. or openly proGerman stripe, who defied authority and cloaked themselves in the mask of conscience simply because it helped to whitewash their guilt. How will it be possible to enforce -military service if, as soon as the war is ended, those who refused to serve in the army or navy during the conflict, are freed and sent forth, not branded as cowards and traitors, but as honorable men ? The sentences of these "objectors," we are told, were reviewed by Judge Mack, of Chicago, a jurist of socialistic proclivities who might be unprejudiced in the ordinary cases coming before a court martial but who would be the last man of whom to expect unbiased vision in dealing with so-called "conscientious objectors" to military service. The tender treatment of cravens recalls an incident related a few , . days ago by the Kansas City Star. A soldier wounded in overseas duty was sent to Camp Funston, Kansas, and there honorably discharged from the army. At Junction City, Kansas, his home, he was compelled to expend every cent of his savings for a complete civilian outfit because, in compliance with law, he had turned over his military attire to the government. None of his old clothes were serviceable because he had outgrown them while in the army. ' At about the same time one of the conscientious objectors, released re-leased by Secretary Baker, arrived in Junction City. His discharge papers showed that he had refused to wear any military uniform, that he had performed no military service and that his entire military career was bad. Notwithstanding the slacker's odious record an " official of the government accompanied him to Junction City and ' . there, under the rules of the war department, purchased him a com- ; plete new civilian outfit at government expense. 5 or Watson, Republican of Indiana, has introduced a joint resolutive authorizing and permitting enlisted men of the army, navy and marine corps, who are now or who have been at any time engaged in active service since the declaration of war, and who have been or , hereafter iiall be, honorably discharged, to keep their individual prop- j crty and their uniforms, including their overcoats. The- present law requires the surrender of uniforms within four months from the date ' of discharge. Union and Confederate! soldiers were permitted to retain their uniforms and it was an inspiring spectacle to the younger men of the fa nation to see these veterans, years after the conflict of the states, marching in the uniforms they had worn on heroic fields. In our day the heroes are forced to pay for civilian outfits while those who defied the government are discharged as political offenders and give an bonus for their cowardice and insolence. In this connection it is opportune to dwell for a moment on Secretary Sec-retary 'Baker's record regarding slackers. On July 22 he wrote to the president "we are now doing all public opinion will stand in the interest of conscientious objectors and others whose views do not happen to coincide with those of the vast majority of their fellow countrymen." This communication was thus cunningly worded so as to put the secretary on the side of "the vast majority of his country's country-'s men," but, as a matter of fact, he was covertly doing for the craven p conspirators much more than his countrymen would have endured had they known what was going on behind the pious smirkings of the Ky pert little secretary. !? On October 10, 1917, when pro-Germans and their accomplices I were engaged in pacifistic propaganda designed to cripple our army t and doom additional thousands to death as a consequence of unpre- paredness, the pacifistic secretary issued an order to the commanding generals of "all National army and National guard division camps" on the subject of the objectors. The order was headed "Confidential" i and concluding it was a section which read as follows : "Under no cir- 1 cumstances are the instructions contained in the foregoing to be given " to the newspapers." All of which leads to the suspicion that the secretary has been j working secretly in the interest qf the conscienceless traitors from -' the very outset. We are prone to suspect that when the entire record is made public we shall learn that the secretary was the consistent friend of these hypocritical sneaks. I LEAGUE PRESIDENT WILSON. CAN you visualize Woodrow Wilson as president of the League of Nations? Ifyou cannot, he can. President Wilson of the League of Nations would quite throw into the shade the figures of G. Washington and A. Lincoln. But, after all, would it not do the world good to have a New Jersey professor, in mortar board and gown, at the head of the na-, na-, tions? Neither from the viewpoint of dramatic values, nor from the viewpoint of art, would the professorial figure compare with that of Napoleon on horseback or of the kaiser in the white uniform and gold helmet and floating plumes of a henzollern conqueror. As an object ob-ject of aesthetic devotion Leagiu President Wilson would not compare com-pare favorably even with the presidents of our National and American leagues. But as head of the League of Nations the president would be a tranquillizing personality. He would be the antithesis of militarism. He would be the professor and white men and black men, yellow men and brown men, red men and other men, would be his pupils. Nietzsche has said that Wisdom is a woman and has always loved a warrior, but ii that be true then it is time that Wisdom changed her mind. 9 1 . The warrior has had his day. Now for the New Jersey school- k I . master presidenUof a university, president of the good old U. S. A., president of America, Europe, Asia, Africa and other heathenish 1- countries. : , "MAKE WAY FOR THE OPTIMIST.'" ' " , ,' A FEW weeks ago we tried to break it as gently as possible that peace was not all that it was proclaimed to be by the ultra-pacific, In these times of trouble and turmoil there are many besides Henry Ford and Rosicka Schwimmer who would like to sail away in a . peace ship, or', fdr that matter, even fn a warship if they could but sail it to some fairy isle where the horrors o peace were forever un- flHI der the ban. HBh The world, as we cast over it a scared eye, is rather a dull, gray H place just now. At bottom, of course, there are economic causes for flH the present discontent. We are trying to make life balance with ur H war debts and wondering why we cannot keep the books straight. BH There are only a few heroes of the A. E. F., even though you number IH them by millions, but there are more than a hundred million enlisted IH members of the H. C. of L. And to add to our woes congress is plan- ning to tax necessities and make us like it by calling it a "luxury tax." ury tax." H No matter which way we turn we find peace has its pestiferous- ll ness no less than war. The boys come back from the trenches asking for such a normal thing as a job and we are compelled to divide up jobs into several parts and parcel them out in shorter hours. Everybody appears to be in a state of unrest, if not discontent. And, at that, the discontent is a sort of psychological squint. Every- body realizes that the world is passing through a period of uncer- H tainty and revolutionary change. We are on the great "Civilization H Special" running through a series of mountain tunnels and wonder- H ing in the obscurity when we will strike a boulder that will upset the H train and make it look like government ownership. H Perhaps the younger folk like the excitement. It is a gradual H letdown from the glories and enthrallments of war and articles on H the war. H But the older folk would like to board a peace ship and float away H to one of those comic opera isles which use to seem so happy in the H stageland of the somewhat-long-ago. H O let us away to the comic isle, H Many a league and many a mile H Where the tipsy king H Was a marvelous thing H With a decorated visage, H Hardly made for any kissage" M Except by the bickering, H Old, ugly and snickerin' M Aunt of a neighboring prince M Who himself was much of a quince ; M But where all seemed so laughable, M Where wine was still quaffable, And where all that was dark Turned into a lark M And life was unendingly affable. 'H Instead of that past-futuristic picture of enjoyment I have a- H tempted to delineate in verse all of us are grumpily sitting in the pit H of the world's theatre looking at Rujsian, British, Ukranian, not to H forget Seattle and Tacomian, mixups of various lugubrious kinds. H But now is the time for the optimists to busy themselves. There is a H job for every optimist and he will receive for his pay a smile. It is H not the gold of the mines or the marts, but it brings more real con- H tentment everywhere. H IH SUPPRESSING AUTO THIEVES. H SINCE the Automobile association began its campaign against auto H thieves genuine progress has been made in bringing them to jus- H tice. Eventually joy-riders and others will find their operations so M unprofitable and painful that they will abandon them and just at M present the way of the auto thief, for the first time in the city's his- M tory, is hard. M A month ago Attorneys West and Rich were commissioned by fl the Automobile association to prosecute every possible case against fl the purloiners of motor cars. In that period only one prisoner has es- fl caped a sentence. Prior to the association's campaign prosecutions M were comparatively infrequent and sentences rare. Ofentimes one H who had resolutely made up his mind to prosecute was influenced by H various appeals and dropped the case. Now prosecution is on a H business basis. The association's lawyers see to it that no guilty B person escapes. , , .-scvj H B In thfc juvenile court offenders tisually 'were accorded lenient fl , treatment ,unless it appeared that they were altogether beyond the B control of their parents. In that event they sometimes were sent to B the reformatory. With the automobile association's attorneys look- B ing after every case all the youthful offenders are paying the penalty H of their folly. B The prosecution has a most effective weapon against offenders B mdre'thah eighteen years of age in the form of a statute which in ' Paragraph 7, Section 4430, makes it a misdemeanor for anyone to use B a car without the owner's consent and provides as a penalty a fine of B $300 or six months in jail or both. Inasmuch as ninety-five per cent B of 'the stolen cars -are taken by joy-riders who abandon them this H statute enables the prosecution to punish severely a class of offenders Hf who formerly escaped altogether. How deserving they are of pun- Ha ishment may be judged by the fact that the damage to every car taken v is, on an average, fifty dollars. Hii Obviously those who take cars with the intention of keeping them H or 'of completely stripping them of their parts are few, but it is quite H: as obvious that the joy-rider, in his selfishness, causes many times Hj the loss in a year caused by the thief. B ' The Automobile association, we are informed, intends to continue HF its campaign unremittingly, and relentlessly against both joy-rider H and the ordinary thief. H. WHY THE GREAT NAVY? B f 't EMBERS of congress whisper it to us that the president cabled H JlVJL to someone somewhere a message indorsing a big navy, a mess- w age the text of which is suppressed. We are led to infer that it is H not the message to Representative Padgett reaffirming the chief ex- flj ecutive's approval of the three-year program, or, at any rate, that the H words quoted from the Padgett message are not all of the communi- H cation. B Republicans and Democrats alike, wholly aside from any influ- B ence the president has brought to bear, favor a greater navy and a B continuous program of building. If for no other reason than the grim B uncertainty of the future they indorse unceasing preparation. B The president's attitude opens a field of alluring speculation. B Having persuaded the Supreme Council at Paris to adopt the principle B of a League of Nations, which presumably is a Step toward disarm- B ament, he sends messages some say a secret message urging an B exceptionally large naval program. B Throughout the land there is much confusion and perplexity on B f this subject due to a perfect tornado of conflicting opinions. The B .Chicago Tribune is hysterical in its Anglo-maniac view. Its edi- B torial opposing a navy as big as the navy of Great Britain has been B much quoted. We forget most of the context, but the editor main-B main-B tained that a nation which undertook to vie with Great Britain in the B building of warships must do either of two things stop building or B fight. That was not a sweet and harmonious thought in these days Bj of-Anglo-American amity. On the contrary it was as if Uncle Sam B and John Bull were standing at the end of a pier in the magical moon- B light and some fantastic joker suddenly pushed them off into the B iy water. B President Wilson may have heard something at the peace B conference which made him doubly earnest in his advocacy of a navy B which, in a few years, will measure up well to the -the strength of the B far-flung British fleets. Hj On the other hand it may be that the president, like others, mere-Hi mere-Hi ly' takes the uncertainty of the future into account and that he has H discovered nothing baleful in his European investigations, but there H is ta strong probability that he lias acquired new information which H cqnvinces him of the present impracticability of disarmament. H v One guess has about as much chance of being correct as another H ' a la we propose to do some guessing. The obligations which may le-B le-B "vOlve upon us as a member of the League of Nations would seem 'to B demand a bigger navy. If we are to adniiriister the affairs of Armenia Bj .'oftof Pacific islands, if we are to fight in Russia or Asia or Africa and B vj"iw,e are tO'b'e Almost constantly mingling in xhe affairs of two hemi-Bj hemi-Bj spheres a greater navy is a necessity. o The thought occurs that perhaps Great Britain)' nstead Of being in the' mood so glumly described byhr friend, The Chicago "Tribune, may want the United States to enlarge its navy on a grand scale. Realizing that, in any event, the United States would have a navy capable of completely defending its coasts, fulfilling its international obligations and achieving its objects as a world power, Great Britain, w we may assume, would rather have the United States than any other power possess the next biggest navy or even a navy equal to her own. It may be that President Wilson has received a hint that Great Britain desires the United States to have a navy which will act in concert with the British navy in regulating the world through -the League of Nations. This, of course, is a mere guess. We think it will bring a glow of satisfaction to Anglo-maniacs and make Sinn Feinners shudder. It signifies and Anglo-American entente on the seven seas. It might even be described as "The Great Plot." We are, however, not so much obsessed by our skill in guessing as to give too much weight to p the idea. But this is certain. The future holds out no immediate hope of disarmament. The League of Nations will have too much to do to provide for disarmament. The United States will have too much ' to do as a member of the League to disarm and, above all, the United States has a vast region to guard on the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, on the California-Oregon -Washington littoral, on the Alaskan littoral and in island possessions which now are far out in the Atlantic and much farther out in the&Pacific. a r P p P olson And the i. w. w. CL. OLSON, who is tryjng to fasten his monopolistic workmen's compensation act upon the state, was aroused to genuine fervor last week when one of our statesmen proposed laws against the I. W. V W. and other Bolsheviki. Olson was of the opinion that the state should not interfere with this class of offenders because the. federal government had already enacted statutes under which they could be punished. Evidently Culbert L, Olson, who professes to be a lawyer, has adopted the theory that a state should not legislate against any crimes which happen to be proscribed by a federal statute on the same subject. If an I. W. W. commits a crime of peculiar sabotage against Farmer X of Cache county Farmer X should take it up with the department de-partment of justice at Washington. It was to be expected that Olson would fly to the protection of the I. W. W. Has career in the Utah senate has indicated as much to those who have watched it. His political backing has been such that he must be friendly to the radicals while he strives to pass laws that will cripple the leaders of Utah's prosperity. Men of the Olson type are the first to cast aspersions on those who defend the just interests of property. They can always discern selfish motives for the support of anything that savors of protecting those who have invested money and taken the risks of business. When the Olsons are revealed serving the class whose support they covet they have no right to complain if the charge of selfish personal iry, terest is hurled back at them. ' Politicians who labor for a class, rather than for the whole people, must expect to be branded according to their class. They must bear the odium of the class they try to prosper at the expense of the public generally. A lobby of labor radicals is no more respectable than a lobby of capitalists if its motives and demands be sinister. A labor lobby or any other lobby is respectable if its purpose is high and if the interest of the whole people is its first concern. Olson's monopolistic bill is of the "made-in-Germany" type. It was in Germany that state insurance of the monopolistic type wds developed. The object was to keep the workmdri contented with their thralldom under a military despot. As a military despot the state w forced to adopt the monopolistic form of insurance because it could not safely leave to private companies any of those function which were being operated to maintain militarism in power. Monopolistic state insurance was part of the imperial propaganda. In Utah it has become the propaganda of radicals who seek to dominate the state by law and by intimidation. HMHBHHBBnBBHHHMiMMaiMMBBHHBMiB |