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Show This Week lj ARTHUR BRISBANE What Ails Us? Let the People Know. Shorter Sermons. So, He Took $75,000. What does this country need? What do conditions demand? What would make wheels begin turning? More money. Shudder at the word "inflation," if you must, and shiver with the creeps at mention of "silver," if you choose. But in some way, and of some kind, this country should have more money. It needs more money, not to stop petty hoarding by individuals, but to end disastrous hoarding by banks, blamed if they hoard, and blamed if they do not "maintain liquidity." In the Sahara Desert one man will kill another for a cup of muddy water, and Arabs kill their camels, to get the water hoarded In the camels' stomachs. stom-achs. That does not happen on the edge of Lake Superior, where ' there is plenty of fresh water. Hoarding would stop, dread of new enterprises would vanish, if more money were really plentiful. Business men who have borrowed and paid faithfully, all their lives, cannot borrow now. How can they employ em-ploy the idle? Asia has worries unknown here as yet. In Japan a "patriotic society" assassinates statesmen of whom it disapproves, and thinks it has done its duty. In China, Communists, so-called, are energetic. Recently, in Canton, they blew up four ordnance buildings, terrific noise and fright, much property prop-erty destruction. Here, some best minds "wonder what is the matter with us." They need not wonder. After the war we had gigantic prosperity, and started gambling gamb-ling on a scale that put prices even higher. 1 Government with its sweetly intelligent intelli-gent income tax system said, "If you sell and make a profit you must give me a large part of It." So nobody sold. All buying, and no selling, led to the 1329 smash. If you have something that the people peo-ple want, let them know and you can sell it, good times or bad. Mr. Strong, president of the Buick Company, knows that, and proves it. Publishers will learn with interest that in what remains of this month and in early April he will spend one million dollars in advertising, telling people what he has and emphasizing one particular point, to utilize the power of repetition. The first of this month Buick advertising adver-tising appeared in over 2,000 newspapers, news-papers, throughout the country, also in the leading general magazines. Twenty-two thousand Western Union Un-ion messenger boys delivered 600,000 telegrams, all containing the same message about Buick. This is really advertising for it combines the power of simplicity with the great power of repetition. You can't make business better merely by talking about it. The sales tax will probably go through, somewhat modified, thanks to the assistance of Mr. Curry, head of Tammany Hall. His organization has twenty votes in Congress. Congressman Con-gressman Rainey, of Illinois; tells William Green, president of the American Amer-ican Federation of Laborr who opposei the sales tax: "If you beat that- tax it will be necessary nec-essary for the Government to reduce substantially the pay of all Government Govern-ment employes." The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America will recommend shorter sermons, an excellent Idea in some cases. A few words, stimukiting much thought, are better than many words I hat burden thought. i Radio competes with the churches, but some preachers need fear no such radio competition. When Henry Ward Beecher sold a j ' good looking young mulatto slave girl j at public auction in the pulpit of his j Brooklyn church to illustrate the meaning of slavery, the crowd could not have beeu lured away by any combination com-bination of crooners, dialogue comed- ians, or dance music orchestra. j Of all news items on the bill of fare, the one interesting a majority of Americans is the fact that "Babe" Ruth consents to accept $75,000 for playiDg baseball this year. He wanted want-ed ?SO,000. I The public is interested in money, ! deeply interested in baseball and the art of applying power at tine end of a hat. It is especially interested in per- 1 -sonality. "Babe" Ruth has it. The Interstate Commerce Commission Commis-sion forbid3 the Pullman Company, , which renders great public service : and has a hard time making it pay, to . charge extra when one berth is occu-I occu-I pled by two passengers. Why the for- bidding? A hotel charges more when two sleep in one room. The Pullman Company Com-pany supplies special service,' comfort j and safety to the extra passenger. It i depends for its prosperity on the num-! num-! ber of passengers carried. Why should ' it not charge reasonably for service t rendered? The proposed charge is reasonable, rea-sonable, only one-fifth the fare for one. i by King Fca:ur Syndicate, Inc.) |