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Show . BRISBANE THIS WEEK In the Age of Billions Old Bill Did Not Know More Land? What For? im If Suddenly Rich, What? entl Congress number seventy-three goes n t home after appropriating for variegat-toti variegat-toti 6d sPending between six thousand eight hundred and seven thousand mll-suf mll-suf lion dollars. ' o No congress ever appropriated so the! much In peace times. In addition to spending about seven thousand million dollars, this congress guaranteed approximately seven thousand thou-sand millions more in home mortgages and farm bonds and set up a two thou Band million "stabilization fund." In. We are living in the era of "billions." orY fiel( With congress gone home, President Roosevelt is lord of all he surveys, which is no great change. He was pretty much that before the adjournment. adjourn-ment. We have no dictator in the United States, and shall not have one unless something strange and unusual happens, but the President has as much of a dictator's power as he chooses to use. Congress, with unimportant exceptions, excep-tions, obeyed orders while In session, KJg and the country will look to the PresI- dent now to initiate and put through whatever he chooses. That situation probably does not suit him. It Involves In-volves great responsibility. "Old Bill," dead in' London, was a carrier pigeon. He carried messages during the first year of the big war from British army and air forces in France and Belgium back to London, and lost a leg. Brought back to England Eng-land by an invalid soldier, he enjoyed life for many years, and now has laudatory laud-atory "obituary notices" in English papers. pa-pers. "Old Bill" flew back and forth In the big war and lost a leg without ever knowing why he was flying or why he had to lose that leg. But "Old Bill" was no more ignorant than a majority of the soldiers over whose heads he flew on errands that he did not understand. A member of the British house of commons suggests that, failing cash payment, we might accept something In the way of territory. The British will not give up any territory if they can hold on to it, which they can easily do in this case. And apart from that, what good would It do us to acquire more territory ter-ritory aud have some foolish congressman congress-man Insist on givltg It away? We could not possibly get from the British anything as vuluable as the Philippines, Philip-pines, and we are doing our best to get rid of them at this moment. What would you do if you suddenly found yourself quite rich, with a prospect pros-pect of "easy riches" to come? Mr. Max Baer, new holder of the heavyweight heavy-weight prize-fighting championship, according ac-cording to the New York Evening Journal, bought himself thirty-Are new suits of clothes, "In tan, gray and pas tel shades." There was a great crowd waiting outside the tailor shop to cheer him, and he wrote his autograph on a one-dollar bill for a young girl. Fame Is a wonderful thing. The young "Count of Paris," who might be king of France If the French people suddenly lost their wits, believes be-lieves that he, so far as he knows a direct descendant of Hugh Capet, will soon be called to the French throne. He says. "You would be astonished if you could know how weary France Is of the present regime." The young pretender to the throne nignt De surprised if Tiecouid "know liow weary France was of her kings before she got rid of them, and how fortunate he Is that the common sense of the French will keep him talking, not reigning. President Roosevelt, In a letter sent to West Virginia, expresses satisfaction satisfac-tion with the achievements of NBA. "We have spread employment, we have raised pay, and we are not rhrou'gh yet. "It Is a notable record of recovery, li has led the way for other nations, I und has produced widespread aud, I '. believe, permanent results. Certainly ; we have a right to celebrate this anniversary." an-niversary." Washington Singer, whose father In-ented In-ented a sewing machine, left a for une of $.V34,S9) In England, where ie raced his horses. The British gov-rnment gov-rnment takes an "estate duty" of bout two million dollars from the iclrs. At that rate. It does not take nng for vast accumulations to melt iwny. especially as "the bigger the I state, the higher the percentage ikon." Our government has borrowed lie Idea, made necessary by a strange ' acuity for spending developed by poli . tlclans. It used to be "three generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves." It will be shorter than that now among our prosperous ones. If deaths come In rapid succession. The big, dangerous steel strike Is ,.r the time averted, thanks to tie- .'resident's wise, unobtrusive media ion, and thanks especially to the wise idvlee given to the men by William Green, president of the American Fed eratlon of Labor. . King Feature Syndicate, Luo, WNU Service |