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Show l a L (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) MILITARY HIGHWAY, MEXICO TO PANAMA THE PRESIDENT has asked congress con-gress for $20,000,000 for the purpose of building a military highway from the southern boundary of Mexico to the Panama canaL Of course it Is intended as a defense measure. A year ago, a young man called on me, saying he and his wife were planning an automobile trip from the northern border of Mexico through to Colombia. For the past three months they have been attempting at-tempting that trip and have progressed pro-gressed as far as southern Nicaragua. Nica-ragua. Following such trails, and an occassional short piece of road, as can be found, they report progress prog-ress ranging from one-hall to seven miles a day for the days they attempt at-tempt to travel through the Central American jungles. They may be able to get through to the Canal after another three or four months, but it is doubtful if they can go from there to the Colombian Colom-bian border. That is the country of the San Bias Indians and few white men have ever penetrated it for any distance. The Indians do not take kindly to the whites. An acquaintance of some years ago, Captain Fitzmorris, an English soldier of fortune, was one of the few white men acceptable to the San Bias Indians. He had been made a blood member of the tribe and lived with them for a number of years following the close of the last World war. Fitzmorris fought for England when his native country was at war, big or little, in any part of the world. If it was not at war, he hunted up wars in other countries if possible. When he could not find one in which he could participate, he would go to the San Bias country coun-try and live with the Indians. He wore the Victoria cross, with two bars, earned, of course, in the service serv-ice of England-It England-It is what I learned from Captain Fitzmorris of the San Bias country that causes me to question the ability abil-ity of the intrepid young couple to make their way through it to the Colombian border. LONG REACH OF MAD MAN TOUCHES FISHING VILLAGE SOME 25 YEARS AGO I spent a few pleasant days in the little Newfoundland New-foundland fishing village of Placen-tia, Placen-tia, located at the head of Placentia bay on the southeast coast of the fog enshrouded island. In its modest mod-est way, it was an attractive place, consisting of some 12 to 15 snow-white snow-white cottages, with the bluest of blue trimmings, a Methodist church and a small store specializing in ship chandler's supplies. To the north and west of the village there was but the unbroken wilderness of stunted timber, valuable only as pulp wood. Today the little village of Placentia Placen-tia is gone. Its white and blue cottages cot-tages and its little church have fallen fall-en victims to the war preparations of the United States. Where it stood, this nation is today erecting buildings that will house, not a simple fisher folk, but the officers and men of an American naval station sta-tion to aid in the protection of the world against the Mad Man cj Europe. GOVERNMENT ALSO DUBIOUS IF BY 'EXECUTIVE ORDER' WE FEEL a bit sorry for the people peo-ple of any nation from which comes an announcement of "government by decree." We think of it as another an-other country moving toward a dictatorship, dic-tatorship, another people losing their liberties. We thank God we are not in that boat There Is not much difference between be-tween "government by decree" and "government by executive order." A violation of an executive order can send one to jail as quickly and certainly as a violation of a decree, and to a considerable extent, we Americans are governed by "executive "execu-tive orders." President Roosevelt or, with his authority, the heads of well over 100 departments or bureaus, have issued "executive orders" on an average av-erage of much more than one each day for more than the past eight years. The vast majority of American Ameri-can citizens know nothing of what these orders are. They are not debated de-bated in congress. They are seldom reported In the newspapers. Lawyers Law-yers cannot keep up with them. They arc laws that cannot be found in the law books. They cover as many subjects as there are "executive orders." or-ders." For example: Should any retail grocery man sell as much as 100 pounds of sugar to any one customer and fail to report that sale, with the name of the customer, to the secretary secre-tary of the treasury, he can be sent to Jail and heavily fined for violation viola-tion of on executive order. Grocery Gro-cery men, entirely Ignorant of such a law, hove paid flues and served terms In Jail for violation of tlint order. If "government by decree" is a stepping stone to dictatorship, what Is "government by executive order"? or-der"? I |