HOW THE SOCIALIST SCHEME WORKS

OUT IN AUSTRALIA.

In Australia there is an anti-socialist organization and its platform includes: "Opposition to unjustifiable government interference with private enterprise.'

Mr. G. H. Read, a leader in this organization in New South Wales, says:

The seat of a member of Parliament depends upon how much money he can abstract from the public treasury for carrying out works in his electorate in the most reckless and improvident fashion.

As a result of this policy, the steam railways of the Australian States and of the Commonwealth of Australia, the latter having some 1700 miles of line, actually lose nearly $50,000,000 a year. During the decade ending with 1913, the public indebtedness of the Australian states increased by over $500,000,000. During this same period our national debt decreased as did that of a number of states.

The anti-socialists of Australia now realize the grave mistake of not organizing long before this and becoming prepared to meet this socialist propaganda.

SEATTLE'S SOCIALISTIC STREET
RAILWAY.

Having had a taste of municipal water and municipal lighting, together with numerous other socialistic fads and fancies, the municipal socialists of Seattle determined to have a municipal street railway also. They therefore built four and a quarter miles of track paralleling the lines of the private company a block away.

There was never any scientific reason for building this line and there was no demand for its construction by the citizens who lived and did business upon the streets over which it runs.

About five years ago a real estate firm had built eight and one-half miles of street railway for the sole purpose of selling lots. It was purely a real estate deal and nothing else. It was necessary to have transportation to the land in order to sell it. Four miles of this line are outside of the city limits. The original owners offered this line to a private company, as a gift, conditional on being operated. It was refused. Later it was offered to the city on the same terms and accepted. This, mark you, without any demand upon the part of the citizens or even by their consent. It is said that the conductors on this line are so pleased whenever they secure a new passenger that they put themselves out to shake hands. about three years therefore the city has owned and operated nearly 12 miles of street railway.

For

According to a report filed on Apri 30, 1917, by W. W. Clark and Mr. Mitten of the State Bureau of Inspectors, the total loss on this street railway system (both lines) between June 1, 1914 and Dec. 31, 1916, was $98,382.07. And the losses for the first three months of 1917 amounte to $6,738.79, making a total loss of $105,120.86 direct.

These losses do not take into account any loss of taxes, and funds expended for paving streets, etc, strictly belonging to the railway department, and which which would be

charged up to a private company. These costs have been paid from general taxation through other departments. The loss in taxes would foot up to over $20,000.

of the

The bonded indebtedness street railway is $491,293.61. There should however be added to this, $60,515.85, which was the cost of two sub-stations, built by the Street

Railway Department, but shifted onto the lighting department, and which is paid for by the sale of electric current. This of course was done for the express purpose of hiding from the people the large and growing deficits on their socialistic street railway system. The real losses, direct and indirect, are not less than $75,000 a year.

When Samuel Gompers threatened the American Congress and the sovereignty of this country by saying that if a certain section of the proposed bill was passed "the section would simply create lawbreakers; if this section is passed I would have no more hesitancy in participating in a strike than I would now," he placed himself at the head of a revolutionary gang which had dared to threaten Congress and say that if a law not satisfactory to him and his associates were passed he would not hesitate to violate it. That is anarchy. That is the blatant threat of a demagogue, of a revolutionist; and surely the Government of the United States cannot afford to be bulldozed by Mr. Gompers or by any other man, or set of

men.

There are orderly ways for contesting the legality of laws passed by Congress, as the Manufacturers' Record says, but when any man, it matters not what may be his position in the business or the labor world, pointblank says to Congress that if it passes a certain law he will not hesitate to break it, Congress must

meet the issue as to whether it will be brow-beaten by such a revolutionary speech, or whether it will rise to the emergency and see that any law which is passed is enforced.

If some inconsequential individual who had no influence with other men had made such a statement as that of Gompers it might be ignored as the vapid mouthing of irresponsibility. But Gompers stands before the country as the leader of some millions of men who believe in his advice. When he makes such a statement as this he is, therefore, a revolutionist and backs his revolutionary statement with whatever influence he has with the labor men of the country.

We do not believe that Mr. Gompers can control the labor men to such an extent as to make a large proportion of them follow a revolutionist. But we must know the whole situation in time to save this government from the power of the revolutionary crowd which now seeks, as Trotsky said when he started for Russia, "to destroy the dirty and rotten Government of the United States."

Washington, Dec. 20, 1919. No task in connection with the Mexican situation is more difficult than that of giving the American people a clear idea of the underlying facts in the case. The absorption of the country in the news of the World War, the persistent propaganda in this country to represent many Mexican leaders to be what they are not, the systematic concealment by the State Department of the essential facts regarding conditions in Mexico

these and many other factors have united to mislead the people of the United States until they do not know what to think with regard to the Mexican poblem.

Perhaps the shortest and most practical course of instruction in the mysteries of Mexican politics and intrigue, the most illuminating yet trustworthy exposure of the ridiculous American diplomacy of the last nine years, in its relation to Mexico, is contained in the testimony before the Fall sub-committee of the Senate by William Frank Buckley, president of the Independent Mexican Investment Company, in which many New England capitalists are interested.

This testimony, delivered Dec. 6, 1919, is published as part 6 of the hearings by the sub-committee, and

presents a more or less complete political history of Mexico from the period just before the revolt against Porfirio Diaz in 1910 until the pres ent time. No important phase of the relations between the United States and the various Mexican govern ments during this period is left untouched; and persons familiar with the affairs of Mexico and who have followed the news developments in that country know that Mr. Buckley has told a thousand truths that have been too long suppressed. Carranza is shown in his real attitude of a hater of the United States, whose deliberate policy it is to drive all Americans out of Mexico and confiscate their lands; to prejudice all Latin America against them, and to play ducks and drakes with the Presiden: of the United States until one is inaugurated who cannot be bluffed.

Mr. Buckley narrates the whole sickening story of Mr. Wilson's abandonment of time-honored diplomatic methods and his substitution of the stupid personal envoy system of which John Lind was such a shining exponent; of systematic insults to the American flag and its representatives; of collusion in the State Department under Bryan and since to keep the truth from the American people; of

flagrant intervention in Mexican affairs; of the abandonment of protection to Americans as a designed pol icy of the Wilson Administration; of the contempt in which the United States Government is held by the Carranza ring, and of the ludicrous misconception of Mexico and the Mexicans which has been in part responsible for the mischievous policy of the Administration. No one can read the testimony without a sense of shame and anger that shakes one's whole physical system, for no American had been privileged to lay such facts before the people until the committee of which Senator Fall is chairman brought them out.

The situation unfortunately cannot be more than hinted at in a paragraph, but it is gradually being comprehended by Congress, and that is why the Senate is so much in advance of public opinion in demanding drastic measures to compel respect in Mexico for the United States. If the truth regarding the Administration's Mexican policy as it is known here could be understood everywhere, the country would be slow to entrust the affairs of the world to the judgment of however personage, any placed, with such a background of ignorance and incompetency. It is not yet true that ignominious incapacity to deal intelligently with the problems of one continent qualifies the theoretical statesman to regulate the affairs of all continents.

highly

SENATORS BROUGHT OUT THE TRUTH.

Recent events have demonstrated that Secretary of State Lansing and Henry P. Fletcher, our absentee ambassador to Mexico, appreciate the

slough into which our Latin-American policy has fallen, and that they set out in co-operation with the Senate, to instil the fear of God and the American people into the Fifteenth Century soul of Carranza. The Senate never had any intention of forcing military intervention or of usurping the presidential function of directing international policies, but it was determined that the truth relative to Mexico should be told and that the Administration should be placed in possession of it and yet refusing to act to uphold the national honor and safeguard American interests abroad. It could do no more than request the President to withdraw his recognition of the treacherous Carranza government, thus placing the friends of the United States in Mexico upon an equal footing with its enemies; but the President stood upon his prerogative and, the Senate having recognized it by abandoning action on the Fall resolution, he proceeded to pigeonhole the whole matter, leaving the situation just where it was before, except that American prestige in Mexico has once more suffered in the process. Carranza knows that the Wilson administration never will make any move that may endanger him or that he cannot checkmate by a quick quick about-face, hence he will continue despoiling Americans of their property until it cannot be recovered without war, a war deliberately postponed until a Republican administration shall come into power in Washington.

SOME FACTS WORTH NOTING.

One or two very important points

should be borne in mind, with relation to the Mexican situation. First, the bandit Villa, strange as it may sound, is one of the best friends and not one of the worst enemies of the United States in Mexico, because he and the men who are supporting him realize that no government in Mexico can succeed without the friendship and co-operation of the United States. Neither has Villa any ambition to become the dictator of Mexico, should his or any other revolution succeed. Second, all the enemies of Carranza in Mexico, except perhaps General Alvaro Obregon, are friendly to the United States; and the position of Obregon in this respect has undergone a material change since he found himself opposed by Carranza for the presidency. Third, the Mexican muddle would settle itself if the United States Government should treat its friends in that country as well as it treats its enemies. Fourth, an election for the presidency is scheduled to take place in Mexico next summer, but it will not be held if Carranza and the satellites who surround him can prevent it, for they are working desperately to bring about a situation. which will compel Carranza to decide that no "fair" election can be held, and that President Carranza must hold over until the country is "pacified," which is simply a plan to permit the "ins" to continue their plunder of the country. This fact is not intended, however, to reflect upon the personal honesty of the President of Mexico, for he is not personally a grafter. Fifth, Carranza will flout the United States to the limit to solidify Mexican support of himself and,

as in the Jenkins case, will go out of his way to create annoying issues for purposes of his own, knowing that as long as Mr. Wilson is in power be has nothing to fear except slaps on the wrist. Sixth, Mexico is capable of self-government, but not the kind which the mistaken view of the Wilson Administration contemplates, for it cannot become a true democracy until education is general. Seventh President Wilson backed the wrong horse in Mexico and is too stubbor to admit the fact. His agents conspired and he intervened in Mexican affairs to make Carranza president. thus violating the clear understanding of Mexican delegates sent to the United States while the revolution was on; and so far he has refused to take even the first step to retrieve his egregious error.

TARIFF AGAIN A FOREMOST ISSUE.

Republicans in the United States may very well congratulate themselves upon the creation by the Republican National Committee of a Committee on Policies and Platform -of which, by the way, W. Murray Crane is one of the New England representatives. The purpose is to provide for a study of the great issues before the country well in advance of the nomination of a presdential candidate and to aid the Committee on Resolutions at the National Convention to submit a plaform that will represent the ripest judgment of the ablest men of the party upon the problems of the hour. One result of this new departure, it is understood, will be to secure for the tariff question a careful, scientific examination, as a result of which the