MAY 31, 1919 Collier's THE NATIONAL WEEKLY VOL. 63 NO. 22 The American Legion ANATIONAL convention of American soldiers and sailors in which no grievances were aired, no political axes ground, no special privileges or preferments demanded; where oratorical "bunk" was hooted down; where social discrimination was taboo and military rank counted not at all; where the past glories of war were subordinated to the future glories of peace, and where the national interest was placed above all partisanship-that is something new under the sun. It was in such a convention, held in St. Louis during the second week in May, that the new spirit of the American army and navy expressed itself articulately for the first time since. the armistice was signed. The birth of the American Legion was attended by circumstances having a significance comparable with those surrounding the signing of a certain document in Philadelphia one hundred and forty-three years ago come July 4. A brigadier general arises to "place in nomination the name of a man who-" and is cried down by doughboys with calls of "Name him! Who is he?" A proposal to give extra pay to enlisted men is unanimously defeated because, as Lieutenant Colonel ROOSEVELT put it, "we are not here to sandbag something out of the Government, but to put something into it." The invitation to make Chicago the next meeting place of the legion is refused because "American soldiers and sailors don't want to go to a city whose mayor would be ashamed to welcome such a convention." A progressive Republican, son of a famous father, refuses the chairmanship to quiet suspicion of personal ambition, and the office goes to a Southern Democrat of whose party the gathering is in complete ignorance. One of the convention stenographers said: "This is the funniest convention I have ever attended." We have an idea that there was an element of prophecy in her homely remark-a body representing more than four million American soldiers and sailors. that makes so little political noise is likely to be about as funny to the conventionally minded politician as a bombardment of gas shells. This language of restraint in the mouths of organized civilian youth may prove to be a natural companion to the famous battle slogan of the A. E. F.: "Let's go!" THE Taxation and Waste Government supported loyally and liberally. But the public man who finds the surest way to fame and success will be the one who has the courage to declare relentless warfare against official extravagance in every form. Taxes will never again fall to the prewar level. But they will hardly come down at all unless a stop is put to spendthrift methods which are the bad inheritance from every war. It is absurd to ask people to save when their savings are liable to be swept into the whirlpool of governmental extravagance. Discussion of the League of Nations is already fading to a whisper. Even the barbers no longer talk about it. But as long as the spigot is open at Washington there will be no lack of popularity for "Stop the waste! Lower the taxes!" as a political appeal. HE Victory Loan was an unqualified success. It was oversubscribed. It was widely distributed. It was all that a loan should be: popular, moderately profitable, secure. Anxiety as to its success was wasted. The increased public knowledge of Government loans, added to the attractive possibilities which this loan offered to the very rich through the income-tax deductions provided for by the law, were sufficient to insure an oversubscription. It is in no spirit of criticism of men who took advantage of this opportunity for had they not shown their generosity and good feeling by their purchase of the far less advantageous preceding loans?-that we regret that the benefits of the loan, in this respect, have not been spread among a greater number. There is no large reduction of income taxes for the merchant to whom "good times" have come at last, the farmer who is receiving high prices for his corn or cotton or tobacco, the physician or lawyer who in middle age has gained by hard work and self-denial a modest competence, the journalist who has produced a successful play or book, the painter who has finally found a market for his pictures, the inventor who has created a device that adds to the wealth of the world. These are the people who are hardest hit by the war taxes. In their case the income tax is practically a seizure of capital. They are not as much injured as they would have been if KITCHIN had had his way, if he and his friends had not been shamed out of putting the additional tax on professional incomesthe salaries of congressmen excepted!—into the Revenue Bill. Moreover, they are slow to complain. But it is a question whether, now that the war is over, even this habitually meek class will not protestnot against taxation, but against the prodigal expenditure of the funds raised by the heaviest taxation ever known in this country. The war must be paid for, provision made against future wars, the 1 ADVO Out of Politics DVOCATES of government ownership may well protest that it has not had a fair trial, with Messrs. MCADOO and WILLIAMS in charge of the railways and Mr. BURLESON directing the telephone and telegraph lines. Mr. McADOO, a shrewder politician than execu tive, saw the thunderclouds rising over the Railroad Administration and slipped out of office, leaving a task to his successor that would baffle the genius of HILL or CASSATT. Most of the principal railway lines, if returned to their owners in their present condition, would be bankrupt. Mr. BURLESON is not "returning" the telegraph and telephone lines. He is forced reluctantly to give them up by the pressure of public opinion and by the needs of his party. The poli ticians at Washington and elsewhere are frightened out of their wits by the magnitude of the job they undertook so gayly a little while ago. The prospect seemed a pleasant one to these gentry-great systems with enormous sums of money and hundreds of thousands of employees at the disposal of a party machine! What they did not foresee was that every fault in the management of these properties would be charged to the party in power. The shipper whose goods were delayed, the householder who could not get his coal last winter, the passenger who quarreled with the conductor, the telephone user who received the answer, "The wire is busy," blamed his troubles on the Administration. For one vote it gained by concessions to employees it lost probably a score by the inconveniences and annoy ances of the general public. Something of the kind might have occurred if, instead of flamboyant politicians, business men of the highest capacity had been placed in charge of these departments. Public-service corporations are never in high favor with the public even when their officials are doing their best. But all the extravagance, the muddling, the inefficiency, the petty and spiteful tyranny that are characteristic of bureaucracy, increased the sum of the offense. The versatile Mr. MCADOO used the railway cars and sta tionery to advertise his illustrious name, but here, for once, adver vertising failed in its purpose. Instead of furthering his bold presi dential candidacy it identified him as the cause of all the real and imaginary worries of the public. His experience and the wrath that has broken over the large but sad head of A. S. BURLESON are les sons enough for the politicians. They will not put their hands that fire again. This generation will never know what governme ownership would be under competent, careful, public-spirited me. If it has not had a fair trial, it has had the only trial it w ever get while the politicians have memories of its awful fail ure as a part of practical politics. SOME Trees OME ONE, some day, will collect an anthology of the best thing written about trees. JOYCE KILMER's famous poem will be cluded, of course; and we offer to the future editor, whoever he she may be, a favorite item of our own, which SIDNEY LANIER O scribbled in his notebook, in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore: Who is so manly and so manifold sweet as a tree? There is none that ca talk like a tree: for a tree says always to me exactly that which I wish to say. A man is apt to say what I did not desire to hear, or what I had not. to know at that time. A tree knows always my necessity. Isn't It Awful? N a fine May day of this year Civilization and the American Home Ohereabouts were tottering on their alleged not too elic founda tions. Thousands of people came early into huge structures surrounding certain clean green spaces of turf and sat there, most obviously enjoying an open-air holiday of leisure and change. No walls about them, no roof overhead, no work to do, and nothing much on their minds-they seemed a perilous crew, ripe for any mischief. It was not the regular crowd that had swarmed there through the week; as the performance progressed many of them had to look into their programs for the names of the participants, and had to ask the better informed as to the abilities of each. As the afternoon wore on a curious peacefulness was evident despite the exciting nature of the spectacle which they had paid money to see. There was no drinking save of mildest lemonade and pop, the offensive power of the bottles was not used, officials in charge were not mobbed-hardly hooted at enough, in fact! Incipient rowdyism, despite the defeat of the home team, sank so low that even the customary final milling rush for the exits was omitted. The most fanatical of bigots must have been cooled and quieted by the experience of a holiday so refreshingly spent. The public had been betrayed by Tammany officials who were carrying through, in this instance at least, that malign profession of giving the public what it wants. Sunday baseball had arrived. Isn't it awful? Ambition CAN anybody tell us the source of this utterly human document? With a Copy of "Pickwick" ENCEFORTH I shall read only books written before the war, "Whatever the world has gained, it has lost the right to be idle." The enthusiasts for efficiency will count the loss a gain. They have discovered the practical uses of rest in increasing production, but their charts and schedules have no place for leisure. Especially at this time. To win back, to gain, to make and to do, to be active, to work-these sum up the new ideal. M. HERIOT writes "Agir" to stir France to action; England is pledged to quantity production; I was figuring on starting some kind of a business, but most every business is already engaged in more than's necessary; and then I ain't got no business ability. What I want is something that don't call for no kind of ability whatsoever and no kind of exertion to speak of, and ain't out of town, and pays good, and has a future. We print it here as a contribution to the study of certain aspects of Bolshevism which are quite ignored by our more intensely serious contemporaries. Whoever wrote it could give amateur sociologists inside information on human nature, which is very much needed just now. ON An Economic Enigma NE trouble with the governmental railway situation is that there are only ten dimes in a dollar, not eleven. Perhaps when those in charge allow that fact to have its full weight in their councils the transportation problem may get nearer solution. It is really too sad a subject for apple-blossom time, and we would change the topic by asking why Mr. ROBINSON NEWBOLD'S jingle, viz., "A little flea sat on a rock, making a lonesome sound; he did not know what to do with himself, there being no dog around," always reminds us of the Interstate Commerce Commission? even LENINE invokes scientific management. Leisure must be forbidden. And yet . . .! The prophets have spoken, but humanity is blessedly perverse at times. Not to-day or to-morrow, but presently it may decide to think as well as act, go in for idleness a bit, and read a book written before the war, without dust and heat. The wise publisher will not scrap his plates of the "Pickwick Papers" -not yet. Slang MR. H. L. MENCKEN has performed a good service in his sprightly volume "The American Language," which gives a brilliant moving picture of our current speech. The gist of his contention is that American has become practically a different language from English, and that the American vulgate far outruns the British in the invention of terse, vivid, and grotesque tropes. We are inclined to believe that this contention is true in the main; yet we would like to see English slang more carefully examined. Mr. MENCKEN makes no mention of one of the most curious hothouses of English metaphor-the school language at Winchester, known to the boys as "Notions," an argot that has developed in the course of generations into a language incomprehensible to the outsider and dignified by pub lished glossaries of its own. In this speech money becomes harders (from the Latin solidum); a matter that is doubtful is said to be mooters; tennis becomes batters, the general ending of all these terms being ers. "Notions" is the groundwork of a great deal of English varsity slang, which gradually infiltrates into the common language. Whenever we have been brought in contact with English slang we have been struck by its picturesque fertility. Such words and phrases as slacker, swank, fed up, flapper, go West have all come to us from British usage, and we are daily waiting to see the English demobbed (demobilized) appear in our newspapers. We are amused to notice that most of our naval officers returning from foreign service talk the current slang of the British sea forces. And there are many terms of English familiar use, such as stumer (which we believe to be the equivalent of our flivver, without the automobile meaning), which Mr. MENCKEN does not mention. May 31, 1919 1 Trucks play a big part hauling live stock to the stockyards Expresses, running on regular advertised schedules, carrying merchandise The Farmers' Motor-Truck Express COLUS BY JOSEPH BRINKER NOLUSA, CAL., is a town of 1,582 souls. It is the seat of the county of the same name and lies in the great Sacramento River valley, a trifle north and eastward of the Golden Gate City. It boasts of a steam railroad and an electric line and withal is a hustling little town for a place of its size. It was last fall that we sat in the shade on the rambling veranda of one of the pioneer homes in the outskirts. Far off lay the road to Colusa docks on the Sacramento River. It seemed that just behind the road there lay a line of square-topped pyramids. But it was a long way from Egypt and, what's more, the pyramids seemed to move! And they did, for they were bags of rice piled high on a snakelike procession of heavy motor trucks moving along slowly on their way to the Colusa docks. They were the farmers' motor-truck express, and they were expresses too, for some of the trucks hauled 180 bags weighing 8 tons at a time and made four trips to the mule's one besides carrying four times the tonnage! "Yes," said my companion on that cool, shaded veranda. "They are motor trucks, and they may be seen passing over that road just as regularly as clockwork. You notice there is no dust on that road. If there had been, you could never have mistaken the peculiar shape of the loads for a pyramid, for trucks and their cargo would have been enveloped in clouds of their own making. No, there is no dust because the road is of concrete, and concrete roads have been responsible for the great growth of the farmers' motor-truck express in this State. "Things have undergone a great change since my father settled here a great many years ago. Then we had no railroads and no vehicle roads worthy of the name. It was indeed a problem to move our wheat to the Colusa docks for loading on barges. those days the accepted method to chart the course to the river was to hitch up the buckboard and drive it through the grass with a heavy chain dragging along the ground behind in order to mark the path for the teamsters. It took one day to drive their loads down and another to come back. "In those days wheat was the main crop in this section, but now rice and beans are of great importance. While the first rice crop was grown in the Sacramento Valley only nine years ago the 1918 crop was valued at $15,000,000 and the bean crop at over $50,000,000. And trucks helped . move every ton of it." "Wonderful, isn't it?" I managed to get in. In this article Mr. Brinker shows the great progress the motor truck has made in transporting to market almost everything that we eat, and yet he says this method of transportation is only in its infancy. He foresees the time "when every farmer's gate will verily become his shipping platform."-THE EDITOR. large crop, but if it rains while the sacks are piled high in the fields we may lose thousands of dollars in one night. The truck has helped us greatly because it has enabled us to get the rice and beans to the Colusa docks before the rain sets in. During last fall more than fifty trucks were operating in this district to carry the sacks of rice from the fields to warehouses on the river levee. They do not run out and beans was only a small part of the great highway transportation work. For instance, take the haulage of hops. In one season the hop growers in the Sacramento Valley saved $12,400 by moving their crops on motor trucks instead of mule wagons. Reduced transportation cost and saving the loss from rain did not account for all this. When mules were used they made the trip from the fields to the river in eight to ten hours, one way, or three round trips a week. The trucks, however, speeded up the work tremendously, each making three trips a day, or eighteen trips a week. When mules were used the eight to ten hour trips under the boiling hot sun resulted in the hops losing considerable weight by evaporation. The shrinkage was greatly reduced by the higher speed of the trucks, and during the first season it was estimated that the sav ing in weight per truckload was worth $35. This was very important to the hop grower, since he sold his crop by weight at the river warehouse. Then, again, consider some of the other work of the California motor-truck expresses, such as handling hardy vegetables like spinach, lettuce, and celery, which begin to move during the early winter to railroad stations for shipment to near-by canneries and dehydrating plants or clear through to the East. on to the soft rice fields, but pick up their loads along- The haulage of vegetables provides yearround work for the trucks, since great quantities of tomatoes raised on the same fields that produce spinach in the winter are hauled to the canneries and drying plants in the Sacramento Valley during the summer. In the spring, asparagus and artichokes provide the bulk of the hauling until the first fruit has ripened and is ready to ship. The fruit season lasts throughout the summer and ends along toward the latter part of November. Many of the Cali fornia canneries get their fruits direct from the orchards by means of trucks in which the fruits are carried in boxes packed under the trees. By this method the boxes have to be handled only twice. whereas if they were hauled to the rail road from the orchard and from the railroad to the cannery at the other end, the boxes would have to be handled four times, meaning two extra handlings which the motor truck eliminates. Wheat is still an important crop in the Sacramento Valley and is now being handled in bulk by motor trucks. This is a new departure made p sible by the use of trucks and their greater speed compared with mule wagons. In previous days all the wheat was bagged. Moreing Brothers, who o a wheat farm of 23,000 acres near Sacramento, ba all of their wheat by the bulk method since it can be loaded quickly and eliminates the heavy expense of filling the small sacks. Two years ago Moreir Brothers used forty-five wagons, each with a four mule team, to haul their (Continued on page 8 4 |