anaheim-gazette 1927-07-28

THE ANAHEIM GAZETTE ESTABLISHED 1870 HENRY KUCHEL, Editor and Proprietor ISSUED EVERY THURSDAY SUBSCRIPTION PER YEAR $2.00 SIX MONTHS 1.25 THREE MONTHS .75 Entered at the Anaheim, California, Post Office as second class matter. THE GENEVA CONFERENCE NO MATTER what finally comes of the disarmament conference at Geneva, the American people will steadfastly approve of the determination of their government not to accept an inferior position for Uncle Sam in the naval armaments of the world. By all means let us have disarmament if it can be fairly and safely done. But the nation does not want American rights and American safety compromised for sentiment. It cannot be denied that the early maneuvers of the British diplomats at Geneva created a painful impression in the United States. When the naval conference was called at Washington, it was the United States which did the most sacrificing. We junked a number of capital ships in order to get the other nations of the world to agree to disarmament. Most of the reduction in proposed British tonnage was in the shape of blueprints only. In a few years Uncle Sam would have had a big preponderance in battleships. But we voluntarily abandoned this advantage in the interest of what we thought was world peace. Now the situation has changed. The British have the present advantage in the way of cruisers and of cruiser building. And the British have not shown the same spirit of conciliation in Geneva that we showed at Washington. In the first place, the British insisted on small tonnage cruisers, knowing that this would put the United States at a disadvantage. Small tonnage cruisers are as good as any kind for England, because England has plenty of naval bases the world over. But the United States, with few such bases, must have cruisers with a wide cruising range. Next, the British insisted on a total tonnage which would mean an increase rather than a decrease in prospective armaments. Some of our own apologists for Great Britain have said that we could take fewer and smaller cruisers because we do not need fear war with Great Britain anyhow, and no other nations could And the British have not shown the same spirit of conciliation in Geneva that we showed at Washington. In the first place, the British insisted on small tonnage cruisers, knowing that this would put the United States at a disadvantage. Small tonnage cruisers are as good as any kind for England, because England has plenty of naval bases the world over. But the United States with few such bases, must have cruisers with a wide cruising range. Next, the British insisted on a total tonnage which would mean an increase rather than a decrease in prospective armaments. Some of our own apologists for Great Britain have said that we could take fewer and smaller cruisers because we do not need fear war with Great Britain anyhow, and no other nations could touch us. Well, that argument works both ways. Great Britain could do with fewer cruisers too, for the same reason. Certainly there is no danger of any country but America approaching her in the way of armament. It will not do for us to form too hasty impressions of the work of the Geneva conference. So much propaganda is being disseminated from Europe about the work of the conference and the aims of the various countries, that it is not easy for the layman to arrive at the truth. OUR HIGHWAY BILL ONE REASON why the country continues to prosper and develop in spite of recessions in certain localities can be found in the nation's tremendous highway building program. Each year more and more money is being spent by the local state and national government on highways. Figures just completed for the fiscal year 1925 show that a billion and a half dollars were spent in that year for highway construction and maintenance. And it is to be remembered that since then the amount has steadily increased. Interesting figures were recently given out on highway expense by the National Industrial Conference Board. These figures show, among other things, that one-sixth of the nation's entire budget is expended for road improvement or maintenance. Twenty years ago the road building item in the budget was negligible. A million miles of highway have been constructed since 1904, and thousands of miles have been regraded and straightened. In 1904 only seven per cent of the total mileage was graded and surfaced. A big change has come in the financing of road improvement in the past twenty years, too. Formerly the work was paid for by the local taxing units, but the burden is being more and more shifted to the state and national government. Of course the gasoline tax, too, is now used for construction, and this is collected and distributed by the state governments. The railroad, the telegraph and the telephone made possible for us to have one united country from ocean to ocean. Now automobiles with the improved highways are not only cementing the ties of union, but are wiping out sectionalism. For the more people tour about the country and get acquainted with their fellow citizens, the more they think in terms of American citizenship. A SHIPPING PROFIT IN THESE days of propaganda against the American merchant marine and every activity looking toward its maintenance and development, it is interesting and satisfactory to note that, according to preliminary figures recently announced at Washington, the United States Lines had a net profit of between $300,000 and $500,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30. This is to be contrasted with a net loss of $645,280 for the year previous, to that the apparent net gain in earning during the past twelve months is something around a million dollars. A SHIPPING PROFIT IN THESE days of propaganda against the American merchant marine and every activity looking toward its maintenance and development, it is interesting and satisfactory to note that, according to preliminary figures recently announced at Washington, the United States Lines had a net profit of between $300,000 and $500,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30. This is to be contrasted with a net loss of $645,280 for the year previous, to that the apparent net gain in earning during the past twelve months is something around a million dollars. Five passenger ships operated by the line, the Leviathan, George Washington, President Harding, Republic and President Roosevelt, had a net profit for the year of $137,285. These are fine liners and ships of which every real American may well feel proud. This record of the United States Lines is somewhat surprising in view of the floods of propaganda recently let loose directly and indirectly against the American merchant marine. This propaganda is usually very clever. Its authors, some of whom may be interested in foreign shipping lines, are too clever generally to knock the American merchant marine scheme directly. They know that Americans generally favor the marine and realize its naval and economic value to the country. So the propagandists seek to undermine the marine sentiment indirectly. They try to convey the impression that the administration of the ships by the government can never be successful. At the same time in other statements they decry any proposition for government aid to privately owned American ships. They are always telling that American shipping is unprofitable and that we can never compete with our European neighbors. That we can, under proper conditions, compete with Europe is best evidenced by the concern which these propagandists are showing over the American marine program. If they knew that our ships could not be kept on the ocean properly, they would worry not at all, because their interest is not in American, but European shipping. MOTOR-PROOF PEDESTRIANS A LONDON writer offers a plan for the development of the motor-proof pedestrian: First he would make a census of all the people in the country who had been knocked down by motor cars and had come through more or less unscathed. "An act of parliament would then force intermarriage among these splendid hardy folk. Their characteristics would be transmitted in an intensified form to their descendants, and in a few generations the country would consist of motorists and those whom motor cars could not injure. ANAHEIM GAZETTE Big Hogs from Little Piggies Grow! By Albert T. Raid LOG-ROLLING CONGRESSMAN PETTY ATTEMPTS TO CUT IN ON FLOOD APPROPRIATE LOCAL PORK STAND AND FIGHT There seems to have grown up in the country an impression that while there is nothing reprorehensible in any expenditure of money or effort against legitimate property rights, any effort to combat such propaganda by those who may have both principle and property at stake in resisting such campaigns, whether carried on by doctrinales or mere demagogues, carries the talm of corruption. This sentiment is akin to that which has grown up that while advocates of revolutionary violence should have the right under "free speech" to further such activity, it is reprorehensible for the government which is the object of such attack, to repel by legal force the efforts of its assailants. It is very natural that those who are opposed to the institution of private property should seek by intimidation to prevent the natural defenders of this institution from putting forth effort to offset the activities of social revolutionaries. It is surprising, however, that they have been able to create a popular psychology which tolerates, and even accepts, the doctrine that opponents of government ownership and other forms of state socialism, should "take their liking lying down." In view of the conception thus created, it is not surprising to note that hundreds of organizations and publications exist for the purpose of attacking, in one way and another, directly or indirectly, the institution of private property and that a quick way to political popularity is in assailing business enterprises, however useful. For while attack upon property rights is active, adequate defense is lacking. Financial corruption, despite the outcry of the muckrakers and demagogues, is exceedingly rare in national public life. The corruption involved in selling one's convictions for public favor, in order that maintenance and promotion in public life may be ensured, is far more prevalent. There is no essential difference between the main who sells his views for money and one who barrers his convictions for votes, who is willing to play any game or resort to any means to enhance his own chances a symbol of power, and the love of official advancement. Money is only power is more corrupting than is symbol. With the constant growth in governmental activities, and the constant longening of the public payroll, office holding and office seeking is becoming by far our most powerful special interest, not always more unselfish or more genuinely interested in the welfare of the country than other special interests against which politicians inveigh, often without justification. The general welfare of the people of the United States rises and falls with the welfare of the nation's productive enterprise, which is engaged in the creation of national wealth, and pays the taxes which provide such enterprise their target. Lengthening the public payrolls and curtailing the private payrolls of the country will no more promote the prosperity of the nation than overloading the cars and disabling the engine will increase the speed of a train. A NEW TRAFFIC PROBLEM That new highways bring new traffic problems has now here been more clearly indicated that at the intersection of Newport boulevard and the state highway at a point near the east end of the bridge across the old channel of the Santa Ana river. The state highway has been opened through Laguna Beach and southward only a few months. Every holiday, every Saturday afternoon, and every Sunday brings thousands of automobiles to this intersection. The hours of heaviest travel find long lines of automobiles waiting for a chance to get by. A machine gets in line, stops, moves a few feet or yards, stops, waits and moves again, and eventually passes the intersection. Sunday the machines piled up on the state highway between 5 and 6:30 o'clock made a string reaching beyond the second point, a good three-fourths of a mile. Another string representing the home-coming machines from the Newport Beach-Balboa sandpit, were lined up for a mile back from the intersection. Traffic officers were as busy as it was possible for them to be keeping the traffic moving in orderly fashion. But even in orderly fashion, machines were in line a full 30 to 35 minutes. Somebody who is good at figures might sit down and estimate the cost. An automobile engine, filling part of the time and running in low the rest of the time, in half an hour would use how much gasoline, costing 19.5 cents a gallon? the hundreds and thousands of mahliplify that cost per machine by chines that were held up at this intersection yesterday. Multiply that by the number of busy Sundays and holidays in the year. The cost of gasoline alone, to say nothing of the expense of keeping the two or three traffic officers on the job, total payments on a subway at that would pay interest and make substan-point. There has been a good deal of agitation in recent years for the elimination of grade crossings at railroads. In fact, on the state highway, a few rods from the intersection concerning which this editorial is written, a subway has been constructed, allowing traffic to go under the tracks of the Southern Pacific. How long will it be before we are insisting on subways and overhead crossings to eliminate traffic pile-ups such as have been brought about at the intersection of Newport boulevard and the state highway? Wonder how many Reds would be marching in a Sacco-Vanzetti protest parade if these two highlanders had been Republicans or Democrats instead of communists? They have bee nholding an exciting election in Manitoba to see whether beer shall be sold by the glass or the bottle. We know a few fellows in our town who would be glad even to get it in a tin can. one's convictions for public favor, in order that maintenance and promotion in public life may be ensured, is far more prevalent. There is no essential difference between the man who sells his views for money and one who barrers his convictions for votes, who is willing to play any game or resort to Sunday the machines piled up on the state highway between 5 and 6:20 o'clock, made a string reaching beyond the second point, a good three-fourths of a mile. Another string, representing they have bee nholding an exciting election in Manitoba to see whether beer shall be sold by the glass or the bottle. We know a few fellows in our town who would be glad even to get it in a tin can. WHAM! POP, WILLYUM HE CHARLESTONED ME! CANT DO A THING I HAVE N FIGURES, DATA RECOMMENDATIC OR DIAGRAM ON ANY SUCH METHOD OF ATTACH Payne OBSERVATIONS THIS MEANS YOU, AND THE REST OF THEM SOME of the summer campers who have returned home found out why everybody going into the mountains must take along an axe and a shovel. They were put to work in some cases to put out fires that some bonehead started by throwing down a lighted cigarette, or something. Anybody who carelessly starts a forest fire should be severely punished. These days fires may be expected, and everybody—the whole family—when on a vacation in the mountains should see to it that no chances are taken whatsoever. Sure thing, remember that. WITH SHIVERS RUNNING UP AND DOWN YOUR BACK A RADIO from Reno says a husband got a divorce from his mate because she used him as a foot warmer. It was alleged that wifey always had cold feet, and furthermore was possessed of a superiority complex—if you know what that is. OTHERWISE THE COUNTRY IS PEACEFUL TO SHOW that a wave of prosperity is sweeping over the United States, it may be related that the fans paid over a million dollars to see the two Jacks fight it out in the squared arena. The fight bug is a predatory pest and thrives principally on suckers—not all from "Illinoys." WHAT HAVE YOU? IN A recent milling contest, the fighter who went bye-bye, says he was on the receiving end of a foul. Some other mitmen, who in the past failed to bring home the bacon, laid it to ptomaine poison, home worries, poor management, over-training, too much confidence, while othere alibied that believing the other fellow a set-up, did not dig in until it was too late, and, if given another chance, would show the cock-eyed world what a real fighter looks like. HOWEVER, LOOK UP YOUR INSURANCE POLICY APPREHENSIONS upon the part of some people has been arranged by the printed reports of the presence of a spider. IN A recent milling contest, the fighter who went bye-bye, says he was on the receiving end of a foul. Some other mitmen, who in the past failed to bring home the bacon, laid it to ptomaine poison, home worries, poor management, over-training, too much confidence, while others alibied that believing the other fellow a set-up, did not dig in until it was too late, and, if given another chance, would show the cock-eyed world what a real fighter looks like. HOWEVER, LOOK UP YOUR INSURANCE POLICY APPREHENSIONS upon the part of some people has been aroused by the printed reports of the presence of a spider, known to science as the "black widow," its sting being serious but not necessarily dangerous if anti-venomous serums are applied immediately. The spider has a large black body, long legs, with a red spot underneath on the female, while the male has a yellow stripe. It is found in old barns and outhouses. It should be killed—if your aim is good—but the doctors say there is no use getting excited about it. GETTING· THE BUM STEER ABOUT six months ago a scientist told a breathless world that this summer would be cool and cloudy; and there would be no warm weather, while old-timers say that the recent temperature was unusual. LETTING IN THE LIGHT A NEW fashion note says that a fabric has been found for female apparel which permits the rays of the sun to penetrate to a woman's skin and give it a sort of ultra-violet sunburn, or something like that. It is also said that if one insisted upon getting sunburned all over through the clothing, they must not wear anything else but the new fabric. The new cloth is of a knitted creation and feels and looks like silk. LOOKIT, GIRLS, HERE'S THE DIMENSIONS THE scintillating stars who desire to crash the movie gate should read this over and paste it in the vanity case. In a recent contest the judges said the official ankle must be 9 inches around, calf 14, knee 14½, and thigh 20½ inches. All right, let's go. LOOKING 'EM OVER A MOVIE patron suggests that the managers form a mutual admiration society and take steps to keep squalling babies out of the audience, suppress the guy who reads aloud all the titles, and also pay particular attention to the fellow who perhaps only takes a bath about once a month. REMOVING THE MOTIVE PERHAPS after a certain car becomes extinct, the nerves of people will quiet down; they will not crave a stimulant; the bootlegger will have to quit, and the crime wave in great part will pass out. What? THE HORSE STAGES COMEBACK NOW that a high executive has become an enthusiast for horse-back riding, no doubt a jaunt on the back of a razor-back cayuse will become decidedly popular. It is said some riders get hard as nails, while others (new at the business) have to take their meals standing up. THE COCK-EYED WORLD THE HORSE STAGES COMEBACK Now that a high executive has become an enthusiast for horseback riding, no doubt a jaunt on the back of a razor-back cayuse will become decidedly popular. It is said some riders get hard as nails, while others (new at the business) have to take their meals standing up. THE COCK-EYED WORLD This old mundane sphere surely seems to be topsy-turvy. Revolutions, murders, suicides, divorces, bamboozleing, fast-living, greed for money, and everybody in a hurry to get somewhere are a few of the perplexities. If everybody would take an ice cold bath, just before the impulse seizes them to commit a crime, or something, it might have a deterrent effect, maybe. PLACATE THE PEOPLE Down in the Imperial valley it is a bit warm these days, and in one town the authorities have dumped five tons of ice daily in the swimming pool to keep the bathers from becoming hard-boiled. CHUCKING OVER CHINK'S CHICKENS A West Side poultryman wisely says that eggs will be worth real money along about the fall of the year, caused in great part by the revolutions in China. Many eggs came from there in years past, but the bad men over there have upset all the hen roosts and devoured all their contents in order to keep alive, and as a result, this man says an egg shortage is due. MIND OFF THEIR BUSINESS When these bathing beauty contests are pulled off nowadays, the garb of the subjects seems to be growing less all the time. Recently, the picture of a winner was shown on the screen and, while she had what you call a swell form, her face was not what Uncle Reuben would call pretty. Which goes to show which way the judges were looking. ALL ENGAGEMENTS CANCELLED If YOU should hold your ear to the ground, you will learn that there are no more wild parties in a certain movie settlement; the week-end escapades seem to have been cut out, and things are just about as quiet as the proverbial church mouse.