«h
AFFLICTION OF MID-EUROPE
We, Americans, point fingers
of scorn at the European auto
cracy and its bureau-ridden
governments.’ In Alaska the on
ly increase noticeable in popu
lation is in the ‘‘Federal Bri
gade” and regulation is displac
ing law even to support of the
judiciary for the bureaucratic
autocracy.
-x
Even Notices Are Refused
Newspaper organizations will
ing to send their own messen
gers, and asking only that they
be notified of the receipt of tele
grams so that they may send for
them, find this service denied
them. As a result they frequent
ly have to pay for the transmis
sion of news a day old, which
means that it is no longer news
P it because the telegraph ser
vice belongs to the State, they
must pay, and because the tele
graph officials are State employ
es, they must not tell them
\ oat they think of this “nothing
for something” policy. They
must “pay and like it.”
The reason why Austria’s tele
graph service, like some other
of its public activities, has be
come a byword for inefficiency is
the fact that when Austrian civ
11 service was reorganized after
the war, the reductions were all
made at the bottom. All high
salaried officials were kept, while
messenger boys, postoffice clerks,
railway conductors, telephone
operators, museum attendants,
court stenographers—in short
that class of public servants who
directly serve the public—were
decimated. Hence the telegram
delivery scandals and the long
queues which must form before
the registered letter wickets of
the postoffice. Since curators
and clerks of art museums
would not light fires and there
was no one else to do it, pictures
were damaged by frost. And yet
the Ministeries are still crowd
ed with expensive figureheads,
holding limpet-like to their sine
cures, and their number even
grows.
The Austrian province of Vor
ariberg, with 130,000 inhabitants,
which in pre-war times was gov
erned by a few administrative
officials, now has a Parliament
of thirty members, a Govern
ment with twelve highly paid
functionaries, a Governor, Lieu
| tenant-Governor and all the
other attributes of a Federal
State.
Similar Conditions
The situation is not peculiar
you Should Worry.
When you have a binful of Nanaimocoal,
why should you worry when the cold weath
er hits the Narrows?
Call 5Phone 15 and place your or
der for coal to bring that cheer.
Chris Tveten, Dealer
^hV'Vi .*. *v*^mVVvv«
V * ' f
y y
$ < et your Drug?, Medical Supplies and Sundries at *£
‘eople’s Drug Co.
DAHL and SKE1, Owners
Prescriptions filled by Graduate Pharmacist
! Alaskan Glacier Sea Food Co.
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X Petersburg, Alaska A
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*t* Bayers of
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Petersburg Cabinet Works
H. F. ERWIN, Proprietor
TREGONNING OUTBOARD MOTOR BOATS and SKIFFS
Race boats aiul 38-foot outboard cruisers.
For Sale by
“The House That Quality Built
99
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Dealers In
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'to Austria, however. Hungary
maintains a gorgeous medieval
bodyguard for its Governor, con
structs fairy-like Summer re
sorts at State expense, builds
apartment houses for its high
State officials, buys palaces for
its legations abroad—and pays
its judges starvation wages.
Dictators like General Zivko
vitch and reformers like Premier
Maniu make brave attempts to
rid the Ship of State of bureau
cratic barnacles. But for every
canceled public office two others
appear.
Dictators may come and go.
but the dictatorship of bureau
cracy is perpetual. Even Gov
ernment changes mean nothing
where whole Ministeries have
become properly political part
ies. In the Austrian Ministry of
Justice the employees are Pan
Germans; in the Ministry of
Public Instruction all are Chris
tian Socialists. In Rumania the
whole bureaucracy is Liberal
and is now preparing to oppose
its passive resistance to Premier
Maniu’s scheme of decentrali
zation and reform.
That is Middle European bu
reaucracy. Tell an inhabitant of
this part of the world that there
are countries where the State
belongs to and defends its citi
zens instead of owning and op
pressing them, and where State
employees are employees of ev
erybody, and he will smile indul
gently as one who hearkens to a
fairy tale. Assure him that a
citizen of such a country, believ
ing himself to be overtaxed,
might call a tax collector a rob
ber and risk nothing worse than
a reply in kind, and he will go
on his way offended that you
should so tax his incredulity. He
I knows better, for he is an in
! habitant of a country whose ci
i tizens, when he observed an an
! noyed acquaintance struggling
'with a Government cigarette
I machine which refused to pro
| duce cigarettes or restore his
[money, counseled: “Whatever
'you do, don’t curse it, or you
1 will commit ‘Amtsehrenbeleidi
jgung.’ ”
-x
I CURE OF WORLD’S ILLS BY
CULTS
James R. Little
i There does not seem to be pos
1 sible an interpretation which
. can be tortured out of the Bible
i that has not been tried. Each
i has its followers, and so there
has sprung up an amazing
number of cults. No so many
though, but that if anyone can
find a new interpretation tomor
row and “fake claim” revela
tion for it, he, or she, can start
a new cult and get followers for
i it as quickly as chickens will
. run to the mother hen when she
clucks for them over a newly
discovered worm.
Today, Sunday, Occidental at
E and Washington Street, Seat
; tie, Wash., has every new and
I ancient creed for the cure of the
world’s ills. It is set forth by
; some itinerant prophets. Men
with long hair, glittering eyes,
and fierce looking faces. These
Heaven or Hell gentlemen draw
the crowds, like the saloons in
the old days drew “bums” and
“bar flies.” No where in the
world have I heard so many con
tradictory orators extolling as
tire best word in wisdom, the
creeds of Heaven, Hell, Socialism
I. W. W.’sm, Unionism, anarchy,
and Communism. All the vari
eties of religion, known and un
known. Each cult has a self
’ elected prophet to extol their
various gospels. Our street pro
phet’s English is not so pure;
they hold a sublime disregard
for the grammar of our tongue
and their accent points to a
non-American origin. Their
lack of elementary education is
covered by their eloquence
Without exception, all of these
orators attack the present form
of American government, and
► promise an earthly paradise and
“Chop Suey” and soitfdough
cookies in heaven for tlie poor
working man. When these Unit
ed States have private ownership
of capital abolished and labor
controls the materials as well as
the methods of production.
These bitter attacks on consti
tuted government and the social
system of the world need not de
tain us here. One has only to
turn to Russia to see the com
munistic gospel in action. In any
communistic scheme, one ceases
to be an individual in his own
right and is turned into a me
chanical cog in a gigantic indus- j
trial machine. Mechanical am
elioration of the masses is on a
par with the American passion
for uplifting humanity by pro
cess of law.
The fatal flaw in all this kind
of agitation and propoganda is
the reliance that is put on some
thing external to do what only
the individual can do for him
self. It is the naive mistake of
hese social prophets to insist
that something external to man
can supply “the divine spark”
which transforms a clod of clay
■ nto a harmonious and happy
human being.
All forms of government are1
necessarily imperfect, not one
of them has come down from
heaven. All have the virtues
and defects of their origin. In a
human world, which is necessar
ily imperfect, all things and all
individuals partake of this im
perfection. No conceivable form
of government, however com
munistic, can escape this im
perfection. All that can be ask
ed of any government is an equal
chance for life and liberty com
mensurate with one’s capacity.
This opportunity the United
States provides to an extent un
known before in any age of the
world’s history.
CCOLIDGE ADMINISTRATION
AS RAD AS HARDINGS
——x
The oil scandals of theHarcling
administration was the high wa
ter mark of graft and political
intrigue of the Harding admin
istration^ presaged by the liquor
permit scandals which reached
right into the presidential cab
inet. The following reprinted
from LABOR, Washington, D. C.,
lifts the lid of the Shipping
Board scandals that is not one
whit less reprehensible than the
conspiracies of Secretary Fall,
Harry Sinclair, Doheny, Secre
tary Dougherty and others:
Uncle Sam Rooked By Purchasers
of Merchant Marine
J. J. McCarl, Comptroller Gen
eral of the United States, has
just made a report on the finan
cial affairs of the Shipping
Board Merchant Fleet Corpora
tion which shows an almost un
hard of mismanagement.
Three hundred and twenty
one ships which cost the govern
ment $408,000,000 to build, have
been sold by the Fleet Corpora
tion to private purchasers for
not quite $44,000,000. Of this,
only $15,414,000 has been paid in
cash.
Out of the books as due theho
Out of $55,326,000 on the Fleet
Corporation’s books as due the
government, $31,562,000 are
marked as “doubtful or uncol
lectable.” In other words, 60
per cent of the notes which the
corporation has taken in lieu of
cash must be written off as bad
debts.
Cheating the Government
These are merely some of the
high spots in the report. Mr.
McCarl says he made no effort to
make a complete audit; but what
he has found more than justifies
every charge made against both
the management and the sale of
the government merchant ma
rine.
Some of the prices received
for material sold show how Uncle
Sam was rooked. For example:
Twenty-one electric fans were
sold for a total of $5.10.
Two collapsible boats, each 26
Ox.. . II wi ,w mn**m W—■, h i
feet long, were sold for $15.
Eight engines, costing from
$26,000 to $30,000 apiece, were
sold for $800.
Other engines costing up to
$60,000 were sold for $1,000, and
one engine costing about $105,000
was sold for $2,500.
Mail Contract Pays Bill
One line of several ships, on
which the Fleet Corporation had
been losing money was sold for
$325,000. The Fleet Corporation
agreed to recondition the ships
before delivery, which would
cost more than half that sum. Ol
the purchase price, only $28,674
was paid.
So far as cash is concerned, it
would seem that the government
was about $140,000 wor.4e off for
this sale; but that is not all the
story. Before the deal was made
the buyers got a mail contract
running for 10 years and paying
lrom $350,000 to $; 50,000 per
year. McCarl says:
“The proceeds from th mail
contract for one year will more
than provide for the cost of the
line.”
Debts Cancelled for Fraction
It appears from Mr. McCarl’s
report that the Merchant Fleet
Corporation seldom, if ever, held
anyone to the terms of his con -
tract with the government. The
usual procedure seems to have
been to buy from Uncle Sam on
credit, default on the payments,
and then the kindly, generous
Merchant Fleet Corporation
would cancel the debt for a frac
tion of its face value.
A debt of $23,328 was cancelled
for a payment of $1,000.
A debt of $100,000 was cancell
ed for $16,000.
A debt of $43,000 was cancelled
for $7,000.
“In certain cases,” says the re
port, “sales were made without
advertising or competitive bid
ding.
Notes Bought at Big Discount
“A debtor whose indebtedness
was over $1,500,000 was allowed
to buy his own notes, indirectly,
for $128,750. Notes of a company
amounting to over $0,000,000
were sold to the president of that
company for $908,775; of which
$608,000 was in cash, and the
balance in notes secured by stock
which later became worthless.’
“Notes were sold to a company
for $77,980 representing an in
debtedness of its subsidiaries of
ever $5 500,000.”
McCarl does not give the
JOSEPH O. RUDE
Physician and Surgeon
OfficePhone 61
Home 66
Over People’s Drug Store
rT»,AAAA,»■ ,VnVi
names of the companies and per
sons who rooked Uncle Sam in
this fashion; but there is good
prospect of a Congressional in
vestigation which will supply the
missing links.
Investigation Is Ordered
President Hoover has ordered
the Attorney General, W. D.
Mitchell, to study the McCarl re
port, to see if the law ha. been
violated.
Senator McKellar of Tennessee
introduced a reslution calling
for an investigation of the Ship
ping Board by a special commit
tee to be named by Vice Presi
dent Curtis.
SHORT EDITORIALS
■-o
From Exchanges
-o
Heresy. Any truth the majority
doesn’t see.
-x
The word “sheik” wasn’t ne
cessary; we had the word “ass.”
There are eighteen common
vaiieties of nuts, not counting
the kind that writes uetters.
-x
Thought isn’t the quickest
thing. When a horn blares, you
jump before you think.
-o
Living beyond your income and
thinking you can pay is childish;
thinking you can’t is crooked.
-x
Five suckers a minute in Am
erica! As an output it is im
pressive, but how many .400 hit
ters in the lot?
-x
Indian education is a failure;
look at the number who return
to the reservation only to don the
blanket; and look at the greater
lumber of university graduates
who, in spite of environment an 1
education sink into oblivion and
revert to type.
-o
It is the function of civil gov
ernment to make it easy to d(V
right and difficult to do wrong.
To a businessman his word is
.is good as he is.
-x
Among the high e xplosives is
that one made by mixing an en
larged ego and brutal frankness
aia Shearer.
Selfishness in organization and
perversion of organization power
for personal gain defeats the aim
of the organization.
-x
|
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THE ALASKAN
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Sam Nakamota, Proprietor
Best Meals Served at all times.
Service: 6 a. m. to 12 p. m.