Judge — July 25, 1931 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JUDGE Next Steps died away, rrer the cheerin we promptly remembered that the war debts aren't settled yet. They will return to plague us. Sir George Paish comments that this is only the first step, and that if no others are taken the situation twelve months hence will than ever. gests cutting all international pa ments in half for five-year terin, Another “distinguished European edi- tor,” quoted by worse Maynard Keynes sug- dwin 1. James, says that “possibly we ar toward a total a nd rep- arations. movit nlition of war debts is what we ought to be doing. Those obligations represent values that were wiped out in the madness of war. The effort to collect them dragged us to the verge of an inter- national panic, Another such effort will drag us there again. Property blown to bits cannot be replaced. As President Butler says, “It has got to be marked up to profit and loss.” But that would be going too fast for the world as it is. The first step has been taken. The next step must be the realization that the first good business. Ameri- cans can help a lot by denying them- selves their customary luxury of self- righteousness. No nonsense, ple about the In the first pl rance sacrificed relatively a whole lot more than we did. In the second y the truth was spol Ogden Is, who said immed: after the President's first propos “If this turns the tide, it will be ¢ good investment for the United States asury.” We agrecd to postpone debts due us amounting to about a quarter of a billion. Within one we the inerease in security and commod- ity values on our markets amounted to at least five billions. No bunk about moral leadership, therefore. Let it rather be said, as the London Standard put it, that “Al- truism and sound business are joining se, sacrifice” we made, cy hands.” We have made the belated discovery that isolation not only doesn’t pay, but is liters Then, obviously great step of ly impossible. must come the ing debts to disarm ament. The armaments conference, to which the whole world looks with fearful hope, will be held in’ Febru- ary. President Hoover, in making his debt proposal, said boldly, “Inasmuch as the burden of competitive ments has contributed to bri this depress arma- about + We trust that by this evidence of our desire to assist: we shall have contributed to the which is so n rod willl essary in the solution of this major question.” ‘The six months between now and) February nt well be devoted to negotiations which will make » further reduct of debts contingent on reduction of armaments, Disarmament is the ultimate object of all the Hoover diplom: , in that, added to this first triumph, would go far to wipe out the d pointments which he has inflicted on those who had faith in him, and in spite of everything else would make his administration one to be long and gratefully remembered. “Too Fine for Politics” Tt death of Alice Robertson, a former Representative from Okl: homa, ha led the story of her brave vote against the soldiers’ bonus. She had a strong sentimental interest in the welfare of the men who had fought in the war. But she didn’t b lieve in the bonus and said so, eve though she well knew that it would mean her defeat in the next election. Will Rogers, telling this as Longworth told it to him, adds, “Nick said every man in the room went to nd complimented her on her ery, then went ever and voted the the most votes were back home. a fine old soul, too fine for politics It’s just possible that the much- lamented failure of women to make 13 vod in Congress is due, not so much feminine incapacity as to their reing too fine for polities, In all rea- son, half of our legislators should be women, and some ¢ political system, th y, under a better may be. A Sporting Proposition Tie was a sod rker in Texas. For twenty years he stood at the counter and w we of 3 married tked his way up to a month, ‘Then he got inesville girl and He had about ok a long chance ded mo: $250 saved up. I onan oil lease, t months later he sold out for $35,000. ‘Then he plunged, drilling wells and) layi pipe-lines until he got up to d that were netting him as high as a million dollars and was flying about Texas in his own airplane. Three years ago he met a young man who had lost an eye working on a drilling rig and who wanted to be his pilot. They got te The other day the stood in a howling mob on Roosevelt Field and watched his plane swoop down out of the sunset after girdling the globe in less than nine the on 1 pilot at the stic sold it to me, dammit, on the idea th it was a sporting proposition, Just a sporting proposition, That's all it is with me; I didn’t get anything out of this. I don’t want anything. _ It’s 2 per cent for Gatty and 75 for Wil So spoke Mr. Hall of Texas. We often get discouraged about demoe and the current course of And somchow it’s just in such a mood that we get a sharp reminder, like this one, that ours is the kind of a country and the kind of a period in which a soda jerker can get rich enough to give wings to a one-eyed oil-rigger and send him flying round the world as a sporting proposition. It may not be important, but we think it is. Any- way, it’s great fun for all of us. RS... comicbooks.com