Life — November 25, 1920 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

NOVEMBER 25, 1920 “While there is Life there’s Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY VOL. 76, No. 1986 London Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. NE of those stockbro- kers’ letters that come in ev bod mail ob- served under date of November 6th: “ The sati: factory outcome of the presidential clec- tion will restore confidence, and business will be carricd on with renewed vigor. The present low prices of stotk-market securities are largely the result of the public's lack of faith in the nation’s in- dustrial future, and now that confidence restored a vigorous upward turn of the market seems imminent.” But the upward turn did not come. On the contrary, clection was barely over hefore stocks slumped and the headlines of the papers had such items as that seventy-five thousand factory workers had been discharged from employment in Cleveland. Old campaigners will grin at these im- mediate sequences of the great victory for prosperity, and as they were under way and would have befallen, whoever won, though perhaps they were held back till after election, it may cheer the Demo- crats that they have been able to stand from under before the load dropped. Un- der a Democratic administration we have had times of great inflation, profiteering, high wages and what is called prosperity. As the Republicans come they meet deflation, falling prices, declining business, lowering wages and probably extended unemployment. That is a hard situation for the Republicans; that they are not to blame for, nor the Demo- crats either, but the effects of which will pinch the party in power as they become felt. It is quite possible that the whole of the big Republican majority will dis- solve in a couple of years. The like has has been something 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York happened before, and the reasons to ex- pect it this time have much weight. The combination that carried the election was very loose, and is liable to split apart under the stress of any kind of affirma- tive action. It will be hard for Mr. Harding to take any course about the League of Nations and about a good many other things that will not scandalize a good part of his present following. All that Democrats and bother the Republicans, but it does not help the | © the world needs all the help possible, it behooves may hearten , the world any, and sin observers, who care more for the world than they do for politicians, to put them- selves bhetimes behind any movement that promises to be helpful. When the newspapers discuss who will be Mr. Harding’s Secretary of State and say that it won't be Mr. Root and that it may be Mr. Knox, it brings home the great uncertainty of the League’s chances if it waits until Mr. Harding becom President. When Mr. Harding has had his conference with leading minds about the League, the conclusions reached will at least be revealed to the Pro-League and if they do not like them, ible that the League-Republicans in the Senate may join with the Leagu Democrats to pass a Treaty for Mr. Wil- son to ratify while he still has the power. The League party measure. If it is signed by a Democratic President it should have just as many Republicans behind it as Republicans it is po: should never be a possible, and vice versa. Its prospects are dubious, but if we have it at all, it should have the backing of all the people who want it, in whatever party found, and it should be entered on such terms as they are able to agree upon. Heaven knows what Mr. Wilson woutd sign, but the election must have lightened his sense of responsibility, and one would think he would be willing now to ratify the Treaty in the best form he can g than let it take chances with his successor. i . Tather HIS world is not doing well, not even our part of it. Not only have stocks slumped, but character and standards of conduct seem to have done the same. It is as though the avoidance of a great pub- lic duty was being paid for in these States hy degeneration. Prohibition is not work- ing any too well. Whisky is plentiful and not too dear to find customers, and in the dearth of all the milder drinks it seems to have assumed a great deal more than its natural share of the work of alcoholic stimulation. One hears that the colleges were never so full of it, and have not been for years so much troubled with alcoholic excitements. In and near the great centres of population murders are comparatively frequent, robberies by force are recorded daily, and when ficei criminals leave their stolen motor car ai take to the woods, they usually leave ah consumed supply of whisky behind them Then there is the case of the girls, and the discussion of what is the matter with them, and why they wear the clothes they do, and tolerate the dances they jazz, and why they are so indulgent to whisky flasks in the keeping of young men, an stay out so late at night, and all th Also people who still value fidelity to the obligations of family life ask what has got into people that so many women, of whom something quite different might reason- ably be expected, leave husbands and children and go off with lovers. Of course the whole population of the United State is not on the loose yet, but a good man nails that used to hold are pulling comicbooks.comy