Life, 1922-09-21 · page 16 of 36
Life — September 21, 1922 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page discusses the "Curry Bill," a military reform measure then before Congress that would reduce officer numbers and restructure army ranks. The article criticizes the bill as poorly conceived, arguing it creates "hard cases" and lacks American justice. The page also addresses labor strikes, particularly railroad strikes, suggesting government ownership might resolve such disputes better than private management. A small illustration shows figures in conversation, likely representing workers or strikers. The piece concludes by defending the current administration's handling of labor matters, asserting that government management of railroads (recently returned to private control) has proven competent—contrary to critics who claimed only private managers could run them effectively.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“While there is Life there's Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPAN London Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. N most professions, the years in which aspirants learn to make their livings are those between twenty and thirty. In that period of life young men do not get much pay. They invest their efforts in the hope of future returns. It is a serious matter when a pro- fession that a man has learned with the expectation of getting subsistence from it in his later years is, so far as he is concerned, abolished. That s what has happened to nearly 2000 army officers under the bill that be- came a law last June, reducing the number of officers on the active list of the regular army to twelve thou- sand, The law prescribed a limit to the number of officers in cach grade that necessitated the dropping of 110 colonels, 55 lieutenant-colonels, 581 majors and 1182 captain All of these officers had a sound basis for expecting to continue in the army till they reached retirement age and have retirement pay for the rest of their lives. They had put in their time in learning the military art with that expectation. The bill recognizes that according to precedent the coun- try owes these men a living and also that the discharge is a greater hard- ship for the older ones than the younger. It provides that officers who have served less than ten years shall have a year’s pay and complete discharge from the service; that those with more than ten years’ ser- vice shall have a pension equal to 2% per cent. of their present pay for each year of such service up to thirty years. To some of these officers that will be something like a fair provi- sion, but for many of those to be dis- charged, to be turned out of the army will be a great hardship, in- deed a great injustice. 598 Madison Avenue, New York A new Dill before Congress, the Curry Bill, approved by Secretary Weeks, changes the details of reduc- tion so as to retain more officers of the rank of captain ‘and above, and not so many lieutenants, though it does not change the total number of officers prescribed last June. Per- haps the Curry Bill will help matters a little. They should be helped. The law as it stands will make some very hard cases, and does no credit to American sense of justice. ere? *& E have had a bad time about coal, not yet over at this writ- ing though prospects are hopeful, and are still having a bad time about railroads, though trains do move and move pretty well. Everybody knows that there ought not to be coal strikes or railroad strikes because the great innocent public is always put to more or less torture by them, and everybody’s feelings on this mat- ter have been deepened by the ex- perience of the last four months and will be still deeper, in all prob- ability, before the winter is over. The simple remedy for all these strikes is government ownership. If the government took over the mines and the railroads and managed them as it does the post office, then, many people think, including most of the labor unions and strikers, that these particular matters would go much better. And it is true that the gov- ernment does run the post office and the postal employees don't strike. But why is the government able to get along with matters of adminis- tration that private managers have trouble with? Tt is because so very little is ex- pected of government management, You have to take it as it is. It can be stupid, it can be harassing, it can be absurdly unjust. It can raise hob with your temper and bother the life out of you with petty injustices and you have to bear it and go along the best you can, either because you have no redress or because you have no time for the interminable processes by which some small redress n come. When you deal with private managers, you deal with human |he- ings. When you deal with govern- ment management, you deal with government bureaus—with machin- ery, with printed forms, with clerks, none of whom care a hang for you or for justice or for efficiency, but merely send you forms when your turn comes, and go home at four o'clock for supper and the movies. The hope of saving society hy government ownership is a mere hope of saving it by mechanisms, but it won't be saved by mechanisms. It will have to be saved by men. What we would get by government ownership of railroads and coal mines would be lessons in patience. They might do us good, but they would not be pleasant to ta a 0 OF Ve es Z _— EOPLE talk about the present administration with something approaching despair but with very little rancor. Nobody hates Mr Harding. Almost every one would like to help him, and that quite irre spective of party politics. His good friend, Mr. Daugherty, seems not to have helped him much by the injunc- tion he got out on the railroad strik- ers, which has met with disapproval so genuine as to justify the opinion expressed eighteen months ago that the Attorney General ought to be a competent lawyer, ES. Mi, comicbooks.com