Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 25 March 1921 — Page 1
THE ONLY DEMOCRATIC NEWSPAPER IN DELAWARE COUNTY
THE MUNCIE POST-DEMOCRAT
VOL. 1. NUMBER II
THE MUNCIE POST-DEMOCRAT, FRIDAY MARCH 25, 1921
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE
Writer In The New Day Gives Interesting Facts About Steel Corporation
Here is a little take for the delectation of the American people, says a writer in "The New Day." Here is a | speaking employes have been fair and reasonable. The inexorable laws of supply and demand will bring all
little lesson in the gentle art of find-
ing out what's what.
It has to do with the making of steel, and industrial unrest, and what it fatuously called the “American Plan” and Elbert H. Gary, and of
such other things.
The steel industry of the United States is dominated by the United States Steel Corporation, of which Mr. Elbert H. Gary is the head. As the steel trust decides, so the steel
industry follows.
The steel industry, likewise, is the basic industry of the United States, and in a very real sense, the key to the industrial life of the principal industrial nation in the world. The 500,000 or more men who make the steel and business men who direct the steel business are in a very real sense the shock troops of the American, the world industrial army.
Now we have got that out of the way, and we understand how important the steel business is, and the men and women who depend upon it for their livelihood. Mr. Elbert H. Gary—“Judge” Gary he likes to be called, because years ago, he served a couple of terms as a county judge—is chairman of the board of trustees of the United States Steel Corporation. He has laid down the law that there is to be no union labor in his industry. He lays down
the law, and whenever a union organ- | creased 17.7 per cent from December, izer appears, he is hounded out of | 1920 to January, 1921, according to town. That policy is a heritage from | government figures, and government the old Carnegie days, following the | engineers and experts insisted that Homestead massacre. But Gary joy- | the time had come for a three-shift ously follows it, and has made it his | day instead of a 12-hour day. Such
own.
During the war, Mr. Gary was a patriot of the front rank. Likewise,
different lines of business to a realization of what must be done before we can expect a normal volume of busi-
ness.”
Those fair-sounding (and meaningless) words were Gary’s way of telling his trustees that he had reduced wages 12 1/2 per cent, and that the workers took it like little lambs— knowing full well that the 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 men out of work would be a sobering thought in the minds of the I workers who might be disposed to object or to fight. “The inexorable laws of supply and demand”. forsooth! It sounds fine, and one would not think at the first reading that it meant brutality and savagery unrestrained. At the same time, the corporation continued to make money—indeed, it made $24,873,487 more in 1920 than in
1919!
But the laws of supply and demand —especially the demands of the profit hogs for profits—continued inexorable and wages went down 12 1/2 per cent because it was possible to hammer them down—for no other reason. Unemployment raised its grim head in the land; the specter of hunger and angry mobs vaguely stirred the people and it was suggested that the steel business take note, and reduce hours from 84 a week to 56 per week, and thus employ hundreds of thousands
more men.
Unemployment in the industry in-
a three shift day would mean an increase of employment of 75 per cent,
he was held up as a model to the people. He “represented” the “public” President Wilson’s famous indus-
trial council. He got the backing of | of patriots to be supported by press
Proposed Change of City Government
Just now considerable interest centers around the proposal to call a referendum election in Muncie to decide whether or not the voters favor a change from the present
political form of city government to the commission-manager form.
The recent legislature enacted a law making possible such a change. The law is a sort of a “double barreled” ffair. It provides that voters may elect either to ask
for a vote on the commission form, or the commission-manager form. Last week a meeting was held in the law office of White & Raymond to discuss
the matter. It is said that the small number present represented the democratic and republican party about equally. The information was made public the next day that
the caucus decided that the city manager form would be petitioned for.
Under the law it requires a petition of twenty percent of the voters voting at the last municipal election in order that a referendum may be held. The committee incharge, headed by George Higman, declares that petitions will be circulated at once.
signatures for an effective petition. Upon
number of names, it is mandatory for the days after the first day of May and
and help relieve the unemployment
situation.
But Gary, with his associate philanthropists (but recently the paragon
the whole machinery of government in and pulpit and screen and public of- | ings and covert the clearin' into an aumaintaining his system - the "Ameri- | ficials) said that he wouldn't. The | tomobile parking space, He carelesly can Plan" they are calling ..ow - in | laws of supply and demand were in | stop the information that the project would his industry. | with the iron heel, with the mailed | only cost a million or two. He said it just like
That's all past, o course, but it's | fist of brutality; and it was good
interesting to recall it now. | enough for him now, when the demand Mr. Gary's idea was that every | was being made for a "readjustment." worker had an equal chance with | They put it up to Gary. The govevery other worker, and that they | ernment that had stood by him, that
could very well leave fate to the | had given him soldiers and injunctions goodness and thoughtfulness of their | and public opinion wanted him to do
employers. They didn't need to worry | something now.
themselves about their own interests. | " I can merely reiterate what I have Gary should worry. | said," said Gary, "We have no present The workers' idea was to organize, | intention of reducing wages and the and to deal collectively with their | subject of lowering steel prices has
employers as to wage and hours and | not been considered."
conditions of labor; but they were de- Wages having been reduced a few nied the right to organize, they were i weeks ago, that takes care of that, brutally mistreated, the militia, the Prices, hours, conditions and the judiciary the federal soldiery, the rest, stay put. And why not? Gary whole press of the country (v/ith the says so, and Gen. Wood established exception of the Socialist press) was the right of Gary to have his say, and marshaled and mobilized against to have that say-so the law, with arm-
them I ed force -
The workers said that the employers ! J in 0 f y t ’ h f e X^m“nt were interested m one thing alone, |^ hn skeltou"WU ai^ that is profits and that the welfare John Skelton Williams, controller oi TV employers without serious re- wrote a letter on Feb. sults - , , , x xv„x ' 15 t0 E - H - Gary, chairman of the The employers retorted that Wil la j cor p ora ti on j n which he declared that Z. Foster had once written a oo j p r j ce redu ctions could be made withwith a red cover, that the Russian j out cutg wa ges or in dividends, and Bolsheviks were a bad lot, ana mat ac ^j on wou l d prove a quick
the workers who oerriciricteci Liiese cts ? ^4.i1 4-^ 1
tonishing things should be shot or
It will require about twelve hundred the filing of a petition containing a sufficient city council to call an election not sooner than not later than sixty days after that date.
After the filing of a sufficient petition, the primary of May 2 becomes automatically null and void. After the referendum, if the petition fail to carry, the council must, within five days after the election, call a city primary. Muncie’s morning daily newspaper has announced its championship of the manager form of government. The evening daily, whose business manager is an active candidate for the republican nomination for mayor, is “on the fence.” It does not care to openly oppose a plan that is fathered by a group supposed to be favorable to his candidacy, and it has a sort of natural hesitancy about supporting a movement, which, if successful, would put him on the shelf politically. The morning newspaper, and the committee favoring the city manager form of government are apparently acting upon the theory that the caucus decision, at which it was agreed that the city manager form of government was the one that was to be tried out, closes the argument as far as all the voters of Muncie are concerned. A canvass of many individuals, however, develops the fact that of the two forms provided by the new law, the commission form is by far more popular than the manager form. The Star Sunday published those sections of the law referring to the manager form, but omitted those sections relating to the commission form. It is resented by many that any small group of men should assume to say which form is to be petitioned for. The right to petition is not possessed solely by one group of individuals. There are plenty of people in Muncie who are just as well qualified to to
decide upon some other form of action.
The commission form of government is democratic, in that it provides for real home rule, with residents of our city, elected on a non-partisan ticket, serving on the
commission.
The city manager form is autocratic and is the very essence of centralization of power. It provides for the employment of an expert at a high salary, who would, preforce, come from some other city and take charge, much the same as the commercial club is required to do when it employs an imported foreign secretary to tell us poor boobs
how little we know and how much we have to learn.
It provides for
I Work of Framing Tariff is Started
The last commercial club secretary set the world on fire here by starting a hurrah movement to condemn three or four city blocks close to the court house, remove all the buildings and convert the clearin’ into an
that and knocked the old timers dead.
These foreign
cratic sort of a measure.
#n partisan city control by a comission of ive citizens of the city to be governed. It ^es not provide for the employment of a
Republican Candidates Combime To Defeat The City Manager Form of .Government
Sub-Committees Picked to Schedules; Harding Calls Congress
Set
Washington, March 24—Actual work of framing a permanent tariff bill was begun Tuesday by* the house ways and means committee, which appointed five sub-committees to prepare various schedules to be presented to the full committee. Only Republican members will participate as is the usual legislative custom. A sub-committee consisting of Representatives George M. Young, North Dakota; Bindley H. Hadley, Washington; Charles B. Timberlake, Colorado; will take charge of the emergency tariff to be introduced by Mr. Young on the opening day of the extra session. The Fordney bill, passed last session and vetoed, will be presented in its same form except that it will run for six months instead of ten. The sub-committees and permanent tariff subjects to be handled by each
are:
Chemicals—Nicholas Longworth, Ohio; Ira C. Copley, Illinois; Bindley
H. Hadley, Washington,
Metals—John Q. Tilson, Connecticut Luther W. Mott. New York; Charles
B. Timberlake, Colorado.
Agriculture—Willis C. Hawley, Oregon; George M. Young, North Dakota;
James A. Frear, Wisconsin.
Cotton—William R. Green. Iowa; Allen T. Treadway, Massachusetts;
All of the republican candidates for municipal office, with but one or two exceptions, have formed a candidates’ assock/ion for the purpose of defeating this new and despicable innovation the city manager plan. The candidates are organizing their friends to defeat the project at the polls and the issue seems to be fairly drawn between the candidates’ organization and the city manager clique. Inasmuch as the city manager project originated in the commercial club, the lineup in the two battling sectors is somewhat out of the ordinary. The candidates declare that they will easily defeat the movement. The city manager generals, captains and orderly sergeants on the other hand proclaim loudly that the opposition to their plan on the part of the candidates is actuated by the selfish thought that the offices they seek will slip from their grasp under non partisan rule. The democrats almost without exception do not like the city manager plan. The commission plan, however, which means real home rule under non partisan control is favored by many leading democrats. If present plans mature there will be petitions circulated asking council to call a referendum on the commission plan. The city manager plan, backed by the commercial club and the big corporate interests of Muncie, is viewed coldly here. The commercial club crowd has sought to get control of the city for many years and failed. The people arc not going to permit them to jimmy their way in by the city manager route. The commission plan, however, providing for real ho merule, instead of the employment of a medling outsider, is a different matter.
xxxxx- — ~^ !sm --~, George M. Bowers, West Virginia. "n “expert” at an immense salary .who y j Wool—James W. Fordney, Michigan; -nnwilt at will with the people’sjnqney § Isgac Bacharach, New Jersey; Henry
ojecis oi a uoUDlllil aiid uuDioYiS
shipped.
That is ancient history, but it is well to have refreshed your memories on that score. There is another phase of the story that must be remembered; that is, the profits that the employers began to make about the time the war began— although it is not of record that steel was such a barren tree, even before the war to crush autocracy made steel a bounteous tree flowing with milk and honey (if one dare mix the metaphors a bit). Remember the Manly report? In the years 1916 and 1917 (the years when the war was raging abroad and when certain business interests in America were trying to show what a good and beneficent thing war is, and what hell hounds people were who didn’t like the idea of war—well, as we were saying before we interrupted ourselves with history, in the years 1916 and 1917, United States Steel made a profit of $888,931,511. But that was a piker’s profit compared with what the corporation made in the year 1918, when we were all patriotic, some of us offering our lives, and others, sacrificing our fountain pens, wearing them out by the score entering our profits in our bank books. Well, anyway, what's the use of opening up old scores? The United States Steel Corporation has made money—enuf sed. About the time the corporation began making money by drayloads, instead of in wheelbarrow loads, as before, the workers began to ask for better wages, and decent working conditions; for the working conditions in Garyland are about the worst in the United States, and the most arduous. The workers were beaten—and a few months later (last month, to be exact) Mr. Gary announced to his board of trustees that “generally
stimulus to general business. Mr. Williams also made public a
memorandum on excessive prices for steel and iron products, which he prepared in 1919 for 'the director general
of the railroad administration. , 4 Earnings were so large, Mr. Wil-
liams declares, that the steel corporation during 1918 could have doubled the wages paid to its 268,710 employes and officers and still have a surplus
of nearly $100,000,000.
“We are calling on the working people to accept reductions of wages,” Mr. Williams writes to Mr. Gary. “Everyday we urge manufacturers and wholesale and retail merchants to trim their margins of profit to the thinnest possible with safety ,and the farmers to be content without profit
or to accept losses.
“In my office I apply every proper influence to urge the national banks and the federal reserve banks to be content with smaller returns to encourage enterprise and stimulate leg-
itimate business.
“It seems to me, from the facts and figures I have, that the huge and rich corporation over which you preside, and for the policies of which you stand responsible now, and will stand responsible in history before posterity, has a tremendous and unprecedented opportunity for doing good of harm to the commerce of America and of the world "All the diabolic cunning and striving of die Russian Bolshevists can do comparatively little toward creating revolutionary and destructive impulse compared with the effects of insistence by a great corporation in our midst such as yours, supposed to represen not only capital but brains, to use he power given it by circumstanes and the law to exact the last hair's weight of its pound of flesh "No insidious sneaking propaganda of highbrow or lowbrow apostles of ruin could put in the popular mind so (Continued on Page 2)
experts who know how
it ought to be done are easy to find. Most of them are failures themselves, but grand little performers when it comes to running the government. They refer to a million bucks just about as carelessly as you or I would men-
tion a slick dime.
Over in Dayton the people have been city managed. And they had a good manager, Jimmy Barlow. Jimmy is not a. counterfeit or a bluff. He is a real city manager and he delivered the goods in Dayton. But what happened to Jimmy? Plenty, we will say. Last fall Barlow incurred the displeasure of Cash Register Patterson, the Czar of Dayton. Jimmy refused to stand for some of Patterson’s coarse work and he was fired bodily by the city commision, who were con-
trolled by Patterson.
The big interests of Muncie would like to control, and believe they can do so through a city manager selected by themselves. They would naturally want a man over whom they held power of life and death, through the election of a hand picked quintet of city commissioners who would jump through a hoop every time the chief ring master cracked his
whip.
A very poor city manager who would eat out of the hand of Muncie’s big corporate interests could hold his job here indefinitely if hired by a controlled bunch of commisioners, while the very best and most efficient city manager the nation could produce would get the grand bounce if he refused, like Jimmy Barlow, to keel before codfish royalty. We have scrutinized the law providing for a commision form of government, minus the foreign manager, and it seems to be a dem-
We are inclined to think that the comission | form of government as provided for in the Knapp law is as good, and probably better than the present political form of government. We believe if the people had the opportunity to test the matter that five would favor the comission form where one would favor the
city manager form.
If Muncie is going to change its form of government, the citizens had better wake up and take a hand in the proceedings looking to the change, if a change is to be made, the choice must rest between the manager form, where one non resident is placed in absolute control of every department of the city, and the commission form, where men you know and in whom you have confidence are in charge. Naturally the vast field of republican candidates for municipal officers are pained beyond expression at the sudden catastrophe which threatens to overthrow their political aspirations. They are in dignant and it is not surprising that they are combining to defeat
the iniquity.
The democrats, having played a waiting game, end having previous inside information by wireless that the Knapp bill was going to pass and that it was to be tried out here, quietly stayed out of the candidatorial ring and permitted the requblicans to monopolize the poli-
tical arena for the time being.
There is yet plenty of time for democrats to announce their respective candidacies. If a political election is to be held, instead of a nonpartisan election for city commissioners, the democrats will be in excellent shape to go into the campaign with no entangling alliances. If either of the two plans is to be tried out here, the Post-Democrat believes that the commission form is immensely superior to the
one man manager form.
Sub-committees to consider glass-
ware, lumber and other subjects will , baugh; botb well known in busines ;
be appointed later.
None of them will hold hearings, as general hearings were completed at the last session of the sixty-sixth
congress.
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i Harding Summons Congress To Convene on April 11th
NEW UNDERTAKING FIRM
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COAL OUTPUT SOARING
London, Eng.—An outcome of the recent coal strike is to be found in the remarkable increase in output. In the last week of November 5,176,500 tons of coal were mined an increase of more than 500,000 over the preceding week.
ONE SEED DOES FULL DUTY
Pineville, Ky.—Mrs. J. A. Campbell of Calloway planted one pumpkin seed in her garden the latter part of June. Last fall she gathered seventeen nice pumpkins from the vine produced by one little'seed.
JUST HOME FROM WAR
Paris—Joseph Blin, a French soldier who was reported missing in August, 1914, has just returned home. He said he was wounded and taken prisoner. He was imprisoned for refusing to I work, and was released recently.
ALARM NOTHING TO THEM
BRICKS AT $2.50 EACH
Scranton, Pa.—While a burglar al- | London, Eng.,—A novel method asarm in the First National Bank clang- ; sisting disabled soldiers was adopted ed loudly, Edward Cawley and An- at the foundation stone laying in conthony Kolham calmly gathered up ! nection with Knaphill housing scheme, gold coins from a bank window, the Many prominent citizens paid $2.50 glass of which had been smashed. The each for the privilege of laying a brick,
clanging gong called the police and a
^ " ‘ FISH AT PENNY A POUND
Sydney, N. S. W.—The reorganization of the New South Wales trawling industry has resulted in a profit. It is expected shortly to be able to reduce the retail price of fish to a penny
a pound.
posse of citizens. At the station it was found the men were deaf.
JAZZ WITH LESSONS
Philadelphia—School pupils in Connellsville get free concerts with their lessons. Their teachers say their penmanship is greatly improved when it is accompanied by jazz selections on
the schoolroom phonographs.
CAMBRIDGE SAYS NO TO WOMEN
London, Eng.—The proposal to allow women full membership in Cambridge University was rejected by a
majority of 192. The vote against the | time he injured his hip. His wife is
WIFE, 89, SHAVES HUSBAND, 93 Amityville, N. Y.—John W. Willmarth, 93, injured his hip recently and now is unable to go to a barbershop. His 89-year-old wife shaves him with a safety razor. They have been married 63 years and are just as devoted now as when on their honeymoon. Willmarth was very active up to the
proposal was 904 and for it 712.
still spry. They have one child.
In His Proclamation He Does Not Mention Problems To Be Considered
Washington, March 24—A formal call for an extra session of congress, to meet on April 11, and receive legislative recommendations from the new administration was issued by President Harding. None of the specific problems to be laid before the session were named, the president merely declaring that an extraordinary occasion required that congress convene “to receive such communication as may be made by the executive.” Mr. Harding already has indicated, however, that the tariff and taxation will be^ foremost in his message to the special, session. He is expected to make a special plea for prompt relief to the nation’s agricultural interests and the list of recommendations may touch many other subjects such as the railway situation, the merchant marine and immigration. One recommendation relative to construction measures within the government machine itself, is expected to suggest the creation of a general commission to dispose of many kinds of properly acquired by government agencies during the war.
and social circles of the city, have established a new undertaking firm in Muncie and announce today that they are now ready to enter this line of work here. Mr. Shaner has for the last year been connected with the M. L. Meeks & Sons firm here as an embalmer. He is a graduate of the Askin embalmers school, Indianapolis, and has been with the Busse & Borgman firm of Cincinnati and with Sells Brothers of Anderson. He grew up in the undertaking business as his father was an undertaker in Ohio for forty years and it was through him that the son received his early training. Mr. Shaner has made his home in Muncie during the greater part of the last fifteen years. Mr. Taughinbaugh. who has lived in Muncie for twenty-five year has for the last five years been acting as general assistant in the directing of funerals here and has a general knowledge of this feature of the business. Both men feel themselves well qualified for their work and will cater to those in moderate circumstances as well as to all classes where the services of an undertaker is reouired. They announce that they can be reached either day or night by phones 2182 or
4014.
HIS SUICIDE MARRED
New York—Martin Darth, an unemployed machinist, doesn’t mind committing suicide, but he does object to having his personal belongings stolen while he is doing so. He turned on the gas and lay on his bed when a patrolman entered to rescue him. Drath, thinking he was a thief, jumped up and engaged in a violent tussle.
HOLD YOUR NOSE AND DRINK IT Dear reader, have you noticed the new flavor of the water you are compelled ot drink in Muncie, now that the beneficent Volstead act has driven us thirsty pilgrims to use it for purposes other than fishing, bathing, and wading in? As a usual thing one prefers one’s drinking water “straight” and the delicate aroma arising from Muncie water suggests the presence of things not usually found in drinking water—for instance eggs of uncertain vintage or sewer gas on a hot day in August. This water, provided, by the grace of God and the providential philanthropy of an non-resident water company, is drawn, we are told, from the pellucid depths of the White river, which wends its way around the city, performing the double service of supplying our needs in the drinking water line and carrying our sewage and filth
at the same time.
The information is vouchsafed, however, that a purification system has been installed which renders innocuous any stray sewage or carrion which might find its way in the water mains. This is comforting, in the extreme, to those who might otherwise fear to drink the water. But now that the kindly and public spirited corporation, with head offices some place down east has contrived to kill the germs, isn’t there some way to chloroform the smell and put the soft pdeal on the taste? When one takes a drink of water one does not care about being gassed as the beaker approacher his thirsty lips. Neither does one, after taking a swig of White River aqua pukerina, feel like giving thanks to the Lord for the rotten cabbage farewell which seems to accompany every draught of late.