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76TH YEAR.
THE
ST.
CROIX AVIS
is printed and published
daily (Sundays
and Holidays excepted)
by
G.
Johansen
at the Avis Office.
TERMS---50
cents monthly in advance.
2 cents
per single
copy.
ntered
as
second-class
matter
May
26th
1917 at
the Post Ojfice
at Christian
sted,
St. Croiz,
V. L of the U. S. A.,
un
der the Act of March 3.
1879.
Contribution
to this paper will be glad-
ly received
when
the same
deals with mat-
ters of general
interest,
and is
accompa-
-
nied with the
author’s
name,
as
a quar-
antee of good faith.
The editor cannot
be
responsible for the views of his correspon-
dents nor does he necessarily endorsethem.
“What’s the Matter
With the World?”
®
After Analyzing Various Phases
of Exist-
ing Business
and Financial
Conditions,
a
Clear Thinker and
locisive Writer Offers
a Simple Answer
““That
was
a
interesting, article
that
vou
wrote about
‘wool and
woolens’
in
THE
GAZETTE of Sept.
16,
but I am
still
wondering
who
got
the
button’
So
wrote
a
friend,
1n
September.
In
the
mentioned
article I said
that the attempt
to
locate
the
one
man
who held
the
ex-
cess
profits reminded
me of the children’s
game
of
“‘butron.””
Only
in
the
most
general
wvay
was any
aftempt
made
to
find out
who had the button
The
point
of
this
article
is:
We
are
not
sure
at
oresent
that any
one
has
the button|
I am
looking
at
a
letter
post-marked
Nov.
19.
It has
one paragraph
contain-
ing
sowe
rather
sarcastic
humor,
and
is
so
suggestive
as
to
need
no
comment:
“It is eonsiderably
cheaper
to eat
them
[hogsl
before they
go to
town.
On the
farm
you
eat
them
at
11} cents;
but
after
they
move
to the
city they
get
so
‘city-broke’ that
we have
to pay 45 cents
for
the same
hog
Itis
queer
how
the
city affects
even
hogs,
these
days”’
Who
got
the button
on
the
pig
that
moved
to tae
city
and
then
out
again?
Was the
button big or
little?
Os
course
we
know tnat
the
pig
nn the
farm
was
not
‘'dressed’’ for the
banquet.
When
he
was dressed
he
had
lost
about
20 per:
cent
of
his
weight.
The
dressing
ad-
vanced
the price
to
14
cents.
To
that
must
b 2 added
th:
work
of
the
artist
who
shaved
him and
washed
him,
and
.
CHRISTIANSIED.
V.II. U. 8. A,
TUESDAY 2t
JANUARY
1921,
.
all
that,
which would
add
one centor
2
|
|
¢2ats
pac poual Also
WHiwailroad
tick-
|
L
2:. - Als)
waa
n2ecam:
bk he did
not
|
cone
back
at 45 cancs.
undivided.
Tne
|
|
button
on
th:2 pig, you
see,
is
not
so big
|
as
it appeared,
and is
somewhat
broken
|
up
|
L
Still achar
2rt2s
[20:2e8
ar2
tremen-
|
|
doasiy
iilimiarviinz,
3>n2
times
)ecans
|
|
from
my
land
Lord,
. Owing
3
in-
|
creas2
in tax
rare,
and
the
rent
where
|
.
Ilive, I must caarzge
you
SSO
per month
|
L
og’ter
“Nov.
Ist.
1T
ath
83ly.
but
ean’'c
|
|
“help it
Wall,
Me
Laol
Lord
lam
|
i
sorry,
too,
more
especially
because
[
|
|
must
pay all added
on
two houses.
Who
|
!
has
the
button
in
this game?
It
is
|
|
something
of
a
guess,
but
as
nearly
.
as
I can
make
out
che
landlord
and
the
.
city tax each
got
a piece.
f
Only
last
evening
(Nov.
22) I found
|
|
these
interesting
figures
furnished
by
.
the
Associated
Employers
of
Indiana.
|
.
It
concerns
wages
and
the efficiency
of
'
bricklayers:
'
Year.
Wage
per hour.
Bricks per day.
?
By
...
...
1.100
e ...
8
900
}
Oe
6y
|
|
1919.
vk
N
587
i
|
..
...
05
541
[
|
That
means
the cost
of laying bricks
had
|
[
gone
up from
$4 per
1,000 to
$18.50 per
1,000.
It
looks
as
if
the
bricklayers
|
’
might have
it this time,
|
|
‘I want
you
t_
take
any
five
weeks
|
|
in rhe
spring of 1915 and
eompare
them
|
.
~
with the
corresponding
weeks
of 1920.””
|
]To discover
the wage
increase
and
labor
|
~
efficiency, of
course.
Report]:
‘“Wag-
|
es
in
1920
are 230 percent
of 1915;
effi-
|
.
ciency
»f labour
unit,
70
percent.
The
|
~
cost
of production
in 1920
was
328
per
|
cent of that of 1915.""
That
is
the
or-
|
-
der of
a
Massachussets
cofton mill-own-
|
er
o his cost
accountant
; aiso
the report
"
in answer
to
the request.
It looks again
|
"
as if some
labor
might be holding a fair-
|
l
sized
button.
Desgite
all these
instanc-
|
|
es,
which
ave
typical,
we
still
say:
|
"
““We are
not
sure
that
any
one
has
the
|
button.””
A great
many people thought
"
and
hoped
that
they
had
it;
but
the
|
:
:
:
-
‘
.
slump
in business
-all kmds“ of business
from
shearing
sheep
to
'‘fleecing
the
.
lambs
—has
shown
that what looked like
|
the real-for sure
stuff was mostly paper.
|
‘“‘We knew
that
we
had
to
take
a
loss
'
on our plant’”’,
said
a certain
m.n to me.
|
i
‘‘“We marked of $50,000
last week.
Yes,
.
we made
some
money
in the past
years,
|
but not
somuch
as
we
thought
only
-
hree
months
ago.”’
No.
19.
"*Judging from
the
shrinkage
on
our
woolen
yarns
{for
our
mill year
ending
Sept.
1,
1920, the
Blank Co.
must
have
had
a
shrinkage
on its
wool
and
yarns
and
goods of
not less
than $15,000,000°’,
So
said
a
well-informed
and
conserva-
tive
man
of
my
aquaintance
recent-
ly.
Europe
borrowed
of
the
United
States
during
the
great
war
about
$lO,
000,000,000.
What
has
Europe
to
show
for
what
it
borroved?
No
more
than
the
man
who
borrowed
SSOO
for
fire-
works,explodedithem,
burned
up his neigh-
hours’
house,
and
blew off his
own
hand
Europe
has
shiploads
of
goods
scatter-
ed
round
on the bottem
of the
Atlantic;
almost
a
mountain
of
steel
and
iron
scrapped
and
buried in those horrible bat-
tlefields;
millions
of
pounds
of
the
finest
wool made
into soldiers’ uniforms,
then into bloody
rags,
and
then
buried
or
‘blown
into
—thin
air,
with
Ithe
millions
of
dead.
But
the
greediest
junk
cdealer
that
ever
lived,
no
more
than
the
most
honorable,
would
offer
Europe
10 percent
of cost
for
all
it
has
to show
for its spent
billions.
A
certain
financier
suggested
to
me:
FEngland,
France
and Belgium gotall of Germany’s
colonies
and
trade.
It
will in
the
end
more
than compensate
their
losses.’’
'
How utterly absurd!
It
was
s
wiser
man
who wrote:
‘‘We are
all
members
of one body;
when
one
member
suffers
all the body suffers.”’
The world is smaller
now
than
when
it required
six
weeks
to
cross
the
At-
lantic.
Whatever
territory
one
group
of nations
wins
another
loses;
there
is
no more
territory after
than
before
the
exchange.
Germany
and Austria got
nothing
for
all their losses.
What England,
France,
Italy, Russia,
America
and
the
rest
lost
nobody gained.
'That
loss.,
which
went
into the earth
or sea
or air,
past
all
re-
covery,
amounted
to
$150,000,000,000.
I'hat is a fairly big
button,
beyond
the
reach
of any hands.
It is
gone,
beyond
hope
of
recovery.
lLet
neither
Europe
nor America
fool
itself
on
that
point.
T'he
sooner
the world
understands
that-
and marks
it off,
a total loss,
the
better.
Cnr national
debt
in
1916
was
about
$1,000,000,000.
In
1920
it
is
$25,000,-
000,000
more.
What
have
we
to
show
tor ithat?
Europe’s
promises
to
pay;
Liberty Bonds,
which
we promise
to
pay
ourselves
some
time
between
now
and
1947; also prices of
commodities
still
so
Ligh that the egg
makes
dizzy
the
hen
that laid it.
But of real
goods
in
store,
(Continued
on 4th page.)
7
R
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N
e
& o
(Croix Avs