December, 1922
THE WESTERN AMERICAN
fries are still suffering from the effects of the war
io an extent that makes travel less pleasant.
In scenic beauty the Americans are fast learning
hat America excels. Highways and paved roads
'rom coast to coast and good roads to every scenic
Joint of vantage in the entire country has gradually
turned the tide and Americans find today that travel
ing about in their own country is not alone more
pleasant, but can be done at great deal less expense
and then—that there is no one to exact exhorbitant
prices for the accommodations required.
I These steamship companies, controlled and largely
owned in foreign countries, may need the money
from their first and second class cabins, but the
American travelers’ money will be spent to far great
er advantage and to far greater good for himself and
fis fellow Americans when he spends it in his own
>untry thereby sustaining comfortable railroad
avel, besides helping to build hamlets, towns, cities
id comfortable automobile campss along the roads
5 well as resorts at scenic points.
19
that conference first—right after the armistice—and
then proceeded to iron out, in strictly legal fashion,
some of the international disputes arising out of the
war?
The disastrous economic developments that have
been experienced throughout the world since the war
give rise to the suspicion that such a conference at
that time would not have served the best interest of
those who made huge profits out of the war and who
have “played the ‘game’” ever since, adding a sum
to the total of pending disaster every day.
There is no doubt that there are some people in
this world, and a great multitude of them right here
in America, who manage to keep out of jail only be
cause of their influence with those in whose hand
rest the initiative to proceed against them.
Let us develop a public conscience strong enough
to convict those who are guilty of blocking peace and
progress to benefit their selfish interests whether
they be millionaires or high executives.
The economic condition of the world is critical.
More than half of the world is bankrupt in anything
but in name. Americans should begin to seriously
contemplate the fact that the one-half of the body
that is well can not continue to remain well if diseases
are permitted unchecked to destroy the other half.
The economic conference is timely. It must not
be delayed. Every moment is precious. The world
must come to order. Nations must begin to deal with
one another, and learn to trust one another, if the
wounds of war are ever to be healed.
The distinctly European never cared much for the
merican, his interest has always been centered in
rhe American dollar. As he can not get the Ameri
can dollar without the American, he practices “diplo-
macy” in dealing with the latter in order to obtain the
American, his interest has always been centered in
former. America has had too many dupes. Their
number is growing less for every American who has
been pinched hard enough to wake up and discern
between reality and illusion.
I Europeans, who have grown fat on American dol
lars, extracted from the traveling Americans flat
tered to endless extravagance, are becoming worried
that their source of easy money has been diverted.
■The inducements in lowered rates, that are planned
to remove the objections thought responsible for fall
ing off of European travel by Americans, may remedy
ihe situation in some instances, but the present ocean
rates are certainly not the real cause to the decrease
in the number of Americans going to Europe to find
pleasure in sightseeing. Since they have responded to
the urge of “Seeing America First” they are finding
pleasures untold in motoring or traveling by rail
■through America, nature’s own wonderland. And
they are delighted and happy at finding wherever
They go that their own country not alone compares
favorably, but far surpasses Europe, at its best, as
a land
of majestic beauty.
AN
ECONOMICS
CONFERENCE OF THE WORLD
NATIONS
■INDICATIONS are that another world conference
[ will be held in the immediate future at Washington,
a conference that will not deal with superficial war or
lanti-war resolutions and proposals, but something
jmore fundamental in the interest of peace and friend
ly relations between the nations, a conference aiming
Ito stabilize the financial situation in the world to the
lend that national and international credit may again
be restored to save the world from financial chaos and
pending ruin.
I But the question is: why could we not have had
THE ‘TOOL ROOM AND SOFT DRINK PARLOR”
T F OLD SATAN himself was called upon to invent
and paint a sign throughout this nation over every
institution where the youth of the land may go to get
the first lesson in law violation and immorality, he
would write “Pool Room and Soft Drink Parlor.”
Since the days of the licensed saloon the pool room
and the soft drink parlor—usually operated in con
nection with one another—have to a great extent
fallen heir to the doubtful traffic in human degrada
tion that had flourished in the shadow of the saloon.
This is not an indictment of the legitimate busi
ness of the pool room and the soft drink parlor but
an indictment of the men with the “saloon” training
who have found the pool room and the soft drink
parlor a suitable substitute for certain vices practiced
in the days of old in connection with the saloon.
The atmosphere of the stuffy large pool rooms or
halls in the down town sections of the average Ameri
can city is differing very little from the atmosphere
of the saloon. The saloon, however, was, by law,
restricted against the minor, where the pool room and
the soft drink parlor is usually the rendezvous of the
youth, mingling freely with the “seasoned” elements
of human driftwood; those who have found it ex
pedient and suitable to their tastes to earn a doubtful
livelihood.
The lecturer who recently stated that in his opinion
“the pool room was a worse enemy of the boy than the
saloon” cannot be contradicted in view of the over-