OUR AMERICAN BUDGET

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 307, 28 December 1922, Page 3

OUR AMERICAN BUDGET

TOPICS SELECTED. (By a New York f'orrespondent.) POLITICAL GAMBLING. Some, wise one once said "politics ie rotten." And when open betting is allowed and officially winked at, it shows to bo partly true. Our New York correspondent writes on November 13: — "A bet of 5,000 dollars at even money that Alfred K. Smith, the Democratic nominee for Governor, would defeat Nathan L. Miller, was placed with \V. L. Darnell and Co., of No. 44, Broad Street. Another 4,000-dollar bet was placed at even money on the re-election of District Attorney Rustin, of Kings County. The same firm reported a wager of 1,200 dollars against 1,000 dollars that George Appcll, Democrat, would defeat Miss Ruth Taylor, Republican, for the Children's Court judgeship in Westchester County." DEMOCRATIC ELECTION , SUCCESSES. The elections on Xovember 7 again brought out many surprising defeats. Nationally the country has practically turned Democratic, and although the Republicans will still have a slight working majority next session, they will be unable to railroad through any party legislation owing to the. mixed bodies being tied to no organisation. The Republican majority in the Senate has been cut to 10 and to 20 in the House of Representatives. President Harding plans to call an extra session to rush through measures which probably would fail through insurgent desertions if held up for the new Congress. Striking Democratic gains in States and nation are:—Seven new members of the United States Senate, cutting the Republican majority from 24 to 10; 75 new members of the House of Representatives, •utting the Republican majority from 170 to 20; election of a Senator from Michigan, the first the party has had in 70 years; election of a representative from the 9th Virginian district, the first the party has had in 22 years: election of a delegate from Hawaii, the first the party has had in the history of the territory, election of governors in 17 of the 2!) States, choosing them this year, a gain of 11; 15 new members of the New York State Senate, giving party control by a majority of 1; 20 new members of the New York State Assembly, throwing the. balance of power into the hands of the New York City Delegation. THE OIL TRUST. Further figures are coming to hand relative to the New Jersey Standard 011 400 per cent dividend, and a. list of the principal fortunate ones has been printed. Naturally the Rockefellers head the line, and young John D., jun., is now enriched by the princely sum of 52,441,2*0 dollars. Tto holds 38.970 shares of the preferred stock and 452,000 common. Next to participate is the Rockefeller Foundation, which draws 22,736,000 dollars. These figures apply to the New Jersey company only, and an estimate of the present market value of all the oil king's holdings, plus those of the immediate members of the family and their agents, is now found to be 233,695,000 dollars. Henry Klein, New York Deputy Commissioner of Accounts, says John D. Rockefeller, sen., is worth 2,400,000,000 dollars, this including sums transferred to various foundations. TOUNG HUMANITY. 'A few weeks ago in a Western State there was medically chronicled ia re» liable journals the case of a young girl ten year* of age, giving birth to an exceedingly healthy child. The two attending doctors pronounced the case as phenomenal, saying that in a northern and cold climate women reach maturity much slower than in warmer climes. Obstetricians immediately made a' pilgrimage to verify and study the two principals, and came back fully satisfied. The young mother is unmarried and the daughter of a clergyman. Both mother and child are doing well. Mary Dushman also has gained notoriety in another sphere. She is a 27-day-old incubator baby, and now weighs, lib 140z., and, least of all, the diminutive bit of humanity ie perfectly formed and expected to Jive. It was a premature birth, and she has been handed over to the Jersey City Mothers' Institute. The parents are perfectly normal, but the mother is unable to nurse the little mite, so a neighbour is acting in her place until Mary needs the bottle. PAYING AMERICA. M. Louis Loueheur says France has never contested her debts to America and Great Britain, but he wants to know how she will pa} - these nations 7,000,000,000d015. The "Daily News," Xew York, has accepted the invitation, and shows a way out for France to relieve her burden—to America. Just giive the Islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and the French West Indies as part payment. Take out your dusty atlas and see how this simple deed of transfer would benefit the United States. St. Pierre and Miquelon are mentioned, too. Would England like to discharge her obligations in the same simple fashion? On this aspect the. paper seems very doubtful, but points out that "the Bermudas and the West Indies are of n6 economic value to England." But what of their strategic value to England, and •the Monroe doctrine to America? For a prize essay in a school-boy competition this solution would be worthy of a certificate, but when it excludes from the editorial sanctum of a widely read paper it shows absolute lack of wisdom, tact and sagacity. Above this journal's leading article is to be found every day their religion:—"Our Country.—'in her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.'—.Stephen Decatur." PSYCHOLOGY OF CRIME. Does education, good breeding, home life, and a beautiful environment prevent crime? It would seem not so in America, for lately the crimes committed by the so-called "better class" would set the cutthroat and gangster aghast. Three church murders are now engaging attention—a double tragedy at New Brunswick, N.J., where the pastor and Ilia favoured choir leader were, shot and butchered on a lonely farm under most peculiar and revolting circumstances; and the third, in Montana, where Mrs, Marguerite Carleton shot Rev. Leonard Christkr, picturesquely known as "the Bishop of all outdoors." The former crime bears the earmarks of jealousy, The minister (as mentioned in a previous letter) was neatly shot and decorously laid out in death near the murdered woman, whose 'throat, aiter i death, had been gashed twice from $he

left ear to the throat centre, and from •the right ear also to the same mark. The denouement is sure, and expected in a few days i n this brutality. In the second case the woman shot the divine whose love she couldn't win, and then killed herself. Then there is the "hammer murder" of California, laid to a pretty young woman of Los Angeles, who rained blow after blow with demoniac fury upon a shrieking victim, whom the alleged murderer accused of being devoted to her husband. In Philadelphia a young married woman of high ability surprised her business husband and his stenographer on an office couch, and killed them. She was acquitted. In Georgia, "the boy preacher" killed his wife and mother-in-law. This licentiousness and savage hate in the upper strata of American life is causing much concern, for how can the underworld be scoured out when the upperworld has co much muck in its backyard. HIGH LIVING AND LOW LIFE. It would seem the old English "aristocracy" have nothing on their American cousins. The elite 400 are out of dato unless they have possessed two or three husbands or wives, and it is no unusual thing for all to meet at exclusive social functions. The following is from a New York exchange: — Are Newport women trying to bury their ex-husbande? Is it by request that the names of former helpmates are omitted from the imposing list in Newport's Social Index The names of discarded husbands are almost invariably printed ill New York's guide to society, the "Social Register." But in Newport all is different. Every matron there might be celebrating her silver anniversary with the same husband for all the clue the Social Index gives to her lightning domestic changes. Wives and ex-wives, husbands and ex-husbands frequently meet socially, and when there are children, imagine the elasticity of heart these, much-married social registeritee are obliged to develop. GERMAN MARKS. Tt having come to the knowledge of the Government that the American public were buying millions of dollars worth of marks as a speculation has called forth the following from a New York journal: "Do you think German municipal bonds arc a good purchase now ?"' This question in varying' form is put to us every week by readers who apparently have been acquainted with the currency situation in the German Republic. The question is never put this way: "Are German official promises to-day worth the risk?" Recent statements coming out of Germany are frank. Leading municipalities have admitted their inability to carry on financially, a virtual admission of bankruptcy. This condition of bankruptcy has been forced on the cities, they say, through the currency policy of the authorities of the Republic. Marks, which in other days had a normal value of 23.8 cents a mark, are now selling at three one-hundredths of a cent, 4000 marks to the dollar. German presses have not ceased turning out millions of paper marljs. nor do the authorities evince the slightest desire to restrain their issue of paper currency. A few days ago "speculation" in marks was forbidden in Germany, but the Government presses still produce their regular "editions" of paper money. Gambling in German marks is a form of foolhardiness. Tying up good American money in securities payable, principal and interest, in German money ie, to say the least, eccentric. With so many standard investments at hand among securities payable in good United States money, why borrow trouble by dabbling in mark securities? What prospect of profit is offered for the big risk assumed? What is to be gained by taking a plain chance of loss when German municipal authorities proclaim their financial helplessness and German bonds continue on the way apparently to ultimate repudiation? ARID AMERICA. The voices of a clergyman whose life is devoted to social welfare, and former Assemblyman Ogden H. Hammond, president of the New Jersey Welfare Conference, in session in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on November 11, were raised in sharp protest against the Eighteenth Amendment and the functioning of the Prohibition Law. President Hammond declared the recent election, when many politicians, favouring repeal of prohibition, were elected, showed clearly national discontent witli the dry laws, and added that the election of Governor Edwards as Senator from New Jersey was not so much a personal triumph as a protest against prohibition. The Rev. S, G. Dunseath, chairman of the Social Welfare Board of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, New Jersey, cited figures which, he declared, "show conclusively that the Eighteenth Amendment is.a failure." and stated in summing up that "prohibition is a bad thing for the country and should either be modified oT repealed." President Hammond, speaking before the 400 social workers, said: "It is far better to have an increased number of drunks than to have an increased number of intelligent people violating the prohibition amendment. The amendment has done a great deal of harm by wicouragaging formerly law-abiding people to violate the Constitution. The logical result has been the lessened respect for all laws. It would be far better to have a less drastic law that would be obeyed than to have the present Act with all its attending^evils."