NOT ABOVE REPROACH

Side by side with the discouraging news from Russia are printed the results of the Congressional investigation in the Hog Island shipyard, Philadelphia. Unchallenged evidence points out land sold to the Government for ten to twenty times its normal price, and thousands of dollars spent to no purpose by the contractors. The responsibility rests upon certain "great American capitalists," not named.

Of the two pieces of news, it is the latter which most merits our indignation. Russia's national conscience is her own; she is half-blinded with internal disease and not fully to be condemned for her failure to carry on. But the doings of the "great American capitalists" should be of more significant interest to the great American people.

The wasting of public funds while the Government is being so severely criticized for sluggishness aggravates the situation and places blame where, it is not deserved. Because funds are spent and no results are forthcoming, support falls away from the Administration.

Swindling under these conditions comes close to treason. And if a foreign grocer is deprived of his rights to sell because he charges a few cents in excess of the legal rate for sugar, the capitalist who turns sorely needed funds into private pockets must not expect to retain his power over finance. Loyalty and service are the tests or survival.