for Employe* of Employe for His Employer. Let the Christmas Spirit, the Christ-Spirit, Prevail in Our Industries! Indorsed By Every Craft In Charlotteand In The State CHARLOTTE, N. C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1923 J 1. 1 ij J m J mEL , BONUS PLAN IS DISMISSED WITH GESTURE Coolidge Gave But Passing Thought to Soldiers. THE PROFITEERS Should Pay Their Just Debt To Those Who Fought— Fight Must Go On. BY REV. TOM P. JIMfSON. President Coolidge is opposed to the proposed bonus for the veterans of the World War. He feels kindly toward the men who did ouq fighting in that mighty conflict and says some words to that broad general effect. He would even have the ones who were disabled cared for in a more adequate manner; but the idea of adjusted ddtnpensation is dismissed with a gesture of impatience. The writer of these lines would be the last to find fault with the President on account of his personal convic tions anent this question. Plenty of patriotic men, including many of the veterans themselves, are not in favor of the bonus. But since the Presi dent speaks for his party, which at this time holds the reins of govern ment, his short shrift of the matter hi an unfortunate circumstance. President Coolidge is the titular head of this country. What he says Will not only carry weight with his own party, but with good citizens of A}1 parties. What he says has behind ' t of his great office, and the cumufttive wisdom of te whichr/ne ^belongs. It ^that if any measure or the" veterans is accom plished, further than a little more at tention to the disabled, it will be after a mighty battle with the administra tion supporters. i I 1 It seems a tragic thing that the service of our soldiers should so soon be forgotten that politicians account it a matter which can be disposed of by * gesture. It is a sadder thing that those who won the most from the sacriftcae? of our men should set themselves against the movement for an adjustment of the compensation. When America entered the great war our young men went. It is true that the majority of them were drafted into the service, but that is no evidence that ihey would not have gone anyhow. Hundreds of thous ands did not wait to be drafted, and millions more did not ask to be ex cused. They simply laid down their tasks in shop and field and factory, donned the uniform, and were away. They went to camps that were con structed by men who were bent on plundering the public treasury. They wore clothing which was made by profiteers, and they carried arms and ammunition made by men who had their eyes on the mint Instead of the flag. f After being fed on slumgullion for a few weeks and marched and train ed until they were fit fo endure the hardships incident to modern war fare, they were shipped across wide seas which were infested with subma rines and all mjanner of death-deal • ing devices, and landed on a foreign soil to “make the world safe for^de mocracy.” They never wavered. They carried Old Glory up along side, of the flags of France and Brit tain and Belgium. And irt all the mighty conflict they saw to it that the Stars and Stripes was stained with nothing impurer than their own life blood. Their presence in the trenches brought hope and cheer to the des pondent allies .and turned the tide of war. No braver bunch of men ever followed a flag. They followed the emblem of our independence through miasmic marshes which were swept with the fire of the enemy. They cut their why through barbed wire entanglements and f^ced the poisonous gas of the German. When fatigue overcame them they slept in slush and mUd while bullets hissed and sharpnel sang all about them. Tattered, tired, footsore, hungry, sometimes sick and sometimes wound (Continued on Page Two.) FIRE PROVES DEPARTMENT INADEQUATE Flamjfes Spread Rapidly, Eating Through Many Stores. BELK’S OPEN Smith - Wad • worth Completely Destroyed — Efird Annex Gone—Others, Too. Inadequate fire-fighting equipment and an insufficient number of fire men contributed- largely to the mounting thousands of dollars de stroyed by fire last Sunday night,, when flames ate their way through the Smith-Wadsworth Hardware store on East Trade street, touching Belk’s big Department store and completely destroyed the Belk garage, .leaving only ashes of the Efird Annex, tak ing practically all of H. C. Long’s store, as well as that df the LaMode, and wound around to North College street and sWept Warren’s Barber shop and George A. Neuman’s Tire comnany completely. Firemen and policemen worked manfully against the tremendous odds presented by the flames. It was a hard battle, and brought to the at tention of the city in forceful manner the fact that Charlotte’s fire fighting force is inadequate and the equip ment lacking. Every firemen in the city was on the ground, leaving the whole of the balance of the city un protected until the arrival of the de partments from Gastonia, Monroe, Statesville and Mooresville, all of whom came in answer to a call from Payor Wajker, * The big walls of Belk Brothers Store is said to be the"only barrier that stood in the way of the onrush of the flames, and prevented what otherwise would have been a fire that staggers one’s imagination to figure the extent or cost. Then, too, the forces of clerks in Balk’s store used the store’s own fire fighting equip ment to good advantage ih checking the flames, as did the Efird forces. It was a disastrous fire. In each of the stores all preparations had been made for the holiday business, and this naturally killed the one week j in the year when merchants .have a I chance to prepare for the “lean” days that always come. By Wednesday, however, Belk Brothers were opened in full, and Efird’s were doing busi ness as usual. Of course, the H. C. Long and La Mode and the Smifch Wadsworth Hardware company, New man and the barber shop, all being totally destroyed, have as yet made no announcement of their future plans. Charlotte had 25 firemen ten years ago. Today the city has 40 firemen. 'i nese figures were given The Herald by a man close to city affairs. Sev ! eral weeks ago the Lions club passed resolution looking toward the en largement of the city’s fire-fighting forces and additional equipment. Today the citizens are practi cally of one accord that the depart ment must be strengthened. RAIROAO BEHIND SCHLEIFER CASE The New York, New Heaven and Hartford Railroad rather than the States, was the real prosecutor against-, him, Ernst Schleifer, an or ganizer for the International Asso ciation of Machinists who has recent ly been sentenced to & term of 3 1-2 years to five years for alleged incita tion of violence in a speech to rail road strikers, declared at a meeting of the national committee of the American Civil Liberties turnon re cently. “During the three and a half days that I was on the stand,” he Said, “only one question was asked about the New Haven speech, for which I wtas being tried. The rest was about extravagenous matters. The truth is that trade unionism was on trial.” "vx \ READ THEM AND KEEP THEM FOR REFERENCE AND STUDY IN NEXT WEEK'S HERALD will be found bolide/ greetings and messages from labor officials, both national end state. These messages contain much information about the accom plishments, the hopes, the aims and aspirations of label* unions. They are valuable messages, and should be studied carefully by all workers and by those who have heretofore criticised the labor movement, X SUL Atu$*loa& rnttn Ifrwtt, A 3faaroot:for,fol|0lii,3 htfnggoo tfofttp of 0T*at jog ttrffirff : oljalUittoaUpaipl*. ■ - . . - . •*>»’ ■ 3tor ratio you ia bortt tljte &ag y tntlj? rtty of Battik a ^atmmr, t ; Oifprii ia (HIjriHt % Cork