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RELEASING LOCAL MONEY AYMENT of a 20 per cent dividend by the Old National-City bank receiver at this time is the best financial news Lima has had in a long time. Altho that represents only onefifth of the claims proven and unproven and disputed, it will release $373,000 to return to regular channels.
In addition to this sum, other fihancial institutions will send out Christmas saving checks immediately for another $130,000, which will give Lima and community more than $500,000 to be used at a time when money is most needed. In addition to affording cash or. dinary Christmas buying, which is just setting in in earnest, taxes that have gcne delinquent-can be paid, obligations liquidated, necessities may be purchased and, on the whole, a great impetus will be given local business.
The receiver of the Old National is to be complimented for his extra efforts to free this amount of money before Christmas. He has been working toward that end for some time and while the dividend is not as large he would have liked to pay, it will be big help. Lima is reflecting better times in general which is shown in a much improved psychological state among its people. Employment here appears to be better than in many neighboring cities and indications are that it will improve with the beginning of work on important orders now on books of several Lima concerns. Low commodity prices are aiding in the betterment of conditions since reduced incomes are found to meet obligations more satisfactorily than in the past. Family budgets, while curtailed in many instances, are able to provide necessities and many of the luxuries and while we still have unemployment and distress conditions above normal, there is a general feeling that the worst is passed and that from now on general improvement of conditions may be expected locally.
LA FOLLETTE'S STATEMENT widespread public debate on the virtues and defects of our present economic system is a good thing, then Governor Phil LaFollette of Wisconsin has done us all a service by delivering to the Wisconsin legislature that surprisingly radical message of his. Whatever else that message may or may not accomplish, it will at least start people talking. And thatwhether you agree with Governor LaFollette's ideas or not-will, all in all, good for us. One trouble with us in the past decade was that we were too uncritical. We hurled a cry of "bolshevik" any one who suggested that anything might need changing. We are getting over that now. Anyone who can set us re-examining our cherished beliefs, and marshalling anew our arguments for them, is doing us a good turn.
VALUE OF CAVALRY else the current unpleasantness in Manchuria may have done, it has at least restored to the art of war a traditional feature that some of us had supposed extinct forever-the cavalry. Soldiers on horseback are figuring largelv in nearly all of the dispatches that describe Japanese Chinese military operations. The cavalry has taken part in combat, it has conducted extensive scouting and reconnoitering operations, it has filled its ageold function of "screening"- has been, in fact, just about what it al ways used to be, in spite of modern weapons and mechanized transport. This ought to be solid comfort for the hards who have insisted that the World war did not, as SO many people thought, spell the end of cavalry's usefulness. Indeed, as a matter of fact, cavalry was used considerably in the World war. It was only in France that it lost its utility. There, after the "race to the sea" in the fall of 1914 was completed, the trench lines were solid, from the channel to the Swiss frontier, and the cavalry lost its job. Elsewhere, however-in Palestine, and on the Russian front-cavalry had room to operate, and it was just about as useful as it ever was. Now the same thing is proving true in Manchuria. Of course, the day of the old-style picturesque cavalry charge, a la Waterloo, is ended. Machine guns and rapid-fire light artillery have made that a certainty. It is probably quite true, too, that the airplane has taken much of the cavalry's job in the field of reconnaissance. But the colorful, jingling cavalry squadron still has its place in the military scheme. After all, it has been chiefly the amateur who has proclaimed the extinction of the cavalry. The trained soldiers in charge of the world's armies, it is worth remembering, have insisted on* keeping their cavalry units. The operations in Manchuria indicate that they knew what they were doing.
SCHOOL ECONOMY
Dr. Frank P. Graves, state commissioner of education in New York, there came the other day a very sensible comment on the current economy wave that is affecting school systems everywhere. He remarked, in brief, that economy can be overdone when it is applie' to schools. and that the school system is justabout the last department that ought to be affected when state and city expenditures have to be reduced. "Education," says Dr. Graves, "should not be required to adapt its program to these recurring economic cycles The children of these lean years must not be denied their birthright if our citizenry is in the future to maintain the level of its character and capacity." There is a lot of sense in that. City and state budget directors might profitably keep it in mind.
THE brain can be abnormal two ways-by being too puckered or by being too mushy. -Professor Wilder D. Bancroft. Cornell University are more cunning than men. They study cause and effect.
News Health Service by DR. WILLIAM BRADY Questions department will be answered by Dr. Brady. enclosed. Addres, Dr. Brady. care The Lima News
