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* mnuKltl >* It££l. Smith Hardware Cos. Business is getting better. —O— Eighteen ar* 3 ‘ li,T enty cents for cot ton is better and goes further than ten to twelve cents. —O— A lot of merchandise is now being sold by merchants based on twelve cent cotton. It’s a good time to buy. —O— We have home grown seed wheat, Kentucky Blue Stem seed wheat and seed rye for sale —O— Barrow county should raise more than enough wheat to feed her. —O— Mr. G. W. Giles, of Auburn; Mr. J. R. Simonton, of Dacula; Mrs. George and L. L. Hammond; Mr. Jim Foster and Mr. Albert Hill, of Winder, have recently purchased grain drills from us- Moral: “Let us sell you a drill. —O— To churches and schools we give an extra ten per cent discount trom our present low prices on iieateis and Coleman Gasoline Lamps. —O— NOTE: An Oliver Plow that sold last year lor $20.00 is now selling tor $12.75, and repairs m propor tion. None so good as genuine Oli ver Plows and repairs. —O— Our Majestic Range demonstra tion is starting,off line. On Monday we sold Mr. J. W. House, of Winder, Mrs. W. L Mayne, of Winder, and Mr. John Dalton, of Auburn. A lot more will take advantage of this sale before it closes Saturday night. O Mr. Jim H. Harwell uses an Inter national Tractor and Tractor plow. We sold him a Tractor Harrow last week. Use Tractors and Farm Power machinery. 801 l Weevils have not yet started to destroying Wheat, and Oats and Rye. Go to the man who has used Grain Drill for the past 20 years, lie al ways has seed wheat to sell —O- We sell Bluestone. —O — The New International Stalk Cut ter has no equal. Ask the man who owns one. We sold Dr. W. L. Math ews one last week^ Mr. Giles has used one for the past nineteen years, which he bought from us and he has always had wheat to sell. He says he gets a third more wheat where he prepares his ground well and plants it with a drill Mi. Jim Harwell says the same. He has also bought two gram drills trom us. We have one practically new Rub ber Tire Norman Buggy which we will sell for $75.00. Phis is A REAL BARGAIN. —O— We have new Wagons from $60.00 up, all high grade. Now is a good time to buy. —O— We have guaranteed Axes in both handled and unhandled. O Imitation OLIVER PLOWS. We are closing out: Goober: $6.00. No. B. C $8.50 No. 10 $9.50 No 13 $7.50 Also imitation points for these plows Same price and good for the month of November. —O— Your cash counts with us. —O— Watch for this column next week. —O— Smith Hardware Cos. WINDER GEORGIA SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN RAILROAD PUN TO GET RATES SOWN Propose To Reduce Wages And Return All The Savings By Reduction In Charges FULL TEXTOF THE PROPOSAL Statement By Thoma* DeWltt Cuyler, Chairman of the Association Of Railway Executives, On The Situation New York, October 18. —Following a meeting In Chicago, October 14. 1921, of the presidents of nearly all the lead Ing railroads in the country, Mr. Thom as DeWitt Cuyler. chairman of the As soclation of Railway Executives, made the following statement: At a meeting of the Association of Railway Executives today, it was de termined by the railroads of the Unit ed States, to seek to bring about a re duction in rates, and as a means to that end to seek a reduction In pres ent railroad wages, which have com pelled maintenance of the present rates. An application will be made immedi ately to the United States railroad la bor board for a reduction in -wages of train service employes sufficient to remove the remainder of the increase made by the labor board’s decision of July 30. 1920 (which would Involve n further reduction of approximately ten per cent), and fer a reduction in the wages nf all other classes of railroad labor to the going rate for such laboi in several territories where the car riors operate. To Reduce Rates As Wages Go Down The foregoing action Is upon the un dorstanding that concurrently with such reduction in wages, the benefit of the reduction thus obtained shall with th.e concurrence of the interstate commerce commission, be passed on to the public in the reduction of exist ing railroad rates, except in so far as this reduction shall have been made in the meantime. The management have decided upon this course in view ol their realization of the fact that, the wheels of industrial acUvitv ba\e been closed down to a aolnt which brings depression and distress to the tmire public and that something must be done to start them again in opera tion. The situation which confronts the railroads is extremely critical. The railroads in 1920 realized a net rail way operating income of about $62, 000,000 upon a property Investment of over $19,000,000,000 and even this amount of $62,000,000 included back mail pay for prior years received from the government of approximately $64,- 000,000, thus showing, when the op eration,-• of that year alone are eon sidered, an actual deficit before mak ing any allowance ror cither interest or dividends. The year ended in serious depres sion in all branches of industry, and in marked reduction of Hie market de mand for and the prices of basic com modities, resulting in a very serious falling off in the volume of traffic. Roads Forcecf To Defer Maintenance In this situation, a policy of the most rigid economy and of postponing and cutting to the hone the upkeep of the properties was adopted by the rail roads. This was at the price of nog lecting and. for the time, deferring work which must hereafter and, in the near future, be done and paid for. This is illustrated by the fact that, as of September 15, 1921. over 16 per cent, or 374,431 in number, of tile freight cars of the carriers were in bad order and needing repairs, as against a normal of bad order cars of not more than 160,000, as is further illustrated by the deferred and inade quale maintenance of other equipment and of roadway and structures. Even under those conditions, and with this large bill charged up against he future -which must soon be pro vided for and paid if the carriers are to perform successfully, the transpor tation duties the residt-of operations for the first eight months of this year, the latest available figures, has been at a rale of net railway operating in come, before providing for interest or dividends amounting to only 2.6 per cent per annum on the valuation of the carrier properties made by the in terstate commerce commission in the recent rate case, an amount not suffi cient to pay the interest on their out standing bonds. Roads’ Earnings Far Below Reasonable Returns. It is manifest, from tills showing, that the rate of return of 5 1/2 or 6 per cent, for the first, two years after March 1, 1920, fixed in the transporta tion act as a minimum reasonable re turn upon railroad investment has not been even approximated —much less reached: and that the present high rates accordingly are not due to any statutory guarantee of earnings, for there is no such guarantee. In analyzing the expenses which have largely brought about this situation, it lecomes evident that by far the largest contributing cause is the labor cost. Today the railroads pay out to labor approximately 60c on the dollar they receive for transportation services, whereas in 1916. 40 cents on the dol lar went to labor. On the first day of Jammry, 1917, when the government took charge of wages through the Adamson act, the labor cost of the railroads had not ex reeded the sum of about $1,468,000,000 annually. In 1920. when governmental authority made the last wage Increase, the labor cost of the railroads was about $3,698,000,000 annually, or, if con tlnued throughout the year, instead of for the eight months during which the wage Increases were in effect, the labor cost on an annual basis, would have been largely In excess of $3,900,000,000 an in crease, since the government took SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN SMITH HARDWARE COLUMN THE WINDER NEWS charge of railroad wages In the Adam* son act. of approximately $2,450,000,- 000 annually. In the light of these figures, it is manifest that the recent reduction of wages authorized by the labor board, estimated at from 10 to 12 per cent, in no sense meets or solves the problem of labor costs, and in no way makes it possible for the railroads to afford a reduction of their revenue. Thousands Of Rates Already Reduced Indeed, during the past year there have been between four and five thou sand individual reductions in freight rates. On some railroads ,the reduc tions in rates have amounted to more than the reductions in wages so fai made, and on many other railroads the reductions in wages allowed no nel return on operations, but merely pro vided against the further accumula tion of £ deficit. The point is often made that agricul ture and other industries are also suf fering the same immediate difficulties as the railroads. Why, therefore, dc not the railroads take their medicine like anybody else? The answer lies in several facts: 1. The railroads were not permitted as were other industries, to make charges during the years of prosper itv, making possible the accumulation of a surplus to tide them over the pres ent extreme adversity. According to the reports of the interstate commerce commission, the rate of return in prop ertv investment of the railroads of the United States for the past several years has been as follows: “RATE OF RETURN EARNED BY RAILROADS OF THE UNITED STATES ON THEIR PROPERTY INVESTMENT.” ■9 ; 2 4.8467 1913 5 is<7, 19! 1 '.V l V 7VV 4d7% 1915 4.20 "4 '916 (fiscal year) . r,.9oct ’916 (calendar year) O.iflO-r 1 917 .... r,.36C4 ’4IS 5.5167 1919 o * 6 of 1920 0.32% It will thus be noted that during the years when other industries were mak ing very large profits, when the price - of farm products and the wages of la bor were soaring to unheard-of heights, the earrings upon railroad investment in the United States were held within very narrow limits and that they have during the past four years progressive ly declined. Roads Handicapped More Than Other Business. 2. The railroads are responsible to the public for providing adequate trans portation. Their charges arb limited by public authority, and they are, in very large respects (notably for labor) compelled to spend money on a basis fixed by public authority. The margin within which they are permitted to earn a return upon their investment or to offer inducements to attract new capital for extensions and betterments is extremely limited. However much the railroads might desire, therefore, to reduce their charges in times of de pression, it will be perceived that the ifhiitations surrounding their action do not permit them to give effect to broad and elastic policies which might very properly govern other lines of business not thus restricted. It has been urged upon the railroads that a reduction in rates will stimu late traffic and that increased traffic will protect the carriers from the loss incident to a reduction in rates. The railroad managements cannot disguise from themselves that this suggestion is merely conjectural and that an ad verse result of the experiment would be uisastrous not only to the railroads, but to the public, whose supreme need is adequate transportation. Consequently the railroad manage ments cannot feel justified in placing these Instrumentalities, so essential to the public welfare, at the hazard of such an experiment based solely upon such a conjecture. Farmers Especially Need Lower Rates It Is evident, however, that existing transportation charges hear in many cases a disproportionate relationship to the prices at which commodities can be sold in the market and that exist ing labor and other costs of transpor tation thus impc: cd upon industry and agriculture generally a burden greater than they should hear. Ti.i is especially true of agriculture. The railroad managements are feeling sen sitive to and sympathetic with the dis tressing situation and desire to do everything to assist in relieving it that is compatible with their duty to fur nish the transportation which the pub lie must have. At the moment railroads, in many cases .are paying 40 cents an hour for unskilled labor, when similar labor is working alongside the railroads and can easily be obtained by them at 20 cents an hour. The railroads of the country paid, in 1920, a total of con siderahly over $1,300,000,000 to unskill ed labor alone. However desirable it may be to pay this or that schedule of wages, it is obvious tllat it cannot be paid out of railroad earnings, unless the industries which use the railroads are capable of meeting such charges. The railroads —and through them the people generally—are also ham pered in their efforts to economize by a schedule of working rules and con ditions now in force as a heritage from the period of federal control and up held by the railroad labor board. These conditions are expensive, uneconomic and unnecessary from the point of view of railroad operation and extremely burdensome upon the public which pays the bill. This schedule of wages and of working conditions prevents the railroads from dealing equitably with their labor costs in accordance with rapidly changing conditions and the great variety of local considerations which ought to control wages in dif ferent parts of the country. The rail roads are seeking to have these rules and working conditions abrogated. The railroads will seek a reduction in wages now' proposed by first request ing the sanction of tke railroad labor board. The railroads will proceed with all possible dispatch, and as soon as the railroad labor hoard shall h%ve giv en Its assent to the reduction of wages, the general reduction in rates will be put into effect. Tonacco Seeds Small. Tobacco seeds are so minute that a thimbleful will furnish enough plant* for an acre of ground. Saw It In Different Light. Mi Billus (greatly bored by the May-—“Marfa, that fellow is positive ly the worst stick I ever saw oo the ttage. He makes love lo that pretty dftle countess like a hippopotamus trying to court an angel.” Mrs Billus (much interested)—“He does. John; V does But how vividly it seems to recall the days of our courtship, lohn P Productive Denizens of the Sea. The teeth of the shark sell read • y nod are utilized hy manufactur ng jewelers In ornaments of one Un<i or another. From the blood of the sea mam trials we now get the basic substance for a very superior kind of waterproof glue, which is used in the preparation of laminated 'jt built-up wooden stock from which f he propellers and other parts of air* ♦raft are today fashioned. If You Are Looking For A Real Bargain m a home in the best town in Georgia, see G. W. GARNER Winder, Georgia. One 7-room house under new repair, on large lot 81 feet front and 173 feet deep, on Midland Ave. One 5-room brick bungalow on lot 60x100 Cole Brothers World Toured Shows and Big Trained wild Animal Exposition Will give two grand full and complete per formances in Winder, on Friday, Nov. 11 at 2 and S o’clock, P. M. Rain-cr Shine. V,; ,v v . . 1 * - ■. ■■ - A GREAT ALL-FEATURED SHOW with everything to please and nothing to of fend. Clean, refined, moral, High class and instructive. Exhibitions for entertaining la dies, gentlemen and children. Take the children to see our little BABY LIONS. It’s a real sight of a life-time They arc the cv.'cctcc*: r.rd cutest Httle pets you have ever seen. Wonderful performing Lions, Tigers, Leopards, Pumas, Panthers, and Bears, highly educated Horses, Ponies, Mules, Dogs, Goats, Monkeys, Seals and Elephants. Great acrobats, gymnasts, contortionists, aerialists, vaulters, leapers, tumblers, jug glers and 20 FUNNY CLOWNS. A series of FREE OUTSIDE exhibitions will be given on the show grounds at 1 and 7 P. M. Don’t miss seeing this big free out side show, as it alone is worth going many miles to see and it is absolutely free to all. Subscription Price: $1.50 Per Year. People who have been helped by Tanlac are always anxious and willing to tell others about it. —G. W. DeLu- Perriere & Sons. . Advice. If tfnu wouldst be Justified, ac knowledge thine Injustice. He that confesses his sin begins his journey toward salvation He that is sorry for It, meuds his pace. He that forsakes tt. is at his Journey’s end.—Qnsries. Salmon Worth Taking. The biggest salmon ever taken In th® fresh wnters of New Hampshire re cently was caught In Lake Sunapee. fts weight was 27 pounds. The larg ?st previous salmon caught In Sunapea weighed about 15 pounds. * Educational. Dancing plays a very Important part In the education of boys and girls tu Japan. In the better class families th® dancing teacher comes every other day, .regular practice is an affair of routine. * nd private entertainments, where th® children perform are arranged by friendly families. —Omaha Bee.