Newspaper Page Text
spend Dawson
p-llars in Dawson
gy & L. RAINEY
SPENZ) TWO BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR FOR EDUCATION
(0L CATION SYSTEM b
v
5, WORLD'S LARGEST
"| Dl '
GIANT INSTITUTION IN WHICH
TW ZNTY-FIVE MILLION BOYS I
AND GIRLS NOW STUDY. ‘
ENPLOYS 900,000 TEACHERS
\
/ bt |
value of School Property Is Five
Billion Dollars, and Yearly Operat
ing Cost of Half That Much for Its
Hundred Thousand Buildings. |
11 clang of 100,000 school bells is
severl crating through the land. Their
echoes reach city and town, hamlet
ad countryside. Heeding the sum
mons 23,000,000 boys and girls, young
men and young women—nearly one
fourth the entire population of the na
iion-—are dropping vacation play and
coine back to their studies.
“The United States has the largest,
noet comprehensive educational sys
wm in the world. But it is doubtful if
one person in ten thousand has any
real idea of the immense scope of the
American school system, of the vast
smount of money invested in it, of
the extent of the personnel required to
operate it, of the dollars and cents it
kes to maintain it.
Ficures at best tend to dry reading,
but here are some, given in round
aumbers, that may startle the reader
hy their very hugeness, and give tax
pavers a rough idea of the immense
size of the institution they have creat
¢d and are maintaining by their con
tributions:
Figures Not Guess Work.
Five billion dollars is the physical
wlue of the school properties in the
United States.
More than two billion dollars is the
cost of this educational system each
year, and 94 per cent of this amount
is raised by taxation.
Approximately 900,000 teachers are
required to conduct the education of
the 25,000,000 pupils who attend school
and college.
Nearly 3,000,000 boys and girls are
graduated each year from the schools,
with an educational equipment valued
in dollars and cents at from $5OO to
§25.000, depending on the line of study
and the extent it has been pursued.
These astounding figures are not
gess work, They are based on data
@refully gathered by the bureau of
gucation of the Department of the
Iwerior at Washington, which an
sually spends a hali million dollars
® collect statistics on the educational
systems of the nation. :
Here is a $5,000,000,000 institution,
with perhaps 50,000,000 stockholders—
for there are at least that many tax
payers in the country—paying $2,000,-
000,000 a year to keep it going, and
hiring nearly 1,000,000 employes to
turn out educated boys and girls
grentually to become American citi
zens.
The growing popularity of education
in this country is best attested perhaps
by college statistics. In 1900, 25 years
ago, there were about 175,000 students
in colleges and universities, Last year
there were, roughly, 725,000. An in
crease of more than a half million stu
dents in 25 years speaks volumes for
the growing demand of higher edu
gation,
3,000 Public School Systems.
There are 3,000 public school sys
tems in the various states, Pennsylva
nia leading with 326, and the number
of school houses runs close to 70,000.
Oi the 25,000,000 children going to
school nearly 22,000,000 may be found
in these school houses an average of
132 days a year. The other 3,000,000
attend private and parochial schools.
The greatest private school system
maintained in the United States is
that operated by the catholic church,
which has about 1,200 schools and 75
preparatory institutions and colleges.
In these it educates 2,500,000 children
a year at a cost of $60,000,000.
In addition to the parochial. schools
of the catholic church there are in
round numbers about 1,100 other pri
vate schools, running from kindergar
tens to preparatory schools, which
have about 500,000 pupils.
Of the institutions for higher educa
tion. that is beyond the high school
stage, there are about 800 in the Unit
ed States, These have a physical prop
erty valuation of $750,000,000.
For instance, there are 110 law
schools, with an enrollment of 18,000
pupils; 125 medical schools, with 23,-
000 pupils; 190 theological —schools,
wit'y 15,000 pupils; 80 schools of phar
macy. with 8,000 pupils; 60 dental
schools, with 12,000 pupils.
Ilien there are 250 schools and col
lece. for the training of school teach
er-. with 125,000 young men and wo
men studying in them. And there are
1750 nurses’ schools, with an enroll
miet of 46,000, Then there are 500
:.“”0“1‘. or institutions, for the educa
10N,
25 Per Cent for Education.
_Both the amount invested in the na
ton’s educational system, $5,000,000,-
000, and the amount necessary to oper
ate it each year, $2,000,000,000 comes
from the taxpayers of the land. In
fact, very nearly 25 per cent of all
laxes paid by the average man or wo
man, including city, county and state
taxes, are used for purposes of educa
tion. New York city alone each year
“'!C“f“”ll* $78,000,000 on its public
SChools,
o Juch is the size and scope of Uncle
Sam’s educational institution. It has
¢t him billions of dollars. It costs
!} e billions each year to maintain.
B it is worth the money, judging
fum its constant growth.
THE DAWSON NEWS
Four Freeze to Death in
- aris; Sweltering in U. S.
SR, et
1 RIS.— Four persons—three
men and a woman—died from the
effects of cold weather in the
streets of Paris Thursday, falling
dead through congestion of the
lungs.
A sudden drop in temperature,
unprecedented for this time of the
vear, is generally believed to be
the forerunner of the exceptional
winter prophesied recently by
Abbe Gabriel, the astronomer and
priest, who believes he has discov
ered a system of predicting weath
~er years ahead, based on observa
tions of records available for sev
eral centuries past.
Meanwhile official weather ex
~ perts point out that summer is not
~ yet over and hot days are prob
~ably still ahead for Europe, the
present conditions being ‘tempo
' rary and “freakish” and “attribut
\ able to an ‘“isobaric” situation.
NEARING END OF LONG BAT
TLE TO COLLECT WAR LOANS.
NEARLY HALF BEING PAID.
Uncle Sam’s foreign debt problem
is speedily approaching a satisfactory
conclusion. That is the belief of the
government officials as a result of cer
tain events of the past few weeks.
Funding more than 40 per cent of
the total debt already has been arrang
ed, a debt agreement with Belgium is
awaiting ratification, and in Septem
ber France will officially discuss pay
meent of it’s debt to the United States.
Five Nations Paying.
Five nations are paying their war
debts to the United States. They in
clude Great Britain, Finland, Poland,
Lithuania, and Hungary. Great Brit
ain, the largest debtor, has been mak
ing regular payments to the United-
States for several years.
The latest step forward in funding
of war debts was made with Belgium.
with an agreement of the payment of
the debt during a long period of years
with a low interest rate. This agree
ment now awaits approval by the
American congress and the Belgium
| parliament.
Secretary of the Treasury, Mellon
)has been officially notified that a debt
commission from France will come to
the United States in September to dis
cuss payment of France’s $4,210,556,-
948 debt to Uncle Sam. Finance min
ister Caillaux, of France, may be a
member of the commission. Ameri
can officials expect that a definite
agreement will ‘be reached.
NEW YORK STATE'S
PAYS NEARLY A THIRD OF
; TOTAL AMOUNT COLLECT
ED BY UNCLE SAM.
NEW YORK, N. Y.—Further re
turns of income tates paid for 1924
serve among other things to indicate
more strikingly «than ever the posi
tion of economic prominence occupied
by New York city and state.
About $300,000,000 of the total tax
paid in the country, nearly a third,
was paid in this state. The city had
more than 1,000,000 tax returns filed,
about 875,000 in the one Brooklyn and
two Manhattan districts, and the bal
ance in the Bronx.
Wall Street List Large. :
There were 345,000 names on the
list of the Second district, which has
offices in the custom house and in
cludes Wall street. There the most In
terest in the returns was shown, but
those who sought information did so
largely that they might publish it.
New York’s share of the lists of the
8.800,000 taxpayers who paid Uncle
Sam $1,761,660,599, show many strange
contrasts and in some cases are not
without their thumor. The amounts
paid here ran from 2 cents, paid by
Samuel Weinstock, address not given,
all the way up to $6,277,699, the high
est individual amount in the country,
paid by John D. Rockefeller, jr.
The American Telegraph and Tele
phone company paid $‘13,435,546,67,
and Hearst’s Star Publishing company
$261,513.05. The Shell Union Oil cor
poration and subsidiaries made returns
of $1,117,362.22. 3
Abie’s Irish Rose, Inc, of New
York, paid a tax of $45,635, while the
Metropolitan Opera company paid $6,-
465.
Man Walking Four Hundred Miles
In Bare Feet to Pay an Electioq f}_t
Attorney Begins “Hike” From West
Virginia to New York Because
He Boosted John W. Davis.
A “hike” from Fairmont, W. Va,
to New York city in his bare feet, be
ing compelled to walk at least 400
miles during the trip. That is the task
that has been tackled by W. O. Loar,
an attorney, all because his political
views proved wrong at the last presi
dential election. e
Loar must walk from Fairmont to
New York city to pay an election bet
he lost.to Gene Arnett. Loar bet that
MANY ORGANIZATIONS AT
WORK TO PROTECT “SUCK
ERS” FROM GOLD BRICKS.
Devise Many New Ways of Cheating
Mr. American and His Wife Out of
Their Hard-Earned Dollars Despite
‘ Innumerable Warnings.
The still flourishing cult of the gold
brick artists in the United States will
swindle the people out of $1,000,000,-
000 during 1925. The cost of credulity
during 1924 was considerably more
than that figure, but business is not so
good for the swindlers this year. That
is the, report of the Better Business
Bureau, in New York City.
The 1925 toll of the “sucker’” will
be smaller, the bureau asserts, because
of the nation-wide drive against fa
kers of all kinds.
To Protect “Suckers.”
The whole United States is co-oper
ating to protect ‘“‘suckers,” the bureau
reports. Many states have enacted
laws to guard them against the swind
lers. Through chambers of commerce,
service clubs and business bureaus the
activities of the swindler are being re
duced. ;
Particularly is the business bureau
busy. Branches have been established
in 40 cities to keep ahead of the dis
honest promoter to whom fresh fields
constantly are opening. These bureaus
are intended to sweep away new webs
spun for trustful folks who succumb
to attacks of get-rich-quick fever.
Real Estate New Bait.
This summer real estate is a new
bait. Alsb there are ventures in liquor
smuggling, despite the disastrous fail
ure of Sir Broderick Hartwell, the
English booze baron. The oil fakers
never quit. Dr. Frederick Cook, of
near polar fame, is in prison, with the
story of his deals painful knowledge
to millions, but the game still goes on.
Three promoters were arrested in
California this summer and charged
with cleaning up $500,000 along the
Pacific coast with a worthless oil stock
scheme. Another “blue sky” promoter,
'sandwiched between reputable busi
ness houses in New York city, was
arrested and sent to prison for a long
|
term,
| Former Convict Busy.
There is a beautifully furnished Riv
erside drive apartment in New York
city used as a lure by a former Sing
Sing convict to swindle victims to
whom he sells stock on promise of a
salaried job.
On prominent streets Jn all large
cities, it is asserted, are found fly-by
night store “sets” and promoters’ of
fices awaiting the uninformed investor.
The habitat of the gullible is not
confined to the rural sections, but is
as wide as the country, the New York
bureau asserts. The sigh ‘of the dwell
er in Madison Square joins the doubt
ing inquiry of the squire in Madison
Corners in the daily grist of mailed
complaints to the authorities and to
the business organizations.
————— I b
DAWSON JURIST WILL SPEAK
ON THE JUDGE, THE PEO
PLE AND THE LAW.
~ WEST POINT, Ga.—West Point is
looking forward with a great deal of
anticipation to the annual session of
the Georgia Press Association to be
held here on September 21-26.
Highlights in the convention will be
addresses by Senator Thomas J. Hef
lin, of Alabama; R. P. Andrews, of
Washington, D. C. chairman of the
government legislative committee on
envelope printing; Judge M. j. Yeo
mans, of Dawson, on “The Judge, the
People and the Law,” and L. A.
Downs, president of the Central of
Georgia railroad. ° f
The convention will be in*session
here from Monday until Thursday
morning, when the delegates will leave,
by motor for LaGrange, where the
LLaGrange Chamber of Commerce will
put on a program. From LaGrange
the party will proceed to Atlanta to
attend a banquet given by the Atlanta
Chamber of Commerce on Thursday
night. Friday morning members of the
press association will go to Tallulah
Falls and visit the Georgia press
camp, which will be dedicated on Fri-!
day. |
John W. Davis would be elected pres
ident, but Arnett bet on Calvin Cool
idge—and won.
When Loar began his “hike” he was
penniless, as a term of the bet provid
ed. A crowd that gathered to bid him
goodbye, however, gave him $2O when
he passed his hat. Loar expects to
finish the “hike” within several weeks,
taking his time en route. He must re
port at Tammany Hall, the democrat
ic headquarters.in New York city, to
prove that his debt is paid.
S. Africa climate is like Carolina. -
DAWSON, GA., TUESDAY EVENING, SEPT. 15, 1925
. *
Boost in Taxes Levied by
. g
States, Counties and Cities
WASHINGTON, D. C.—Re
duction of federal taxes last year
was accompanied by a continued
increase in state, county and local
taxes a survey conductcd by the
Washington headquarters of the
National Grange indicates. The
survey shows the total paid un
der the latter assessments was ap
proximately 50 per cent greater
than the federal tax bill
Results of the survey show that
state taxes alone increased irom a
total of $858.155,000 in 1922, as re
ported by the census bureau, to
$879,784,000 in 1924, on the basis
of incomplete returns.
1t was figured that complete re
turns are almost certain to place
the figure above $900,000,0600. Add
ed to this total the amount paid
under county, school, muncipal
and special taxes gives an aggre
gate, with many items yet to be
~ included when the survev is com
pleted, of more than $3.700,000,000.
This compared with the federal
~ income and miscellancous taxes
totaling $2,688,000,000.
HORSES MAY TRAVEL
1 |
PULLMAN CONTAINS EVERYI
ACCOMMODATION FASTIDI- |
OUS THOROBRED NEEDS. |
T |
Horses may travel in comfort and
style now, for the horse pullman has}
appeared. Instead of being loaded
loose, huddled with others, frightened‘
and tired, in a freight car, the race!
horse being a potential money maker,
takes a pullman in order to arrive
fresh and fit for a race that may mean
a fortune. And he is not freight by ex
\
press. |
In the racing season between April
and November the railroads are beset§
with calls for specially designed horse |
cars. The New York Central esti-.
mates, that between 100 and 140 car
loads of race horses are handled by
express during each meet at the vari
ous tralks. To keep up with the de
mand the New York Central has under
construction twenty-eight new steel
horse cars that represent the last word
in this class of equipment. The first
of them was finishet several ‘'weeks
ago.
It contains every accommodation
that the most fastidious thoroughbred
could require. When he steps from
his private automobile truck through
the wide side door of the rail car he
may well believe he is entering an
up-to-date, luxurious stable.
(lean and shiny is the floor beneath
his feet; white and gleaming are the
walls all around; and overhead burn
electric lights. He is led to a compart
ment where he may easily forget that
he is traveling at all, says the New
York Times.
The car is seventy feet long and two
dozen is the maximum number of pas
sengers it carries. From the windows
in the sides of the car and the deck
ventilators above the racer gets plenty
of fresh air. The racer arrives scarce
ly feeling his hours on the road.
Like other pullman equipment, the
horse car is adaptable to condition. As
seats in a pullman are pulled out to
make beds, so partitions in the horse
car are pulled back to eliminate stalls.
In this way it is made into a day
coach for the accommodation of ordi
nary, or “commercial” horses. These
ride many more than twenty-four to
the coach. They come to New York
from Omaha and Chicago between
November and Apl:ll, when the north
ern racing season is off.
i FOUND NEAR,CORDELE
ON FLINT RIVER BANK AND
SUPPOSED TO BE DINOSAU
ER SIXTY FEET LONG.
CORDELE, Ga.—Large sections of
the vertabra of a prehistoric animal
supposed to be the dinosaur have been
!rccovcrcd from the limestone depos
‘its under a thirty-foot rock wall on
the east bank of the Flint river eight
| miles west of Cordele. Sections ten
inches and more in diameter are on
’cxhibit here and more are firmly lodg
led in the limestone plainly visible to
those- who have recovered all that can
be had.
Sections of the vertebra, portions of
|the ribs and of other bones are on
exhibit here. Two weeks ago Reginald
Barry located one large section of the
vertebra low under the rocks due to
the fact that the water in the river is
lower than it has been in a lifetime.
Diggers MWave recovered many other
portions, but it is thought the com
}pletc remains may be had if the rocks
iare drilled for them. |
The bones are in an excellent state
of preservation, some in perfect petri
fied state, while others are fossilized
in less firm a condition, but there is
no difficulty in placing each. bone as
though it had been stripped only a
year ago. The bones already recovered
apparently are from the backbone of
an animal that must have been some
sixty feet in length.
Those who made an all-Sunday
search are now planning to ask the
‘Smithsonian Instityte to send scient
ists here to explore the'limestone rock
deposit for the full skeleton of the pre
historic animal, = T
?
‘EXTREME HEAT AND DRY
i WEATHER HAVE CUT CORN
~ YIELD MILLIONS BUSHELS.
‘Sold by the Jug at 5 Cents a Gallon,
~ Families Forced to Forego Cus
tomary Saturday Night Bath, and
Other Inconveniences Prevail
~ CHlCAGO.—Advices from south
ern and central Illinois, lowa, parts of
Missouri, lower Michigan and Indiana
say the continued drouth in those
states are working havoc among crops
as well as in some southern states—
Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Vir
ginia. .
The damage is chiefly in corn and
pasturage. Corn, which had a jump of
nearly three weeks over last ¢ year,
promised a record crop, but heat and
dtouth have cut the estimate by mil
lions of bushels. Much of the corn in
the great belt is now dry enough for
feed and practically out of danger from
frost, but it has shriveled and lost
weight, failing to fill out properly.
Some of the more pessithistic observ
ers predict that the crop will not be
much in excess of last year’s produc
tion. Rains at this late date would not
be of benefit to corn, but would revive
withered pastures and put the baked
soil in condition for fall plowing.
Water Famine in Illinois.
Drouth conditions are serious in
south central Illinois, where water is
being hauled many miles and sold by
the gallon. Herrin, particularly, in
“Bloody Williamson,” which, prior to
remarkable evangelistic work by a
Mississippi preacher, had little use for
water, is now hauling its meager sup
ply 10 miles from Marion. The cus
tomary Saturday night bath is being
dispensed with and orders are issued
against miners and others washing
their automobiles.
Operators of coal mines are forced
to haul water from the Ohio river by
the carload. Plutocrats are able to buy
a tank of water, hauled from Marion,
for $4 plus the cartage charges, but
the ordinary run of citizens buy it by
the jug, at 5 cents the gallon.
The long drouth has badly damaged
timothy and rye grass, in addition to
shriveling the corn. Fruit also is suf-
I‘fering.
In some of the northwestern states
‘heavy thunder storms have afforded
' temporary relief. Temperatures are
ranging 20 degrees higher than for the
‘corrcsponding period one year ago.
ORDERS THE RELEASE OF AN
ATLANTA PRISONER WHO
POSED AS COUPLE’S SON.
The doors of the federal prison in
Atlanta, Ga., have opened for Robert
E. St. Clair. the man who posed as
Urban Johnson Bergeron, of Menasha,
Wis., a soldier slain in France, and
fooled Bergeron’s parents for several
months. A victim of tuberculosis; St.
Clair was given his freedom that he
might spend his few remaining days
outside the gray walls of the peniten
tiary.
Wanted to Die in Luxury.
The prisoner, who is said to have
perpetrated one of the biggest frauds
ever attempted in an effort to spend
his last days in luxury, is said to have
been suffering from tuberculosis at the
time that he fooled Bergeron's par
ents. Bergeron was killed in France,
but St. Clair posed’ as Bergeron and
was welcomed “batk home” by Mr.
and Mrs. J. F. Bergeron.
He maintained his position in the
face of repeated charges that he was
not the Bergerons’ son and did not
recede from his contention until he
was confronted by Mrs. Stella Em
merich, Bergeron's sister, who pre
sented documentary evidence to prove
that St. Clair was in state institutions
during the war.
Sister Exposes Fraud.
He then admitted that he was not
Bergeron and that he had posed as the
man because he did not wish to spend
his remaining days in a prison in Cal
ifornia, where he was wanted for rob
bery. California authorities agreed to
allow him his freedom, and the attor
ney general of the United States is
sued the order setting him free—to
die outside. His mother was waiting
at the prison door when he was re
leased.
Woman Bosses Million-Dollar Store
After lllness Strikes Down Husband
Chicago Wife First Vice President of
Firm, So She Feels That What
She Is Doing Is Her Duty.
Because her husband, the president,
has temporarily retired from business
because of serious illness, Mrs. Ed
'ward Hillman is running a Chicago
department store that does a business
of several million dollars a year. Mrs.
Hillman is being assisted by her son,
Edward Hillman, jr. N :
Together mother ‘and son reach the
store early and work late, taking only
a few minutés for Tancheon. Fréquent
Band of Kidnapers Butcher
And Fry Little Children
LONDON.—An organized band
of fiendish kipnapers, who butch
er children, ther iry them and eat
them, is terruiizing the Punjab
district of India. This was reveal
ed in London today with the news
of the capture of Mohammed,
leader of the gang, by Punjab po
lice.
Mahomed confessed that his
fierce band of Pathan tribesmen
from beyond the border was re
sponsible for the kidnaping of
more than 40 children recently.
Between July 8 and July 31 fran
tic parents reported to the police
the kidnaping of 21 babies.
A vigorous campaign against
the baby eaters resulted in the
capture of Mahomed. He confess
ed the most horrbile details of the
cannibal gang's activities, declar
ing the gang usually ‘Yried the
children and then ate them.
MAN AND TWO CHILDREN ARE
SWALLOWED UP NEAR MA
CON. BODIES RECOVERED.
MACON, Ga.—Treacherous quick
sands of the Ocmulgee river claimed
three lives Tuesday, and one of this
number was sucked down in a valiant
but unavailing effort to save his young
grandson.
In trying to rescue his seven-year
old grandson, who had gotten into
quicksand in the river Max Keefer, lo
comotive engineer, jumped into the
sand and sank from sight. Both Keef
er and the grandchild, Charles Couch,
were drowned.
Keefer took his grandchild and two
thirteen-year-old girls, his daughter,
Clara, and Marie Lizzie Hunnicutt, a
friend 'of the family, on the fishing
trip.
The girls gave the alarm that “Char
lie is drowning,” and the grandfather
plunged in. The water was shallow,
but so completely were the two swal
lowed up in the sand that the bodies
had not been recovered an hour after
the drowning.
Wanders Off. :
Later in the day,.only a short dis
tange down the river from the scene
of the first tragedy, little Clifford
Herndon left the picnic party she was
attending with other children, and
wandered down to the river bank to
wade in the warm, shallow water.
No fears assailed her childish mind
as she paddled happily about, and
when she felt the sands closing about
‘her body far from land her cries for
help were unheard by the other pic
nickers on their merry-making. | |
~ Expert divers and swimmers, in
‘boats and with grappling hooks,
searched the placid waters of the Oc
'mulgee for hours before the bodies
"were recovered. '
Keefer was 52 years old and had
}l)een running a locomotive for 20
years.
i
tSUPERSTITION SAYS THEY GO
DRY EVERY SEVEN YEARS.
I ' SPORTSMEN ON WATCH.
THOMASVILLE, Ga—Sportsmen
and many others here are anxious to
know whether or not the big lakes
lamonia and Miccouski, just over the
line in Florida, are really going dry
this year.
| It has long been a superstition with
lthe old residents around the lakes that
‘thcy go dry every seven years, and
as this is the seventh year since the
’last time their waters went out it is
claimed they will go again before the
'year is over. ;
' These lakes do not really dry up,
their waters just get lower and then
[all at once they go out with a rush,
through some underground opening.
After a while they suddenly return
without any warning, gushing up from
the mysterious underground channel
' which feeds them. It has been remark
led of late that the waters are getting
lower and it is feared that they may
’carry out the old superstition and
leave.
~ Not only sportsmen here, but those
from many sections of the state and
many of the northern winter residents,
look forward to the duck shooting on
these lakes and should they go dry it
would be in the nature of a great dis
appointment to them.
'ly Mrs. Hillman telephones the nurse
who is taking care of !er husband, in
the Hillman apartment.
“Why shouldn’t 1 take up my hus
band’s duties when he is ill?” Mrs,
Hillman asks. “He is the president of
this firm, and I am the first vice presi
'dent. When the president is away the
first vice president naturally assumes
his place. My husband, too, has told
me so much about his business that
1 have no trouble in taking up things
where he left off, and I'm going to
show him some nice outfits when he
ot bacc™ J
Buy Terrell
County Products
VOL. 43.—N0. 3
ENORMOUS 15 GOST OF
THE NATIONAL VAGATION
\
! s ,
IS ESTIMATED THAT 30 MIL
LION PERSONS SPENT THREE
~ BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
| L
FARMER IS SOLE EXCEPTION
Rescrts Have Had Most Prosperous
~ Season Ever Known. Flood °of
~ Money Poured Out by the Holiday
' Throngs During the Summer.
~ America’s vacation during 1925,
drawing now. to a close, has cost about
three billion dollars. That, in round
figures, is the best available measure
of the flood of money that has been
poured out by holiday throngs during
the summer at seaside, mountain and
other vacation resorts. It stands, per
haps, as a record spending for the an
nual vacation.
~ Approximately 30,000,000 persons,
it is believed, have taken an average
of a fortnight off to play, says Harden
‘(,n.l‘fax. the well-known Washington
writer, in an article to the Savannah
‘l\cws. The number is larger this year
than usual because the country has
been singularly free of strikes and in
dustrial strife, and almost everybody
who wants to work has had a job. To
this general rule the farmer alone
stands as an exception; anyhow, from
the nature of his work summer is not
his vacation time. i
Vacationists Swell Traffic.
The estimate of 30,000,000 vacation
ists allows for two persons out of ev
ery three gainfully employed, as shown
by census bureau estimates. It does
not consider the perennial vacationists
of the moneyed class who flit from
Maine to Florida with the seasons. No
line is possible for measuring their
outlay for holidays.
Railroads show on their monthly
reports to the Interstate Commerce
Commission a passenger traffic this
summer considerably above the aver
age. The transcontinental movement
has been particularly heavy and pull
man reservations hard to get except
far in advance. California and the
great national parks welcomed this
year, it is believed from this showing,
far greater holiday crowds than ever
before, !
Summer resorts generally have nev
er had a more prosperous season. Res
ervations have been impossible during
August at several of the more popular
Atlantic coast resorts except at the
great hotels which cater more to the
tourist than the two weeks’ vacation
spender. Mountain resorts have shared
with the seaside in the spending of
the holiday crowds.
Cost Uncle Sam $15,000,000.
At Washington it is estimated that
the annual vacation of Uncle Sam’s
home and field forces have cost the
nation about $15,000,000. That sum
represents salaries paid employes on
annual leave. Nearly all federal em
ployes have had a vacation, a refresh
ing contrast to recent years when the
stress of post-war adjustment has held
thousands of their desks without the
customary summer relief.
Free tourist camps throughout the
eAst have been overflowing, in almost
every instarice, this summer to an ex
tent never before attained. A few
years ago there was room to spare at
nearly all of them. Now the rule ap
pears to favor line formation of appli
cants. More persons have lazed along
the open road in 1925 than ever before.
An average estimate of the spend
ing of each vacationist during his time
off this summer has been placed, for
this correspondent, at approximately
$lOO by welfare workers. Such an es
timate is hard to make, they admit,
but the figuré arrived at is considered
ultra-conservative. Assuming that it
applies to the 30,000,000 vacationists
3(1)8 total spendings run to $3,000,000,-
Huge Figures Tell Tale.
This figure is checked loosely by es
timated totals of sums paid wage earn
ers and salaried workers annually
throughout the United States. Various
economists have placed this annual
sum at from $60,000,000 t0'575,000,000,
figuring the average annual income at
‘about $1,500. The weekly payments,
under these estimates, run from about
|51.100.000.n00 to $1,500,000,000 for
wages and salaries. .
l The two weeks wages and salaries,
therefore, would amount to from $2,-
300,000,000 to $3.000,000,000. If the
average vacationist spent only his two
weeks pay the vacation spendings
would run to more than $2,000,000,000.
When to the vacation spendings are
! added the fortunes spent weekly by
|the American people for sports and
'in other forms of play, including thea
|tre.s and motion pictures, the cost of
play this summer has run to sums
lwhich cannot even be estimated.
The development of the ideca that
everyone needs a vacation once a year
lhas given employment to hundreds of
thousands of persons who cater to va
cation needs and has founded great
manufacturing and other plants for
supplying paraphernalia for pleasure
tparks and resorts—a phase of indus
trial life that was almost wholly lack
ing some twenty-frve or thirty years
ago when few persons tooks vacations.
SOME ANIMALS AND BIRDS
LIVE OVER HUNDRED YEARS
Do you know that elephants often
live to be 150 or 200 years old? Croc
odiles live to be 100 and tortoises over
a hundred years of age. The eagle,
crow, raven and swan are birds that
sometimes live to be a century old.