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A STUDY IN STOVES AND RATES The fact that the stove manufac turers at a recent meeting in Chatta nooga put up the price of their prod uct another 5 per cent has been pro ductive of no little concern, especially in view of the fact that the freight rates on stoves have recently been so materially reduced: A correspondent of The Constitu tion saysj. Atlanta, Ga., September -23, 1907. Editor Constitution • You made a tremendous howl in your paper when the railroads raised the price of coal five cents per ton recently, but your paper had no flaring editorials in re gerd to the rates on stoves being raised, as agreed upon at the Chatta nooga meeting of the stove manufac turers. WHY ? A SUBSCRIBER. Tn truth, the prices of stoves to the consumer have been increased with such lightning-like rapidity that it has been practically impossible to keep up with the procession! Prompted by the fair promises that reduction in the freight rates would mean lower prices to the consumer, freight rates were reduced to the tune of about 33 1-3 per cent When it was discovered that not only did the reduction in rate not go to the consumer, but the price was immediately increased, The Consti tution entered a protest, even demand ing that the legislature appoint a committee to find out why the peo ple had not been given the benefit of the large rate reductions already made, as had been promised them. But the “reform” administration, unfortunately, did not see fit to take up The Constitution’s protest. And now comes the announcement of another increase in the price of stoves —five per cent more, making 10 per cent in a few months. While we have a remedy for un due exactions made by the railroads, the stove trust is subservient to no one but its own sweet will. Thus the stove manufacturers have not only absorbed for themselves the 33 1-3 per cent reduction made -in the Georgia freight rate, but have, within the period in which agitation for reduction of rates has been going on “in the name of the people,” added nearly 25 per cent to the sell ing price of their Between January, 1905, when the agitation for lower rates began, and May, 1907, the price of stoves was increased 12 per cent. In June last, simultaneously with the decision of the Georgia supreme court confirm ing the 33 1-3 per cent rate reduc tion made by the Georgia railroad commission, another increase of 5 per cent was announced. Now that the freight reductions are actually in effect, the announcement comes Trom Chattanooga of another 5 per cent raise, making the price of the stand ard stove that sold in January, 1905, for $11.70, approximately $14.33. Possibly another 33 1-3 per cent reduction in the rate will send the price of the same stove to $lB or S2O. The stove manufacturers went be fore the railroad commission and de manded a reduction in the rate on their product. The rates were too high, they said, and a burden upon the consumers as well as upon the manufacturers. The railroads agreed that they could not stand the reduc- tion, because the price of iron, steel, coal, lumber and labor, of all of which the railroads are large con sumers, had materially advanced, and their expenses were far greater than ever before. They really thought the rate should be raised in order to better enable them to meet these in creased expenses, but they did not ask it; they only asked that the ex isting rate be left undisturbed. “That makes no difference. The rates are too high; they have always been too high. They must be reduced or we can’t do business,” was the reply of the Stove manufacturers. The rates were ordered reduced, but before the reductions went into effect, one Georgia stove manufactory made profits of 100 per cent net on the value of its plants as returned for taxation! Then came the lightning-like in creases in the price of stoves to the consumer, and when the consumer protests he is met with the reply: “The price of maetrials has great ly advanced. We must pay more for iron and steel, more for coal and more for labor. Therefore it is nec essary to advance the price of our product. ’ ’ They have borrowed the argument of the railroads against a reduction in rates, to justify an increase of nearly 25 per cent in the price of their product to the consumer. The materials are the same which enter into railroad construction and operation; the only difference is, the quantity consumed by the manufac turers of stoves is insignificant in comparison with that which the rail road companies are completed to use. Yet in one instance the argument is employed to justify the increase in the price of a product to the people; in the other it avails nothing in main taining the price of transportation where no increase had been sought or asked. It is not the justice of the rate re ductions which we question; it is the injustice to the public who, after be ing promised lower prices as the re sult of reduced rates, are compelled to submit without recourse to the ex actions of a trust which has not only pocketed the rate reduction, but adds one-fourth more to the price of its product, because it has the power to do so and there is none to restrain it. It would seem that the stove trust, in its effort to hold onto that 100 per cent net profit, has determined to squeeze out of the public whatever it cannot wring out of the railroads. And the public is continuing, meekly, to foot the bill. —Atlanta Constitution. ANOTHER 014) LETTER. New York, August 12, 1906—The World to-morow will publish a signed statement written by T. E. Watson, the populist nominee foi vice-president. Mr. Watson says in part: “When the national convention of the People’s party adjourned after the nomination of Mr. Watson, as a setoff to that of Mr. Bryan, there was an interval of several days in which it was difficult to see whose triumph it was. Had the democrats absorbed the populists, or had the people’s party halted the democrats when they were half way over the fece? WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. “Would the populist nominee be able to hold the rank and file of his party as against the fusionists, or would he be swept off his feet by the tide? As the third week has passed away it is now quite clear that the populist nominee has not been swept away, and that the position grows stronger daily. Feeling that the rank and file of his party would look to him to maintain the populist organi zation in this hour of its danger, Mr. Watson plainly and promptly stated that he was in the fight to stay. 4 * This statement carried encour agement with it, and removed all doubt on that point from the popu list mind. In Florida the St. Louis ticket was indorsed, also in Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Tn Nebraska, the home of Mr. Bryan, the Populists have thus far demanded Watson as Bryan’s running mate. In Kansas the ‘leaders’ have ap parently traded off the electoAl vote to Sewall in return for the state house officials. . “It remains to be seen whether the people of Kansas will ratify the trade. Tn lowa, General Weaver’s state, the people’s party declined fusion offers, and put out a straight Bryan and Watson ticket. Indiana, Wyoming and Washington have done likewise. As a matter of, fact, the great fusion movement thus far car ried but four states, while straight populism carried thirteen, and is fighting its opponents to a stand still in the others. If the rank and file can be heard from in all the conventions we are in no douht of the result, and the rank and file will probably be heard from. “Mr. Watson asked the national committee to send him to the West. He believes that he should appeal to those people face to face in this crisis. The West sent her Weavers and her Simpsons and her Mary El len Leases to the South in 1890, ask ing that the South break away from all parties and meet the West in a new organization, whose aim should be to unite the West and South in political brotherhood. The South responded, and the Congressman from Georgia who took his life in his hands and stepped forth to meet Simpson and Davis and Peffer, of Kansas, now wants to meet the brave men of the West and ask them whether they wont stand by South ern populism in this day of its peril. He believes they will. Se wall is the ' chain of the Bryan wheel, the brake to his car. The money power dictated his nomina tion as a counter move to BryanS. Tn no other way can any one ex plain why the entire South has passed over in the choice of a vice presidential nominee. ' “Gorman, the gold bug, and pro tectionist, is controlling Brvan’s free silver campaign, and Sewall, the typical Eastern plutocrat, is Bryan’s running ma|e. What does this ar gue? That if .Sewall remains ion the ticket and Gorman continues to pull the campaign wires, the whole country will see clearly enough that Mr. Pendleton, of Georgia, was right when he said he was going to sup port the Chicago ticket for the rea son that no free silver law would be passed. “We can not be guilty of the ab surdity of choosing a national ban- ker as our leader in a fight against national banks. We can not hope to escape ridicule and just reproach if we choose an Eastern plutocrat to lead us in a contest against plu tocracy. We can not believe that we can keep our own forces straight if we should start on a crusade against corporations under the com mand of a corporation king. “Hence we can not under any cir cumstances vote for Sewall electors. “Any policy other than the St. Louis policy means death to popu lism, and we ought not to be asked to kill our own party. “The South furnished the electoral vote which elected, but she dared not write the platforms nor dictate the nominees. It was the voice of the people’s party which united the South and West, transferred the bal ance of power to the West and com pletely relieved the South from the necessity of sitting at the footstool of that twin brother of republican ism, Northern democracy. Populism, having accomplished these good re sults while out of power, has at least earned the right tu live. Hence ns the third week of the campaign since the St. Louis convention has passed away, it becomes more and more ap parent that the people’s party will stand by its nominee, and that the Southern democrat of the rank and file if left to his choice will vote for Bryan and Watson rather than for Bryan and Sewall. The South ern democrats feel that Watson is in accord with their principles, their platform; their sectional pride and their material interests, while Mr. Sewall is not.” WHISKY ADVERTISEMENTS. Since State prohibition has become a law almost all of our hire dailies have come out fair and square for a strict enforcement of the law. They have promised their aid in every way to make the law as effective as pos sible. In order therefore for them to be consistent will they not have to strike hands with the Atlanta Geor gian and agree not to publish in their columns the advertisements of out of the State whiskey dealers? In oth er words, if our papers are to lend their efforts towards a strict enforce ment of the prohibition law of the State can they consistently carry in their columns advertisements telling the citizens of Georgia where they can get all the liquor they want by express? It appears to us, therefore, if these papers are really in earnest when they say prohibition should be given a fair trial, tney should do no act that will in any way neutralize or annul the good effects that should come from prohibition.—The Cannon (Ga.) Echo. If the man who invented the piano that whistles should run for public office he would get an idea how hard it is for a candidate to overcome an unfortunate record. Several Michigan Indian hunters used a for a tar get, and it is hardly necessary to add they went to the happy hunting grounds. The government authorities con tinue to try to make the oil trust offi cials display a colossal amount of ig norance as to how the business of the concern is run. PAGE FIVE