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PAGE SIX
Ol INTEREST TO WEALTH CREATORS
AS TO R. R. RATES.
“The 2-cent railroad rate law in
Ohio has been a success,” said H. D.
Mannington, secretary of the railroad
commission of Ohio, at the Raleigh
recently. “Returns for a full year
under the law are not available as
yet, but our information shows that
the earnings of the trunk lines have
increased more than 2 per cent over
those of the previous year. In some
parts of the State, where the railroads
run through sparsely settled commu
nities, I believe the roads have suf
fered, and the interurban trolley
lines, in some instances, &lso have
shown a decrease in their earnings.
We have one narrow-gauge road in
Ohio, 110 miles long, which, I be
lieve, will suffer a net loss under the
new law. Generally, however, the
railroads have increased their profits.
This is because of increased traffic
and the fact that they have taken
some of the business away from the
trolley lines.
“In my opinion, the railroad rate
question might be solved more satis
factorily if State commissioners were
given larger power. The problems in
transportation are numerous and
complex, and it requires the best
thought and judgment of able men to
solve them. I believe that if a legis
lature were to pass a law fixing a
maximum rate for railroads and giv
ing the State railroad commission dis
cretionary power to fix rates to be
charged in different parts of the
State, it would prove more satisfac
tory. I am satisfied that a general 2-
cent rate law may work hardships on
some of the smaller lines, and per
haps prove confiscatory. In such
cases, if the commission were to be
given power to fix a rate that would
make the operation of the road profit
able, there could be no complaint and
traffic would not be disturbed.”
Mr. Mannington, whose home is in
Columbus, was a candidate for the
Republican nomination for secretary
of state in 1900, but was defeated. —
Washington Post.
WHAT A LADY EDITOR WRITES.
It is a blessed thing to be an Amer
ican. Everybody—in America at
least —admits it. But it is also ex
pensive. There are many advantages,
and many costs as well, but few com
plain, because there is nothing really
worth while that does not cost some
thing, either in money or in sacrifice
or in effort.
One of the items of cost is taxa
tion. The mere running expenses of
a city like New York amount to s3l
per head per year, though very likely
taxes do not average so high, thanks
to large corporate interests that re
luctantly accept a large share of the
burden, though often it is but a small
part of what they should pay. That
figure is high, however.
Crime costs the nation a perfect
toll each year. It has been esti
mated that the care of prisons, the
detection and prosecution of crimi
nals, etc., costs $700,000,000 annual
ly.
Then for the better profit of our
friends that are interested in trusts,
we pay a large tariff tax every year.
We pay this on pretty nearly every
thing we eat, wear or use, and if wo
paid as j»u<ih in direct taxes as we
do this way, we should spend much
of our time mobbing the courthouses
and telling the taxing officers what
we thought of them.
But it is not a direct tax. It is
merely an intangible par t of the cost
of things we buy so we only realize
the burdeh in a vague way. We do
not even realize, perhaps, that through
it we are enabling our millionaires
to wax richer and our millionaires*
sons to indulge in “brain storms* *
and scandals, and our millionaires*
daughters to buy titles encumbered
by misery and shame.
Another foolish tax, equivalent to
nearly $8 per head each year, comes
from our fire losses. Part of this goes
in the gamble we make with the fire
insurance companies to reimburse us
for part of what we lose, but the
greater part of it goes up in smoke,
not to mention a yearly sacrifice of
6,000 lives. Fires involving losses ag
gregating over $100,000,000 are due
to incendiaries or to gross negligence.
A very large proportion of the losses
are due to putting human lives and
property into structures that are lit
tle better than tinder boxes. Much of
the loss could be saved by greater
care, and by a closer attention to tire
protection especially in young and
growing towns. We have had two
recent serious examples of lack of
fire protection, and Adams will wake
up some morning to find itself in
ruins if some fire protection is not
soon considered and provided.—Mrs.
Doherty in Adams (N. D.) Budget.
LOOSE TALK ABOUT GOOD
TIMES.
All sorts of people are being inter
viewed concerning the country’s
claims of special prosperity and the
financial situation generally, and
their opinions are being telegraphed
around the country whether the au
thors of the opinions are wise or ig
norant on the subject.
As an example, an opinion of John
Mitchell, President of the United
Mine Workers, was telegraphed to the
papers and printed by the Picayune
yesterday. Mr. Mitchell is credited
with having settled the national
financial situation as follows:
“The only thing, in my opinion,
that would bring on a business de
pression would be overproduction,
and there are no signs to indicate
that at present. Labor is employed
and the people are continuing to
spend money, and as long as these
conditions prevail there is no danger,
in my opinion, of hard times. I can
see no reason why we should not
have a continuation of several years
of prosperity.**
There was a lot more of this sort
of talk, but what is given is suffi
cient to show Mr. Mitchell’s ignor
ance and the general ignorance of
what produces financial panics. They
never were caused by the overproduc
tion of necessaries, such as coal, iron,
grain, cotton and other such articles.
In every case they have come sud
denly out of overspeculation.
When times are reputed to be good
and capital is easily got to carry on
all sorts of enterprises, and particu
larly new ones in which it is believed
a big profit is to be quickly obtained,
all kinds of schemes, good and bad,
from reasonable and practicable, to
the worst sort of. t ‘wildcat” games,
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
find somebody to back them up, and
thus all the available money on hand
is put out in such speculations.
All goes on swimmingly, and every
body talks of the unusual good times
until some of the schemers are called
on to pay what they owe. They can
not do it at a moment’s warning, and
probably not in a month or at all.
Then commences the failure of such
operators, and soon a general scare
ensues which induces loud calls for
money. Capital which periodically
loses its proverbial timidity and puts
out money right and left, calls in all
its loans and shuts its vaults against
all comers no matter what are their
merits. Then panic reigns and busi
ness of every sort suffers for the reg
ular accommodations to which it has
been accustomed, while collections
are difficult to make.
The panic is caused by the bursting
of the speculative bubble, but the
final result is that it causes a shrink
age in all legitimate business, and
everybody comes down to a hand-to
mouth basis. Factories stop or come
down to short hours with reduced
forces, and thousands of work people
are turned out of employment.
Today money is very tight, and it
is doubtful if the grain and cotton
crops could be easily moved but for
the assurance that the Secretary of
the Treasury at Washington will fur
nish the cash. Fortunately there is
a surplus of nearly ninety million dol
lars in the vaults over and above the
reserve and guarantee funds to pro- .
tect the gold and silver certificates.
It is therefore believed that the
business of the country will be saved
this fall from a threatened panic, not
by the alleged good times, but by the
money in the National Treasury. But
for that there would be a serious sit
uation to fear. —N. O. Picayune.
■■ ■ ifai.
A SPOOL OF THREAD.
The estimable Textile World Rec
ord is in a quandary. It finds that
the American consumer pays six cents
for a two-hundred-yard spool of
thread, while the British consumer
pays only three cents for exactly the
same spool. Both spools, of course,
are made from exactly the same
American cotton, and, what makes
the case most puzzling, both are made
by exactly the same trust.
We must allow for higher wages
in this country. The tariff does al
low for that, and the framers of the
Dingley schedules have never, so far
as we are aware, been accused of un
derestimating the difference between
American and foreign wages. The
duty on the spool is one cent, and un
less we are to adopt the startling
hypothesis that the tariff-makers
guessed short, we must accept that
as amply covering the item of high
er wages on this side of the sea.
Why, then, the other two cents
per spool? Upon what theory does
the thread trust, deriving its raw ma
tetrial from the United States, charge
its American patrons fifty per cent
more than its British patrons over
and above the increased cost of man
ufacture here due to higher wages?
Well, we recall an English trust
which joyfnlly followed approved
American methods —up to the time it
began marketing its wares. Then
there was a radical departure, in the
form of so ftfWOUS ft public pro-
test that the trust capitulated,
Possibly the answer to the conun
drum which baffles the Textile World
Record is that the American public
doesn’t mind being soaked, while the
British public does. —Saturday Even
ing Post,
COTTON GOODS AND TSE NEW
CROP.
Spinning cotton in the eastern
mills is now based on a cost of 13 1-4
cents for middling uplands in New
York. In the mills, however, that
turn out finished products stocks are
small, goods are sold far ahead, and
deliveries are hard to secure on old
orders. Prices have been advanced
since August 1 from 1-4 to 1-2 a cent
a yard. Every article that the mills
turn out, be it ginghams, print cloths,
staple prints or bleased cottons, is
quoted “strong.” Bradstreet’s says
“the agents of the leading lines have
announced that they will not make
any prices or show sample cards for
the spring of 1908 until the middle of
September at the earliest, when it is
expected the old business will be
cleaned up. The problem appears to
be how to distribute a -limited pro
duction over an almost unlimited de
mand, there being practically a wait
ing list now.’*
This is the situation in New Eng
land, where the cotton mills are pay
ing large dividends and have substan
tial surpluses. No doubt a similar
state of things exists in England and
also on the continent. In England
many new mills have recently been
built.
The goods situation goes to show
that a crop of 13,000,000 bales is
needed, and any deficiency must mean
an increased price for new cotton.
The farmers are better organized
than they ever have been in the his
tory of cotton cultivation, and the
chances largely are that the staple
will bring its full and true value
throughout the shipping season.—
Birmingham Age-Herald.
National President of the Farmers’
Union C. S. Barrett said recently hi
a speech at a meeting in South Car
olina, that the Farmers’ Union was
growing at an average rate of 5,000
a day. That its present membership
was more than one and a half million,
and that it would soon reach 2,000,-
000. The day is not far distant when
they will own and operate oil mills,
factories, packing-houses, banks and
be prepared to handle all products of
the farm, producing, manufacturing
and margeting them. They are going to
quit being slaves for the gamblers
and work for themselves, become fac
tors and masters in commerce and en
joy, as God intended that all men
should, the fruits of their labor.—
Union Gazette.
The Louisiana Planter says edito
rially in its issue of Saturday last:
“Considerable rain has been had
during the past week throughout the
sugar district, and while this has been
welcome on those plantations where
there has been a lack of moisture of
late, it is interfering somewhat with
the saving of hay and where sufficient
rainfall had previously been had some
mild complaints are registered against
it on this score and unfortunately the
rainfall is a little too late to material-