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Show THE CITIZEN to the needs of the country. Our currency could be expanded or contracted to meet the exigencies of crop moving or any unprecedented demand for credit. Unless our railway system can be so expanded as to adjust transportation to the needs of production we shall find urselves not infrequently in the midst of an industrial crisis. How futile it is to urge people to take up farms in new territory if we do not provide the transportation facilities to handle their crops ! How silly it is, at this time, to urge the .mine owners to produce more coal ! After the coal is produced it cannot be shipped. Under government control the rolling stock of the railroads was not expanded. Thousands of the cars wore out and were not replaced. Meantime the growth of population had made increased railway facilities of all kinds essential. It is a curious and deceptive phase that prices are falling at a time' when, according to the rule we have laid down, prices ought to rising because of transportation difficulties. The decline in prices $ be is a phenomenon of the moment unless we permit industrial conditions to degenerate into a panic and widespread unemployment. Prices had gone so high that the public refused to purchase. Everywhere demand fell off because buyers decided to get along as well as possible with what they had. Merchants with big stocks, ' 1 j 0 ' j especially of clothing, found themselves selling at such a slow rate that the chances were their stocks would not be cleared away in time for fall goods. Moreover, the banks began to restrict loans and manufacturers were unable to get the money necessary to operate while holding back their stocks for more favorable selling conditions. They were compelled to throw their stocks on the market. Consequently, and in spite of the car shortage, prices fell. On the one hand supply was limited by the car shortage, but on the other hand demand also decreased because the public refused to buy certain lines. Prices declined in these lines, but remained stable or even advanced in lines in which the demand remained good, as, for example, in fuel. It is not part of our purpose to. discuss all of the elements effecting high prices. We are here concerned with the paralysis produced by lack of transport facilities. It is patent that a car shortage can have much' the same effect as a money shortage. If there is not money enough to move crops and transact the necessary business of the country we hiave hard times. Men are thrown out of employment by the millions because factories are closed and mine and farm production falls og. If there are not enough cars the result is similar, as we have seen in the case of the coal mines. Thus it is that the car shortage is becoming a great economic issue. It is an issue that involves the whole question of rehabilitating and managing the railroads. In our disappointment and resentment we are apt to blame the condition on private ownership, & though the shortage is the result of condition that arose under government ownership. But it makes no difference to the public whether public or private ownership solves the problem; it must be solved. Our railroads must become a bigger institution than ever. Thousands and tens of thousands of men must be added to millions already en- gaged in the work of transportation. Electrification of railways may help to improve conditions by railreducing the amount of fuel to be transported and used by the roads. Shipping by auto truck may do more to relax the strain on rail facilities than we imagine at this time. But the principal remedy, so far as any of us are able to discern now, must be the building of more cars, the expansion of terminal facilities, the improvement and amplification of equipment and the construction of new lines and branches. Billions of dollars will be required, more billions, indeed, by far, than would have been necessary, everything else being equal, in times when money bought more than it does now. Before the war new freight cars cost from $700 to $1,200; now they cost from $3,000 to $3,500. The magnitude of the question is just beginning to dawn upon the American people and they will not rest until they have provided a complete solution. 5 MR. WATTIS A CANDIDATE . Among the candidates who are prominently mentioned for nomination as governor on the Republican ticket is William H. Wattis, of Weber county. Income unaccountable fashion the report gained currency this week that he had withdrawn from the race. Inasmuch as the party can to have its best man dropping out of the race, The Citizen took the trouble to inquire whether Mr. Wattis had made any announcement that would warrant the report. It learned from friends. of Mr. Wattis that he would feel honored if the Republicans of the state should make him their standard bearer. The Citizen is glad to set at rest the unfounded rumor and it is glad to hear that Mr. Wattis continues in the race with his worthy competitors. His record as a business man and citizen, his friends believe, entitles him to the consideration of his party. They maintain that if he is elected his great business ability will help him to rectify the deplorable tax situation now existing and to give the state a high class business administration. ill-affo- rd . . THE WRONGS OF RIGHTS i In the debate between ' Governor Allen and Mr. Gompers, the governor asked a question which will help to clarify the controversy over the rights of labor, capital and the public. The president of the American federation evaded the question during the debate, but' since then he has given his answer. The governors question was: When a dispute between capital and labor brings on a strike affecting the production or distribution of the necessaries of life, thus threatening the public peace and impairing the public health, .has the public any rights in such a controversy, or is it a private war between capital and labor? If you answer the question in the affirmative, Mr. Gompers, how would you protect the rights of the public? And, in addition, I wish him to define for us, if he will, who had the divine right to forbid the switchmen to strike in their outlaw strike; who controls this divine right to quit work? In the course of his answer Mr. Gompers says : So far as labor is concerned the right to strike must be and and selfwill be maintained not only as a measure of advancement, but as a measure necessary to public progress. Mr. Gompers also declares : The public has no rights which are superior to the toiler's right to live and to his right to defend himself against oppression, How difficult it is to be consistent in the discussion of this question of rights, Mr. Gompers illustrates when he discusses the switchmens strike. He refuses to answer the question regarding the outlaw strike of the switchmen. on the gropnd that it is an improper question because the switchmen had no right to strike,- having received no orders from their officers or from their organization. But if they felt themselves oppressed why did they not have the right to defend themselves without taking orders from anyone? Mr. Gompers says the public has no right to give orders to the workers if they consider that they have a right to defend themselves against oppression. If it is discretionary with them to decide when they have a right to reject public control why is it not discretionary with them to decide when they shall reject control by their officers and organization? If the toilers are to be a law unto themselves they are no more subject to their leaders than they are to the public. Surely, if the public has no divine right to suppress strikes the union officers possess no such divine right. . Admittedly this is a confusing question. Of old it was thought that the safety of the public is the supreme law, but Mr. Gompers assures us that he has discovered a new supreme law. He declares that the toilers right, in case of oppression, is superior to the right of the public and, by implication, he says that the toilers have the sole right to decide when they are being oppressed. Here, then, we enter that twilight zone between government and revolution. Has any body of citizens a right to use the methods of revolution . self-defen- se - |