OCR Text |
Show THE CITIZEN 4 RAILROAD LEGISLATION. BY DOUGLAS MALLOCH. I No one can explain why railroading is not a business just as much as hanking, manufacturing and merchandising. No one can explain why railroads should not be run as any other business by trained railroad men, instead of 49 state and federal commissions and by 49 state and federal legislatures. In the present Congress there have been introduced no less than 134 bills dealing with the railroads. A few of these may. have merit and may be necessary and constructive. But the larger number, instead of aiming to help the railroads to render better service to the public, would hamper them4and be destructive of their efficiency. In the next Congress an additional flood of persecution bills is expected, some of them more radical than any now on the docket, and there will then be more numerous and more urgent backers for such legislation. Should the worst measures be passed the damage to the nation would be great. The railroads cannot be harmed without detriment But the millions of tQ all the other industries of the country. owners of the railroad systems that is, the shareholders are not likely to tolerate efforts to impair their property rights. The wise business man of the country will doubtless join the and bolstockholders in making a sturdy fight against the shevism. If I should carve a Lincoln, I would take No marble, but a rugged rock, One that the frosts of winter could not break, That had withstood the oceans thundering shock, solid rock amid the shifting sands, Unmoved by storm, unaltered by the wave, Some granite giant that forever stands To mark the harbor with a light to save. snow-whit- e . If I. should carvea Lincoln, I would shape Some promontory lifting from the sea, Standing, as Lincoln stood, a mighty cape Thrust forward into time a century, Looking, as Lincoln looked, beyond the shore, Across the ocean of the future years, A rock to stand for men forevermore And point the way to other pioneers. If I should carve a Lincoln, I would shape A figure from a rock that loved the sun, A rock that glistened after every storm And smiled with verdure when the rain was done, fair-mind- ed anti-railro- ad A rock where little children came to play And violets to blossom-othe slope, That found, like Lincoln, humor in each day, In words of humor finding words of hope. n UNJUST CRITICISM. If you would carve a Lincoln, such a stone You will require, O sculptor, for your art, Some stone gigantic standing thus alone, High as his mind, and broad as Lincolns heart. When, the editor of the New York Journal of Commerce is not scolding the 'Harding administration, he is damning it with faint praise. Holding his job as an official on the Federal Reserve board, the seemliness of such procedure is in question. Belittling what has been accomplished under the budget, and to offset President Hardings statement that the budget system may be hailed as a great accomplishment, he declares that the balancing of the budget is not so great a cause of congratulation as some at first sight may believe because Great Britain has unexpectedly paid us $100, 000, 000 on her debt to the United States, that very large collections have been made, and that the receipts from the tariff have been unusually large. It is to be wondered if Great Britain would have made tnis payment had the Democratic party continued in power, as the editor of the Journal desired. Would the Democratic party have collected those back taxes and thereby admitted its mistake in not collecting them in the first place. It is certain the Democratic tariff would not have yielded the unusual receipts which were realized during the closing tariff law. Naturally months of 1922 from the Fordney-McCumbno budget system could be successful if the party in power did not' work to make it so, or if its policies were in opposition to those of the budget administrators. The cavilling of the Journal of Commerce editor comes with poor grace. . . We may not hope to shape with human hands . A fit memorial for such as he Leave Time to carve it from some rock that stands, Some new Gibralter, by our western sea. . HUGE DOPE PROFITS. It is incredible to believe that people that can be lead so easily there are so many simple minded to become victims of that mind destroying, and demoralizing drug dope. Government men report that over half a million dollars worth of the dope is being peddled in this country with a prospective increase in the future. It has gotten beyond the control of the government. In one of the southwestern states the peddlers were even plying their nefarious trade at one of the schools among the children. If this drug habit is such a detriment to the country and is creating the untold misery as related in the daily press from time to time, why is it that the government is so lenient with the violators that are caught peddling the dope? JLife imprisonment would be a Advising the utmost caution in buying sugar, both by the trade just sentence to impose upon one who was caught making fiends of and by the consumer, the Federal Sugar Refining company declares school children. The immense profits in morphine is a big attraction that the sugar market is being manipulated and is dominated by to the vagrant who will not work. It is said that morphine is sold speculation, and any buying immediate needs will only make matters by the manufacturers for less than two cents a grain and in the worse. On February 23 the price of granulated sugar went to 9 market Jt brings as high as five dollars. We need many good roads cents a pound. It was selling at cents late in December. One throughout the country. Why not round up the criminals and put of the excuses given by speculators for the advance was a recent them to work? report of the Department of Commerce with regard to the sugar The continued issuance of securities must be stopped supply. The speculators seem to have wilfully interpreted this reor the federal government must find some substitute for its surtaxes port as indicating a prospective sugar shortage, although trie department was very careful to point out that no shortage impended, but on incomes, says Secretary Mellon of the treasury. The issue is immediate and serious. Its persistence is distorting our whole econto prevent it. that there would be a sufficient carry-ovomic structure and hampering the development of business and inThe teaching of the fathers are not dead in this country. People dustry throughout the country. have not forgotten the words of Washington and Lincoln. People know and showed by their votes last election that they want none It requires extraordinary ability for a man to be both profitably of mixing with Europe. and safely dishonorable. But there are a few who succeed admirably. er tax-exem- pt er |