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Show THE CITIZEN MAKING CRIMINALS J nations have been making an effort to make RUSSIA placed a limit on vodka (liquor) with the result that hundreds of bootleggers have taken advantage of the restricted law and are now illegally selling their liquor. Whenever law attempts to regulate personal rights of the people, criminals are turned out by the wholesale. METALS PAVE WAY THE GROWING metal production in the United States and the progress made in mining from both a scientific and business standpoint, are one of the most encouraging phases of our industrial life. In the great Western states, metal production has led directly to a greater general prosperity Qthan has been reflected over the entire nation. The tremendous demand for such metals as copper, lead and zinc by the railroads, the electric industry and general manufacturers, makes imperative a steady, stable supply at a fair price. And this, in the past few years, has been attained by tremendous progress made in the ' science of production and ore refining, and by a reasonable adjustment of supply and demand. Without mines no nation has ever been able to achieve greatness. The United States is singularly blessed with its mineral resources and in the character of the industry that is producing them. A SERIOUS CHARGE THE UTAH Education Association took to task the Utah Taxpayers Association in a bulletin, ts of which were published in the Salt Lake Telegram. The U. E. A. charges the taxpayers association with selfish motives, inasmuch as it does not represent the people, but only a favored few corporations. This, is news to many people and if the charges are true then the tax association should change its tactics or get out of business. A taxpayers association should represent every taxpayer in the state and it .should not be run to protect the interest of a few that are footing the bills. We cannot believe this association was organized for selfish reasons. ex-erp- WHATS WRONG BUILDING AND construction costs have reached a peak never thought of and it is not wages that has caused the rise either. When it is aken into consideration the mass production wdth modem machinery it is hard to figure how costs have mounted so high. Some say that the average builder and contractor is not satisfied with the past small profits. Today he wants to make his stake in one or two jobs. There was a time when all building was practically done by hand labor; today much of the Jabor is done by machines, yet the cost is greater Today than when done by hand. This is hard to understand. FOREIGN RAILROADS. THE deficit of the Belgian State Railways totaled 78 million francs during 1925, as compared with the budget estimate of six millions, according to C. E. Sherrington, Secretary, Railway Research Service, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. And this deficit was incurred in spite of the marked effciency of the railroad adminis-Oatio- n. Mr. Sherrington points out 5 that the govern-ment-own- ed railroads of Europe must lean heavily on the public treasury in order to operate, and that the financial stability of several nations depends to a great extent on ridding themselves of these deficits. As a consequence these their railroads BILLION A YEAR SAVED. self-supporti- ng. France, while it has not surrendered ownership of its railroads, leases the property to an operating company. Austria was forced, for the sake of her financial standing, to separate her railroad from the national budget. In this country, where our utilities are privately owned withut government subsidy, it is difficult to conceive of a situation where the losses incurred by a single industry can menace the prosperity of the entire nation. We have only to look to the outstanding foreign examples of Government ownership and operation to understand the disruptive chaos and expense that comes from politics injecting its hand into in- dustry. OUR LEGISLATIVE MADNESS. . rs lumen-hour- s. In 1913, the cost of electric light, including both current and the price of globes, was $12.67 a million lumen-hour- s. In 1927, it was $4.71 lumen-houbut 37 per cent of the per million former price. From 1913 to 1927 the public consumed 159 billion kilowatt-hour- s of current, and used three billion electric lamps at a cost of one billion dollars for lamps and 10 billion dollars for current. Had the 1913 rates prevailed over the entire period of time, the cost to the public would have been 22 billion dollars. In other words, the public saved, through decreasing electric rates and better and cheaper damps, 12 billion dollars, nearly a billion dollars yearly. Had the 1913 rate been the rate charged in 1927 alone, the public would have had to pay two and three-fourttimes more than it actualfor the lighting it used an additional ly paid cost of nearly two billion dollars. No industry can point to a finer record of giving a constantly better public service at a steadily decreasing price. ? rs -- ; : h IN THE United States we have gone mad legislatively, says Lewis E. Lawes, warden of Sing Sing penitentiary, and one of the most celebrated American authorities and students of crime, in a recent book. Instead of a few clearly defined laws we well-nig- have thousands upon thousands of ambiguously written laws of whose meaning and intent there is a difference of opinion even among our. leading jurists, Warden Lawes writes. Frequently these laws do not represent the real wishes of the majority and they become dead letters, or even worse, sources of graft which corrupt police, the courts and the citizenry. Legislators as a rule have little or no knowledge of the great fundamental problems involved in crime. The whole body of criminal law needs revision both in practice and principle. Laws should be made so that they will function along common sense lines rather than along technical lines understood only by lawyers and judges. Really effective laws would and should reach 98 per cent of those who commit crime instead of only about two per cent. Any observant person must see the logic in this authoritys statement. In the United States it is not uncommon for trials to be spread out over interminable periods of time, while lawyers introduce technicalities and wrangle over abstract legal red tape. Fewer laws with enforcement, not more laws without enforcement, should be a national slogan. WHY THE DIFFERENCE? DURING the five years from 1919 to 1925, federal taxes were reduced 39 per cent, while state taxes increasd 87 per cent and local taxes 56 per cent, according to Renick W. Dunlap, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. In other words, all the outstanding economies made in federal expenditure during the past six years have been more than offset by the rapidly increasing cost of maintaining smlaler units of government. All of this increase cannot be explained by growth and necessary improvements, as growth and improvements should automatically produce more tax revenue. There has obviously been a tendency on the part of a great many states and towns to spend money lavishly, disregarding the inevitable consequences of bonded indebtedness. It is said on good authority that communities today embark on expensive ventures that would not even have been imagined 20 years ago. High taxs imperil prosperity and industrial development; low taxes encourage them. The fact that the farmers taxes have increased 258 figures certainly has imper cent over pre-wportant bearing on whatever farm problem we have. Only business efficiency and sanity m the handling of public funds can lower our taxes. ar IN 1913, according to the National Electric consumed Light Association, the electricity in the United States totaled 277,000 lumen-houper capita. Fourteen years later, in 1927, this amount had increased seven times, to 1,950,000 hs OLIVER J. GRIMES, well known newspaperman, has been named the secretary of the Utah Coal Producers Association. Grimes has had much experience in dealing with business in general and will prove a valuable man to the coal companies. IT LOOKS like a person must have a college education to pass civil service for prohibition work. No matter how efficient an officer is, he must be able to pass his exam or join the pick and shovel brigade. Some day we will get down to common sense. THE CHAMBER of Commerce will try its hand on new tax proposals. We believe the chamber would bet farther by bringing in a few corporations that the assessors may tax, and leave the tax question up to the legislature. WHAT has become of all the brown derbies that were in the hat store windows along in October ? Republicans won them and are now wearing them out. GENE TUNNEY is going to write a special article on boxing for the next issue of the EnThis ought to be a cyclopedia Britannica. knockout. SEVERAL months ago the radio boys were singing I wonder whats become of Sally? Now they are singing Im sorry, Sally. Evidently what became of Sally wasnt so good. A CHICAGO woman, suing for a divorce, claimed that the more noise she made the sounder her husband slept. Looks to us this was an ideal married couple. HERE is a sample of British humor: an English newspaper says that Great Britain must have the biggest navy in the world in order to preserve the freedom of the seas. to scientists, Mother Earth weighs 592 quintillion tons. And we hope that she doesnt get it into her head that she wants to reduce. ACCORDING |