Show industrial news SAUCE FOR THE advocates of industrial socialism are well organized to in the united states find and are conducting intensified and intelligently directed campaigns to put the tee government into business thero there are other organizations whose objective Is to establish a government based on communism in this country these organizations should be allowed tree free expression or of opinion so should private industry there have been political investigations of our basic industries because of their advocacy of or opposition to various measures or doctrines affecting them but so far no official authority has suggested investigating those who attack our industries and government ideals while we are having investigations lets look at both sides fairness demands an investigation of the opponents of private enterprise and their sources of support y LIVING UP CP TO AN IDEAL the telephone industry has made an amazing record in improving find and broadening its service to the public and at the same time lowering rates within three years lour four major reductions have been made in long distance rates which are saving the public almost annually the last of these reductions went into effect january first thus the industry lives up to its motto to provide the best possible service at the lowest possible cost today we can talk to almost any great country in the world long distance calls from one cor ner of the united states to another are I 1 commonplace in a f traction ot of a second a voice Is carried thousands of miles mlle unaffected by any physical obstacle the Thel telephone has made social and diplomatic as well as industrial history M N I 1 j modernizing GAS I 1 modernism has been a feature in the development ol of the gas industry according to alexander forward managing director of the american gas association this trend Is evidenced by the hundreds ot of domestic appliances dressed in latest styles and colors to match any scheme of household decoration in the adaptation ol of gas to scores of new industrial du commercial and domestic uses rises I 1 and testing of more than appliances in the associations laboratory in cleveland the modernization of scores ol of manufactured gas plants and the extension of pipe line systems into hundreds ot of communities that never before enjoyed gas service I 1 P PERSONAL responsibility ADDS TO carefulness it seems to be the consensus of informed opinion that financial responsibility laws rather than compulsory automobile to insurance will promote discipline among motorists and reduce the number ot of accidents on highways 0 0 0 ew 1929 BUSINESS HIGHEST ON RECORD measured by quantities the output ot of our manufacturing industries in 1929 broke all previous records being eight per cent higher than in 1928 according to the secretary of Co mmerle in his new years message employment was larger than ever before 0 IM 1 I MINING PROBLEMS important problems face the amerl ameri can mining industry the tariff Is ono one until the industry is assured what treatment it will bo be accorded in competing with imported metals it cannot progress to the fullest degree L the preeminent pre eminent problem however is taxation there has been a movement in the west that if it succeeds eucce eds will burden mines with taxes to the point where profitable operation will be all but impossible in utah where the situation came to a crisis the effort to saddle the mines with unreasonable taxes has apparently patently ly failed it Is to b be e hoped other states follow this precedent 0 o 0 44 RESEARCH NEEDED governmental research by taxpayers instead of tax spenders Is essential to economical government the object of uch research Is to ascertain the wort work performed by the various of local governments what it costs and to suggest how efficiency may be increase and it Is an unfortunate fact that waste in time money and supplies seems greatest in operation of local units ot of government burdensome taxation Is caused by state county and city government federal taxes have been steadily reduced for several years every state r should hould have an organization which on behalf of the taxpayer scientifically and fairly investigates the operation of governmental machinery C 0 Q FIRE ANT AND PARROTS it is difficult to think of a moro horrible way to die than by fire it was once pointed out by a great scholar that the progress of civilization is made only over the dead bodies of pioneers so too the progress in fire prevention and protection seems to await horrible fire catastrophes to arouse consciousness ness of the flie file danger in 1929 the red hand of fire snuffed out many lives in an editorial of january 17 1930 the new york herald tribune pointed out that the public concern over the so BO called parrot fever was quite out of proportion to the seriousness of the problem suppose a dozen people in the united states had really died of psittacosis ta tac osis costs or parrot fever there are at least twice as many deaths due to fire each day and only those actively working worming to present fire seem to worry about the appalling loss attention is directed to just eight lecent fires that caused serious loss of life fire in russian motion picture theatre c caused aused death of persons in a hot hotel c I 1 at amarillo texas 5 in cleveland clinic in explosion and fire in 1 I eastman hospital canton china 80 in n fire test ht at gillingham england 15 in cabaret in detroit 11 men and 9 women were ere burned or trampled to death in fire in paper box bos company baltimore 4 women died in new years eve fire in motion picture theatre in paisley scotland 72 children were trampled or smothered to death in the united states fire takes an annual toll ot of lives and in fix property losses according to national board of fire underwriters A large percentage of deaths irom from fire occur in homes this Is hard to understand in progressive america where so eo many fire preventions are within the reach ot of the average household homes can be made comparatively safe against fire and the life hazard greatly reduced 10 a a 0 0 01 THE LITE SAVING CAMPAIGN accident prevention Is not something that can be applied from without it Is within the personal jurisdiction of every citizen during the past decade the accident record in industry has been greatly decreased part of this Is due of course to mechanical safeguards but the greater part of the credit must go e to the tact fact that industrial executives through gla education and example have given workers vor kers a knowledge of the accident problem that makes them avoid and remove hazards we would have bract practically icalla no automobile accidents if all drivers were competent careful and law abiding it Is the reckless or careless driver who Is responsible for the deaths caused annually by automobile in this country I 1 at t the present time the progressive schools of the nation are arc adopting accident prevention courses as pa part rt of their curricula A sense of personal responsibility tor for accidents Is instilled into the child to develop the me life saving instinct adult americans should benefit from the safety training the schools give their children and understand t that h accident I 1 sont prevention Is more a per personal al than a legislative accomplishment 40 40 41 1 CERTAINTY OF BEST warden lewis lawes of slug sing sing penitentiary recently said that the famous new york baumes laws which automatically mati cally cany give a criminal lite life imprison ment on his fourth conviction for a felony have tailed failed to decrease crime according to warden lewis they have resulted in a sort eort of arbitration between the criminal and officials as the latter have found it exceedingly difficult to obtain a conviction when the fourth crime Is a minor one many experts hold the severity of punishment abiad superfluous laws defeat their own ends whereas certainty of punishment Is feared by the criminal we do not need more laws or more severe punishments but we do need machinery to speedily enforce basic laws uncontaminated by politics crime legislators should turn their attention to providing methods of apprehending and punishing criminals instead of passing volumes of new laws which continually restrict the rights of the law abiding citizen thereby making more technical lawbreakers law breakers 4 0 THE COUNTRY NEWSPAPER the country newspaper Is becoming more and more a community newspaper the community in the sense that towns and smaller cities from one to five thousand population are gradually spreading into the rural regions the rural and interurban population have so much in common with the telephone rural mall mail parcel post and better bigl highways ways that they are more like one big neighborhood more afore farmers are balding homes in towns and smaller cities to give their children the advantages of high schools colleges and business opportunities j in all lines of social development the f community newspaper JS Is playing its lt t part and is becoming a more valuable property from six an advertising standpoint in S and as a leading factor in the co opera tive tin growth of 0 city and country A 00 4 better health for or the new year the turning over ot of now new leaves la Is the th accompaniment ot of the bells that in a new year ot of opportunity and pron ise but unfortunately few of them lart beyond the first day ot of february v this la is partially so because tte the ra re r solutions are often vague and general we pledge ourselves to lead a better lift or to be less selfish or to bo be more eon con r et td erate but the steps by which we plan to achieve these ends are hardly definite in our minds what we need la Is simple resolutions whose progress we can watch an and d measure such a resolution might well be fora tor each of us individually and as a nation to have a greater participation in health movements this gives us definite tasks and definite responsibilities and will show definite results first of all we can live healthily observing the simple rules of good food regular hours clean bodle bodies and surroundings and second we can r support financially and otherwise the public and private movements that are working tor for better personal and community health A resolution to wash the tag hands bands with soap and water before each meal may sound simple and easy yet were we all to enforce it throughout through the i year countless illnesses end and thou thousands sands ot of deaths would be avoided make new years resolutions by all means but make them definite anake them practical and above all keep them I 1 |