Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS
Newspaper Page Text
FARMER VITALLY CON-'.- , CERNED IN RAILROADS T19 reais MS ' What The Earooean War Means To The lace l&econl American Farmer mr : mum mrnim b WW That every city of any size inl i r..n -e 11 1 I ' me country is mil ui uiuusaiius ' of idle men at the present moment is 'a -fact .well known to every reader of newspapers for hard-i . Iv a day.pasjes that the press is! .not 'full of comment about the iiuilfyi) uiuusaiius nuu oimiu in . tfie "bread line" in every large center of population. Nor is this state of affairs due to the policy of any particular political party, but rather the outgrowth of con ' (fitions which have been slowly but.surely crystalizing Tor a num ber of years. In the first place, ' the Corn Belt the great bread basket of the nation has had a series of slim crops in most sec tions, and this naturally has had a depressing effect upon business conditions. Again, we have been passing through a period of indus trial readjustment of changing t from the loose methods which pre 'vailed a dozen or so years ago over to a policy of strict govern inent control of public service ' rornorations and a sham inrrairv into the conduct of all other large corporations and in trying to stamp out the abuses of the past, the pendulum has swung so far in the other direction that so far as the railroads are concerned, at feast, it threatens to precipitate the most of them which are not . already in the hands of receivers upon the rocks of financial wreck and. ruin. That, the depressed financial condition of the railroads is laree. ly responsible for the great army of unemployed was vividly de monstrated by a prominent St. Louis newspaper the other day when it showed that nine St touis manufacturing establish ments which deal in railroad sun- plies employed 14,673 men one year ago, whereas now they em $oy only 4,503, with a reduction in their payrolls amounting to . $$88,700 per month, or over seven 'million dollars a year. If the ef feet upon only nine enterprises is . as far reaching as this what would the figures show if they were available for similar industries . and the other hundreds of enter prises affected in a creater nr Ipss degree1 throughout the country? Nearly all of these concerns have oh hand hundreds of thousands . of dollars' worth of finished equipment which was ordered by the railroads a year or so ago, but which they have not been able to pay for; in the meantime, not being able to pay for goods al ready .ordered, the railroads are not placing any new contracts, and unless they receive speedy 'assistance from the Interstate Commerce Commission and the rate-making authorities of the dif- . ferent states the tendency will be ior kinor conditions to grow grad ually worse rather than better. In last week's article we referr ed to. the fact that the railroads are the largest employers of la bor in the United States and that , uuiiiiS uk lasi nscai vear thev !....,,. II. . I.I ! 'paid out over thirteen hundred million dollars in wacs to the armv Of men nrifl nnmpn n-hn r. duct their business. We al sn re - " v.i.v ii uiiu vuir ferred to the fact that they paid out almost a thousand million dollars for steel, coal, lumber and otner supplies, of which they are luc ''Kt-M consumers in the coun try, and therefore the chief sup port of the hundreds of thousands employed in these great indus tries. In view of these facts, is it not plain to any think man that it is or tremendous importance to the whole country that Hie be permitted to earn a reasonable income if the millions of Ameri can laboring men are to be kept proiiiamy employed? DOt'S not anv man tnnn- l,ot J ....... 1M1UII IIUI if the thousands who are this mo- mem nunting for work in Chica go, St. Louis, New York, Pitts burgh, Cleveland and other large cities were profitably employed that it would mean a higher price for what the farmer has to sell and that it would be reflected in the receipts of every merchant and the output of every factory in the nation? In view of such a serious state of affairs, can the average farmer of business man afford to oppose the small increase in rates which is necessary to once more put the Is not the amount of passenger fare or freight which the average citizen pays out during the year a mere bagatelle when measured t gainst the lucrative employment fzl the t-yisj power cf the mil lions of American laboring men? Another Serious Phase. Important as is the employ ment of labor, there is another phase of this problem which calls for profound thought at the hands of all thinking citizens, and espe cially the farmer. In last week s article we cited the fact that in their desperate efforts to make both ends meet, many railroads are "burning the candle at both ends that in order to bolster up their securities and keep out of the hands of receivers the roll ing stock and roadbeds of manv lines have beeir deteriorating ra pidly for a number of years and hence are in no position to han dle a big season's tonnage, should the strain of a heavy crop year suddenly descend upon them. That the great foreign war will produce the highest prices ever known for the foodstuffs produc ed by the farmer is admitted on all hands, and if there ever was a time when he will need adequate and efficient shipping facilities it will be during the next two or three years and yet we are ac tually facing perhaps the most prosperous period the American farmer has ever known with many American railroads in a di lapidated physical condition. No sooner had the great European war burst upon the world than Congress realized that our mer chant marine was-utterly weak and inefficient. Steps were at once taken to make the best of the situation and to repair as speed ily as possible our neglected ship ping facilities upon the high seas and that the handicap has al ready cost the American people millions of dollars during the last few months is so patent that it re quires no extended, comment. It is one thing to have markets in all parts of the world which have heretofore been supplied by the great warring nations begging for American goods and foodstuffs but it is quite another thing to have American ships in which to deliver these cargoes. Will we now add to the neglect of an adequate merchant marine the further folly of permitting our railroads to get into such a weakened physical condition that they will break down under the strain of delivering the products of the farmer and the manufac turer at our ocean ports and thus largely waste the great opportun ity for profit which the foreign war will unquestionably bring us? This is a phase of the pres ent situation which commands the serious thought of every far mer in Kansas and the Corn Belt generally for here is where the lion's share of the nation's food stuffs are produced and here is where farmers cannot afford to be hampered by inadequate trans portation facilities if they are to make the most of favorable mar ket opportunities. There is not a single manager of a Central of Western railroad who will not admit that the pres ent supply of first-class freight locomotives and box cars could not successfully meet the require ments of several bountiful crop years and yet they haven't the funds with which to supply this equipment and thus be prepared for the emergency when it comes as it undoubtedly will. Farmers Will Profit In this connection, it is oppor tune to say that the American far mer is certain to reap a larcer lions which exist in Europe than any other class of tradesmen or citizen. So far as our manufac turers are concerned, while new markets are undoubtedly beckon ing to the United States, vet on the other hand, for several vears to come, the splendid trade which we enjoyed in Germany, England, France, Austria and Russia on our manufactured products is cer tain to remain demoralized and thus we will be fortunate if we do not lose more than we can hope to gain in new fields, with whose needs we are not yet familiar, and to which it is certain to reauire some years to adjust ourselves! It is the American farmer, how ever, who has no comDHratinns ahead of him, and whose flour. pork, beef, mutton and other food- to make up the shortage which is already looming big in the dis tance because the harvest fields of the most fertile sections of Europe have been converted into a shambles for the contending armies. Exports of breadstuffs from the United States in Novem- ?E?oAT W0DWARD AVEU DETRQIT MICH Los ANGELca Calif r:ov 28- u UR. WALTER E. FLANDERS, PRESIDENT MAXELL MOTOR COMPANY. INCORPORATED . DETROIT MICH.. ' IN ALL UY EXPERIENCE IN THE RACING GAL'E, NEVER HAVE HAD AS SATISFACTORY A UOUHT A3 THE MAXWELL NUtSER "14" WHICH I 0R0VE IN THE CORONA ROAD RACO THANKSGIVING DAY WITH PRACTICALLY NO PREPARATION IN A CAN WITH V.VUCH I ' WAS ABSOLUTELY UNFAMILIAR. I WENT IKE ENTIRE 3QI MILEB WITHOUT A SINCLt STOP, THEREBY ESTABLISHING A HEW WRLD'S NONE 8T0P ROAD RACE RECORD AK& FINISHING IN SECOND UC& THE MAXWELL CAR CRAVED IN PERFECT SHAPE, AN COOL AND SMOOTH THROUGH THE ENTIRE RACE AND HAD PLENTY OF EPKoVca ANY RACE I HAD IT COPED THAT 85 MILES PER HOUR, VAULD WIN THE RACC; IMftl -WAS THE REASON AVERAGED QfiLY 85-5MILE8. CAR I 0R0VE WAS THE WST CONSISTENT PERFORMER IN THE RACE TIRES SHOWED PRACTICALLY NO WEAR 5ED 23 GALLONS OF GASOLINE 3 GALLONS OF OIL, NO WATER, BARNEY OLDFIELD 518PM. Barney Oldfield has driven dozens makes of racing cars. His unqualified endorse-v ment of the Maxwell Racer he drove in the . Corona Race speaks for itself. SEE THE NEW 1915 MAXWELL AT-" 1 A. PritcWs Auto Stop gjf&fe--' ber were valued at $40,230,000, or almost four times as much as in November of last year, while meat and cattle exports amounted to nearly $14,000,000, or a gain of over 20 per cent over last year, and this despite our miserable shipping facilities on the high seas. In the light of these facts, was there ever a lime when the far mers of Kansas and other Corn Belt states can view the future with as much assurance, or when they can so well afford to treat fairly every other great industry in the nation as now? Putting it in the terms of sound business policy, was there ever a lime when they should do their part to the end that American la bor may be profitably employed in all the great channels of in dustry, and that our transporta tlon system may be kept up to a high point of efficiency, so that it may adequately discharge the heavy shipping burdens which will undoubtedly descend upon it in the not distant future? No other single agency in the nation has had more to do with the advancement of land values than have the railroads, and as evidence of this fact, the proxi mity of a farm to the market al most invariably fixes its selling value. Kansas and every other Central and Western state is still in dire need of hundreds of miles of additional railroad mileage, and these new lines willhot be built until American railroad se curities are re-established as a paying investment and this, on the basis of present railroad earn ings, is out of the question. Near- ly all our present lines were built i years' ago, when railroad invest a NKWCOMB CAfttffON. mwMNf ments were looked upon with fa vor at home and abroad, and hence, if there is a class of citi zens in the land who should be vitally interested in rescuing the railroads from the pitiable plight in which they find themselves at the present moment it is the far mer. As a matter of fact, were it not so tremendously far-reaching in its effect, the controversy over a slight increase in railroad rates would largely resemble a tempest in a tea pot a . matter which should be settled in the brief space of time required to apply the remedy. When a private in dustry, great or small, advances the price of its commodities we take it as a matter of course and say nothing about it and in the past we have opposed a square deal for the railroads largely be cause the people did not under stand their importance to the na tion, because they were angered at occasional abuses which strict governmental regulation has for ever eliminated and because for some years designing political op portunists have found abuse of the railroads an easy road to pub lic preferment. That public sen timent, however, is changing ra pidly and that we will soon reach a sane understanding between the people and the railroads, which are so vitally essential to the ag ricultural and commercial 'pro gress of every community in the nation, is becoming more and more apparent every day. (Paid adv. To be continued.) Editor James Townslev came up from Ellinwood last Thursday evening to spend Christmas and for a visit over bunday with his wife arid the kiddies. MaxweD CVIOtRt Buy your wife or daughter that piano you have been promising them for years. We have a larger stock than we care to carry and are going to get rid of them re gardless of price. We can ar range for easy payments if you so desire. Hooper Drug Co., The Rexall Store. Superintendent Senter of the city schools, who has been on the sick list for the past two weeks, is still confined to his home and it will be several days yet before he will be able to resume his work. We Save Yon $30.00 uere arc some ol the prices A t 4.oo runrral ior f 28.00 A 75.00 Funeral for iXXi A 100.00 Funeral for 55,00 A 120.00 Funeral for 6o!m A 160.00 Funeral for go.00 A 183.00 Funeral for inniui conns ami tnmrr. .v. .uumiub. ruoNK OB BEE' US. Independent Undertaking Co. 1407 Main Street J. B. WILLIS Phone 456 Green L Fmtl Dirtdor ni Zmbtlmtr ' ii arm lUO&miS We can make you a farm loan, Low rate loan s c osed promptly. Prlvllcr t given to oaic partial paments i & . nual Interest ii desired T .J SHOOK. of different ' Dr. Charles Hoopef cftme in from San Francisco Jast week to spend his. Christmas, with home folks, Mr. and Mrs. C. A. lloojier and family, and left Saturday for St. Louis to attend to sqme busi ness matters before relumim tn NL his work as one of the tnstruc- tors in the meHiml rlpnarfmont r " n, Aff:i:-tj it wc nuuiaicu voiiege in &an rran- rri . ... citu. me ioiKs-nere didnCt know that he was contemplating coming home at this time and ttie surprise was a most joyful one. See Zudora at the Echo Theatre next Friday, January 8. '. To $90.00 On a Funeral SeparaU Prices: , Embalming fM Funeral Car t M Caskets 120 00 to S0.00 ' (Atte.dane. FrM) PkoU9 P V