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wMnimtimniKW aruronmi n niumiinwniwiniBMBWuiinniWBwa GREAT FALLS DAILY TRIBUNE LEONARD a DIEHL. Bmslmtt Managtr EDITORIAL PAGE r.*üirtr;mnfir'm!mmimmmi»wtwM»Tinim miiwOT i.mni!inBwnmmniOTaiimimmifiiimmiimiimnHmintnmimiH:i s B. K. WHEELER AND JOHN D. RYAN B. K. Wheeler, candidate for governor on the republican or democratic party ticket, v\ luch ever seems to him the easiest party to pii ?-te 0} the stuffing of its primaries by voters who pro fess no allegiance to either party and condemn the principles of both, in his address in this cit> last Wednesday spread the venom of his malice over Mr. John D. Ryan personally in a manner characteristic of the politicians who seek to ap peal to envy of success and ignorance such as we have been familiar with for years. And as usual the poisoned weapons he used were simply falsehoods. They were bald mistatements of facts known to be such by every well informed person in the state and only calculated to deceive new comers to the state or those who have not fol lowed closely the news of the day and are ig norant of the facts. Mr. Wheeler charged that Mr. Ryan "was mixed up in the Hog Island graft scandal." That is absolutely a falsehood. In the first place there was no Hog Island graft. There were ru mors about graft, and the republican congres sional investigation committee, keen as a pack of hounds on the scent of a fox, and hoping to unearth some scandal that might reflect on the Wilson administration in its conduct of the war, went into the affairs of the construction of the Hog Island ship construction plant from cellar to garret. They reported their findings to a republican congress and were compelled to say in that report that they could find no evidence of dishonesty or graft in the carrying out of this enormous job. They did say that they found evidence of extravagance and waste of money. Most undoubtedly that was true. It was impos sible that it should be otherwise, for the Hog Island plant was built in the face of urgent de mand from our government for haste, haste, and more haste, in a desperate race for victory between the German submarines and the allied shipbuilding plants. W T e know now how nar rowly we won that race and so won the war by getting American troops and supplies to France before our foes deemed it possible. The Hog Island plant was not built by contract bids. There was no time to advertise for bids. It was built on force account, and the contractors re ceived a percentage on the cost. Experience has taught many a private firm that that is the most expensive way to built a big construction enter prise, but it is also the quickest way. The Hog Island plant cost several times the original es timate. That was partly due to enlarged plans, partly due to the well known fact enshrined in the homely proverb, "haste makes waste." Mr. Ryan had no more to do with the building of Hog Island shipping plant or the spending of money there than Mr. Wheeler had, except that he and his companies contributed vast sums in taxes to the federal treasury to help pay for it. And the remarkable fact remains undisputed that costly as the building of this plant was, it has amply justified its expense and is worth to the gov ernment and nation all it cost. Among all the vast expenditures of the government for war purposes this alone will salvage 100 per cent. It could be sold for all it cost. It can build fifty vessels at one time. It can and does build ves sels for less money than they can be built for elsewhere in the world, and private shipping firms are eager to buy every ship it builds at full cost price to the government or more. There is no particle of evidence that there was any graft in this enterprise to begin with, and Mr. Ryan had nothing to do with it to end with. The statement of Mr. Wheeler is a falsehood made out of whole cloth or with nothing more sub stantial than a disproved and discredited rumor to stand on. Mr. Wheeler said that Mr. Ryan made fifty million dollars by selling copper to the govern ment at 27 cents during the war and buying it back at 14 to 16 cents. That is a false statement, monstrous in its malignity. Mr. Ryan never bought a pound of copper from the government. The government never sold any copper to him, or to his copper company, or to any other copper company, or to any corporation or individual in the United States, unless it might be small lots of junk copper to junk companies. It did buy a lot of copper from the Anaconda company and other copper producing companies during the war. The first lot of copper it bought was an enormous purchase, some forty million pounds as we remember it, and it bought it from the Anaconda company at nearly half its current market price at that time, 16 cents, we believe. That was how John D. Ryan and his company showed their patriotism. Mr. Wheeler was sell ing his services to the government at the same time. We have not seen it recorded that he of fered to cut the market price of those services in half to help win the war. Subsequently the government bought copper from many sources of copper production, including the Anaconda Copper Company, at varying prices fixed by it self as being a fair price. Our recollection is that this price was 22 or 23 cents. But if the government at any time paid as high as 27 cents for copper it did so because it fixed that price itself as being fair and necessary. When the war was over the government had a great ac cummulation of copper on hand that it no longer needed. If it threw this on the market it would demoralize the price of copper and the govern ment would lose a vast sum on its purchases. It, therefore, turned its surplus copper over to the United Metals Selling company, a corporation that acts as selling agent for many coppsr pro ducing companies, with instructions to sell it gradually for the government account at the market price, and agreed to pay this corporation a fractional part of a cent commission for the service, stipulating, however, a minimum price at which any of it could be sold and if the market went below that point at any time sales of gov- j ernment copper were to stop. That is the whole : story of the government sale of copper in a nut shell. It sold its own copper on the market in small lots to get the most money out of it for itself, and paid the Metals Selling company a small per cent for its service, as all copper pro ducers it acts for do likewise. As to the charge made by Mr. Wheeler that John D. Ryan built a logging railroad for the benefit of the Milwaukee railroad, it is old stuff, S completely disproved by the evidence presented to the investigating committee. John D. Ryan had nothing to do with the building of the road at any time. The Milwaukee railroad does not own the road and does not want to own it. Had it been built through to the spruce woods as they recommended they might have been willing to pay the government for it when they were through with it if it had the money to do it with, which it had not then or now. It was not built that way. The Milwaukee railroad does not want it or consider it worth the cost to acquire it even if sold at a bargain. Mr. Ryan was com pletely exonerated from all connection with the building of this road by Secretary Baker of the war department under whose orders and direc tion the road was built. His letter to that effect to Chairman Frear was suppressed by that gen tleman and kept out of the record until Mr. Ryan appeared before the committee and forced its production and insertion in the record. The charge has already been fully explained and disproved in the press of the country. Enough said on that point. There remains the charge made that Mr. Ryan, while expresing regret that he was too old to go to France to fight with the boys, remained be hind at home to work for the government at one dollar a year and stabbed the soldier boys in the back. It is a noticeable fact that this and all the other charges against Mr. Ryan made by Mr. Wheeler was received by his audience in silence. Not a man in the crowd gave audible sign of ap proval. They knew it was false and that Mr. Wheeler knew it was false also. And every man in Montana knows it is false. And it came from the lips of a man who had just announced his purpose of forming a political alliance with A. C. Townley, convicted of disloyalty during the war by a Minnesota court, on the one hand, and Mr. Dunn of Butte, convicted of disloyalty during the war by a Montana court, on the other hand. It came from the lips of the attorney who de fended Mr. Dunn on the charge on which he was found guilty, and who himself was summoned before the Montana Loyalty League for investi gation as to his loyalty because they were sus picious about it on account of the bad company he kept in those trying times when our boys were fighting at the front and disloyal men were seek ing to stab them in the back at home. Can you beat it. Is it necessary to say more. The gall of the proposition is enough to make the gorge of any patriotic citizen rise. , 1 j j ®f)e Opinions of WOODS ARE FULL OF 'EM tPhiladelphia Press.) Senator Harding of Ohio announces that he ■will rot be a candidate for president, but desirea re-election to the senate. But let no one worry; there ai» plenty of presidential candi dats left to make all the running that will be required. GO INTO THE GARDEN AND EAT WORMS (Louisville Courier-Journal.) An explanation of how the victory was won may he thrill ing, but not. even a policeman wishes to hear the troubles of the candidate who lost. HAS NO SILVER LINING, HOWEVER! (St. Louis Globe Democrat.) Whoever gets a mandatory for any Balkan state gets oue perfectly good Balkan war cloud, in every way as serviceable us before. AS T. R.'D SAY, ' GOING SOME!" (Pittsburgh Dispatch-> To be elected to the legislature and become ihe father of another son all in one day is the regular Roosevelt style. CHEERFUL VIEW OF SITUATION (Columbia State.) This sugar shortage would have been u serious thine lack in the days of the long toddy. GREAT FALLS DAILY TRIBUNE Saturday, SOLITARY CONFINEMENT! By J- H- Cassel (The % e V / V f, i U V» / Q Eft A is H 1 iA hi s M i \vï wm •to j a I'fp 5 \ ! H £ '. S 0 M «v 23 M** HASKIN LETTER By FREDERIC J. HASKIN ROLLING STORES. New York. Nov. 26.—A new and pic turesque wapon for defeating the high cost of living has recently been developed in New York. It is known as the roiling store. A rolling store Is a large truck, drawn by two giant horses, and filled with huge stacks of dry groceries, which rolls into a neighborhood at the early hour of H in the morning and thereafter does a rapid business until 0 o'clock at night. It^ sells its products at prices ranging fror", 25 to ■'0 per cent lower than those being charged by the stationary grocery stores, thereby earning unfriendly criticisms from those sources, blessings from the housewives and the hearty commendation of the New York commissioner of mar kets. Ninety-six of these rolling stores are now operating throughout New York ana Brooklyn, and Mr. George II. Salmon, vice president of the North American Export company, who is doing the oper ating. savs that in another month there will be 200 of them. The demand for them from neighborhoods in which they have not yet appeared is so great that one person is kept busy simply answering the telephone calls of housewives, who are indignant, because their districts have been slighted. "We are here to reduce the high cost of living," is the red-lettered message which the rolling «tore bears on its grey awninged side, and beneath that there is a list of the supplies it carries with their prices. The other day this list in cluded bacon at 34 cents, best candled eggs r>t> cents, can of pork and beans , weighing nearly three pounds 12'»j cents. 1 best coffee .15 cents, can of tomatoes 1? j cents, peas (Nô. 2) 1.1 cents, can of corn j 13 cents and rice (fancy blue rose) 15 cents. Buying from a rolling store is much like buying from a cafeteria. First you look at the price list, then you help your self to what you want, with the assist ance of an extremely busy salesman, knowing perfectly well beforehand what the total coat of the purchase is goin^ to be. In most stationary groceries in New York you cannot do this. The prices aro not. listed on the wall, and when the clerk finally adds the total up on a paper bag, showing that butter or eggs or cof fee have taken a sudden leap in price, you have no evidence upon which to con tradict him. A customer usually leaves a rolling store not only with the pleasant sense of having secured a bargain but with the virtuous conviction that he has aided in a great civic movement. He has helped, as the rolling store points out "Mayor Hylan to knock tiie 'IP out of the II. C. of L." The first rolling store was started about the first of October, merely as an experiment. No one was certain as to how it would be received, but the results were so satisfactory that ten more stores were added every week and four ware house terminals to supply the stores were opened in New York. While the stores have not been able to bring back those marvelous days before the war when the nickel still had a separate and distinct existence, they have brought about a surprising reduction in prices. "Our object," savs Mr. Salmon, "is not to compete with merchants who are soil ing groceries at. reasonable prices. It is merely to drive out. profiteers. We go into a neighborhood where we feel food stuffs are costing too much, and we stay until we have driven the profiteers to reducing their prices. Then we move on to another neighborhood. "For instance when we first started operating most storekeepers were selling peas and corn nt from 18 to 22 cents a can. We started selling the same kind of peas and corn at 13 cents a can. and the result was that the storekeepers then reduced their products to 11 cents a can. Wo knew that they were losing money at that price—that the move was directed against us. But, as a matter of fact, it did not hurt us the leust bit. For we simply ceased selling peas and corn for the time being ana replaced them with other cheaper products. The rolling stores are able to sell goods at reduced prices for vurious rea sons. In the first place, they do not have the large overhead expense which must be mot by the ordinary grocery store. Their selling force is confined to two young men, one of whom is also the truck driver, and neither of whom wastes any time in persuading customers to buy goods. At a roiling store, you can either take it or leave it. No one cares whether you buy food or not, because there are too many anxious housewives waiting to grab whatever is left over. In the second place, the North Amer ican Export company has a purchasing power of half a million dollars behind it, which enables it to take advantage of all cash discounts and to buy in large quan tities direct from the producer. Aecord iug to Mr. Salmon, this factor alone i>er inits them to make n saving of 55 cents on the dollar- a saving which usually is absorbed by middlemen and clumsy meth ods of distribution. "The chief purpose of the rolling store," he says, "is to reduce the cost of living and to provide employment for re turned soldiers and sailors. All of our employes are inen who have just come out. or uniform." On the other hand, one gathers that the corporation is by no means running an eleeuiosvnarv institution. If does not seek to conceal the fact that it is oper ating for a profit. "Of course, declares Mr. Salmon, the compnnv does not yet. know what the profits 'will be in this proposition. It will not pay. certainly, until we have -IK) stores operating. We are convined, how ever that such a plan can bo made to nav in dollars and cents, and yet the customer will not be obliged to pay the high prices which he must submit to in the regular stores." As a money -making proposition the rolling store has everything in its favor. It is estimated that it sells in one day just three times as much as the ordi nary grocery, and when the company has had a chance to perfect its distribution svstern it will be able to sell even more. At present Its sales are handicapped onlv by the store's carrying capacity, which is from «>,000 to 10,000 pounds. Each store starts out laden to,thc brim in the morning, but is completely sold out by 12 o'clock, so that it is then obliged to return to the warehouse for the after noon's supplies. The company is now working on a plan whereby automobile trucks can be sent to follow up the vari ous stores, distributing foodstuffs and eliminating this noonday trip to the warehouse. The most popular reception yet ac corded the rolling s tor« occurred the other day on the East Side when the supply of eggs curried by one wujçon sold out iii one-half hour. A crowd ot women was waiting on the curb as the truck made its appearance, and they proceeded to surround it, pushiug, gesticulating and talking in various languages so that it became manifestly impossible to sell any thing so fragile as eg^a. The driver was just about to turn his horses and stage a hurried retreat when n policeman ar rived to handle the situation. With dra matic flourishes of hl« club he managed to subdue the crowd's feminine enthusi asm, made it form an orderly li*e. wad permitted only one customer to »pproach the wagon at one time. By the time the end of the lino reached the wagon, the eggs were all gone, and so was the po liceman. As the driver intimated, there are times when even a policeman taust exercise discretion. The busiest hours of the rolling stores are at 10 o'clock in the morning and at 4 in the afternoon. Prior to 4 o'clock, sometimes, the stores will make compara tively few sales, then the rush occurs all at once. The salesmen figure that this is because the women wait for their chil dren to come home from school, so that they mav have someone to leave with the" smaller youngsters or to accompany them and help carry horn» the food. Also, especially on the East Side, the children learn the art of battle early in life, and prove valuable aid whenever there is a buryain rush. Not long ago, stich a rush was staged at one of the rolling store warehouse, taking the workers completely by sur prise and upsetting the plans of the I company. Tne warehouse was in t he i heart of one of the city's Italian dis Itricts. The Italian women had watched the rolling stores, with their promises ! to reduce the high cost of living, driving ; in and out of this warehouse day by nay. 1 un,d they did not understand why they 1 never stopped to lighten the burdens in i their neighborhood. At least, after pa tientlv waiting for several weeks, they decided to attend to the matter them selves. When the door of the warehouse opened one morning there was a large crowd of Italian women and children be hind it. They charged into the ware house and were prevented from raiding it only hv the timely appearance of a quick-witted ex-sergeant, who pointed an unloaded revolver at them. The women retreated, but they did not go home, as the sergeant had told them to do. They waited on the street corner, and when the first rolling store came along they surrounded it, forming a veritable barri cade and keeping it there the whole day long After that, the company felt that a rolling store iu that particular com munity was an absolute necessity. The demand from other districts, while not as forcible, is nevertheless equally compelling. It has kept up just, as in sistently during the recent, cold weather. The rolling store has now added a large ash-can. with kindling wood and matches to its equipment, witn which it provides a cheery, warm fire. It is cold work, this shopping in tie open. The women hold their hands over its Maze as they choose their supplies, but they keep on choosing. The popularity of the rolling store is proved. ■ Has an Insane Idea He Require» Cash to Work Coal Mine Special to The Daily Tribune. Chinook, Nov. 28.—That he had come to Chinook to petition the county com missioners to vote the sum of $5,000 to open tip a coal mine on his farm, was the obsession of Dan Munaon, living north of Harlem, who was brought to the coun ty jail Wednesday by Marshal Doh-en, of Harlem, to await a hearing on the charge of insanity. The unfortunate man has a mother, brother and sister living in Minnesota. The hearing will be on Monday or Tuesday of next week. A MASTERPIECE IN RUBBER No. 40 Wearever Water Bottle Lapeyre Bros. Work Three Shifts Treasurer's Office Issuing Tax Bills Spedal to The Daily Tribune. Chinook, or. 28.—The office of coun ty treasurer, F. M. Rolfe, has been an exceedingly busy place this week. In spite of the fact that the state eqnalisa tinn board was late in sending in its re turns, delaying the work of making out the tax statements, these were all out on Tuesday night. It required a great speed to accomplish the work, however, three ehifts having worked from Sunday until Tuesday night. One shift began at 5 p, id,, and worked until midnight, when a second shift came on duty and worked until 8 n. m., nnd the regular force took the day work. The extra assistants who bepa Sun day and worked until Tuesday mght were Misses Clausner and C. O. Williams from the depot office force nnd H. Schlatter and Norman Moaser. Rodney Stam and Ciark Chose assisted the coun ty treasurer during the regular hours. WILLIAMS TO HAVE RETAIL OIL STATION Special to The Daily Tribune. Williams, Nov. 28.—Work o nthe new 1 oil station of the Mutual Oil corap.m? has started and will be hurried to com pletion, weather permitting. The tanks at Volier. secred when the Mutual Oil companv took over the Montana Oil com pany will be moved to this point. The Improvement will save farmers in this locality a long haul for oil and gas. Ceorge Sullivan will be in charge of tie station. American Bank & Trust Co. of Great Falls DIRECTORS: R P Reekards H. G. I.eeeher W K. Flowerree William Grills Fred A. Woehner Charles R. Taylor Frank W. Mttchel Albert J. Foueek I. Ê. Foster Alfred Malmberg Robert Cameron Cbarles Horning Charles F Helsey OFFICERS: R. P. Reekards - President W. K. Flowerree Vice-President H. G. I.escher Cashier F. O. Nelson Assistant Caehier interest Faid on Time Deposits. Stanton Trust & Savings Bank Stanton Bank Building. tire»* FslU. Capital - 5200.§55 Surplus . » - 65,000 DIRECTORS: P. H. Buckley 3. O. PatUraon James W. Freeman Jacob C. Fay Burt Armstrong A. Beardslee Philip Jaeoby M S. Kleppe P. H. Jones 9. J. Doyle George It Stanton OFFICERS: George II. StaJiton President P. H. Jones Vice-President S J. Dovle Cashier II M. Emerson Assistant Cashier