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PAGE 6 Seattle Star oat of (lit Mr Mr month I month*. |l-M| 4 month*, y»»r. I* O*. '» ,h * *«»!• of Washington. (>ut»M» th* »tnt* "*o »«r month. I« »0 for « m<>nth». or »» 0« nr»*j. By carrier, elty. p»r month. Surgeon General Blue in an official bulletin just issued points out the probability of a recurrence of the influenza epidemic this fall and winter thruout the United States. His statement recognizes that the nation is little, if any, better prepared to fight the epidemic now than it was last fall. "It is not yet certain that the germ has been isolated, or discovered," says Sur geon General Blue. "As a consequence there is no positive preventive." It was to isolate the flu germ and discover a positive preventive that congress was asked to finance a scientific inquiry by appropriating a fund of $5,000,000. Congressional appropriation for influenza research was recommended by the American Medical association, with a membership which includes physicians in every city and town in the United States. The bill to provide it has been pigeon-holed, after being referred to committees in the house and senate. Congress has incurred grave responsibilities by this delay. While the financing of research has been postponed, the season for recurrence of the influenza epidemic has drawn nearer, day by day, and now is close at hand. Almost an Alibi for Landlord Editor The Star : It does a lot of good to swear at tho landlord (I have been a tenant), or. as it is called now, the super profiteer. The swearing done, a practical man ought to examine thoroughly the situation, and analyze the causes of the present state of rents in Seattle. We have seen a great deal of construction in the past, when it paid to do so. For instance, in 1909, when the mts were higher than today. That is a fact. Today very few people, comparatively spoaking. art' . building. Why? Because it does not pay. For instance:! Get a lot in a fair, district like the University. The lot itself is cheap, we all know it. It will cost $ 1,000.00 j A S-room house, concrete foundation, would have cost, before the strike 1,500.00 Capital invested $2,500.00 Or borrowed at 7%. The expenses are: Tkxes, which are abnormally high and will go higher $ 35.00 Depreciation 50.00 Repairs 50.00 Vacancies—we will suppose none Total $135.00 Such house can be rented at $2O a month, or $240 a yeAr, or net $lO6. or 4.20%. Who s going to build to get 4.20%, when first-class bonds a* 6 and 614%? fit is evident that no one will care to build such house. Wkes he can rent it for $2B a month, or 8% income. I say 8% income because the worry and the fact of being a land hog; a super profiteer, without forgetting, our blue laws | (landlord responsible for any immoral act on his property, rte.) —all that is worth something Ido not take sides. I am simply stating FACTS. The TCBI reason of high rents, which are bound to go higher, is, first: Taxes, which are already past limits, and which . will be 20% higher in 1920, and, second: High cost of, \ building- 4 _ Yours very truly, A. T. Editor's Note: On the surface, it looks like you have a teal, sure-enough alibi for the landlord. If your premises are accepted. The trouble is that your premises are wrong in at least ene important particular: Such a house usually does not cost $1,500 to build, and such a house is not on the rental market for $2O, so far as we can discover. K any one here present can show us a new three-room house, with a basement, on a $l,OOO lot, in a good district, that can be had for $2O a month, we will pass on the good news to the weary legion of house-hunters. What The Star has decried, and what house hunters have been raging over, is the old, antique, out-of-repair ' houses that cost $2,500 10 years ago to build, and that rent for $4O a month up. The new houses are not being rented. They are being ■old. It is the shacks, the decrepit cottages, the tired, out-at the-elbow houses that once rented for $l5 that now rent for $4O, that make the homeless savage. We agree that taxes are high. But high as taxes are on the average rental property, . they do not excuse the hundred per cent boost in rentals, because they have always and still do comprise a minor faction of the overhead. ' The empolyer who adds 50 per cent to the price of his | product because he has raised wages 50 per cent, does what the landlord does when he boosts rents because taxes have . increased. The employer, like the landlord, loots the public with his increase, because his increased cost of labor really • takes only 40 per cent of his earnings, but when he in creases his prices 50 per cent he gouges the public as tho labor cost was 100 per cent of his overhead. Otherwise you make a good case. Figures are great little jokers. Wilson spoke of "elements and chaos" that oppose the league idea, and now we have Senator Kenyon speaking Of abuse and villification from the highest sources. When restraint is lifted, people follow their natural bent. And it is an odd commentarf/ on Boston culture that 2,000 natives shot craps on the street when the police went on strike. Regardless of treaties, reservations and, amendments, Vnele Sam will retain the right to interpret the Monroe Doctrine and vary the interpretation to meet the needs of the moment. League advocates promise, that people will not, be thrown into war without their consent. Abolition of draft laws wasn't in our copy of the covenant. Obstructing senators are charged with "preparing a situation that will bring on the final world war." What? Wasn't this one the final world war? Paying tribute to each new faction that gained power in Tampico v:as no hardship to the oil interests. Amer ican users of gasoline have footed the bill. All this time to think up only forty-five amendments! Surely somebody has been loaf ing on the job s AS THE FLU PERIL NEARS .. |jr . --JL. It's a Comfort to Know the Wor»t Has Happened. It is entirely possible that we are nearing the end of this civilization, and that before i our grandchildren come of age our present cities may be heaps of ruins, all the ac cumulated structures of the last 20 centuries |of progress razed to the ground, most of the population of the world exterminated, and the remainder reduced to savagery. Former civilizations have perished. Baby lon, Nineveh, Egypt, Greece, Home, were once as splendid and prosperous as we. Not one of them realized that their end was near, when it approached. The proud Romans, in the day of Augustus, pooh poohed the idea that Rome could fall, quite as the New Yorker today would dismiss as absurd the prophecy that New York one day will be a heap of smouldering brick ana rusted steel, inhabited only by spiders, snakes, lizards, and half-naked savages. All we have to do, however, to bring this about, is to follow the lead of men who, blinded by partisanship, set themselves to wreck the hope of the world and defeat any concert of nations. Because some sort of compact of nations is the only possible way to stop war. For what will the next war mean? It will be infinitely worse than the last. We had just begun to learn how to destroy when war ended. The next war will begin where this left off. Chemical warfare had just begun. A poi son gas had been developed, as Herbert Quick writes—"a single drop of which on the skin of its victim would have been as surely fatal as a bullet thru the heart. No EARLY CLOSING BILL BEFORE PARLIAMENT IjONDON, Kept. 26 -The curly cloning bill, eponaored In parliament by Blr Klngnley Wood, empower* local authorities to x«t up in early doxlng council, to look after the In terenta of umall trad"ra who may be bit by the bill. It provide* for com pulwiry cloning at 7 o'clock on four nlgbtH of the week, 1 o'clock on one flay, and * o'clock on Haturdaya, one hour Inter each night being allowed tobaeconlflUi and contact loner*. Editorials - Features End of This Civilization BY DR. FRANK CRANK (Copyright, lilt, by Frank C*tkn») THE SEATTLE STAR—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2fl. PRIMITIVE METHODS IN SHANTUNG MINES RINANKTT, Hept. 26. Hhftntunjt coal field* nrn worked by mo*t prim Ulve method*. Mont wasteful of all !■ tho method of "unwaterlnif" n mine. Hklnx, which rout JGO each, are attached to Iron ring* to form bucket*. Onn of the Hkina liinlh about 10 day*. They nre raised and lowered by hand and It required about Hevcn men to operate one of the holm*. Hteam or electric power and electric light* nj-o taboo. gas mask could stop this contact spray for the destruction of human insects; for it did not need to reach the lungs. Aerial bombs) had been perfected to rival, without pilots. ! the work of the airship. Armed with wings, these dreadful inventions, guided by elee- j tricity, could be sent for a hundred miles and made to drop and explode, and convert- i ing their machinery into shrapnel, drench with poison gas, blast, or tear down any thing destructible at any determined point.' "Kxplosives more powerful than had ever | been known were in process of manufacture. Let the world war l>e renewed, and there j can he no doubt that new explosives, ini larger quantities than have ever been i launched in projectiles, will fly by their own power with their own wings for hun dreds and probably thousands of miles to' undo in an instant what man has taken 1 ages to do; London will be annihilated from Berlin or Vienna, or New York and Phila-1 delphia from an» point in Europe. There ; is no reason to doubt the ability of a foe j ultimately to launch destruction against I America from Asia or the islands of either ocean." Resides, we had not yet begun Bacterial | Warfare, by which disease germs can be scientifically spread among the enemy folk, j The next war will make the ravage of! Belgium look like a rehearsal. A licague of Nations has an even chance to end war for at least a generation. NO BODY HAS PROPOSED ANY OTHER WAY. To oppose it, therefore, is a crime against humanity. AMERICAN TOWN IN SOUTHERN ITALY SKZSSO, Hept. 2«.-One of the moot American spot* In the world I* thla little town In the eouthern Pontine manhaa of Italy. The whole Kezso dlatrlrt hue a popula Hon of only 1300 Elaht hundred persona have emigrated In recent year* to America. Highly of them were American soldier*, and five HezgO mot hern wrai* mourning for American sons kill. I In Hie U. a. offensive*. Surgeon General Blue repeats what has been well known —that the new epi demic is not likely to be so severe as the epidemic of last fall. But an epidemic can be much lighter than it was last fall, and yet kill thousands, bringing death by pestilence to every city and village in the United States. % Already reports of new cases have reached the United States health service. Congressman Fess, who introduced the flu-research resolution in the house, con demns the apathy of congressmen, and urges citizens to write their representa tives, demanding immediate action on the bill to appropriate $5,000,000. Con gressman Enferson vigorously seconds F ess in this. Both say that if some amount is not appropriated to find a cure, congressmen may be confronted with the neces sity of appropriating a greater amount for relief of victims of flu. Now is the time to act. Let all who realize the danger of a renewed epidemic write their senators and representatives today urging immediate'action by congress. » Washington's senators are Miles Poindexter and Wesley L. Seattle's rep resentative is John F. Miller. They should be addressed in Washington, D. C. —By McKee. TOMORROW 1"N <«». on th* l?th of September, . Ihr army of Thmddrtf lb» Onlro- KoUi, defeated the forc«* of Odoacer. king of Italy. Mr Verona. On Mi# I7th of September. In <42, Hlg«l.ert, kin* of th* Kaat Angle*. Ma* Hlgebert *» nup pr»rd to have founded Cambridge l.'nlverMty. lie «u noted for hi* intemt In education and wa* the founder of numerous churche*. arhoole. and monaaterle*. In 17J1. on the J7th of September, a gang of 110 felona were taken from Newgate prlaon and put aboard a ahlp to be tranaported to Amer ica to colontae th« country. loiter In the century England changed the destination of her tranaported crtra lual* to Botany flay and favored America with ahlploada of deetltut* people Juet discharged from the poor hou*e* On the Sfth of September, In 1777, the continental congre** met at Pa. The member* of ntncrtw had retreated to I.*nca*t»r from Philadelphia a distance of •& mile*, when Ueneral Howe waa about lo enter Philadelphia. Products that Packers Sell Their Number Grossly Exaggerated The Federal Trade Commission has published a list of some 640 articles said to be sold by the packers. This list is ridiculously padded in order to scare people into the belief that the packers are getting control of the food supply of the nation. For example, the list includes not only "beef sides" and "beef cuts," but also over 60 other items of beef products and by-products. Over 90 articles listed are not sold to the outside trade but are raw materials and supplies, such as brick, cement, etc., used by Swift & Company in carrying on its business. Glaring duplications appear, such as "sardines" and "canned sardines"; "butterine" and "oleomar garine"; "dried sausages" and "drysausage," etc. The list includes 37 kinds of sausage; 4 dif ferent kinds or preparations of beef tongue, etc., etc. Simmered down, Swift & Company handles in addition to meats and meat by-products, only butter, eggs, cheese, poultry, canned goods, lard substitutes! and to a very small extent, dried and salt fish. And the proportion which we handle of the total supply of any one of these is absurdly small Do you want to be fooled by such misleading and ridiculous statements of the Trade Commission? Do you want radical legislation based on such absurd evidence? L*l ua tend you a "Swift Dollar," It will interest you. AddreH Swift and Company Union Stock Yards, Chicago, IU. . Swift & Company, U. S. A. Seattle Local Branch, 201-11 Jackson Street J. L. Yocum, Manager We'll Say So "But," *«■ the m»n remarked to the telephom operator, "I'll fight it out on this line if it tike* all sum Birr" • • • CANT I.IVK IT TO Hl* NAME Owing to a breakdown In the fac tory. D. Peddler will not be able to deliver oleo thl* week—Adveitl t trient In New Philadelphia i<X) Time*. • • • Dear Editor: I remember that grocery, the ore that nold pot itoe* at Si cent* a buahel and egg* at 12 cent* a doz en One thing that help* me to re m< mber It l» that I waa out of a )ob and couldn't borrow even 22 (-apt* all my frienda alao being out Of Job* —W. V. • a a Q( KNTIONH WK CANNOT ANftWER Could a *pitball hurier he called • water pitcher?—J. 8 D. t have a beautiful mahogany bed but no tick If I were to hang a pendulum on It would I get a tick? —W II O. My hu«hand I* a cornet player and he mnke* good money but does not uvi a cent. I* It became ha On the Sssue of Americanism Jhere Ccn fie tfo Compromise U alwaya blowing hlmaelf?—F. T. 11, I* the key to an apartment houm a round one or la It a flat key?— J C. K. The telephone comimiy augge»ted that I put In a party line. What kind ihould I put In, republican or democratic?— Mr*. O. U 8. • • • The dancing maatera all over tha country are going to try to drlva out Jazz and ahimmie. One might nay tti'-ra la a reform on foot. • • • NO DOCBT I/O NT BY A WAITER Ixwt Gray cloth pocketbook, $l,OOO In change. Gazette. Iteward. --Advertltement in Colorado Spring* i(Col.) Gazette. * * * Health aathoritiea *ay theae arc the beat maneuver* In fighting flu: Kating three aquare meala a day. Bleeping In open air. Kxerclalng. lielng cheerful. If lnalat upon u* be ing c.Hflfut we *hall never u*« the i again. • • • Uut. a* the electrician remarked. I "I try to keep po*t<vj on the current new*."