TTIK OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: DECEMBER 27, 1014.
Life and Travel on Chilean Side of Andes; a grave crisis con-
FRONTS THE RAILROADS
' WAR HAS CLOSED. MONEY MARKETS OF
EUROPE TO THEM INDEFINITELY
fOoprrtrht. lfH. by Frank O. Carpenter.)
OS AXDHS Chllo.-l am hls.h
LI up on the Chilean side of the
I Andes, reedy to emus over the
I ..-.- r 1. 1 ' 1
lluumauiB ii.'iu iiiq i n
to the Atlantic elope of the
continent- My neit Mler will
be from Argentina, ami will describe the
Ki patent bread and moat lanrt of the
future. I am now on the roof of t!u con
tinent, right In the shadow of Mount
Aconcagua and within plain right of the
highest peak on our heiHsp' To the
north of m till mlKh'.v range elinl a
far an the distance from Boston to Pan
Francisco. It rises and fall In a mighty
wall, whose a vera bright Is more than
two and one-half miles, and whoae width
Is greater In many placet than the dis
tance between Philadelphia and Boston.
Jn some places thera are two mighty
parallel ranges that uphold plateaua aa
great In area aa soma of our largest
state, and at the far north there are three
ranges, from one of which branches off
ilia spur which dropa down Into the
Onlebra cut at the Isthmus of Panama.
The Andes run southward from here to
the Strait of Magellan, and. Jumping
that atrait. are found again In the moun
tains of Tierra del Fugo, ending at last
in Cape Horn, a mighty lock whl'h la aa
high aa Mount Washington. In tv-e
southern ranges there are many low
passes, and In a half dozen place Chile
is plannlag to build railroads concerting
tbe ocean. The mountains gradually fsll
as they near the atrait, but the etas on
each aide of them are of great drpth, Ktid
the Andes with their rocky heaii.i still
tower high above the witter. ,
During the laat year my travel lmvt
been largely confined to the Andes, and
In this and tit other trips t have made to
Uouth America I have traveled through
them from one and to the other. I hava
never ant foot on Cape Heme, but I have
seen the mountains of Tlera del Fuwro,
and In a coasting steamer hava wound
my way in and out among Vin glacial
peaks of Patagonia and through the
Strait of Magellan at the southern
end of the continent.
A Pass Tkratasrh Mosatalaa.
The ft rait of, Magellan Is merely a pass
through the mountain Cape Pilar, which
marks Its western end, terminates in two
massive rocks 1.500 feet high, and the
great archipelago of Tierra del rue go
consists of mighty mountains, which are
more than half under the sea. I know of
no finer soenery than that of the lalanda
. which border the western coast of south-'
ern Patagonia. It is like riding In a ship
amid the snowy peaks of the highest
mountains. I wound my way through In
a small vessel, going through passes at
night. The distance was 300 or 400 miles,
and we coasted slowly along through
these mighty fiords walled on the lower 1
alopes with stunted pine forests and
crowned with glaciers which here and
'there plowed their way through the green
and cams down to the water. Darwin
compared the glaciers of Mount Barmlento
in Tierra del Kuego to 100 frosen Niag
aras. The waters of western Patagonia
made ma. think of 100 Lake Comos, Lake.
Ocnavaa and Lake Lucernes tied
f , , , --- . ... - ,. v - .. . TV
f ,. t X V ' -' :
-y v ; yy Ji J-1 tp .yfen
( ,-. !,( , -,--- . -! . ! i t. :V . .,-. .i l , f .
r- 'mJ rfe ZUrrta. jj turrnlmd hymillxozts
f I ( f w i - - , . V ' . ' -
, r--w Pv VS - : -Lv- ' ' '
Txspical people hxjh Andes.
I are so bitter that they would poison the
1 man who tried to drink them. Among
them are the great borax lakes, one of
to- 1 which Is twenty-four miles In length. It
ether In an ever-winding, ever-changing iklrts the railroad track which runs from
river. The mountalna above compared I Pas, Bolivia, down to Antofagasta.
with the Alps. Hera a giant rock, cathedral-shaped,
covered with moss, rose
straight upward for 1,000 feet, and further
n mountalna. with their heada loat In
the clouds dropped almost precipitously
into the sea. Thera were narrow gorges
fn which our steamer had to tack this
und It contains enough borax to wash all
the heads of tha humin rare.' I saw this
ike on my way from Bolivia down to the
oast, and tha crust of borax upon It
was so hard that one could hava skated
ver tt aa though upon lea. The crust
ooked like loe and tha borax I saw taken
way and that to got through. Ws plowed out was for all tha world Ilka tha finest
fields f floating lea, and went through of whlta spun silk wadded or woven Into
canyons walled with lea several thousand lumps.
feet deep. . . ; . ' , '
. . , Mlraares . Lakes. 1
t "!," On other lakes In tha neighborhood of
I remember we passed several floating . . .
. . . . " . " 'hat desert' I saw mirages such aa you
vi.u v 1 " 1' anil these bodies of salt water seemed to
not to b. .truck b, too brgTand .Tent' Vr Md
place we stopped and anchored beside ctve
in order to break off a chunk of lew
weighing several tons, which by means of
a derrick we loaded on to the ship. This
dlana walked through the air.
Lake Tltlcaca and Ita little slater. Lake
Poopo, are both mora .or less alkaline
Tou can drink the Tltlcaca water, but It
lc. was of a beautiful opal.scenV wen "tts, and the water of lLak. r-
with a cover of frosted silver. Wa wrap- , ' ' . ' .1 n .
ped a log chain around it, and the steam
engine hoisted It to the dock. A little
later the butcher killed a fat pig which
our vessel was carrying, and for the re-.
, mainder of our voyage wa feasted oa.
paosae-e, pork chops, spare rlba and
scrapple. v ,
I have referred to the pine forests of
the far south. The vegetation on the
west coast of tha Andes la peculiar.
Prom the Strait of Magellan to almost
1.000 miles northward the mountains are
heavily wooded. There Is a dense Jungle
also at the north, running from Panama
to the southern . boundary of Souador.
Between these two places it Is all desert
and the foothills of the mountains have
a country as sandy and barren aa the
mighty Sahara 'between them and the
sea. There the rain never falls, and It Is
only on tha eastern slope that you find
dense vegetation.
In the southern Andes there Is a heavy
rainfall. This comes from the winds of
the Pacific, which blow In that direction.
A little farther north the winds oome
from the east. They are loaded with tha
waters of the Atlantic They drop a
part ef their burden on their way across
outh America, and the ralna pour all
along the eastern aide of the Andes. By
the time the winds get to the top they
are dry and there la nothing but anow
water, vhich meltaon the high peaks and
. flows down in a stream here and there
through ti.n great western desert, rar
ther north in Ecuador there la a heavy
rainfall and the rivers that flew down
the ateep western slopes often flooj ths
country for miles.
Get Pleaty ( Kata.
I waa surprised about the rain aear
the Strait of Magellan. In some parts
of western Patagonia the ground Is cov
ered with mosa as deep. as. your. waUt.
and there are mighty ferns with fronds
ss ions; as your arm and longer. The
moat of .the treea are everrreens. They
sre small, but are so thick on tha ground
that you can walk on their topa In snpw-
iioos. The ground there is saturated
with moisture, and when 1 tried to make
my way tnrougn the woods I sank in
aa though I were on one of the boga of
old Ireland. It rains tWe every few
days. Indeed, .1 am told that it rains
tl'lrteen mouths every year,
And this brings me to the lakes of tha
Aedee. The weatern slopes la southern
t:tll have bodlrs of t'reah water that
ill compare In beauty with the lakes of
ttie Alps. Laks Jvahunl Huapl, which Is
shout t feet blrh, is like a Norwegian
fiord, wtih waterfalls flowing down the
steep walls of the basin in whluh it Ilea.
J-ako Kjralda Is another beautiful
hfltt." and Lake Llanquihue Is an Inland
second only to TlUcaoa In sise. All
of thev lakas He in a ravine er along
j.utt which will soms day be one ef the
utiio over the A odea They are In south'
tin Chile, and are oni-'li)f a cU:d the
Mi .lid Und of tbe south
The Anit-s in iiorib ';. i!u hae no water
i'H sIKfclme ui'0itc, eonic of wtii h
Desaduadero river water tastes very
much like that of the Jordan.
The most wonderful lake upon earth
Is Tltlcaca. It la two miles and a half
straight up In ' the air above the sea
level and It la surrounded by silver-clad
mountains from 16.000 to 12,000 feet high.
Teu feel the altitude when you tide over
the lake. Tou seem to be on the very
roof of tbe world and know If you could
eltmb over those mountalna you would
drop off Into apace. AH of the moun
tains surroundlnf the lake' are covered
with anow and the lake Itself is so blue
that It makes one think of the grotto at
Capri, which Is famous all over... the
world. There are many Islands In the
lake, and la the distance they seem to
float upon the water as though they were
balloons or bails and not the outcrop
pins of ths highest ofaaln of our hemi
sphere. One Island I remember rose out
of the lake like a gigantlo mushroom of
soft blue velvet, and another resembled
a mammoth whale whose head and tall
stood high above the blue waves. These
were optical illusions due to the atmos
phere, but they were phenomena I haive
seen nowhere else.
There are many other lakes oa the
plateaus of the Andes In Peru and
Ecuador, and also In Colombia, Inoluding
Lake Quatavita, which the Indians wor
shiped and Into which they threw offer
ings of gold and silver. I have already
written of Lake Urcos, In which the
gokien chain of Cusoo Ilea burled, and
thera are probably Inca treasures In most
of the bodies of water which lie between
the two great Andean ranges.
inaeasi Kleaea Kky.
I am writing this under the shadow
of Mount Aconcagua. It Is about 23.000
feet high and It kisses the sky far above
any other point on our hemisphere.
Mount Meroaderlo In Argentina Is only
H4 feet lower, and Tupungato and Borate
are each more than f'-.OOO feet The same
la true of lUlmanl, which, like So rata,
looks down on Lake Tltlcaca. and CThlm-
aoraso in Ecuador U very near tha aunt
netgnt. The average range of the Andea
throughout Is more than 1J.0U0 feet hlrh.
It is the highest range on earth, wtth
me exception of the Himalayas, which
are about ,0M feet higher.
I have seen the Kreat mounLulna t
Africa. Mount Keiua s a mile under the
top ef ACMcasrua. and KUlmanlaro la
.wm test lower. Kilimanjaro ajid Chlm-
" " auoui me same height, and
If you could have a wireless station on
their tops you might communicate with
one another on the same plane of air.
Ana this reminds me that we are now
sending wireless messages right over the
Andes. Peru has a wireless station on one
or her foothills which Is farther below
the tops of the mountalna than the height
of Plkea Peak. Nevertheless, they hsve
em messages right over the range and
have had them received by wlrekas eta-
tiona in Itio de Janeiro, notwithstanding
wis -iioie continent lies between. Wo de
jjsneiio is on tha level of the' sea. Thoe
mesijAgea climbed up over 16,000 fwat and
then slid down to sea level, traveling s
dlatsnce longer than from Boston to the
Great Bait lake. Tha highest of the
Himalayas is Mount Everest-It measures
29,000 feet If you could putNMount Wash
ington on top of Aconcagua It would Just
about equal the height of Mount Everest
the highest mountain or the world. Mount
Everest Is over twice aa high, as pikes
Peak, or Mount Shasta It is twice as
high as Fujiyama, and 12,000 feet higher
than Mount Ararat on which Noah
dropped the ark.
Our biggest mountain Is Mount McKin-
tey, In Alaska. It corresponds with Chim
boraso, and' is less In height than Borate
and Illimani, which are each 21.000 feet
Snevr Caps Perpetaat
All of these big South American moun
tains are capped with perpetual snow.
Even those of Ecuador, which lie on the
equator have ice all the year round. There
are glaciers almost everywhere, and you
can go by ths railroad to within a stone's
throw of them In Peru and see them
hanging down ovsr your train as you
pass..! sent a rifle shot into a glacier
from the baggage car door aa I rode over
the pass that leads to the Morococbs
mines, at an altitude of 14,566 feet above
the sea. This la the highest railroad point
of the world'a and tbe glaciers lie within
a stone's throw of the train.
The volcanoes of the Andea are num
bered by scotes,' and many of them are
still spitting out ashoa and flames and
molten rock There Is no other place In
the world which offers so good a field
for the study of geology. There are new
formations , at every atep, and the akin
seems to be torn from old Mother Earth
and her inner workings laid bare. As I
climbed up the Southern railway of Peru
I rode for many miles through Mva about
the alopes of Mount Mlsti, which is 20,000
feet high, and on my way from Bolivia
to Chile I saw great windrows of hva
near the volcanoes of St. Peter and St.
Paul- which often break out in eruption.
In some places you see great flolds of
lava and again cascades of lava, where
the molten rock has concealed and hard
ened on Its way down the hills. Now the
lava la In millions of fragments, ths
slse of your flat Now It is a fine sandf
and now the fragments have been rolled
over and over until they are boulders. Ths
plateau of Bolivia, wjilch la aa big as
Virginia, Is .covered with boulders or
many colors.
The rooks of the Andes ace as plcltur-
esque as those of the Colorado, canyon
or the Yellowstone park. Now they are
black, and now white as snow. Here
they are composed of old red sandstone
and there they are Ivory, while further
on they msy be as yellow as gold. They
have every formation known to man.
There are great forts without number,
there are spires which reach to the sky,
andVlnnacles fit for the pulpits of gods.
The life of the Andes Is unlike that of
any other region oa earth. This Is so
of the plant and animal world, Tbe temi
arld plains of the highlands have a veg
etation tike moss, there are strange wild
flowers and the high plateaus are as
barren of treea as the Sahara. Still they
grow potatoes and com, barley and
qutnua and other cropa the names of
which X do not know.
People Have Ikaalat Ways.
The people are different There have
never been any Indiana like the Incaa
and there are none like their descendants
today. They have their own customs and
traditions and folklore ready for the sci
entist of the future. I might fill a page
of this newspaper with stories of strati ire
superstitions. I could tell you of the gods
and devils of the high Andes and of
fairies and witches. Laat night I learned
how the Aymara believe that the (leah
and blood of a certain llsard will give
one perpetual youth. It will care all
sorts cf diseases and even mend broken
bones. As the story goes, the Indian
kills the llaard and wraps It round ths
fracture and ths break beoomea well. It
la aUo good for stomach trouble and the
wife of an American miner Vila me how
alio was cured by ualntr lu The ilaartla
fcair.e from an old lndisn, who prescribed
the raw flesh chopped up with the blood
in it This waa to be drunk with the
addition of a little chlcha, the common
beer of the country. My lady friend tells
me It cured her .dyspepsia.
Chlcha Is the common beer of the
Andes and the beat Is made by chewing
up grains of corn In tfie mouth. The
natives have chlcha parties, where tho
young girls come together and sit down
In a circle. .In the center is a basin of
wood. As soon as they are seated they
begin chewing tthe uncooked gTalna of a
certain kind of Indian corn. They mastl
oate thla until It Is reduced ,to a pulp and
is saturated with saliva, , when they spjt
the cud out Into a basin. At the end of
the party there is a great bowl of the
mixture. It la left to ferment, and with
the addition of waer soon turns to an ex
cellent beer. It may be that this beer.
rather than the lizards, cured my friend's
stomach.
Fsaaa Is Interesting.
The fauna 6f the high Andes is Inter.
eating and the domestlo animals are espe
cially so. I never grow tired of studying
the llamas, alpacas, vicunas and guana-
ouas. They all belong to one family.
whose home is In the high Andes. The
llama la the beast of burden. It is num
bered by millions and It carries the moat
of the freight of tbe highlands. The
alpaca Is of the same abape, only smaller.
Its wool Is among the finest softest and
silkiest, known -in to the world. 'Alpacas
are . kept In . great flocks, watched by
shepherds and cared for as we care for
sheep. They are clipped once in two
mra h.H .,nh ul, .1 .. 1.1 ., . w . . . .-
-- .' wma, BI.UUIU jr.-,! lWUh 11V.
pounds of long; wool. The animals are
quiet and easily handled.
. The vicuna-looks not unlike an alpaca,
except that It la smaller and more dell- I
eately formed. ' In habits It Is more like a
deer than a aheep, and Ita flesh tsstes
like venison. It .cannot be domesticated,
although It will sometimes come down
from the mountains and grase with the
alpacas. It Is often killed for Its wool
and skins. The wool Is golden yellow.
It Is finer than that of the alpaca, and
so soft and firm that clothing made of It
la practically waterproof. The supply Is
limited, and at the present time It brings
CM a pound, whereas the common alpaca'
wool sells for less than 25 cents per pound,
and llama wool and sheeps' wool are
much lower.
Vicuna skin rugs when well tanned
with the fur on are like silk plush, and
they bring from 130 to 1100 apiece.
There are millions of sheep on the high
Andes, but they are poorly kept and have
been ruined by Inbreeding. The native
sheep does not produce more than a
Pound and a half or two pounds to the
fleece, and some farmers shear their
sheep only once In two years.
PRANK O. CARPENTER.
In l w of the fact that one of4 the rail
roads of Nobrs3ka has already fllfd an
application for an Increase of rates with
the 'State Hallway commission. It . ta
tlieMloaire of all the railroads to utilize
thla opportunity for an Intimate .snd
frank illsciiT-sion of th whole railroad
ouortion W(h (.), l0ople of this state.
To (his end. tho careful attmtion of the
reader la Invited to a scries of articles
which wllf sppcar in thla newspaper dur
ing the net fw weekB and which will
contain the most far-resrhlng discnxslon
of this great proMem that has ever ap
peared In the public press. All that Is
aakod In the meantime I that the people
of Nebraska nccord to the railroads the
courtesy of l'stenlng to their ride of the
story' and, then form such conclusions
aa. in their .iudmcnt. the facts may war
rant. That the rnllrosda of the United 8tatea
are today confronted by the sraveat crisis
In their history there Is not tne slightest
question. For some years they have been
desperately ntrugKllns; with an ever In
creasing1 coat, of operation In the face of
reluced freight and passenger rates but
serious-ns this rituntlon Vas before, the
European war, which has Indefinitely
closed to them the foreljni money mnr
kets, 1m suddenly brought them face to
face with a situation which threatens not
merely many-new receiverships but the.
actual paralysis of the. entire transporta
tion industry of the nation. It was this
stale of sftair which compelled the clos
ing; of the New York Stork exchange
somo months ago. What will happen In
the future the future alone can tell.
American rnMronds are valued In round
figures at t20.oro.foo ono. and of this vast
sum nearly $3,000,000,000 worth of securities
ara held abroad. Should Europe. In Its
frantic struggle for funds, teek to con
vert these securities Into cash during; the
next twelve months, where Is the money
to come from with which to buy them 7
and falling to protect these securities,
what demoralisation will follow not
merely In railroad Investments but in nil
other American industrial values as well?
The recent ststement of David Lloyd
Oeora:e chancellor of the exchequer, that
the inability of Englishmen to convert
their American Investments Into cash Is
crippling Oreat Britain In Ma present
emerKoncy la ominously slKnlflcant. Pos
sibly the New York Stock exchange may
be al io to resume operations without dis
aster for the time being, but that the fi
nances not merely of the fnlted States
but of the world will be subjected to a
strain without precedent In history durlns;
fhe next year or two Is so apparent that
It requires no extended comment la a
future article th's phase of the question
will be dealt with more fully. '
President Wilson's Views.
That the situation is profoundly serious
Is manifested by the recent utterance of
President Wilson to a group of eastern
railroad executives. In his letter to Mr
Trumbull of the Chesapeake & Ohio he
said:
"Tou aak me to call the attention of
the country to the Imperative need that
railway credits be sustained and the rail
roads helped In every possible way.
whether by private co-operative effort or
by the action wherever feasible of gov
ernmental a-enclea, and I am glad to do
so, because I think the need Is very res,l.
"They are Indispensable to our whole
economio, life and railway securities are
at the very heart of most investments,
large and small, public and private, by
individuals and by Institutions.
"I am confident there will be earnest
and active oo-ope ration In thla matter,
perhaps the one common Interest of our
whole Industrial life.
"Undoubtedly men, both In and out of
official position, will appreciate what Is
Involved and lend their aid heartily wher
ever it la possible for them to lend It.
But the emergency Is In fact extraordi
nary and where there Is manifest common
Interest we ought all of us to speak out
In Its behalf, and I am glad to Join you
In calling attention to It This is 'a
time for all to stand together in united
effort to comprehend every interest and
serve and sustnln :t In every IrKltiitmte
way."
Railroads Lost Millions.
The net operating Income of the rail
roads of the I'nited States for the year
ending June , 1911, Was I120.POI.OW less
thn.fi for the previous year. The eros
earnings for the year "re 4l,0o0,0O0 lesa
than for 191S while expenses and taxes
were ITfi.OOl.O'XI more. But heavy as this
burden Was before, tho (treat etruKKle
.nPft,. I tin aa vln. tA 1 1 ttnV thft 1 . .
" " f ' " '"" rich men
destruction of untold hundreds or nill
ll'ina of dollars' worth of all kinds of
property, renders the situation a thou
rnnilfol'l more serious. It means. In
short theft for a number of years to
come Europe jll have n surplus money
for investment In the I'nited States or
rlsewhre and that American railroads
Will have to finance their future needs
at home: How herculean this task will
be, raying nothing about protecting them
aclvra against the dumping of foreign se
curities, may be Judged from the fact
that the loan and note obligations which
will mature between now and the end of
the next "year, and which the railroads
will have to meet In some way, amount
to more than $563,000, 000 and this doesn't
take a dollar's worth of nrnr improve
ments or betterments Into consideration.
These are obligations which were Incurred
In the past and which must bo met as
they fall due if the transportation com
panies are to bo preserved from whole
snlo receiverships and ruin.
Manifestly, therefore, American in
vestors, big and little, will have to conic
to the rescue and before they will eon
aent to do thla Anieritun railroad securi
ties, will have to be re-established aa a
sound, respected and paying Investment
and this, on the basis of present railroad
earnings, is Impossible t
For this reason tho railroads of Ne
braska believe tho impending crisis de
mands that they lay this whole problem
before the people of the entire state that
they have a heart-to-heart talk wlih the
farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer,
the banker, the laboring man, and all
other citizens upon this great, question
which so vitally affects tho future wel
fare of the commonwealth and the na
tion. Why Railroads Arc Helpless.
In times of acute financial stress pri
vate industries are in position to very
largely adjust their affairs to meet the
emergency. 'They ran advance the price
of their commodities, cut their payroll In
half, or shut down altogether, and thus
permit the storm to blow over without
actual shipwreck. The railroads, ss
quasi-public enterpriHcs, however, are in
sr. entirely different position. Their
rates are regulated by law and cannot
be advanced without the consent of the
people through their law-making bodies.
In order to please the convenience of the
public and not-tc"break down the com
merce of the country they must operate
their freight and passenger trains
whether they carry a full load or only
a quarter of a load and In view of trese
facts It is manifestly unfair to put the
railroad In the same class wth private
Industrie's in the present crisis and aak
them to shift for themselves as best they
canWhen the people took over the
complete making and regulation of rail
road rates they at the same time as
sumed tbe solemn Implied obligation to
see that the railroads get a squar deal
for the people are the only power that
stands between them and ruin.
We believe every Intelligent' citizen
will agree that agriculture, commerce
and industry cannot get along without
the railroads. On the other hand, the
railroads cannot get along without the
patronage and, what Is equally essen
tial, the good will of the people. .' That
some of those who have been entrusted
with railroad management In the past
are somewhat responsible for the ap
parent gulf between the public and the
transportation companies Is perhaps
true. Busy and harassed by the her
culean tasks entrusted to their care,
there has been too' little contact be
tween them and the people. Again, It
la undoubtedly true that the world of
railroad finance aa well as other Hies
of Industrial activity ha had Its share
of Inexcusable abuses hut Xt aa the
public does net hold the banking
world or the ministry responsible aa
a whole for the shortcomings of an oc
casional black sheep, so the hundred
of honest railroad efn.iala throughout
the country should no be condemned
because of the misdeeds of the few.
Who Owns the Railroads
In this connection It may be said
that the railroad world is encumbered
with a lot of phantoms which exist
only in the popular fancy. For In
stance, because there have been some
hslf dozen so-callel railroad magnates
whose names have figured prominently
in Wall Street, many people have come
to believe that the railroads of tho
country are largely owned by a few
As a matter of fact, noth
ing could be farther from the truth.
Out of the colossal sum of MO.000,000,000
Invested in American railroad securities
less than 5 per cent Is now or ever has
been, in the hands of these men v. ho have
figured prominently In the newspaper
headlines while the other 9a per cent is
In the hands of nearly 2.000,000 investors,
large and email, who. in many instances,
have put the modest savings of s lifetime
into these securities In order that they
might lay away a competency for old
ego.
When, therefore, the value of these se
curities is " depressed, or perchance de
stroyed, the hardship is tenfold greater
upon thousands of every-day citizens
uflhn the frugal mechanic In a New
England factory, the widow with her life
insurance funds, and the countless other
c Itlreus In every avocation and walk of
life thnn upon the handf:il of millionaires,
good or bad. who have figured promi
nently in railroad circlet. Thus, for In
stance, the great Pennsylvania sjBteni
has over 70.0CO stockholders, while the
Hanta Ke has over 40,000. and the same
ratio holds good In nearly all-the other
lines. ,
Many Other Investments Affect.
' But that Isn't all. For many years
railroad bonds were considered tho safest'
and soundest investment In the coun
try, snd hence hundreds of millions "of
assets of our. great llfo Insurance com
panies, - banks, benevolent associations
and college were Invested In them, and
the moment, therefore, that the soundness
of these securities Is affected the finan
cial solidity of these myrinsl Institutions
is greatly menaced at tho same time.
Tarrying it a step further, It means
that every- holder of an old line life in
surance policy and millions of depositors
in savings and other banks, and those in
terested in many fiduciary benevolent
and educational Institutions are directly
concerned In the present situation, which
threatens to largely destroy the high re
gard In which an Investment In rail
roads bonds was held.
In the Impending crisis, therefore, not
merely the fate of our. transportation sys
tem is at stake, but along with it the very
financial integrity of our enure invest
ment world and this only goes to show
how vast and overshadowing our rail
road Industry has become how they are
not merely the giant arteries of agricul
ture and commerce, but how closely their
welfare is wovon Into the woof said fa
brio of the entire nation. Among other
things, it should remind us how Interde
pendent we have come to be In this
mighty republio 6f ours that each la. in
truth becoming more and more his broth
er's keeper, and that we need to think
and act carefully lest In our mistaken
seal we destroy those who, like ourselves,
need whatever of this world's goods the
toll and sweat of years has brought to
theTh.
' That the time has come when the riti-t
sons of Nebraska and the country gen
erally should do some serious thinking in
connection with this greatjund vital ques
tion, there is not the slightest doubt and
hence wo appeal to the people to read
the forthcoming articles carefully and
thoughtfully and since all the essential
facts and figures quoted will be taken
from the public records tbey will be
easily capable of verification. Especially
do we hope that farmers whose market
facilities and land values are so critically
affected by the railroad problem will fol
low the article closely for agriculture and
transportation are easily the nation's
two greatest and most fundamental in
dustries. . (Paid Adv. To be continued
next week.)
rr
Qaakrr qatps.
When .a doctor is Irritable it may be
because he is out of patients.
It Is aa Impossibility to make both ends
meet by burning the. candle at both ends.
You never can tell. Many a man ha
been praised to the skies, only to come
down with the proverbial dull, sickening
thud. Philadelphia Record.
7
D Best F Baitcf.
Sanatorium
Thla, Institution U tha only one
in the central west with separate
buildings situated ia their own
ample grounds, yet entirely dls
iliiei, and rendering it possible to
classify case. The on buUdiog
being fitted for and devoted to tha
treatment of non-contaglona and
non-mental diseases, no others Do
ing admitted; tho other Rest Cot
tage being designed for and de-
-wo .o iuf tiAciutilve treat men i
of select mental cases requiring
for a time watchful care aud spa
tial nursing. '
ll m
it r avs
to Keep Clean
"We are just now celebrating our 30th anniyer
Bary in the Towel Supply business in Ouiha and
from n mere beginning we now supply more than
two million (2,000,000) clean towels annually to
offices, stores and factories.
AVe fully appreciate the remarkaDle demon
stration of public confidence, in our efforts to
please our patrons, many of whom we have served
from the beginning and we propose to prove our
appreciation by continuing and if possible, "im
proving our service in the future.
Clean Towels are not only a convenience, but
a positive investment, that should be included in
your office equipment.
Start the Xew Year right. One of our outfits
complete $1.00 per month. Individual towels at
75c per hundred. Service guaranteed.
Omaha Towel Supply
Established 1884.
Oldest, Largest, Best. 207 So. 11th St.
st ,aa siauiw-
IE r?
If!
"'T- - ti i s e-A L.st,A
Pm0
! ' :.v..-.a.-
to
BE A SWAPPER
Make swaps for profit. Look into the
"Swapper's Column"