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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 1917)
6 D DENIES RIGHT TO REGULATE PRICES Stock Tarda Company Says It Loses Hundred Thousand Dollars a Tear on Hay Sold at Tards. THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: SEPTEMBER 16, 1917. Before federal Judges, Woodrough, Smith and Wade, attorneys for the Union Stock Yards company and the Neb.-aska State Railway commission Saturday argued 'the suit oi L. B. Smith asking an injunction against the railway commission to prevent it from dictating the prices to be charged by the stock yards company for hay and other feed. The plaintiff is a stockholder in the stock yards company and he is seek ing to show that the law passed by ' the state legislature in 1907 giving the commission power to regulate stock yards is unconstitutional and dis criminatory and that the rates now In effect for feed are confiscatory. These rates were filed by the stock yards company in 1911 at the request of the commission. The charge for hay is $1 per hundred pounds. Loses Money On Hay. At the present time the stock yards company is paying $18.50 to $20.50 for ' hay and an additional $2.01 to $4.83 per ton for buying and serving the hay in the pens at the yards. Affi davits were read showing that about 2,000 tons of hay a month are fed at the Omaha stock yards and that the loss to the company under the present high prices of hay amounts to nearly $100,000 a year. ." The attorney for the state railway commission declared that the com mission is ready and anxious to grant the stock yards company permission to increase the price of hay served in the stock yards, but that the stock yards company has made no applica tion for premission to raise the price. Denies Authority. , The stock yards company, on the other hand, is seeking to prove that the commission has no power to give or withhhold permission to increase the price of hay or other feed sold at 'the yards. The only reason the com , pany does not go ahead and increase the price in spite of the commission is the heavy penalty named in the law, ranging from $10,000 fine to a prison sentence for each offense. Former Attorney General Thomp son, for the stock yards company, de clared the railway commission's au thority stons when the cattle are re moved from the cars into the pens of the stock yards company, and that it has no power to dictate prices to dc charged for feed. , , ! The judges took the case under ad visement. ' ' The Farmer, Food Production, Food Prices and War Profits "MASSAGE, SIR? HAIR TONIC? SHAMPOO? HAIR SINGE?" He may be a good barber, but he isn't a real bar- ber; he is just helping out a Drotner somier ai training camp Winstrom Baby Die - v Swallowed Peanut Shell Eva G. Crandall. 2-year-old daugh ter of R. Crandall of Winstrom, Neb., died Friday at a local Jiospital from swallowing the shell of a peanut, over which she chocked slowly to death. She swallowed it at Winstrom, Neb., and was immediately rushed to Oma ha for a surgical operation, but died before it could be accomplished. The body will be forwarded to Winstrom for burial. In your issue of September 7, Charles T. Neal, national food ad ministration agent for Nebraska, comes out in a long tirade against the farmers who do not see fit to sell their wheat at the present time at prices fixed by the government. He characterizes the farmer not only as a "slacker," but an "alien enemy," seeking aid Germany in its war on the United States," etc., and etc. Why this sudden bust of pent up patriotism? The farmers are practi cally the onlytlass of manual labor in the United States that have neither -rone on a strike to force an advance in wages, and not only in wages, dui change in working conditions. Why, then, is the farmer a criminal for do ing just what not only the packing house emnloves. but the employes of protected industries, from the lumber, m ills of the northwest to tne couon mills and woolen mills of New Eng and have done and are doing? In a naral el column is a fervent appeal by the State Council of De fense, for the farmers, as a patriotic duty, to part with their wheat for less than the prices justified by the world's market. What has Mr. Neal then to sav about the strikers at the stock yards, led by a member of this same Nebraska State Council of De fense? They are asking for an in crease in pay for their labor, and stooDinsr the food industries which are so very much needed by our army and our allies. No one has tnougnt of calling them "alien enemies" or "slackers." What appeal has the Ne braska State Council of Defense made to these men. led by a member of this selfsame council of defense? On the very day Mr. Neal was dis playing his righteous wrath Mr. Hoover was before the National uve Stock conference seriously criticiz- . . i t ing, it not condemning, tne wnoie price fixing of foodstuffs, saying: "Everywhere in liurope price fixing tuiat is, naming oi maximum prices; has 'failed. We have the fixing of wheat prices thrust upon us," etc. Had some Nebraska farmer with a foreign accent made the 6ame remarks that Mr. Hoover made I suppose Mr. Neal would have asked for his arrest. The newspapers and magazines for months have been filled with argu ments to show that high prices of farm products must continue for years after the war. Mr. Hoover says what every intelligent, thinking man knows that this is not the case. He savs: "If the war were to end suddenly, or if the submarines would be overcome, great stores of wheat would be released in Argentina, Aus tralia and India, and the bottom would drop out of the, market in this country. These three .nations will soon have on hand enough wheat to feed the-world, .but shipping cannot now be had to transport it." In face of these facts, why should our farm ers be expected to enthusiastically change their mode of farming and rush into unavoidable lossr . Mr. Neal is further quoted as say ing 'every bushel of seed put into the eround this fall, if followed by a nor mal season, means twenty to forty bushels added to our next season's supply" Nothing could be more ab surd. It takes one and a half bushels of wheat seed to sow an acre; there fore, according to Mr, Neal's state ment, the normal yield of wheat in Nebraska is from thirty to sixty bushels to the acre. The wheat yield in Nebraska never averages over fif teen bushels an acre, and throughout the country it is seldom runs above twelve, more frequently below ten, bushels to the acre. It is admitted by all, that the most serious problem today confronting ourselves and our allies is that of neither men nor munitions, but food stuffs. The question i is no longer what these foodstuffs shall cost, but shall we be able to produce them? Had restriction been put upon the prices and profits to manufacturers of war munitions in this country and in England, the war would have terminated unsuccessfully before this time. Of course, in those localities where wheat, during the last twenty years, has been a profitable crop, it will se sown and the acreage in creased, but the possible increase of acreage in those localities is not equal to the enormously increased demand. If wheat to meet this de mand is secured it will be because millions of farmers who have here tofore found wheat raising unprofit able in their localities will pant wheat in lieu of other crops hereto fore grown. This they will not do unless there is a very great induce ment offered, and this must be great er than $2 per bushel tor . wheat. Farmers have found that the killing oitf of their wheat last winter was a blessing in disguise. One acre of corn planted to replace mis is DnnguiK 100 per cent more than a wheat crop would have brought at government prices. It is claimed that wheat can be profitably produced at $2 per bushel. It might also be said tnat munitions mia-lit be manufactured profitably at 75 oer cent of the prices received by ... l. .t.A : ft,. r,eAt With our munition factoies during the last the' b 'gone from the farm9 tithe two years, but nad tne prices Deen re- a this condition will be still more ti yiJLirjiii'iirf ''"' f iii'inwinarmwrniii mr-wir m ifnj "tynrmrrn n mi mi a m 4 Jap Photographer Decides : He'll Not Wear Uniform Again A "O OVEK' JIT C AMJR ' stricted to 25 per cent the output of these factories would have been re duced 50 oer.cent. On my farms I am paying $t a oay for common labor, hired by the year. Neither on my Illinois nor Nebraska serious in another season and unless some provision is made to supply this labor a large acreage wilt next year lie fallow, or, still worse, be -illy tended. i ' No good purpose can be served by farms will wheat raising at $2 per censurjng the farmer for doing just bushel one year with another be prof- what every other class 0f manual ja. itable at present prices of labor. But borerg in the United States is doing; whether of not it is prontaDie is nor. viz ( jnsjstjng that he shall have a the question. vSo long as other crops share jn the profits inevitably accru er labor in other directions is more .,: i,nrr:hi war nor hv ab- profitable the wheat will not be raised. surd and misleading statements made Mecnatucs in xne villages, m kv men connected with the food con- cinities of mv farms, third-class car penters, plumbers and others are de manding $4 a day for eight hours' work. Munition manufacturers and "others are offering still better wages As a result the farms i were well stripped of labor, even before the uraii jaw weni iuiu cuai. i ouuum have had five men on my farms to where I have three, but it is etterly impossible to get them now. Two out of three of my farm neipe nave been drafted. Every farmer s son who en listed in the army is worth two men than can be hired to take his place, even if they were obtainable. The drouth, which was so destruc tive to the corn and pastures of half of Iowa and more than half of Ilh nois. enables the same help' to accom plish 50 per cent more in the harvest fields in this year tnan tney wouia have been able to accomplish had the weather conditions been normal, which would have suspended their work from one to three days every week during the month of, August. But for this millions of bushels ot erain would have, for want of labor servation movement. Mercantile con cerns have never made so much money in the same length of time as they have during the last three years. Labor of all classes, with the excep tion of the farmers, have never re ceived such large renumeration. The profit during the three years of this war thus far accruing to the .farmer has not offset his increased living and operating expenses. , The present high prices of farm products have practically -. all come about within-the lasOix or eight months after the bulk of farm prod ucts were marketed. For example, the average price of live-hogs in South Omaha during the entire two years prior to the breaking out of the war that is, 1913 and 1914 was $8.06 hundred; for the yearJ915, $6.88 per hundred, or $1.19 per hundred less than during the previous two years. "Never again 1" swore Shaji Osato, well known Japanese photographer, as he discarded a suit of ' khaki and leather pu.tees and "buried them in the back yard. "Never again will I don a khaki suit" - , . , Osato has just returned from t-hi-caeo. from whence he set out on an automobile tour through Illinois with a friend. He wore a khaki suit and riding puttees which he always wears in Omaha when horesback riding or out on other outings. The men. had put up for the night in the little town of La Salle, 111., and the next morning went out for break fast As they were leaving the hotel, the village marshal accosted them. "What are you doing in that uni form of the United States army?" he inquired. "Don't you know it's against the law for you to wear it?" Osato protested it was not a uni form, merely his touring clothes, but the official refused to credit him. "Come along with me!" he com manded and led the Omaha man to the La Salle county jaiL "The Japanese consul at Chicago is my personal friend; Senator Hitch cock, of Nebraska knows who I am protested Osato, but nothing availed. Osato spent all day Saturday and Sunday in jail, while the village au thorities wired to Chicago for federal hofficers to come out and get their prisoner. When the United States official ar rived,, he cast one glance at the sup posed offender and ordered his re lease! "That's not the United States army uniform," he exclaimed in disgust Osato has one consoling remem brance of his enforced incarceration. "They didn't object to my smoking while I was in jail," he said. In other words, had the same prices been paid for live hogs in South Omaha during 1915 as had been paid for them two years previous the farmers selling these bogs would have received approximately $8,000,000 more than they did for hogs during that year. ' The average price of live hogs in South Omaha for the month of Au gust, 1914, was $8.64. The war was declared during that' month. Imme diately the prices of live hogs began to drop and continued to drop until in December, 1915, the average price was $6.33, or, $2.31 a hundred less than that paid for them during the month of August, 1914. The average price of $8.64 was not again reached until 1 March, 1916, nearly a year and a half later. . - In view of the above facts it is clear that nothing can be gained by wasting time in abusing the farmers. I have just finished a drive of over 600 miles through the best farming portions of Illinois and Iowa. This trip was made for the sole purpose of studying; farm conditions. As a re sult I am firmly of the opinion that unless the government immediately advances the price of wheat and makes some provision for farm labor the acreage of 1918 will be decidedly less than that of 1917. To no city in , the country is this situation so v serious as to Omaha, which more than any other' city de pends upon agricultural and stock raising interests for its permanent prosperity. No city ever had a bet ter foundation foi growth than the farming area tributary to Omaha if properly encouraged, and developed. Hence every business man in our city should be vitally interested in this matter, not .only as a patriotic duty, but for the good of Omaha and the state of Nebraska. V: ...... - ' WILLIAM STULL. Omaha, September 11. Netherlands Minister to United States isRecalled Washington, Sept. 14 The Nether lands minister to the United States, Chevalier W. L. F. C. Van Rappard, has been recalled by his government and today he called upon Secretary Lansing to announce the fact and ask if Mr. Van Rcyen, who has beeft named . tb succeed him, will be ac ceptable to the United States. Chevalier Van Rappard, who has been minister here for four years, will be transferred to a European post, possibly to a diplomatic posion in his own country. He said the matter of his ' transferral had been first broached last February, but no deci sion was reached until recently. The new minister, Mr. Van Royen, was formerly secretary of legation here and has had much experience in diplomacy. He married Miss Win throp of Boston. ' ' Persistent Advertising Is the Road to Success. I M$ iia fc mm Car 1 1 ffillllSlalllltlllltlllltllllillllllllllliailitlllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllllilllllUIIIIIIIIllllIIIIIIIIIIllIIIltllllllUIIIIlllllIIIIIIIIIIlltlllllllllBIlllt f ''HE WHO HESITATES IS LOST" "M"EVER was an old adage more correctly applicable to an automobile situation than it applies to the Yelie situation right now. Many Velie prospects will have to pay' an ad vanced price for their car, because an advance is sure to come soon, and Velie supply has ever been less than the demand. S V t9 Velie values mean the largest return on the in vestment. Its long serv- ice its sturdy construc tion its swift, sure, smooth performance its wonderful records for being always on the job, are due to such features as the Velie-Continental motor Timken axles, front and rear multiple disc clutch push-button starter automatic igni tion. An extra conven- ience and comfort come from its soft underslung springs deep-tufted gen--, uine leather upholstery long and roomy body, with its famous lasting' Velie finish. Eight, body -style s Touring' Cars, Touring Sedan, Four Passenger R o a d s t er,'. Coupe, etc, Better see the nearest Velie dealer about early delivery. j Pric $1185 f . o. b. factory NOW L. E. DOTY, Inc.' Douglas 8554. 2027-29 Farnam St. OMAHA, NEB. I m media U Deliveries. VELIE MOTORS CORPORATION MOLINE, ILL. A : - mi x .:V: ram. nn Several of the master build-' era of motor cars have suc ceeded in producing cars that have an ideally soft smooth performance by sacrificing the more rugged virtues. . A few have produced cars capable of prodigious feats of power and of tremendous speed by sacrificing the gentler virtues. ' , The Peerless Eighty Horse- T! t-A. t a A.- r ' ' In its "loafing" range the Peerless Eight motor is ideally soft, velvety smooth, and quick as a flash in picking up. . AH you would ask of a motor in ordinary driving the Peerless performs with : consummate grace and dis tinction in its ' loafing ?- ; range.- ' And in this range it op erates on half rations using fuel so sparingly as to shame mOst sixes of less pcvrreven many a four. Eighty horsepower,yes but with rare economy. For Touring v or Roadster ' power Eight has two separate and distinct power ranges that combine both the gentle and the rugged virtues in one and the same car. Let us demonstrate. 1. 'JUSaDT. fjr, ' To utterly , change the .whole character of the Peerless Eight and have at your command a car ready to vie with the best of those cars that are built especially for tremendous power and speed, you have only to open your throttle wider. THs automatically opens her double poppets calls on her Msporting' range. And in her "sporting" range the Peerless Eight fears no tgst foe power or speed is ready to contend on even terms with any car built. $2,400 f . o. b. Omaha. For Touring or Roadster . V. i NOYES - KILLY MOTOR COv ". .. Faclory Distributors for Nebratlta and Western Iowa. 20SS-G0 Farnam St. Omaha, Neb. : Hone Douglas 7461 The Peerless Motor Car Company, Cleveland Ohio m V i:::;s::::::::;i!:::::iiii!n:imimmmMi!immiim