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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1915)
Deposits in this bank have the additional security of the De positors Guarantee Fund of the State of Nebraska. ONE OF OUR GREAT WRITERS says: “The difference between a^ great man and an ordinary one may not lie so much in the size and quality of the brain, but in the way it is used—whether to full capacity or only in part.” Just the same with our bank account plan. The more intelligent the use you make of it and the opportunities it brings you the larger will be your accumulation. Loup City State Bank Loup City, Nebraska. We pay 5 percent interest on time deposits KEYSTONE LUMBER CO. Get the best fence anchor from The Keystone Lumber Co., for 5 cents. Yards at Loup City, Ashton. Rockville, Sehaupps and Arcadia When in Need of i COAL or first-class LumlDer of all dimensions, We also have a car of Coke. We also have a good line of Fence posts, range* ing in price from ten to fifty cents. Phone Red 29 and you will receive prompt attention LEIN1NGER LUMBER COMPANY Get AH the Facts About THE Panama Expositions You need not spend a fortune to visit California and its Expositions in 1915. Anyone in moderate circum stances can go—and it’s a wise investment in pleasure and education. Simply sign and mail coupon below, or if you prefer drop a postal asking for Book Number 108 and you will receive free a profusely illustrated 04 page booklet con taining valuable information about hotel and restaurant rates, Exposition admission fees, railroad and pullman fares. Out lines how to vary your trip by going over one line and returning over another thereby gaining a more comprehensive idea of the great west; describes many free side trips en route as well as stopover points of particular interest: tells how to see both Expositions and practically the whole state of California for a single Exposition fare: in fact it is a guide book giving just the information you require to form complete plans for your Western tour and «t a vast saving in cost. You know before starting just what the trip will cost. Begin laying your plans now. i Get This Book Today—It’s Free! Return this Coupon Today OERRETT FORT, Passenger Traffic Manager UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY OMAHA, NEBRASKA, I would be glad to receive FREE your illustrated ‘•California Exposition Book” No. 108 and other informa tion of assistance in planning a Cullfornia trip. Name. Address Let the Northwestern visit yoHr home during >1915. You will like it. THE NORTHWESTERN Entered at the Loup City PostoGice for transmission through the mails as second class I matter. ; Office Phone. Red 138. Residence, - Black 138 | J. W. BURLEIGH.Editor and Pnb. J. R. GARDINER Manager Every subscription is regarded as an open account. The names of subscribers will be instantly removed from our mailing list at the expiration of time paid for. if publishers shall be notified; otherwise the subscription will remain in force at the designated subscription price. Every subscriber must understand that these conditions are made a part of the contract between publisher and subscriber. i i i i i l I i i » » Will Maupin, late democratic candidate for rail way commissioner, who did not land, has sprung a surprise upon the democrats of the state, and incident ly upon an unsuspecting public as a whole It was said that the democratic state candidates who were successful would provide official pie for the defeated ones, and in compliance, Eastham of Broken Bow, de feated candidate for land commissioner, is provided for with the deputyship in the state auditor’s office, while Whitehead, democratic candidate for state superintendent of schools is given a place in the state superintendent’s office. That leaves only the great grandstand player, Billy Maupin, to be cared for, and he shines as an unparallelled instance of a democrat refusing to be “cared for” in that way. Oh, Bill, Bill, side pard of that other greatest democratic mounte bank, outside of Billy Bryan, one Jidge (?) Telegram of the Columbus Howard, how could you so ruthless ly destroy democratic precedents? t i I ? I I 1 i i i i i I I It is confidently expected that President Wilson will veto the illiteracy clause in the immigration bill passed by both houses of congress. By a vote of 47 to 12 the senate favors and refuses to strike out the offending clause. This was all threshed out when Taft was president, and he also refused to sign the im migration bill with illiteracy clause. The senate at that time passed the bill over Taft’s veto, but the house got cold feet and failed to pass the measure over. This time it is believed that both houses will pass the whole bill with the illiteracy clause inserted over Wilson’s veto, if he follows Taft’s action. Just what good reason Wilson will assign for his promised veto is not yet made known. All reports of possible trouble with England over the protest of the United States against that country for interference of our shipments of merchandise to the belligerant countries, is being quelled. It is hard ly probable that Johnny Bull wants to take on more than the present enemies. The contemplated scare, then, over Uncle Sam having Canada and England on the north and east and Japan on the west to fight will not take on reality. Did you notice that everybody has a so-called cure for the European war except the Germans and allies? This country is flooded with orators who are using their mouths to show the cure. Talk is the cheapest thing on record. A late report is to the effect that Stone of Missouri is to succeed Bryan as secretary of state. Don’t be lieve it. You could not pry Billy loose from that job, unless it be understood by him that he could still run the adminstration from the outside. A cabless locomotive has now been invented that will halt a train going 60 miles an hour within 2,000 feet. It is said that nature has always a way of stop ping any train within 50 or 100 feet, by simply provid ing an unforseen accident. A report having been made current that the Japs are sending an army through Siberia to join the Eng lish in the fight on Germany, the Japanese authorities deny doing so or having such intention. The latest: France is said to be building two great fleets of aircraft armed with cannon and boombs, with * which to invade Germany in the spring. It is now over five months since the European war started. And the end seems as far in the future as ever. ■a---— WHY THE COST OF OPERATING RAILROADS HAS BEEN INCREASED Struggling Against Increased Cost of Labor, Sup plies, Ete., On One Hand-Reduced Rates on The Other. During the last few years the advo cates of governmeut ownership of railroads have been somewhat per sistent in the public press and the matter is referred to here not with any idea of combating this propagan da, but merely that the people may briefly see both sides of the picture. So long as a lot of men welcome ,the wreckingof the railroads on the theory that the government will take them over and that such a state of affairs would be preferable to private owner ship, it would be impossible to obtain from them a fair judgment of the latter system which now prevails in the United States. It is impossible to go into this great question at any length at this time but, here are a few things worth thinking about. Much has been said in recent years about the “water” contained in American railroad securities, and in this connection the valuation of the government railroads of Europe is very interesting. In Germany the state owned roads are valued at $114, 185 per mile, in Austria at $120,692, in Hungary at $69,210, in Italy at #136, 886, in Belgium at $190,914, in Swit zerland at $102,950, in Roumania at $90,113, in Japan at $88,104, in New South Wales at $11,391—while the privately owned lines of the United States, regardless of what water may have been forced into them in specific instances, are valued at only #63,944 per mile. Whatever inflation may therefore have been put into their properties in the past,the fact remains that their present valuation is much lower than that of the government owned railroads of Europe, and what is still more important, rates charged are the lowest and the service render ed admittedly the best in the world. It is also pertinent to remember that the charge of watered stocks,after all, can be made against but very few American railroads—the lion’s share of them having been managed with out a breath of scandal or criticism. Id this connection, a statement con tained in the last annual report of the Deutsche Bank of Berlin, which has a paid-up capital and reserve fund of $75,000,000 is Interesting: “American railroads need higher rates. The pres ent rates are the lowest in the world— representing but a fraction of the English railway rates, for instance— and this in the face of the fact that wages in the United States on the av erage are fullv twice as high as in Europe.” Certainly this view of the privately owned lines of the United States, coming from Germany, which has the most successful state owned system of transportation in the world is worthy of grave consideration. In furtliercontirmationof this state ment we quote the following statistics: It costs 7 mills per mile on an average to haul a ton of freight in the United States while in England it costs an average of 2.33 cents, in France 1.41 cents in German y 1.42 cents. The average daily wage paid to American railroad employees is $2.23,in England it is $1.35, in France 88 cents and in Germany 81 cents. Are American railroads therefore entitled to the wholesale abuse and denunciation which has been heaped upon them from all sides in recent years? Letting well Enough Alono. In view of these facts, the average citizen may well ask himself whether it is not best to let well enough alone rather than toinvite other ills we know not of—whether it is not wiser to cure such defects as may encumber the present system rather than run the danger of plunging this mighty indus try into the whirlpool of party politics for all time, with its attendant oppor tunity for evil of which the past affords such rich variety of experience. The United States is still a young country, and in many sections only partially de veloped. Many new lines and exten sions are needed here and there to give a wider opportunity to expanding agri culture and commerce, and nothing could be more unfortunate or disas trous than that these favors could henceforth be obtained only by leave of the dominant political factions which will reign at the national capi tal in the years to come. Political parties are intensely human institu tions, and the average cautious citizen will prefer to leave the railroad ex pansion of the future to the economic law of supply and demand of the dif ferent communities rather than to place such a temptation for power in the hands of those who rise and fall in the field of politics. Futhermore, should the time ever come when the government takes over the railroads, It means that the people will have to forego the millions of taxes which they now pay and which help to sup port the public schools, public high ways and other public expenses—and that henceforth these millions of re venue would have to come out of the pockets of the people. Many other thingseouhl be said up on this phrase of the question, but space forbids. For some time, the government, through the Interstate Commerce Commission, has been en gaged in making a physical valuation of all our railroads as a matter of guidance for future rate adjustments. Again, we repeat, since the people ab solutely control and regulate the rail roads, is that not enough? Will it not be better to let well enough alone—to cling to that which isnood and elimi nate that which is bad in the present system which, with all that has been said against it, furnishes the best and cheapest transportation service in the world? Increased Cost of Operation. We now wish to refer briefly to an other phrase of the problem. For a number of years the cry of the “high cost of living’’has been everywhere abroad in the land. Time was, notso many years ago.when the farmer sold his corn at 25 cents per bushel. Now it brings from 50 cents to 75 cents. So, too, he sold hogs at 3 cents per pound, which now readily bring from 7 cents to 10 cents—while a good steer calf which used to bring from $10 to $12,now sells for from $20 to $25. No body who knows auy thing about pres ent land values or the farmers’cost of production will contend that he is not entitled to these increased prices. As a matter of fact,unless he is an exceed ingly good manager and utilizes the best of modern agricultural thought he is by no means getting rich at present prices—high as they may seem to peo ple in the cities who do not understand the cost attached to present-day farm ing. To go back to to the old prices he used to receive would bankrupt, in a little while every farmer in the country—and the tendency of the fu ture will be for the prices of farm products to go still higher rather than lower. Agriculture is the nation’s greatest fundemental industry and so ciety must make the farm game sufli ciently profitable to justify the man who is on the farm today and the far mer boys of the future to stay by the plow. Much has been said recently about the fact that the farmer does not receive enough for what he pro duces—that there is too biga waste in the channels through which his pro ducts must pass before they reach the consumer, and that he hassome cause for complaint in this respect is un doubtedly true. However the railroads can face such an inquiry with a clear conscience—for an exhaustive investi gation conducted by the Lehigh Valley Railroad some time ago shows that the farmer gets 501 cents out of the aver age dollar’s worth of products he sells; the packers,local shippers,distributors and retailers get 441 cents between them while the railroads receive only 5 cents,or one-twentieth of the dollar, for tne transportation services they render. So, too, there has been a steady ad vance in practically the entire realm of the merchandise and manufactured products, whatever their nature, and the ever increasing toll in the cost of labor,steel products, lumber ears,loco motives, and other supplies has levied a tribute of untold millions upon the railroads, which have not only been for bidden to increase their rates, but, on the contrary, in many instances, com pelled to lower them. Big Increased Cost of Labor. To give the reader an extra idea of how the cost of labor lias advanced in the operation of railroads we Quote the following in the daily wage from 1900 to 1914—a period of only fourteen years: In the case of engineers it in creased from $3.68 per day to $5,76 or an increase of 56 per cent; firemen from 12.21 to $3.62, or 64 per cent;con ductors $3.31 to 84.83, or 45 per cent; station agents from $1 98 to 2.itt, or pjr tcut;,other station men from -1 to $1.90, or 17 per cent;ordinary trai^fc men from $1.97 to $3.36,or 70 per macliinists from *2.72 to 3.52, or percent;carpenters from *2.31 to or 12 per cent; other shopmen fr i *1.03 to *2.20, or 15 per cent: section foreman from *1.51 to *1 83, or 21 per cent: trackman from *1.15 to *1.42. >>r 32 per cent; telegraph operators ana dispatchers from *2.25 to $2.05. cr 17 per cent. This means a general aver age increase in wages of 52-29-100 per cent—and all other classes of railr id operatives and employees in a more less similar degree. While these a : vances have proven a great boon the nearly two million men employt i in the railway service and increa> I their capacity to buy from mereliat.’ and farmer, they have exacted mats , millions annually from the railreao themselves—all of which made tl general public richer, but tlie roa N poorer. In 1900 the railroads paid $1.44 per ton for coal. Now they pay *1.81. Then they paid 38c for tie'. Now they pay 52c. Other Increased Costs But there are many other items which have enormously increased the cost of railroad operation which we cannot go into because of a lack of space. The public is constantly <h manding a more efficient and a safer j service, and hence the railr <ds ■ I had to spend vast sums in insta^® block signals, steels passer... ; doing away with grade cros>^^^B straightening lines, heavier loo^B' tives, better roadbeds, and supp ;■ many other precautions proti both their operatives and the \ —all things very necessary, yet \ i costly. So. too’numerous states i a e passed “Full Crew" laws which ' out benefiting the public have pelled the railroads to pay a t millions to useless employees Now, while labor, farm proti. merchandise and manufactures .c supplies of all kinds have steadih m creased in price, tlie railroads, stated before, have been compel.ed reduce tlieir rates in the face of t: - avalanche of ever-advancing f operation—and that all but the :u powerful lines tind themselvo in an exceeding critical condition is r be wondered at. The farmer, the mere chant, the manufacturer and the uS borer justly insist that they w, i not be able to get along on the pn - they received ten or tifteen \ear> .. How, then, can tlie railroads, wl . are the largest employers of labor an.I buyers of material in tlie United States, be expected to exist mi tlian they received ten or tifteen y irs ago? In view of these facts, it is no wonder that President Wilson an! other patriotic and careful sindt nt> of the situation are speaking words kindly admonition to t.i public, to the end tha through whose giant ar the very life blood oi tlie not be wrecked and destr The Public and the Manner On the one hand.forthe last t». • live years the public lias deman : tlie best and highest efficiency in - - vice and lower rates in one ,>im • . same breath. On tlieotlierliand ,-ta> i the thousands of men and women w have invested their money in rai - securities and who, in com»on the farmer, the manufacturer an I • merchant,believe they are entiled a fair profit. Then come the bundj» ■, of thousands of employees who a continually clamoring for an inert a in wages, as well as the cost of ail manner of railroad supplies which constantly advancing-and betw. i them, as arbiters,stand the man i_ . - of the road—the big "hired u n struggling with might and main t* reconcile all these conflicting inter in the face of reduced rates on e'»". hand. That they have at last read • i a point where they can continue the unequal struggle no longer,should n t be a matter of wonder—and in the face of harsh and unfriendly criti which has descended upon their lo ads from every quarter they find them selves in the mental attitude of the fiddler in the Western mining ca ip when he yelled out. “Please don'r shoot, boys; I am doing the be^t 1 can.” Paid adv. To be continued next week.) iJ. G. F*agele]r AUCTIONEER Loup City, — Nebraska All Auctioneering business attended to promptly. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Give me a trial. Notice THE MOVING PICTURE SHOW At the New Opera House Will Run Every Other Night in Week Hereafter A 4-Reel Show Every Tuesday,Thursday and Saturday Ghange of Program Nothing but the best pictures will be shown here. Everybody is cordially invited to attend. THOMAS DADDOW