The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, October 15, 1914, Page 5

20 ,000 pounds Pecans and will pay the highest PRICE. SPECIAL “BLEND COFFEE Same as we have been selling for 25c only. Vanilla Wafers in bulk only Loose-Wiles Crackers by the box only... Carload Northern Red River Ohio Potatoes At a bargain, get your winter supply NOW Cranberries 10c quart, 3 quarts for New'English Walnuts (they are worth 21c wholesale) only 20 Ib.’ NEW PACK 3% TOMATOES UNG Seviny cateai donot bs iaieas easier tue eeeieie 3 for 25c 6inch STOVEPIPE 10c PER JOINT 6-inech Elbows. 7-inch Elbows.. Stove Boards all ‘sizes Oil Cloths for stoves all sizes Coal Buckets from We have the largest stock of SHOTGUN SHELLS , in this county you can get what you want at our store New Dried Peaches Only 3 Ibs tor 25c 2 good 2d hand Automobiles for Sale or trade. Garage phone 35 Norfleet é Ream The Only Independent Grocery, Bakery and Hardware Store. Phones, 144 and 49. Garage 35 BUTLER, MO. West Side Square The Walton Trust: Co. Of BUTLER, MISSOURI Capital, Surplus Fund and Profits $357,000.00 The Largest and Strongest Financial Institution in Southwest Missouri Always has Money to Loan on Farms in Southwest Missouri Eastern Kansas and Oklahoma on 5 or 7 years Time AT LOWEST INTEREST RATES Mave a complete Abstract of Title to all lands and town lots im Bates County, which we keep up with the County Records dally. FURNISH RELIABLE ABSTRACTS, FEES REASONABLE Pays Interest on Time Deposits For 6 or 12.Months for Your Idle Money. Atways has SAFE Mortgages for sale. During the last 40 years‘ we have sold thousands of ‘mortgages to money lenders WITHOUT ANY PURCHASER LOSING A DIME OF INTEREST OR: PRINCIPAE. gr DIRECTORS — John Deerwester C. Ai Allert C. H. Dutcher Dr. Ji W. Choate A. B. Owen Wm, E. Walton, President Ji Bi Waiton, Vice-President John E. Shutt J. B. Walton Wm. E. Walton Frank Allen, Secretary C. A. Allen, Treasurer Frank Allen ‘Hand picked apples for sale Consisting of Black Twig Gano Winesap, Ben. Davis, ‘ WHY THE COST OF OP- ERATING RAILROADS HAS BEEN INCREASED —— is How the “High Cost of Living’ has * Affected the Transportation Companies. In the previous article the question of what the railroads do with the money they take in was-briefly analyzed. In.this connection, it is opportune to remind the reader that nine-tenths of the abuses not only in the railroad world but in the entire field of industri- alism were committed in the past and that American Bustness stands to-day on the threshold of a new idealism which should mean much for the future. In a great new country likeours, whose growth and expansion has been the marvel of the World, it was but natur- al that greed and selfishness should fre- quently show themselves in all lines of business activity and the railroads, of course, were no exception. But one by one these wrongful practices have yielded to an aroused public conscience which has not merely affected the bus- iness world but which has likewise taken hold of the realm of politics, Time was, not so many years aga, when large corporations were considered the legitimate prey of all who pursued them—and if they sometimes employed like means to protect themselves it must at least be admitted that the provocation was very great. But for- tunately these things are past and gone. Never before in the history of the Re- public has its politics and its buusiness been conducted so much in the open as to-day and that every honest corpora- tion in the country welcomes the change goes without saying. . It: is. therefore needless and futile to encumber the splendid era which lies ahead of us by continually reverting to things that constituted the mistakes of other days. The Government Ownership Idea During the last few years the advo- cates of government ownership of rail- roads have been somewhat persistent in the public press andthe matter is referred to here, not with any idea of combating it but merely that the people may briefly see both sides of the pic- ture. So long as a lot of men welcome the wrecking of the railroads on the theory that the government will take them over and that such a state of af- fairs would be preferable to private ownership it will be impossible to ob- tain from them a fair judgement 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 rail- road securities and in this connection, the valuation of the government owned railroads of Europe is very interesting. In Germany, the state owned railroads are capitalized at $114,185 per mile, in Austria at $120,692, in Hungary at $69,- 210, in Italy at $126,886, in Belgium at $190,914, in Switzerland at $102,950, in Roumania at $90,113, in Japan at $88,- 104, in New South Wales at $71,391, while privately owned lines of the United States, regardless of what water may have been forced into them in specific instances, are only capitaliz- ed at $63,944 per mile. Whatever in- flation may therefore have been put into these properties in the past, the fact remains that their present valua- tion is much lower than that of the state owned railroads of Eufope and what is still more important, the rates charged are the lowest and the service rendered Sale held under cover, I will hold my Semi-Annual Mule Sale at ARGENBRIGHT’S FEED YARD Butler, Mo. Wednesday, Oct. 21, 14 20 pair Coming 2-year-old Mules, a3 good as grow Mostly mares, some will weigh around 1200 by day of sale . Come rain or shine, 13 pair Coming 3-year-old Mules All mares in fine shape, extra good quality About a load of Cotton and Miner Mules in good shape Pair extra good mule colts, one of these a sure Royal Show winner. An extra good draft brood mare, some medium mares and horses. Terms Strictly Cash, C. H. ARGENBRIGHT, C. E. ROBBINS, Auctioneer. BUTLER,-MO. leave the railroad expansion of the future to the economic law of supply and demand ot communities rather than to place such a temptation for power in the hands of those who rise and fall in the field of politics. Furthermore, |should the time ever come when the government takes over the railroads it means that the people will have to fore- go the millions of taxes which they now pay. Many other things could be said upon this phase of this question, but space forbids. For sometime, the Government through the Inter-State Commerce Commission has been en- gaged in making @ physical valuation of all our railroads as a matter of guidance for future rate adjustments. Again, ws 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 is good and elimi- nate that which is bad from this time forward? Increased Cost of Operation. We now wish to refer briefly to an- other phase 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, not so many years ago, when the farmer sold his corn at. 25¢ per bushel.: Now it brings from 50c to 75c. So, too, he sold hogs at 8c per pound, which now readily bring from 7c to 10c—while a good ateer calf, which used to bring from-$10 to $12 now sells for from $20 $25. Nobody who knows anything about present land values or the farm- er’s cost of production will contend that he is not entitled to these increas- ed prices. As a matter of fact, unless this coonection, a statement contained in the last annual report of the great Deutche Bank of Berlin which has a paid up capital and reserve fund of $75,000,000 is interesting: ‘‘American railroads need higher freight rates. Their present rates are the lowest in the World—representing, for instance, but a fractionof the English railway rates—and this in the face of the fact that wages in the United States, on the average are fully twice as high as in Europe.’’ Certainly this view of the privately owned lines of the United Stabes, coming from Germany which has the most successful state owned transportation system in the World is ‘worthy of grave consideration. Letting Well Enough Alone. In view of these facts, the average citizen may well ask himself whether it is not best to let well enough alone rather than invite 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 dunger of plunging this mighty industry into the whirlpool of party politics for all time with its attendant opportunity for-evil of which the past affords such rich variety of experience. The Unit- ed States is still a young country and in many sections only partially develop- ed. Many new lines and extensions are needed here and there to give a ov oalypaaee ose pony ie is an exceedingly good manager and utilizes the best of modern Agricultur- al thought he is by no means getting tich at present prices—high as they may seem to the people in the cities who do not understand the cost attach- ed to present day farming. Togo back to the old prices he used to receive would bankrupt, in a little while, every farmer in the country—and the ten- dency of the future will be for the prices of farm products to go still higher rather than lower. Agriculture isthe Nation’s greatest fundamental industry and society must make the farm game sufficiently profitable to justify the man who is on the farm to- day and the farmer 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 produces—that there is too big a waste in the channels through which his products pass before they reach the consumer and that he has some cause for complaint in this re- spect is undoubtedly true. However, the railroads can face such an inquiry with a clear conscience—for an exhaus- tive investigation conducted by the Le- high Valley Railroad some time ago shows that the farmer gets 50}4 cents out of the average dollar’s worth of products he sells, the packers, local shippers, distributors and retailers 44}¢ cents between them, while the railroads teceive only 5c or one-twentieth of the vanes for the freight services they ren- er. So, too, there has been a steady ad- ducts, whatever their nature, and the ever increasing toll in the cost of labor, steel products, lumber, cars, locomo- to| tives and other supplies has levied a tribute of untold millions upon the rail- roads which have not only been forbid- | IL den to increase their rates but on the contrary, in many instances, compelled | | Roy J. Dixon, 17 Years Old, Killed by to lower them. Big Increased Cost of Labor. - y | To give the reader an exact idea of how the cost of labor has advanced’ in the operation of railroads we quote the following increases in the daily wage from 1908 to I913—a period of only 10; years: In the case of engineers it in- creased from $4.01 per day in 1908 to $5.24 in 1918—or an advance of 30 per cent; firemen from $2.28 to $3.16, or 38 per cent; conductors from $3.38 to $4.48, or 81 per cent; other trainmen from $2.17 to $3.06, or 41 per cent; ma- chinists from $2.50 to $3.28, or 31 per cent—and all other classes of railroad operatives and employees in a more or less similar degree. While these ad- vances have proven a great boon to the nearly two million men employed in the railway service and increased their capacity to buy from merchant and farmer, they have exacted many millions annually from the railroads themselves—all of which made the gen- eral public better off, but the roads poorer. 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 demanding a more efficient and a safer service and hence the railroads have had to spend vast sums in installing block-signals, steel passenger cars, doing away with grade crossings, straightening lines, heavier is, better road beds, and sup= plying many other precautions protect- ieg both their operatives and the pub- lic—all things very necessary, yet very costly. Now, while labor, farm products, merchandise and manufactures and sup- plies of all kinds have steadily increas- ed in price, the railroads, as stated be- fore, have been compelled to reduce their rates in the face of this avalanche of ever-advancing cost of operation— and that all but the most powerful lines find themselves in an exceedingly critical condition is not to be wondered at. The farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer and the laborer justly in- sist that they would not be able to get ‘along on the prices they received ten or fifteen years ago. How, then, can the railroads, which are the largest employers of labor and buyers of ma- terial in the Uuited States be expected to exist on less than they received ten or fifteen years ago? _In view of these facts, it isno wonder that President Wilson and other patriotic and careful students of the situation are speaking words of kindly admonition to the American public to the end that the railroads through whose giant arteries flows the very life blood of the Nation’ may not be wrecked and destroyed.— Adv. (To be coritinued next week.) The State campaign was opened at Springfield Tuesday by Gov. Major of Missouri, Gov. Dunne of Illinois and Senator Charles A. Towne of Minnesota. The crowd was im- mense and the enthusiasm <bound- YOUTH SLAIN WHILE HUNTING Accidental Gun Discharge. Roy J. Dixon, 17-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Millard J. Dixon, 1601 Fifth Street, a high school student, was ac- cidentally shot and killed near Mill Grove, 10 miles southwest of the city, Sunday morning at 9:45.0’clock. The | discharge which caused the tragedy came from a shot gun which was resting stock down, in the buggy, in which the Dixon boy with his friend, Charles Ott, had started to go hunt- ing. While turning the horse in front of the farm of John Sheley, the . butt of the gun slipped on the floor of the buggy in such a way as to direct the muzzle at the boy’s head. The jolt- ing of the rig caused the weapon to explode and the charge inflicted a terrible wound just above the boy’s right ear and in the back of his head. The boy was born in Bates county, Mo., November 5, 1896, and was at the time of his death 17 years, 10 months, and 29 days old. When he was six years old the family moved to Illinois and it was here that the lad got most of his schooling. He was the son of Millard J. and Rosa sid Dixon. Senior in High School He was a Senior in the Lincoin high school and would have graduat- ed_next June.__The tragedy comes as a shock to the many friends and ac- quaintances of the boy, by whom he was known and loved forhis modesty and intelligence. He was vice presi- dent of his class and popular among his classmates and instructors. He is survived by his parents and two brothers, Walter of Milwaukee, and Clarence of Chicago. The latter arrived Monday morning and the for- mer is expected late Monday.—Lin- | coln (Ill.) Daily News-Herald, Oct, 5. Adrian Notes. From the Journal. = C. M. Long, farm adviser of John- son county, will speak in Adrian Sat- urday, October 17th, at 20’clock p. m, on the treatment of hog cholera and means of preventing it. The farmers of Johnson county have organized in- to clubs to prevent the cholera and have about eradicated it. Uncle Charles Garrison wasthrown from a wagon last Friday at his farm adjoining Adrian and sustained ser- ious injuries. He fell on his head and shoulders and was so.-badly. bruised that he has been unable to leave the house. All hope that he may soon re- cover and be able to circulate among his friends. Gov. Major is asking the people of. the State to give him a Democratic.’ Legislature this winter that he may carry his campaign for better schools: © ed. This is a Democratic ‘year in| and better roads to a successful: cole: State and Nation. Just as well get|clusion. And the people whob aboard the band wagon and make it|in better schools and better ro unanimous. shoal vote thet way fei Nevuacia