Evening Star Newspaper, January 9, 1921, Page 31

EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL ARTICLES EDITORIAL SECTION The Sundiny Stat. Part 2—16 Pages WASHIN GTON, D. C, SUNDAY Society News MORNING, JANUARY 9, 1921. o PAYS TO BY WILL P. KENNEDY. NCLE SAM has been “sold the biggest advertising prop- osition of the last century. has given it the most rigid of tests, and has found that it pays big. For the first time he actually recog- nized advertising as a high-powered commercial motor when he found his surplus war materials were either Iying unbid for on his hands or had to be sacrificed at prices that knock the bottom out of the market for go- ing manufacturing concerns. Through the power of advertising he has sold more than a billion dollars’ worth of this surplus property at unexpectedly good prices. Of course, Uncle Sam—developed from the shrewd old Yankee traders —has for many years appreciated the| desirability of publicity and basked in all the free sunshine that newspa- pers, trade journals and magazines would give to his various activities. But the only use he ever made of paid Wdvertising before the war emer- gency woke him up was to insert a few lines in small type calling for| “proposals” as the Kw required. He had no notion of advertising as the general run of business men Kknow advertising. Proef of Publicity Value. The big thing about Uncle Sam's conversion is that it stands as monu- mental evidence of the practical profit resulting from judicious advertising. Uncle Sam’'s business is everybody business, and his records are open to public inspection and are verified. What he has done through advertising does not have to be taken with a grain of salt—it is a proven and attested record. When the Secretary of War, after the signing of the armistice, found the War Department blockaded with a great mass of commodities of all sorts not needed for military pur poses and more coming in under con- tract from plants all over the coun- try. which had been keyed up to un- precedented production, he started in to try to get rid of it. With an Army officer in charge, whose only idea of advertising was the small type no- tice for “proposals,” the task seemed hopeless. Experts* Adviee Taken. Experts in all lines—textiles, ma- chinery: explosives, electrical equip- ment, «tc.—were called into the office of director of sales. HBesides being experts in their respective lines, these men were all good, practical business men, nd they knew the value of ad- vertising. First the office director of sales essayed to salvage some of the war surplus through printed scheules which were sent to interested parties who wrote in for them. But the es- sentiai weakness of this policy was ! soon apparent, because there was no | actual demnand created for the com- modities that made up the vast sur- plus. s of advertis- | Finally representati ing agencies, publishers, ediiors of | trade Journals, alled in fora conferene. They did not have to sell | any advertising program to the ex- | perts in the office of the director of sales, who were all reads for adver- | tising—and 0 a scheme of advertising | was soon worked out. They went to! the director of sales, and kad to “seil” him advertising, just as they would a new kind of engine. It was sold to; him on this basis: Take it and use it. and pay for it out of the extra| money it earns for you. \ That's how Uncle Sam came to make | such a notable test of the power of | advertising. All advertisements have : been paid for out of the money re- ceived from sales brought about by the advertisements. There the pub- lishers performed a notable patriotic service by waiting for their money | 4t a time when most of them could et cesh in advance for all the space taey had. Conservative Undertaking. As a matter of fact, the government has gone Into advertising very con- servatively. The sales promotion sec- tion of the office of director of sales, War Department, really spends only one-half of 1 per cent of the appraised value of the property in advertising it for sale, where most commercial con- cerns estimate from 2 to 5 per cent. The one big advantage that the of- fice of dircctor of sales had over com- mercial concerns in the utilization of advertising was that it did not have to make a name first The United States government was behind the ad. vertising campaign, so that while in commercial advertising the company bas to be “sold” first to the public and then the commodity that the com- pany produces, in Uncle Sam's case all that had to be sold were the commodities—the surplus property. Before the advertising section was organized the chief of the surplus property division was selling goods during a time when there was a big demand for everything. Practically all machinery had been turned upon government contracts, and the civilian | And yet the chief re- supply cut off. UNCLE SAM FINDS IT Has Recovered 63 Per .Cent Through Publicity in Selling Surplus War Material. | branches of the War Department. ADVERTISE |what advertising did: The War De- {partment had 100 locomotives called “decapeds,” built for~the Russian rail- ways, that couldn’t be used in the United States without being greatly modified. The best offer the Corps of Engineers could get was $29,000 each. After $7.500 had been spent in adver- tising them over a period of two months the government sold them at $49,000 each. Another illustration:The Old Hickory plant at Jacksonville, Tenn. This was a powder plant All the machinery was “single purpose” machinery, built specially for making explosives. There was a citg of 35,000 inhabitants that had cost Uncle Sam, $80.000.000 The salvage estimate was only $5,000,000, and the salvage concerns were eager to get it. When less than $20,000 had been spent in adyertising a roup of Nashville business men got togeth- jer a lot of capital, paid the governs ment $9,500,000. This means even more, for, besides putting that sum lactually back in the federal Treas- ury, it means that a big manufactur- ing city has been kept on the map. The various units of Old Hickory are to be transformed so as to manu- facture automobile tires, textiles, silk, dye works, wagons, horseshoes and as | a canning factory. Selling Canned Goods. Probably the Wlggest single achieve- ment for the advertising campaign wasin disposing of canned meats of all sorts. One of the big systems of chain stores has 3,500 stores through- out the country. During 1919 all of these 3,500 stores sold on an average $100 each of canned goods in the en- tire year. During the first ten weeks of the advertising -drive on canned goods by the sales promotion section, office of director of sales, without a single salésman in the field—exclu- sively through the ‘pull” of advertis- ing—$10,000,000 worth of canned meats was sold. During the last four months $15,000,000 worth of canned meats has been sold, more than all the packers sqll in the United States in a year. Approximatey $14,000,000 worth of wool was sold in one week, and $10,000,000 worth of textiles sold in one week. One of the latest demontrations is regarding 56,500,000 pounds of brass cartridge cases. The bottom bad fallen out of the bras market. The market price had dropped to 8 cents, but Whén the bids were opened on Weéinesday the government got the full market price for its brass. Recovered G3 Per Cent of Value. In a nutshell, through the demand created by advertising Uncle Sam's per -Céntage of recovery on surplus war materials has been 63 per cent, while England got 40 per cent and Frarce and Italy much less than that. In that 63 per cent recovery Uncle Sam sold everything from lemon ex- tract to locomotives—silk, socks, candy, helmets, airplane propellers, abrship engines, and all kinds of sub- sistence. The office of director of sales has been militarized as of January 1, the House appropriations committee was told, Leut. Col. E. S. Hartshorn, gen- eral staff, taking charge. The only active section today is the sales pro- motion (advetising) section, of which Charles M. Willoughby is chief—the other sections acting merely in ad- visory capacity. Col. Hartshorn told the committee that the estimated vaiue of surplus stocks in the War Department services now s $379,815,- 000 and that he is retaining a force of forty-six employes, three of whom are advertising experts, to dispose of this property, for all of the supply 1 FLAYS CALIFORNIA HEAD FOR LETTER ON LAND LAW Gov. Stephens’ Explanation Draws BY N. 0. MES NGER. RESIDENT-ELECT HARDING'S conferences with Senate and House leaders in charge of military and naval affairs, just ended, touched upon subjects which will deeply concern in the fu- ture the plain taxpayer as well as the highbrow economist. Indeed, the time may be regarded as past when the everyday citizen intent upon his own small, but to him important, af- fairs can dismiss such subjects by leaving their consideration to those “highe® up.” as was won' to be much the custom in days gone by. As the taxpayer comes to realize more poignantly that he is to pay the bill by direct and unescapable taxation for all expenditures growing out of national policies adopted by “his betters” he is likely to scan more critically the policies adopted or contemplated. Are vou interested? Well, then, here goes! Congress must, at this session and in the extraordinary session to fol- low early in March, decide whether to continue, curtail or suspend the program of naval building heretofore decided upon, the fruition of which, it pursued uninterrupted, would place the United States on an equality with, MR.AND MRS. TAXPAYER INTERESTED IN THE COST OF NAVAL ARMAMENT | the hope that throbs in every man's his scheme; this chapter is merely to | the figures presented in the House, It |the common sense of governments ! Will respond to the common sense of armament, nevertheless are set in I the opi ¢ that the United States can be in better position to take the lead in such a movement if it has a Navy as good as the best. Its motives would, at least. not be open to the charge of timoroumness. Moreover, the congressmen know that the people are proud of their Navy and intend to stand up for it. Assured, then, that the naval pro- gram will be carried on, there are some collateral questions which are jof interest. and one of these. the manning of the Navy, is close to the heart of the incoming President, and likely to be made a feature of his domestic policy. President-elect Harding, it is known | @ some men in Congress. is deeply intent upon Keeping the American n cern, since its marvelous, Aladdin- like re-establishment through exigencies of the world war. The plan which has been suggested to him and which he now has under con- sideration for recommendation as an administration policy, is to train the bosom of the arrival of the day when mankind for an agreement to limit | merchant marine a live, going con- | the | tell what is to be proposed in Con- gress. Whether it comes to pass or | { ot is another story. Navy on the land,” is the slogan | ,adopted by the proponments of the change in system. They go on to point out that a considerable portion iof the officer personnel of the Navy {is now employed in and around navy jyards, armor-making plants and the \like, and that tke force of workmen kept on the pay rolls in order to jus- itify the assignment of officers is un- Inecessarily large. They allege that {all these, great government plants have become political assets and sub- !ject to thé manipulation of politi- clans. Wages, hours of labor, em- ployment and retention of men, it is asserted, all aye becoming entangled i with politics to a degree that wouid inot be countenanced by a private en- iterprise working on ayclose margin of i profit. { That there will be a big storm when ! this question comes up in Congress is i ‘cnrlain. ‘The barometer is falling fast, ibelow 29.90 already, and there is a Iheavy easterly swell. The public will batten down hatches and make all {snug on deck and aloft until the gale |blows over. is erted that while we have 33 cruisers and battleships built and building and Great Britain 35, we will “We are spending $275,000,000 for a|have a tonnage of 1,118.650, against | Great Britain's §84,000. In main bat- taries we will have 340 guns to 314 for the British and our guns will have an average caliber of 141z inches to their 13%;. In a broadside our ships will hurl 548,400 pounds, as against 452,000 pounds. In secondary batteries the British guns will number 525 to our 484, but | ours will have 5.4 caliber to their 4.9, and will throw 40,158 pounds of pro- jemtiles to their 000. In one volley from all our guns we will throw 588,- 638 pounds of steel, as against Brit- ain’s 454,030. While we are to have destroyers to Britain's 350, it is claimed that ours will be swifter and superior. [} * * X X It is going to cost money to do all this, and the money can be raised only by taxation. It is said to be a Yankee trait that the people are not | afraid to spend money for private or | public enterprise if they comsider it an investment fraught with return. The question then is for the taxpay- ers to decide whether the ends justify | | . GOULD LINCOLN. INKERING with the transpor- tation system of the country is a favorite pastime with economists, financiers, poli- ticians and some railroad men. The object. of course, is.to better the sys- tem. The suggestions that have been made for this purpose are without number. Hovering on the horizon to- day is the proposal for consolidation of the railroad companies into a com- paratively few great competing sys- tems. The Interstate Commerce Commis- sion, acting in accordance with the provisions of the Cummins-Esch transportation act. Is at present work- Ing on recommendations for the con- solidation of the various companies into competing systems. The consol- idations so worked out by the com- mission are not made compulsory by the statute. The roads are left to follow the recommendations or not, according to their desires. | | CONSIDERING PLANS TO COMBINE ROADS Consolidation Schemes Being Studied by the Interstate Commerce Commission and Arguments Presented. Boston banker. proposed hefore the conference committee the Cum- mins-Esch bill. Provide for Competition. All of these plans provide for com- petition among the various systems in each section of the country. The number of systems into which the roads are to be consolidated varies from eight to twenty-five. Though jmost of the plans propose that the systems to be cr ed shall be re- stricted to a section of the country. the plan advanced by Lisman provi for national competition among the eight sPstems he proposes. all of i which would reach the Gulf of Mex- ico, the east and Chicago. while five | of them would also reach the Pacific coast. Only two stems, both of them Southern, do not have New York as a terminal port. while only one system has New York as its only east- ern terminus Under the Willard plan, from 20 to 25 systems are proposed; Fritch plan, 17 systems; Lisman plan, § systems on if not slightly ahead of, Great Brit- ain since the destruction of the Spanish armada and the Dutch fleet, the boasted mistress of the seas. This purpose must be fixed, pend- ing the suggested international agreement. for a truce in naval build- ing or for partial disarmament. Its determination cannot await the per- fecting of an association of nations to pevent war. The work is under way, its halting would involve cer- tain oss and its later resumption. in event of failure of the altruistic plans for peace and disarmament, would be hampered. Inquiry in informed and authori- tative quarters in Congress elicits the information that sentiment in the House of Representatives, where ap- propriations must originate, is not favorable to suspending the program of naval building. Its time limit may be extended a year or two by build- ing one capital ship less than here-| Now, wait a minute; don’t be hasty. tofore authorized for the next vear,|The writer full well understands that but the authority for its ultimate|the mere broaching of such a subject construction is not to be revoked. will bring down an avalanche of ob- Those hard-boiled legislators, “wise | jections, supported by arguments, old owls” while sympathizing withlfrom naval authorities, but this is not .youm: men of the merchant marine for two or three months on warships, ! thereby making better merchant sail- ormen of them as well as preparing them for possible duty in the Navy. 1t is estimated that from 50,000 to 'iilm)l) men coul be trained in this way, furnishing an auxiliary force to be drawn upon in time of emergency, as well as doing the work of the Navy meanwhile. Objections to the plan are to be found in plenty among Navy jmen, and will be presented in due |time to Congress, but the plan is in contemplation. * k % & Vigorous efforts will be made at this and the next session to effect radical change in the present system of war- ship and armor construction at navy yards and government-owned and op- ereted plants, and turn some of the work over to private comstruction. !the outiay: and, second, whether the * X k¥ % ends can be reached without the out- i The answer Semator Cummins’ Intention. In this connection, it may be =aid.| Hungerford plan, 12 to 18 systems, Figures do not make interesting reading on a Sunday. ordinarily, but there are some facts presented by the opponents of suspension of the naval iprogram which might be taken into consideration before pronouncing judgment for or against the policy. “When other nations are continuing !their building programs it would be| suicidal for us to permit our Navy to become second rate,” contended Sena. tor Frelinghuysen of New ersey, in the Senate. “It would be the height| of foliy not to protect the progress we have thus far made, our commerce, our wealth and our institutions with a Navy adequate to meet in time of emergency any great enemy, Na- tional ambitions have hot been les- |sened by the world war. Jealousies prompted by trade rivalry may lead to conflict unless our force is suffi- cient to compel respect and maintain peace.” 1t has been claimed in Congress that by 1923 the United States will have a sea force greater than the combined i 1 lay, through agreement. EY will be made by the “wise guys” in | Congress, but those same are lending an attentive ear to their constituents, o that in the end it will be the wis- dom and judgment of the mass of the people which will register. * * ¥ ¥ President-elect Harding is expected to deal with this broad subject and its ramifications in messages to Con- gress early in the extra session of Congress. What gratifies congressmen !is evidence that he is not going to; take upon his shoulders individual re- sponsibility for suggested policies, but is conferring with representatives of the people. who have technical knowl- edge upon. the subject as well as in- tuition of what the people want. His justification for taking up the ques- tjon at this time is found in the con- sideration that it is closely allied to the great problem foremost in the at- tention of the world at this time—in- ternaional action to minimize future wars. fleets of the British empire. Quoting ' (Copyright, 1920, by The Washington Star.)| The Outlook for the Railroads.’ BY DANIEL WILLARD The officlal figures, when published, {will undoubtedly show that the rail- roads handled, during the twelve |months which will, end December 31, OR the first time since the ter-|1920, a larger volime of business, mination of federal control|measured in ton miles, than ever be- the railroads are in position |fore during a similar period of time, generally to receive and move iapq I believe the raflroads will be currently all freight that is offered able, even with existing facilities, to them. There are probably more than move a still larger volume during the 100,000 surplus idle box cars in the |calendar year of 1921. As a matter of United States today, and the indica- |fact, I am not at all certain that the tions are that there will soon be a|rajlroads could not, with their exist- surplus of open top cars, such as are |ing facilities, handle the normal busi- used chiefly for the shipment of coal |ness of this country, provided it came and other heavy commodities. This to them uniformly throughout the condition has been brought about|year, but, of course, that Is exactly partly by improved efficiency on the | what does not happen, and it is very part of the carriers, but is largely due clear dhat the railroads, with their to-the recession in business which has | present facilities, are not able to take recently taken place: How long the care of the possible peak loads which present recession in business will [they are called upon to carry from continue 15, of course, unknown, but|time to time, nor will they be fn posi- while it does continue, it is evident tion to do so until they have largely that the railroads will be able with |increased their faoilitfes. thelr existing facilities to handle all | How Shippérs Can Help. the freight that is offered. | While the railroads.as a whole Better After March 1. | have bought some new equipment and There séems to be quite a general | arranged for some enlargement of impression among those with whom I facilities during the present year, have talked that business will pick | expenditures of that character have vp again about thie 1st of March, and ; been much less than they should have that from that time on the railroads | been if the carriers are to be put in will be called upon to handle a much | position to take care of the peak larger volume of business than is be- | load of commerce at all times. Until ing offered them at the present mo- | Such time as the carriers can in- ment. crease their facilities, it would be [The following article, written by the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, is reprint- ed from Commerce and Finance.} Hot Retort From Welty. Representative Welty, democrat Ohio, attacked Gov. Stephens ot Cali- resentative Welty declared he wi surprised to find a governor “carry- ing on a propaganda of misrepesenta- tion with the hope of establishing a special national laundry to wash the dirty linen of a state.” Gov. Stephens sald in his letter to members of Congress that in the de- sire to deal with the Japanese ques- tion effectively and justly, California had had an exhaustive research made of the entire oriental problem, which showed that there had been tremen- ous Japanese development in the state in the past decade. Representative Welty replied that some of the governor's statements could hardly be justified by the 1920 census figures and added that “no unbiased mind can quite unerstand | the settlement of your land question, !in prohibiting land ownership by Jap- | anese, when the question could have been settled without giving™ offense !and as effectively by making it unlaw- ! fornta yestertlay for sending to members | war of Congress a letter bearing on the |made in the name of tho ex-serwjce Japanese problem in California. Rep- |men of thi as |Cauley, state commander of the Amer- SPRINGFIELD, IlL, January 8.--A demand that the War Department im- mediately start prosecution of 16,000 deserters in 1llinois has been BE TWICE S Betelgeuse, the giant star whose di- mensions and distance have just been measured by Prof. Albert A. Michel- son of the University of Chicago, may be twice as large and twice as far away as announced by the Chicago physicist, according to a statement by Dr. S. A. Mitchell, -director of the Leander McCormick Observatory of the University of Virginia. Addressing the Amerjcan Physical Soctety, Prof. Michelson claimed that by perfecting the “interference method” of measuring star diameters, he had determined the diameter of Betelgeuse to be 260,000,000 miles and that, with light traveling at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, the star is 150 “light years” away from the earth. Instead of these measurements, Dr. Mitchell states that Betelgeuse may be 520,000,000 miles in diameter and its distance from the earth 300 “light years” He further states that the star's exact measurements will not be definitely known until March, 1922, state by William R. Mc- fcan Legion. Virginian Who Is Urged For a Cabinet Position | WAR ON ARMY DESERTERS. [ THINKS NEW GIANT STAR MAY ported that the sales made through the bulletin system then employed— from March to November, 1919—show- ed & recovery of 61 per cent, Then, with the establishment of the adver- tising bueau—from November, 1919,| President Wilson informed the Sen- to February, 1920—a recovery of 7% |ate Friday that the bill creating a per cent was shown, and the \'olume}jolnt congressional committee to con- of sales tripled. It must likewise be |sider reorganization of government taken into consideration that In the |departments had In some way become earller period there was practically | “displaced or: destroyed.” and asked no competition from private manu- |for a;nolh'lr cfln‘ny of it for the State < . | Department’s files. T o thera mis orhex | This was the bill which recently be- came a law without the President's competition. signature because it was lost in the To give & particular example of White IHouse exccutive office: | tul for any alien to own land.* WHITE HOUSE LOSES BILL. 1 ¢ G. BASCOM SLEMP, ‘The lone republican member of Con- gress from Virginia, who has backing met onmly in his owa state but throughout the woutb for a seat in the Harding cabinet. 4 when photographic measurements ex- tending over a period of two years at the McCormick Observatory will be made public. These measurements are being made by Dr. H. L. Alden of the University of Virgini The University of Virginia astrono- mer fortified his assertions with the following explanation. “Prof. Michelson, with his magnifi- cent ability and active brain, has succeeded in measuring the angle at the eye that Betelgeuse subtends. He did this with the aid of a special “bridge,” which, superimposed upon - helpful and in the public interest if) those who originate and ship large quantities of freight would endeavor tQ anticipate their future transporta- tion requirements and utilize so far as possible the facilities of the rail- roads when there is a surplus of cars and other equipment This would not only enable the carriers to maintain | their organizations, but would relieve to some extent the burden which they will be called upon to carry| in times of business activity. I hap-| pen to knéw that at the present time many large shippers are endeavoring to do this very thing. Chance for Readjustment. | The present recession in business | will give the carriers an opportunity to readjust their operations and to re-establish thelr methods more in harmony with conditions as they ex- isted before the war, and it is highly necessary that this should he done. Personally, I believe that the rates and charges approved by the Inter- state Commerce Commission, and now largely but not wholly in effect, are | generally high enough, although the net results of the carriers operating on the new basis of rates in October and November were distinctly disap- pointing. In my opinion, however, this was not due to the fact that the present basis of rates is not gen- erally high enough, or that the vol- ume of business was not great IZE FRIST GIVEN ithe 100-inch reflecting telescope at Mount Wilson, gave it a real diame- ter of twenty feet. “Prof. Michelson rately the angle at the eye. termine the diameter @f the star in miles, however, it is necessary to know its exact distance from the earth, or its parallax. (Prof. Michel- son accepted the parallax measured by the Yale heliometer—a small six- inch lens.) His measurement of the angular didmeter of Betelgeuse is accurate within ten per cent. “The task of actually measuring the distance or parallax of Betel- geuse was assigned to the observa- tory of the university one year ago and this parallax, determined by a series of photographic measurements extending over a period of two years, will not be known until March, 1922, “It is obviously impossible for any astronomer to work out through trigo- nometry the exact size of a star until the parallax is knokn. Betelgeuse may be 300 light years from the earth instead of 150 light years. If the lat- ter statement is true, the diameter of Betelgeuse may be 520,000,000 miles instead of 260,000,000 MISS STEWART HONORED. Miss Adele M. Stewart, assistant chiet of the examining division of the office of controller of currency, has been appointed the first woman bank examiner in the United States. Miss Stewart is a graduate of the ‘Washington College of Law and a member of the District bar. 1 determined accu- To de- enough, but was due entirely to the fact that the carriers have not yet been able to regain the efficiency in operation Which existed before the war. Sound Basis for Business. T find myself accepting the general view that business will probably be- { gin to get better shortly after the first of the year and continue good there- after. It seems to me that we have in this céuntry all of the underlying conditions that should bring. general prosperity. We have not, as bave some of the other great nations, lost a million of our young men in battle. Our country has not been invaded. We have had no droughts, great treshets or crop failures. We have dn abundance of everything essential to life and industrial growth. We have no seriously disturbing political ques- tion confronting us, as in the case with some of the other great nations, we are not threatened with a change in our form of government, and I am told by that we have more real money than any other nation in the world. Be- cause of these things, among others, 1 feel conservatively optimistic con- cerning the future, and it would seém that we ought to be a prosperous and contented people. BACK LEHLBACH BILL. Policcmen and firemen put their 0. K. on the Lehlbach reclassification bill at a meeting of these services held at 1423 New York avenue Friday night. Col. F. W. Albert presided. The service meeting discussed vari- ous small discrepancies In the partic- ular olassifications. Famous Dutch Composer A Visitor to America - WILLIAM MENGELBERG, Who has arrived in this country on visit. While here he will conduct a number of symphony orchestra com- certs. * those who ought to wnow however, that Senator Cummins of Iowa, chairman of the Senate inter- state commerce committee, has in- cluded in the program of railroad leg- islation which he expects to press when the new Congress comes into j existence next March a bill to compel | the consolidation of the roads along the lines that shail be recommended by the Tnterstate Commerce Commi sion. When the Senate passed the transportation act ‘it included a pro- vision for the compulsory consolida- tion of the roads into from twenty to thirty-five svstems. Pendthe the announcement of the consolidation plan. which is to be recommended by the Interstate Com- merce Commission. it may not he amiss 1o consider briaflv the mnlanc which have bheen sneepated for the consolidation of the raads. Jn the first place. a number of suggss- i 1 whole country or specific sectiors | But the transportation act as finallv put through by Congress calls for consolidation into comneting systems which rather throws these plans into ! the discard. unless the law should one day be amended. - Plans for Unificati ‘These plans looking to umification i bill, introduced in the Senate. The plan put forward by Wal- ter W. Davis, suggesting a single sys- tem, with a national board supervis- ing the present systems for the pur- vosé of comparisen. 3. The Plumb plan, providing for a single system under the control of representatives of the railroad em- ployes and the government. which was | introduced in the House in the shape of a bill by Representative Simms of Tennessee, democrat. 4. The plan of Jules S. Bache for a single company to control eighteen regional companies that operate the present railroad system. 5. The plan of George W. Anderson, Commerce Commission, which propos- ed a single system to take over all of the railroads. He presented it before the House interstate and foreign com- merce committee at the time the transportation act was under consid- eration. 6. The plan of John M. Hart for the consolidation of railroads in separate sections of the country system. 7. The second plan of Edward Hun- gerford for a regional division of the consolidated systems, without compe- tition. Plans Being Considered. There have been five plans present- ed—there may have been others be- sides—that are in harmony with the transportation act, passed before the roads were returned to private owner- ship about a year ago. They are as follow i 1. The plan of Daniel Willard, pres- | road. The plan prepared by E. W. Mc- | Kenna and L. . Fritch, vice president of the Rock Island lines,{and the Minneapolis and St. Louis. 3. The plan of F. J. Lisman, pro- posed in an article in the Railway Age. 4. The first plan of Edward Hunger- ford, suggested in an article in the 2leeady | formerly a member of the Interstate | to form one | ident of the Baltimore and Ohio rail- | iand the Oldham plan, 14 systems. The number of competitive districts pro- posed under these plans is as fol- {lows: Willard, 5; Fritch, 8: Lisman. : Hungerford, 5, and Oldham, 3. The mileage of the different systems has been worked out for the Fritch and Oldham plans, and is shown to be for jthe Fritch plan, from 4.054 to 17.7 {miles, and for the Oldham plan, from 10,000 to 22,000 mi Mr. Oldham's Argamen | Mr. Oldham. in submitting his plan, | has insisted that it is possible to bring together the railroads into large com- petitive groups witheut seriously dis- turbing relationships already estab- |lished: that with roads so combined | there would be little disparity iflc and operating condit n traf- among the separate systems competing in the {same. territory. and that these sys- {tems under uniform rates would be I tions were made, based mnon th-laple to earn substantially the same | =ventual unification of all tha read=|rate of retorn on their property in- {nto one system—either caverinz the!cectments, it fairly and uniformly valued. He has insisted also that the building up of strong tramsportation {systems by concolidating companies { with closely affiliated trafic relations {is not mew. but that a practioe ithat has been developing for years. {In Jume. 1916 for instance. thirty |railroad companies, combination j with other’ companies wi they con- in into one system were: trolled. directly or indfrectly. consti- 1. The plan of the Tnvestors' Pro- |tuted systems which handied ap- tective Association of America, some- | proximately $7 per eent of the coun- times called the Amster nlan. whick|try's entire traffic. provided for a single systam under Problem of Credit. zovernment supervision. It was pre-| In the opinion of Mr Oldhan, the sented to Congress in e Lenroot!real problem which confrenis the railroads today is a problem of credit. The solution of this problem the con- solidation of the roads into the pro- posed systems, he insists. is bound to aid. Consolidation would hasten the necessary readjustments of capitaii- |zation of the roads. With uniformity of capitalization and with only & small difference in cost of operation, it ‘would not be necessary to limit the earnings of individual companies in order to create an equality of con- iditions. The substantial uniformity {of conditions among companies oper- ating in the same territory would greatly simplify the problems of regu- lation, and with the capitalization of the various companies properly ad- justed and equalized, railroad credit | generally would be upon a sounder {basis. There would be greater assur- ance of the capital necessary to meet the transportation requirements of the country. Gov. Coolldge’s Suzgestion. Gov. Coolidge of Massachuset is soon to become Vice President of the United States, in an address de- livered in Boston recently declared that the condition of the rallroads should have the attention of the pub- lic, and suggested that the New Eng- 1and roads might well be consolidated into a system or might be united ad- vantageously with great trunk lines, thus solving their troubles. - PARENTS’ PENALTY. OUT. ,Distrlct Child Labor Measure Again Offered With Amendment. ! The bill regulating child labor in { the District of Columbia, upon which hearings were held last yvear before the Senate and House District c mittees, was reintroduced Friday Senator Curtis of Kansas, tion 20 eliminated. alized parents who permitted ch! dren to work in violation of the law. The bill is now pending before the Senate District committee, and early by with sec- This section pen- Saturday Evening Post. 5 5. The plan of John E. Oldham, a ———— e SUMMARY OF CONSOLIDATION SCHEMES. action will be asked upon it by its friends. Section of Willard. Friteh. Lisman. Hungerford. Oldham. country. New England Boston & Maine Huston & Maine Central One road N. Y. Central New Haven ew Haven Union Pennsyivania Y. Central Inter-Ocean 2 Trunk lines Y. Central Central Y. Central N. Y. Centrai or ceatral msvlvania Caion ie Buffalo (Erle) B. & 0. Continental Pennsylvauia Penusylvania e Northern B. & 0. Balto.-Reading ke] Plate Iuter-Ocean Midland. Ches. & OM Sonthern Sonthern Coast Line Seaboard ‘onthern Midland Atlantic C. L. Southern Coast Line Iilinois Central Southeastern Seaboard Tilivols Central Sonthern Louis. & Nash. Cenmtral 1ilinols Central Seaboard Tilinois Central Continental Northwest on Pacific Union Pacific Continental Union Pacific TUnlon Pacific rthwestern Burlington Tnion Milwaukee Milwaukee orthern Pac. St. Paul Central Great NorthernGreat Northern reat Northern Northern Pac. Northern Northwestern Norf'k & West. St. Paul Inter-Ocean Northern Pac. Northern Pac. oo Midland Rurlington Burlington Southern Pac. Santa Fe-Frisco Southwest Southern Pac. Frisco Routhern Pac. Santa Fe Southern Pac. Rock Island, Missouri Pac. Cemtral Southern Pac. Missouri Pac. Gould Syste Ranta Fe Inter-Ocean Missouri Pac. Rock Island Southern Pac. Midland Burlington Continental Northern Union P