Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 12, 1909, Page 33

1 \ ( \! PART SIX WOMEN PAGES 1 TO 8. + ART SIX DRAMATIC PAGES | TO 8, VOL. XXXIX—NO. 26. 12, 1901 SINGLE (OPY FIVE CENTS. MONARCH-OF THE WIRE, FIELD Another Chapter of the Story of Tele- phone Expansion. MASTERLY MOVES OF COMPANY Waning Power Final Absorption of Western Unlon—Vast Financial Operations—~President Vall. Concluding Article. A. Bullock In Boston Transcript Quite naturally, the men who have put their lives into the telephone combina- tion that Is now represented as the Amer- fean Telephone and Telegraph company, have their own ldeas on the subject, which do not run In tune with those of many public regu ating bodies and many theorists upon the subject of public service indus- tries. The wr, er does not propose to dis- cuss the question from what might called the external point of view—that to say, he will not argue whether it be botter for the consumer to have two rival telephone wervices to which he may sub- scribe, a single one operating in his locality. But from the internal point of view, looking at the subject from the standpoint of the corporations themselves, there are figures which are Interesting In the Unitsd States on July 1, there were about 24,000 telephone com- panies or systems having in round figures 6,500,000 stations or Individual telephone: The Bell system proper, comprising thirty associated operating companies and about 7,500 connected independent companies, had a total of 4,365,246 smations. Of these the Bell system proper, with its thirty com; panles Immediately assoclated, had 26 wstations. There are further. companies not connected with the system, having an average of sixty-two stations a company, and these are made up largely of small rural assoclutions, some seeking connection with the Die ystem and being too isolated to obtain It and some con- tentec with their present individuality. Dividing all the companies into groups, companies having less than $600,000 capital have nud fallures aggregating 10 per cent of thelr entire number during the last few years. There are about 150 companies in this group, with outstanding capital obligations “of $26,000,000, and about 250,000 stations, being capital of about $100 a station. There are thirty-five companies with a capital between $00,000 and $1,000,- 000, having & total of $20,000,000 capital and clalming 108,000° stations, which brings their total capitalization to $185 a station. Thirty-elght companies with the outstand- ing capital of $185,000000 claiming 764,000 stations, have an outstanding capital of 2 a station. These companies have very few toll lines and their cquipment Is largely local and involves a vastly smaller expengiture than long distance establish- ments, yet the American Telephone and Telegraph cbmpany and fts thirty sub- sidlaries directly connected and its 1,732- @9 miles of wire, has a total capitaliza- tion outstanding in the hands of the pub- tio of appraximately .$600,000,000 with e, 3215245 stations. This {s a capitalization of a little less than $1%0 a station. The economies Involved in such a situation are too obvious to need extended descrip- tions. Fight on Weatern Union. Returning now to -the historical nar- vative, we find the American Telephone and Telegraph company coming down through the ninetles with a more or less active fight on its hands all the time with the Western Unlon. The Mackay interests had meantime entered the tele- graph fleld and had started through the Postal companies their own attack upon the traditional monopolist of telegraphic communication. Jay Gould went to his reward and the Western Union passed into the domination of his son, George, who headed the Gould financial jnterests. But there was this difference, that while Jay Gould's rallroad Interests contributed strength to the telegraph company, his son's were a distinct element of weaknes There is no space here nor is this the time to narrate the troubles of the Gould railroads due to the seeming ability of the present head of the family to be on bad terms periodically with nearly all of the large financial interests. Of course George Gould has made his alliances, and his roads have felt support of various aggregations of cap- ital, but they also have been involved In warfares with other lines, and so far has the Gould influence deteriorated between Jay Gould and George Gould that Instead of being able Lo use the Western Union as & club In fighting his railroad wars, George GUowld has had to protect it as additional territory open to invasion by his financlal antagonists. The row with Cassatt over the Western Union's contract with the Pennsylvanla s an excellent example of what this means. it requires no imagination of a seer to pioture what would have happened if the president of any raflroad had torn up the telegraph poles of the Western Union along his lnes when Jay Gould was run- ning the show. The very campaign that brought Jay Gould into the control of the Western Unlon company, away back in 1580, lllustrates one possibility of such rashness, Gould tackled the Western Unlon stock when it was selling far above par, as a standard Vanderbilt issue, and beat it down Into the fifties, and when some of his brokers formea a pool to sell him out, and he discovered it, he scared them 5o with the threat of criminal pros- ecution for conspiracy that one or two of the pool speedily sold out a =econd lime on their fellows, and Jay Gould gathered in this stock wherewith to cover the short sales that he had made in his campalgn on the Vanderbilts. He had 2 per cent of the stock of the Western Unlon In hix strong box before the Vanderbiits knew what was happening. T presidents or managers of railr 1 ne. that care to Invite this KInd of antagont-m A5 & price of asserting ews matter of a telegraph ec nd M Of course Jay Gould did not have ih, competition of the Postal Telegraph o pany, which his son and successor did have. ‘That should be taken into consideration in figuring the Western Union's decline until loW, &t last, the Gould family holdings have passed into other. hands. Yet the course of the earnings of the company dur- ing the last few years is worth considera- atlon as reflecting some serious difficulty in Its management. The gross receipts have shown & steady increase. Running It roughly, In jumps of five years, we see, for instance, that from 1880 to 18% the £ross Increase from $13,760,000 to over §3.- 000,000, The net revenue, however, increased (n the decade only from 5,833,000 to §7,312,- By Harry be some a th n the vy | tie influence of -the | fow | | best vear company slightly o in point of net earwings that the has ever seen, .the Eross was $20,000,000, and the net $8,214.- 000. Since then an increase of gross to $32, 556,000 by 1907, was accompanied by coned stantly decreasing net untl in that year, when only $36,000,000.53 was left after pa ing the dividend, the net income reduced Ito #4,904,149, approximately commensurate | with the net back in 1819, when the gro: earniggs of the company were than m u-\q« The analysis_of the Income sc- count showed onstantly increasing ten- | dency in the operating expense—a tendency |that has increased disproportionately to |the increase of the gross earnings. Wall street was not surprised at the suspension cash dividends by the Western Unlon in 1908, which carried the stock down to $41 a share, the lowest price reached since the Gould raid on the old Vanderbilt com- | pany less a ienius of the Telephone, basis of the growth which the tel- combination had enjoyed, mean- we have already It remains to look at @ few of the results reacquaint ourselves with the present genfus of the telephone. Theo- dore N.' Vail. In 1885 there were 60,888 in- | struments In use by subscribers to all ot | the Bell compant In 1890 there were 453,79 Instruments in use. By 1900 this had Increased to 192412 instruments. In 1904 it stood at 3,666,582 instruments and on July 1 there 4,385,245 Bell telephone stations, which does not include extensions within a given office, plant or | bullding not conrected with distinet trunk | lines, to the central office. Of course, the | telephone trust has had its troubles. Some | of them were experienced in 107, when the | increasing conditions | made it more ana more aifficult to finance the ever-growing requirements of the busi- | ness, which demanded that millions upon | millions of new capital should be raised | every year to string new wires, lay new conduits and install new exchanges and in- | struments. [ In the spring of ‘that year Frederick P. | Fish, who had been president of the Amer- lean Telephone and Telegraph company for | = number of resigned and the di- rectors, in something of & quardary as to who hould succeed him, turned again to Mr. Vall. who years ago had made all the money that he thought he heeded, and | more than he could possibly spend, and | had retired to his big farm up in Lyndon, | Vt. They found Mr. Vail devoting hig un- | tiring mind to experiments in sclentifie soll culture and dairying, and thinking that he was having the best time of his life, At first he refused; he sald ho was too 0ld; he was 62 years old, but the telephone directors were ‘insistent, and as he was | ohe of thelr number, always having re- tained his place on the board, he finally yielded and went back Into the harness, Then started the present period of tele- phone development. It was some trouble | to ralse the twenty-odd millions required in June, 1907, and the telephone stock sold down to 1001 In the process. It was the lowest quotation in ten years. The under- writing syndicate that had taken $100,000,000 telephone bonds had to make a further call on its subscribers the same vear and then came on the panic. But the telephone company had its immediate needs financed and it went through the panic without fticulty and ou into the vear 1%8. In that year it established a record. It was the only one of the great corporations in the industrial field that wame out of the vear's depression with increased net earn- ings and in December a year ago there was no hesitation wien $60,000,00 more tele- phone bonds were put out to the public through J. P. Morgan & Co. and Kunn Loeb & Co. Presaging the Merger. The present year has been an interesting one in telephone history. While the West- ern Union finally got things going its way in the famous old suit, the American Tele- phone and Telegraph bought back from its 0ld time enemy $16,000,000 stock of the New York Telephone company, which the West- ern Unlon took In exchange for its hold- | ings in the old Bell company. The offi- | clals of the Western Union said that this stock was ‘sold so that the funds of the company might find other and more at- tractive lines of investment. Wall street sald that it presaged a merger and Wall street's view seems to be nearer correct, although all talk of anything that might approach a formal or definite merger is, of course, altogether premature at this time. What President Vall is thinking about these days Is quite another story, Let us, before we close, take & look at some of the figures that build the out- lines of the telephone combination as it exists today. We find that the American Telephone & Telegraph company had on July 1, last, $389,974,500 stocks and bonds outstanding in the hands of the public, that its thirty operating subsidiarles have $202,- 457,90 of stocks and bonds in the hands of the-public, besides ‘the heldings of the American Telephone & Telegraph company in these corporations, while the Western | Blectric companyshas $20,613,000 in securi- | ties similarly in public hands. This makes |a total of $592,475,400 Bell telephone securi- ties held by the public, belhg $361,636,800 in | stock and $200,838,000 in varlous interest- | bertng obligations. The income account of the American Telephone & Telegraph and assoclated op- erating companies, excluding all payments | to the American Telephone & Telegraph by the subsidiarics, of iiterest, dividends and the like, showed for the ycar 1908 gross earnings of $140,016,40, an increase of 37,000, 000 over 1907, and the net earnings were $46,974,000, an increaso of $3,908,400. After the payment of interest a balance appli- cable to dividends of $34,669.600 remalned as against the $311,857,30 stock then outstand- ing in the hand of the public. Dividends in all the various sive of those pald to the American Telephone & Telegraph by the subsidiaries to $2,388,100, leaving undivided 13,001,400, The ephon while, now only ana to seen thig year, were stringency of money years companies, exol amounted profits of Immense Resources, annual report of the company in- attention to the comparison of property with capltal obligations which company was able to make, and this comparison was further invited by a eir- cular sent out to stockholders last sum- mer. At that time the entire capital obli- gations in the hands .of the public amounted (o $692.475,400. The telephone plant of the American Telephone & Tel- egraph and its thirty operating subsid- laries was valued at $MTSSLI0 by a Pprocess which we will have occaslon to con- sider'in & moment. The company had $20.- 4%.500 of materials and supplies on hand And 35,9K000 of cash. Becurities in manu- facturing aud related companies were car- ried at $1,157,00, making & total of $077,- 832,300 in property, or an excess of property over capital obligations of 385,856,900, The question naturally arises as to the The vited A} ®. Five years more finds the gross sern. | VAUAtion of the plants which goes into 1 Ings hanging at ahout the same point and the net falling off to #6,141,000. By 1900 the wross had Increased to $24750,000, but the net stoed at ouly ¥,165,000, and in 1906, the this comparison. The answer is that in 1907 the American Telephone & Telegraph, not belng one of the corporations that be- lieve that physical valuation should have JAMES 5, HILL AND L. W. HTLL AMONG THE EXHIBITS FROM THE GREAT NORTHERN TERRITORY. no part in a financing of an {ndustry, caused a physical valyation to be made of all the plants. This valuation showed an excess of property in the ‘exchange, toll and long distance system of $35,000,000 over the obligations outstanding against the properties so valued. Subsequently the public authorities of many states have un- dertaken physical valuations of the plants for the purpose of determinifg rates and kindred questions. There has been no case thus far the public authorities have not exceeded those of the telephore combina- tion itself. ks Stas Tt happen ard of Valuation. also that President Vail of the American Telephone and Telegraph com- pany believes In the legitimate value of publeity; else the facts to which reference has been made in this writing would never Kave been obtainable. The policy is carried out to an extent which allows the stock- holders even to understand the basis on which the valuation of the company's assets 1s made, In =0 far as it Is possible to explain such a matter, The report of the company for 1808 explains that whercas in the carlier days much telephone equip- ment was short lived, owing to the rapidity of Improvements and the hasty construc- tion of facilities, more recently a degree ot permanence has been given to the invest- ment in plant by the comstruction in all clties of fireproot central offices, and the The Law’s Delay in Douglas County OMAHA, Dee. 1.—To the Editor of the Bee: The president of the United States in his message to the congress, brings to the fore fn public attention, thesgreat in- Justice worked upon the Amerl peo- ple by the law's delay. The subject is the kevnote of the mes- sage and well might it be—for there is no greater wrong inflicted upon the poo of this nation than their inability reasonable time to have their causes heard and determined by the courts of the land What does It profit a poor man to sue for an injury sustained by him, if his case shall not be heard until after he and hi family have been compelied to seek public n charity by reason of his injuries, and unui | porsibly o lost? The crying need today is not more laws or more executives to enforce them, bui for our courts to pass upon the cases brought before them with mére dispatch and justness to all litigants, whether rich or poor It Is wrong for our courts to give a rich man or & politician attention and time than it would bestow upon a poor and humble citiaen, It is abhorrent to the fair of justice of the American people that & rich criminal may prolong his witnesses have become deau more sense his case and delay his punishment through | technical appeals and generous .delay on the part Of the courts. It is also ob- deplorable that & rich man or & rich corporation may acquize through some subtle infiuence, unjust and unfair attention to his or its cases. It is there- fore necéssary for the welfare of our na- tion and Its Institutions, that the courts change the bolicy heretofore in vogue and endeavor to dispatch justice with certainty and uniformity and quickness, This belng true, why should not the people of Douglas county, who have beet injured, and are now belng injured by this procedurs, complain? Why should not our district judges respond to the need of the hour and change thelr dilatory and nonsensical practice? Will the people of Douglas county longer continue to tolerate the conditions now i vogue in our di trict courtd up- noxious and within | supplanting of the old wires with cables | iald in conduits. The report contains the somewhat surprising information that of the entire telephone mileage of the country, & per cent is now underground. Of the | total wires 84 per cent are copper and only 16 per cent iron, and of the total toll wires 91 per cent are copper and but 9 per cent iron. The company has had special studles' made into the ‘natter of depreciation in the) various branches of its plant, and at pres- | ent it adopts the following classification: Underground conduits to be classed with real estate as permanent construction on long term ground rents. Cables and copper wires have shown little | depreciation thus far in use, and have not established a definite rate based upon the | number of vears that they will last In | service. They have a scrap heap value of 40 per cent. Iron wires have a life of from eight to fitteen years. Pole lines have a life of from ten to stx- teen years. Central office and substation equipment depends as_jo its depreciation upon its character, tfe state of maintenance and the policy of renswal with improved apparatus. The actual ‘experience of, the company (urnishes the tests in this direction. These, then, are the standards of valua tion of the physical property to be used in It 50, then we must | for our law's delay. What is the condition county? Simply this: Judges to handle the court, and today Law Docket have no complaint today in Douglas We employ seven work of the district they are calling cases in 104, when are now belng filed in docket 108. This means that law cases brought today will be reached for hearing in possibly one year, and maybe two This means that It & man is injured and left destitute, he may g & hearing on his case in one or two years, and then perhaps he has lost his witnesses, and If heshould win his case, then he may endure the long delay of an appeal. Why is this condition true? Simply this Our district judges fool away too much valuable time trying cases. They do mot restrict attorneys, who have nothing but tme to lose, (o the real lssues of the case. They allow attorneys to argue and bick over all kinds of fool questions which have, at the most, but a remc cases years, | | e bearing upon the They do not study the pleadings to determine what Is the lssue, but leave that for time, to determine. They elther lack the courage of their convictions or the nerve to | enforce them, therefore, the law's delay. Durlhg the !ast four weeks two of our law courts edch devoted nearly three weeks 0 two petty cases—why s0? No one ean | possibly give an answer, except the de- sire on the part of the court to give the lawyers a chance to exhaust themselves. Thus, the law's delay. Then again, our district judges are de- voting two much time to the sentimental folly of the juvenile court. This work takes up time, and can be justified only | upon the theory that our courts are to become executive officers, and not judges. | It Is & fad. The juvenile court is & sentl. | ment based upon & theory that the courts | can protect the children. This is & beautiful sentiment and worthy | | of respect, but It is not being carried out | | properly, and ouncourts should not burden | themselves with all the whims and cap- rices of old maids and preachers as to how parents should raise thelr own. Let a clt- isen g0 Into the juvenlle court, and what | ot property | clently acquainted with the te determining the deductions to be made from actual cost in estimates of present values for comparison with capital obligations. The American Telephone and Telegraph ccmpany divides its total valuation into the following percentages according to classes Real estate, 9 per cent; under- ground conduits and cables, 20 per copper wires and aerial cables on poles, 18 per cent; pole lines, not including .wires, 26 per cent (inclusive of $5,000,000, the value of | rights-of-way ower private property) wires, 4 per cent, and central office and | substation equipment, 23 per cent Looking in on President Vail, | cent; iron And now we have, perhaps, become suffi- | situa- in on phone tion to make it worth while to look President Vall in his offices in New York or Boston, so that In leaving the matter, until the next time we call up central, v may take away a bit of a picture of the | man who dominates it. Strange to say, this | will be exceedingly easy to do, for Mr. Vall | hasn't surrounded himself with any of the | barricades that are employed by the heads Of most blg corporations. Our names are | taken in by his secretary, and If there isn't | somebody actually in there with him 4o Im~at once. - He s a striking figure sitting there at nis desk, his snow white hair setting forth | strong, aquiline features, and a ruddy skin showing that he hasn't lum\\lht benefits of we will he see? A number of old maids—some Chautauqua preachers clamoring for pub- lle attention. A number of highly patd Juvenile officials and a dignified court pre- siding over the folly of a boy may have thrown a snowball or engaged In a fight with a neighloring lad. The result: | The boy, in his own mind and that of "us playmates, 15 adjudged a criminal. He is scoffed at by his playmates. The old maids | have won a victory! The preachers have accomplished a great moral uplift! The Juvenile authorities have apparently earned their The court has wasted _iti- gants' time against the law's delay, who money Friday there was court a case called in the aistrict In which George A. Joslyn is a party litigant. Ordinarily this case would be tried to one judge, and If it was a case wherein a poor man was a litigant would be fortunate to have the presence of one Judge. The case of Joslyn, however, will oceppy the learned and close asefflon No reason except that maybe in the minds t our judges the case of Joslyn, who is Teported to bo very rich, is more important to him than the case of Smith, who is re- ported as very poor. The law make any such dis- tinctions between litigants and, therefore, the judges must-have one. What it Is n one knows. Joslyn ties up the attehtion of three judges, while Litigant Smith wo'1ld only have the attention of one judge. The result: While Joslyn's case is being heard Smith's and Jones' must wait and suffer and condemn the gpvernment And, again, the law's delay. It is useless to carry this letter to a greater extent. What we need in judicial reform is to commence reform at home. Our judges can dispatch the business ve- | fore them. They are able, honest und falr, but they are in & rut, and the people of this county ought to wake them up and give them to understand that ¥ is the val- uable time of the people that they sre consuming and that the law's dela) in Injurious and wrong, not only to the in- Jured ltigant, but to the body politic of our eommunity, FRANKLIN A, SHOFWELL. It | he be does not 1 the | stratghttorwara | strong—that was b [ to him ana ! Bellevue | presented to The | synod of | college should be united the | when so paid shall be | to_support_the synodical college years of playing up on the farm, even with all the cares that he has Vermont | had since he put on the harness agair ‘((IENCIL OF COLLEGE CIRLS greeting, as the busy man looks up from 1500‘1 Work is Being Done by the Pa; his papers. It s & greeting that has neither | ¢ asperity nor the tone of patronage about | Hellenic Conference. it. It s a greeting that invites the visitor to €t down and tell his business In a|ypy MAY YET way with the assurance | #ct the consideration he de- | there smething about the not a conscious mannerism, )t to waste time with Mr. Vail turns aroun in | the eve when he talks. Not the glance of | the man who thinks to impress you with | his oWn greatness; but the frank regard of | genting fifty-six colleges and twenty-six otie who asumes that you are his friend | graternities, met the other day at' the and who wants to be yours. Now he needs | niversity club to talk over certain phases @ paper that is over on the other £ide of | o fraternity lite in the colleges. The meet- his dosk. He doesn’t press a button for & |\« was called at the instance of President secretary or assistant secretary. He gets | pyupce of Brown university, but none of up and go: there and digs it out | e gelegates had to commit his himselt from another Portfollo, | rraternity to any line of action. It was talking to you all the while he Is 100king | e first interfraternity conference to be for it. s0 as to waste none of your time |l et ywenty-seven years Just as ho doesn’t expect you to Waste any | pne suffragists may find an. argument of his | for votes for women in the fact that for o seem to some vemders that It I8 | o 1uat eight years the women's frater- e At of democracy 10 De | ,ioq or sororties, as they are sometimes commented on that even the president of |t on G0 S0P LT L eetings In Chi- & 3600000000 combination should §o to the | gy to which delegates have been sent, trouble of digging up & paper on his own | GEe 10 TEEY CECEECT Helr traternitien otfice desk. But if the skeptic had been f,, "y) pgtters of national interest. Though with the writer into most of the big oftices | 1n *'\ MRt B0 B Sl onterence, s in Wall street and had the: number | 110 TRt QRIS CREY Galat leglamtion, e e NS dragged in | endations unanimously passed be- to find some paper or to fold u letter or| ., 1o\ when accepted by all the grand pull down & shade, he would appreciate lh&F the lr‘ml ‘.’r.‘,h),l v[{ (‘Iu se Il;ll\xs for This national Pan-Hellenic where two or chapters of national narrating many of the facts contained in | WA (G 98 FOTC SHRECN T e thelr this article, with an abruptness that Is | p. own constitution, based on the national i“’::“‘"”::‘"“, ’T“""l‘""‘:‘_:':“ v ":\': 1::1:‘ ":r model, but may make thelr own rules and this matter of competition that experience | PYIaws o long as l.hl, do not interfure shows that competition in districts where | With the national agreements. Anae there have been falrly stable conditions in | All the fraternity evils are dl!:‘lus!r 171 the telephone business has seldom resulteq | these local meetings twice a month, and 1 in lowering rates over the non-competi. | {hey can come to no conclusions, or tive dlstricts. Of course in some country 8RY member broke a rule or a contract districta where all the lines are little local | the matter is referred to the natlonal or- lines chartered on the theory that cheap- | K&nization, which acts in a judicial capac- ness is something that the telephone busi- | ity and may punish the offender. ness can afford to live with, competition LIRSVCTR R BE T MIRNE | Ronins has resulted in lower rates than are prosent fourteen national fraternities charged in non-competitive districts. But | 8re represented. In the course of the elght think of the service, think of the service, | Yéars of its establishment the national and think how long the companies have | Pan-Hellenic has suggested many improve- lnsted. ments, has Investigated the fraternity and “Tell them also—and make this good and | ¢/ub regulations and problems in all the S e of the |1eading universities in the country, has co- $150,000,000 bonds now being exchanged for | OPerated with the deans of women at their tock 1s completed the last of whatever | Meetings and conciliated the faculties water went into the capitalization of the | Whenever necessary or expedlent. company In the early years will have been | It has worked with the school authorities taken out, and every dollar of our capital, | in the crusade against the high scnool fra- stocks and bonds, will represent a dollar | ternity by adopting the policy, to go into paid into the treasury of the company. | €ffect within two years, of refusing to ini- “Tell them t . It's true. Good day."” tinte any member of a high school fra- ternity. It has worked with them for a higher moral standard and to discourage cheating, cribbing and ocutting classes. It has sought to discourage lavish entertain- ments by making the fraternities limit the | number of social affairs and by restricting { the so-called rushing. At the last meeting In September, of which the reports has just been published, the two principal subjects discussed veere the evils of rushing and the raising of scholarship. Of the first much has been written and more has been said. Rushin the biggest evil of the whole fraternity system, is a process through which every candidate must pass. What Rushing Meuns, It means, primarily, scrutiny under good COPY THE PLAN that he will serves. Only man, probably that advises anyone non-essentiuls. Fraternities 1 Which Saf- Association of Wo! en's Collegen in ragists Find Argument f0r Voten for Women. Dec. 11.—Sixty NEW YORK men, repre- power may mark seen beeri is represented by more on At conversion Romance of the Big Earthquake Man Who Loses Memory Recovers it and Returns to Bride and Re- sumes Honeymoon Trip. CHICAGO, Dec. 11.—Robbed of memory in the San Francisco earthquake and re- stored to the recollection of past events two weeks ago, by seeing & man ground to death under the wheels of a freight train, Willlam F. Meyers returned today | behavior, and secondarily, a good time. 10 his bride here from whom he had been |1t simplest definition is ‘“the presence of parted @ few days after thelr wedding. |mMOre than one fraternity girl at a party,” Maners was otlleq to ' an Heaneitn but in reality it is much more complex. ABHI thres ag0, to supervise Rushing from the standpoint of the upper Sractlon toti & Iread hullathe | cluss girls means “being agreeable, show- Hin e te B et BARA Teo e it ing off your good points and spending your According to the story told by Meyers, he | e, energy and money on people whom on the head during the earthquike | YOU &re no' going to like anyhow.” To the and could rev nber nothing. He wanderpd eshman oc sophomore it means “company about the country and two weeks ago Re | Manners, more tea and eats than are good saw & man killed by a train in Tama, Ia, | [F YOU. belng talked at, made to show off, This shock caused his memory to return | P/NE hounded "V,""”"' ’f““m"’d by the gl s e :::.:yn.x or captivated by the fascinat- It is the bugbear of the fraternity world, for at'its best it means a tax on the nervous energy of the students which none of them can afford; it means disappoint- ments and heart burnings for the less for- | tunate girle who are not invited, and it means antagonism and jealousy among the fraternity members themselves, A committee of the Pap-Hellenio eouncil has Investigated the nonrushing policy in |use at Harvard and Yale which it has recommended to the Greek letter world for adoption. The only college that has fol- lowed this advice, and that at the request of the faculty, is Barnard. The experiment 18 being watched with interest Pledge Day Importance. Pledge day, the end of the season, spike, it s called’ out in the then years a Since wife. Mr south rupted HASTINGS - BELLEVUE UNION Official Statement Indenticsl with Report of Proceedings an Pub- lished by The Bee. and Mrs. Meyers will tomorrow to continue honeymoon. leave for the their inter- An officlal synod with and statement of the reference to the Hastings colleges has been Bee. by Thomhs L. Sex- ton, stated clerk of the synod. It does not differ in any point of fact from the report published in The Bee immediately upm the adjournment of the synod. This is the statement |1s the most exciting day of the ¥y nThat the publio [nay be informed as tc | Pleaging—there is a movement abroad row he exact action taken by the Presbyterian (¢ ine s = . Nebrani t. the adfourned meet: |10 Include rushing as well—before matric ing at Kearney December 7, the following | lation Is abselutely forbidden by the Sor- ority council, except at Michigan, where is_taken from the record Resolved, That it is the sense of the |chapter house conditions demand the early | pledging of new members. synod that Bellevus college and Hastings hat this united | “mng gate of the pledge day falls at the llege shall be located at Hastings d known as Bellevue college, or by |fifty-odd colleges where Pan-Hellenics as the board of trustees may |have been established anywhere from ,.'%”'.';'.‘.':’;V.’.guTlf-'.‘»'u,.”:.« ':"11“1 o | matriculation to April of the sophomore Bellovio ‘college be. authorised and 4l |Yoar. 1t seenis, judsing from careful obs vected, as soon as possible, to take such |servation, that the students favor a short action’ as may be neccssary for turn |a“‘nulke' and, the faculty a long one. u‘*r“:‘l;fi"filu\vu:‘”:_’ 0["“1}":1:'\"*;0 j}"”{;}ffil,\ %[ At the Instigation of the faculty members college by the trustees of Hastings college, | M¢Mbers of the fraternities several reo provided that the synod believes that the |Mendations In regard to scholarships ha ork being done at Bellevue college should | been made. One of these, that scholarship ”.;'-' 4\::: rl::l."mlllll\IrnI before the close of the |pe nade the basis of membership, has nct l“'“:m “.(_“‘,'"":‘;"‘J"d been adopted, although the general First—That the synod appoint a commis- |entiment In regard to it Is that it will ada glon Of welve ‘members to act for the |to the dignity of the sorority and give the colleges of the synod pleasures an added reason to exert herself Second—That the synod's executive com. |Academically, Perhaps the lack of enthus mission be Instructed to include In its asm over this measure is due to the recol- budget of benevolences for the current year | jection some of the members of their & sum equal to 30 cents per member for the | . r . college board, to be pald by the xynodical | ¥OUthful marks treasurer and disbursed by him as the| One fraternity has established a scholar- college commission may direct: which sums | ship fund; another has provided a loving reported to the col- |cup which is to go to the chapter that can to the individual boast of the greatest number of honor stu- dents In a year. The national board of |every fraternity now requests the deans |ana presidents of the colleges for an annual eport of the work of each member of the |fraternity. In this way a personal interest in the scholarship and academic standing of every member is maintained, and good I marks, If not coveted for personal reasons, become necessary from a fraternity stand: point action ot unfon of or trustees yet lege board churches, Third—That the stated clerk advise the pastors of this act of the synod and re- quire them to preach upon the subject of Christian education and urge their people for credit Fourth—That we ask the college board to co-operate in the adjustment of the union of the two institutions. Fifth—That the endowment of the united institution be not less than $i00,0600, THOMAS L SEXTON Stated Clerk A Froper Quest “And now.,"” sald the temperance lec- turer, in conclusion, “I shall be klad to answer any questions concerning the bale- ful results of the use of intoxicants.” A man with & red nose arose in the au- dience and said “You have studied ptoxication for many years? For thirty-two years, sir, and I Well, T want to ask, in'justice to the Effect of the Sororities. Recent investigations In western universities show that the fra- ternity girl stands higher than the fra- ternity man, and unlike him stands aca- demically above the nonfraternity mem- bers of her own class. At Missouri the fallures among the fraternity men were drinking cl 18 Youl aver 10 Il 1hE | et nd Among the Denfreleraity w' @ drunken man holding up a|Wen 2 per cent. It is interesting te note iamp-post ks hie 18 usually pictured in the |/ —— o o funhy paperst (Continued on Page Sever) some of the