The evening world. Newspaper, August 2, 1920, Page 14

a é $1,500,000,000 MORE. FR OLLOWING “the mandate of the Esch-Cum- mins bill, the Interstate Commerce Commis- ston has fevised railroad rates to provide an increase Of $1,500,000,000 in prospective revenue for the carriers, a The publi¢ must pay. The most immediate effect the public will discern iil be an increase in travelling expenses, f But the increase in passenger revenues Is rela- tively insignificant as compared with the freight ingrease. This will enter the family budget. Either living expense will increase or else living costs cannot decrease as much as they otherwise might. . Eventually the principle of the Esch-Cummins | —_ bill is certain to effect a considerable change in the Attitude of the public toward the railroads. : Under the Transportation Act the Interstate Commerce Commission is obliged to regulate rates to allow a 6 per cent. profit on valuation. Before there can be any profit the railroads miust ¢arn operating expenses. a a : The larger the operating expenses the larger will 4 be the total of the operating expenses plus the profit. - The smaller the operating expense the smaller _ will be the total. Consequently the public has a new interest in the ffliciency and economy of railroad operation no less direct than as though the roads were under Gov- ernment operation. It sill make little difference to the citizen whether he pays an unnecessarily high freight rate as the result of inefficient private seni pays heavy taxes to make up the deficit from in€fficient Govern- -iient operation at a lower freight rate. 5 In this connection some simple arithmetical cal-. culations based on the award of the 1, C. C. may be of interest. _ The |. C. C. takés as the basis of its rate-making a railroad’ valuation. of $49,000,000,000, in round numbers. ° _ Six per cent. of this sum would be $1,140,- 000,000. The increase in freight and passenger receipts {s éxpected to amount to $1,500,000,000. The recent raise in railroad wages is estimated at $600,000,000. > " ~ Subtracting this sum from the anticipated Increase in revenue, it would appear that the commission Is allowing to the railroads approximately $900,000,- , 900 for operation expense and profit over the ex- isting scale. _ The Government deficit for operation of the rail- roads for the last fiscal year was reported as $1,036,000,000. \ From which. it would appear that the Interstate Commerce Commission expects that the private * railroad managers will be about 10 per cent. more efficient than the Government managers, re Exact analysis would require considerably more information than press despatches of the finding afford. This calculation does not include the one- half. per cent. return which the Transportation Act sets aside for improvements and benefits. How muuch the Government has expended for this sort of work is a matter In dispute. But it will be by a refinement of this sort of cal- culation that.private management of railroads must expect to he judged. Transportation experts of the railroads, of Con- gress and of the Government ownership advocates + will analyze performances by comparing the records Of the two forms of management. It is the problem of the railroad managers to live within their allowance and demonstrate their supe- rior efficiency. Private operation !s.as definitely on trial now as was Government operation during the war. The present handling of the coal situation Is not up to the’standard which the public was led to expect. * A COMIC SMOKE SCREEN. MERICAN political history presents few if any situations with so large an element of real comedy as Senator Harding’s effort to “smoke out” the attitude of Gov. Cox toward the League of » Nations issue in advance of the formal nottfication of the. Democratic nominee. 3 From Senator Harding’s anxiety to pin down his opponent it would be reasonable to presume that his own stuiid was clearly defined and unequivocal, - It is anything but that. ‘ Although Senator Harding has made his accepl- ance speech and devoted a considerable part of his time fo international relations, the public Is still tn the dark as to his sentiments, Hiram Johnson is satisfied that Senator Harding “As “100 per cent,” Mr. Taft isn’t so’ sure, but allows x candidate what a school teacher, * publica Ss a Se w would consider a “passing grade” on international relations, and hopes he will dd better work if promoted, Here in New York the two morning newspapers supporting Harding are diametrically opposed in their interpretation of the Harding attitude. If Gov. Cox's acteptance speech is no more definite than Senator Harding's, then it will be time for questions—and from others than Harding. Until then Senator Harding would be less a comic character If he defined his own attitude and silenced the disagreement between the various interpreters of his cryptic remarks, Until then his questions can be regarded only as a smoke screen behind which he hopes to play hide- and-seek. from the bothersome question of “What does It mean?” AMENDED PHILOSOPHY, ANDOM reflections of an indolent philosopher on the possibility of “wireless travel” ap- peared in these columns recently, The philosopher considered the possibility of future developments of wireless telephony and wire- less transmission of pictures and spedulated on the possibility of visiting interesting places abroad by means of wireless projections of the scene plus wireless reproduction of the sounds. Now the indolent philosopher has relapsed into scepticism. He says: It wouldn't work. The most interesting places my aerial proxy would find to pholograph would be be- yond the pale of the Eighteenth Amendment. I should see jolly Frenchmen, serious Britons, jovial Dutchmen, effervescent Italians, gay Viennese, stolid Germans drinking their , beer or wine in peace and comfort. T should hear the tinkle of ice in tall glasses, the hiss of bubbles, the gay conversation, the clink of glasses, the smacking of lips. It would make me weep. 1 should feel impelled to risk the discom- forts of an ocean voyage to participate. Until the invertors soloe the problem of wireless transmission of liquids I'll haye none of “wireless travel.” And if they ever do that what will become of the Eighteenth Amendment ? The indolent philosopher has asked ,a pertinent question, . We pass along his suggestion anent wireless trans- mission of liquids as a helpful hint to inventors. ‘(Any genius who solves this problem will make ‘his fortune in this land of One-Half of One Per Cent. * - DISAPPOINTED GREED. SUIT filed®in Supreme Court Saturday is a revealing commentary on housing conditions, . A new owner, a woman, has sued the former owners of an apartment building for damages. The caluse she assigns is that she finds herself UNABLE TO RAISE THE RENTS as the former owners led her to believe she could. They “‘beat her to it” and then misrepresented the facts, she alleges. Technically this landlord may have a good case. Morally her position is shameless. She is as much a speculator in a necessity of life as the Individual who corners wheat or valorizes cotton. It is vases such as this that are driving tenants to the conclusion that the only remedy open to them is the definition of housing as a public utility in which a commission shall have power to fix values oa buildings comparable to those the Interstate Com- merce Commission fixes on railroads, regulating the rental to the costs of operation plus a fixed per- centage of valuation, ; Such a policy may “never prove to be the best remedy, Nevertheless, it is the solution toward which greedy landlords aré driving the hard-pressed tenants, y SINGLE DEESSINESS. (Brom the Boston Giobe.) “You pre not nearly eo attentive as you were be- fore we were married,” cOmplained the wife. “Well,” replied the husband, “you don’t expect a man to keep on running for caught {t,.do you?” It {s almost always taken for granted that a bache- lor does not need as large an income married man, but at a wage hearing on Beacon Hill a single man came out boldly for suitable Incomes for his cla “A eingle man,” he said, “kas to keep himself better dressed, shave oftener than a married man and ‘m general make himself more presentable, He must put on a front to attract a wife. A man who has a wife doesn't need to keep himself looking so trim.” There is something in what he says. If all the single men wore overalls and two-day beards all the time they would attract no notice from the females of the species, marriages would fall off and, of course, the net result would be extermination for the human race, ,But the bachelor who looks prosperous !s like cock before the moulting season—hence the continuation of the species, ‘The question of wagea and the family will not be solved completely for a long time. It may be that two, both wearing old clothes, can live as cheaply as one, but what of the two more who must be born and raised, if the first two are to be replaced? Some of our “advanced thinkers” Insist that the whole matter will be solved by handing infants over to the State and forgetting them. The flaw in this Implicit trust In orphan asylums {s that évery decent Commonwealth haa abolished as many orphan asylums as it could, for the excellent reason that thelr charges have too high a death rate, Nowadays State charges are boarded in familios, Of course the single man should be able to “doll up” like the Queen of Sheba, but that ts not the whole of the story, . is “RVENING treet car after he has | |bage menace that existed there. By RLD, MONDAY, AUGUST omens Taps Souter we ESOT. WORE ER lag moe — wre Dey | hina 2, 1996" < Ww Coperiens, 1920, Te Kran Kaptiontog Op, New York Evening World.) . By J. H. Cassel > |he lifted up his ey | FROM EVENING WORLD READERS | What kind of letter do you fin to say much in a few words. Take On behal¢ of myself and many of my friends permit me to thank your paper for the valuable service you rendered in helping to rid the Bast River Pier at 95th Street of the gar- bringing relief to this community The | Evening World shows aa it has in| the past that it is always devoted to the welfare of the public. B F, WISSMULLBR. 1845 First Avenue, New York City, July 29, 1920, ‘To the Eilitor of The Evening Work ' ‘Will you please inform me whether | or not the word beautiful can apply to things that are inanimate? Thank A READER. you. July 29, 1920, | Marriage Disasters. i} ‘Pe the Bilttor of The Evening World: Court calendars are clogged and the machinery for distribution of justice has become rusted because of the present phenomena of matrimonial disasters occuring among the social |wets and the plebelan classes, ‘The astounding corruptions entall- Ing these breakages in the Ues of the home must be duerto two things which I will enumerate: Frivolous habits of life indulged in by the pa- triclan or “millionaire class," The in- ability ¢o live like decent beings is the main cause of the poor people. Let us detail them, The high soca! damo who never did ‘4 atitoh of work in her life is an ad- venturess, To her the preciousness of a matrimonial oath and its impending obligations is met with sarcasm of an inferior breed in the human family, To her marriage means only the temporary capture of him to whom |her love ingtinets favorably blow and | when the affection dies she casts about and preys upon anotner victim, So famijy life la now a historical past with the rich class, Divorces come galore, and with them are exposed the heinous atrocities that show the doprtvity of a human being who ut- terly disregagds the laws of nature. : BEN PATNER, 1185 Union Avenue, N. Y. July 29, 1920. The Bedford Reformatory. To the Biltor of The Eventng Work! Many of us who think we are com- mon-sense people feel sure that to handle such cases as the inmates of the Bedford Institution, come kind of physical chastisement must be pro- vided for. We do not think that Its frequent use should be necessary, We believe that with proper officials and under ‘proper limitations Its use would be that gives you the worth of a thousand words in a couple of hundred? There is fine mental exercise and a lot of satisfaction in trying 4 most readable? Isn't it the one time to be brief. generally avoided, We, however, equally belieye that the knowledge that it could be used and would be used if necessary, and that under Proper limitations it was offictally and publicly indorsed, would be a foundation for the success of other means, We do not regard physical punishment as the only or most de- | sirable method of training, but we believe it is wild folly to hope to handle such cases as those at Bed- | ford without its use as a possibility. | We are quite confident that in every successful institution of a more or dess similar chafacter it is always used In some form, though its use may be ignored by the management or winked at. It seems t that tho old-fashtoned “spanking” Jn, properly sag guarded—is a much more desirable form of physical punishment than handeuffs, or ghaining up, or “dous- ing the culprit's head tn watet,” for evident reasons. It should be possible to “span! rebel into submisston, on the responsibility of the matron and under the sanction of a woman physician, and in the presence of woman officials only, without any brutality, We recognize that every effort to use the gentlest methods should be made, and that the matron should be the most competent to govern without the use ef physical chastiae- ment that can be found, but, ‘never- theless, it 1s only common sense to put this instrument in her hands, for use if-necessary and under whatever restrictions may be thought advis- uble, E. D. High Cost of Fars. ‘To the Piitor of The Evening Work! : A few months ago an article ap- peared in this paper exposing the scheme the fur.syndicates were go- Ing to put over on the public, It stated that the fur dealers bought so much fur at high prices and now that they cannot borrow money from the banks, rather than sell their surplus stock have entered into a scheme with the cloak and dress manufacturers to dispose of thelr stock, It has all come to pass At the last cloak and sult exhtbt- tion all dresses and cloaks had fur trimmings. Now, | would adviee every woman not to'buy suits or cloaks with these trimmings and just buy within her means of the other dresses and cloaks, In this way the women of New| | York will take one good slap at High | Coat, Women of moderate means, wake up and beat them at their own game, Do not buy and they will gladly throw them at you at a sacrifice, READER, New York, July 28, 1920. “Where the Money Goes,” To the Editor of The Drening World T have read with considerable tnter- ~~ (Copyright, 1920, by John Bake.) WHICH SIDE OF LIFE rock formations of the mountain peaks and the glaciers and cascades that crowned their summits and laced their sides. Two men were recently travelling through the Canadian Rockies. One looked out of the window at the marvellous “This is a wonderful world,” he said, “and it is a privi- lege to look at it.” “That may all be,” said the other, ‘‘but the way the dust blows into thi: to the Company about it when I There are always two -side We can see the rainbow complain about the bad weathe other, ~ ' In the shouting of playing of you. You can see in your posit you can look ofly at its drudge and cheerfulness when there is But when the bright side i to the pessimist, let us do the most happiness. We must all travel a long our lives and be delighted with UNCOMMON SENSE By John Blake leeping car is an outrage, plainly visible to him who looks for them, see the gray skies across which the rainbow is spread and . But if you will take our advice you will look for beauty , The time comes to all of us when we can look only with sorrowing eyes at grief or bereavement. of joy alone. Sometimes it is only given us to see the gloom. effort of the will we can behold that and leave the dark side journey will be far harder than the first-——unless by looking at the beautiful) we gather together a collection of bright memories on which we can look back in the waning years of DO YOU LOOK AT? # I'm going to write get to Montreal,” es to the world, both of them also if we choose. We can r, Happiness is a matter of looking on one side or the children the wise find delight, the foolish find only annoyance and irritation. Take your choice and you go on your way. look at the view when you climb the mountain, or you can worry about your weariness and the long trail that is ahead You can ion an opportunity to rise, or ry. a chance. Life is not made up s visible, too, when by a little thing which will give us the way and the latter end of the the picture. rere i July 28 on the matter of “Wyhore the Money Goes.” This same inquiry might be made, and very fittingly, to the eavings banks. Under existing conditions, with rents at high peak and the cost of construc- tion abnormally high and the ad- mitted cost of reconstruction at an increase of at least 100 per cent., we find real estate paying most satiatac- tory returns, .and in consequence of more substantial value than ha: the situation in a very long period, Notwithstanding these conditions we find & systematic movement on the part of practically every sayings bank in thé elty to Increase interest rates and to also call for substantial reduc- | tions tn the mortgages, and many are also calling for property owners to carry greater amounts of insurance to meet reconstruction costa in the; event of fire lowses, while a new mort- gage loan from a bank {9 next to an ma | est and meditation your editorial of } possibility, Pp , om in the case cited, in your editorial, the money ip being loaned in other channels, and prob- ably at’ higher rates of Interest. But what of the savings bank de- positor who 18 paying the high rents, which enables the bank to get the high rate of interest? I have had occasion to get into communication with several institu. Uons lately on this subject, but have not found one which {s ‘willing to state that they will give their depuai- tors any more than they did when money had ® much greater purchas- ing power. Tt some change {s not made tn thelr policy they will soon find that funds deposited with them will seak (and readily find) other sources of sound investment, with greater intorest-pay- ing dividends, Perhaps your paper may take a similar view and raise its voice in the Interest of the many thousands of !n- Lorested depositors, W, WILLARD BABCOCK, New York, July 28, The Love Stories of the Bible . | By Rev. Thomas B. Gregory, (Coprrtsht, 1920, by The Preas Mubliahing Co, (The New York World.) No 2.—Isaac and Rebekali SAAC was a dreamet. Unlike bis son Jacob, he cared but little for the practical and the strenuous. He foved to sit on a grassy hilltop and build castles in the air while he watchea the gorgeous clouds above and the entrancing landscape around Isaac's virtues were of the heait rather than of the head. He hated disputation and fighting, but was great lover. And his love for Rebekah, as ( 80 briefly and simply in Genesis, | “thing of beauty atid a joy for I cannot do better than to use the very words of Scripture themselves |"And Rebekah arose, and her, dam- sels, and they rode upan the came:s and followed the man, and the str- | vant took Rebekah and went his way jAnd Isaac came from the way of | Beerlahairol, for he dwelt in this fad of the south. And Isaac went oul tv | meditate in. the fleld at eventide, at and saw, and, yminic old a behold, there we: And Rebekah lifted up h |when she saw Isaac she lighted © the camel. And she sald unto tlhe servant, What man js this that wal eth in the flelda to meet’us? A the ant suid, It is my must And she took her vell and coy herself. And the servant told [saao all the things that he had done And jIsaac brought her unto his Mother | Sarah’s tent and took Rebekah, and jshe became his wife, and he loved |‘ her.”” It was « case of mutual love at frst sight, And it was genuine love Rebekah at the time was living among the “Sons and Daughters | Heth” in the of the Hittit a ver: at powel and a son Heth would have been, from t mercenary point of view, a much be lter match for Rebekah than a son of | Abraham, but Rebekah scorned the brilliant prospects (hat offered them iver. In the touching words of the narrative her affection shines out clear and strong: And they said, We will call the damsel and Inquire at her mouth, And they called Rebe kah and said unto her, Wilt thou cog, with this man? And she satd, I wil! 0. (Financ was none th not having been a practica dent and calculating rather than tical and dreamy, for surely n eiuce the birth of humanity has love of man and woman ever been truer, But there ts always some sort © “dead fly” in the ointment, And {i was so in the case of Isaac and Re- bekah, When Jacob and Pisau came the mother found herself on the brink of a soul-trying ordeal, In the cours of time ahe observed by the clan of Abr Esau leaned toward the children of Heth. Though a twin, Esau was the firatborn, and was therefore the natural heir to t birthright and leasing, but he was wholly unfit for the great destiny. Legally and by custom he had the right to be his father’s successor, but his idolatry made the succession an impossible thought to the pious mother in Israe!. It would be wrong to practise deceh. but Beau must be aet aside for Jaco), And the wrong was done in order that, as Rebekah felt about it, good might come. As another has put it, “It ts a deep, dark blot on Rebekah's life, but it is a blot with pure ink, the very ink tn which she wrote her Ii The blot, however, did not dim Isnac’s love for Rebekah, After th: tial anger, hot as the flames of vorse off for man, pru ye hell, Isaac was reconciled to his wifes | action, and the old love burned again with the intensity that marked it hen it was born in his heart at the frst sight of Rebekah. oT, 7 4?) “That’saFact” \1| By Albert P. Southwick [oom 1920. by The Prem Publishing Co, ‘ork Dreniing Worl Of the two small settlements of a humbler sort on the Hudson one was known as Lower Greenwicl at the foot of Brannan (now Spring) Street, and the other Upper Green wich, at the foot of the present Christopher Street, then known as Skinner Road. There {9 still in Néw York City an entire block of a row of low wooden houses in West Street, be tween Christopher and 10th Streets the best view being from Wiehaw ken [sic] Street, in the’ rear, The third outbreak of prison- ers in the New York State Prison, in May, 1804, was when the keep ers were locked in the north wink of the burning bullding, Fortun ately, “one more humane than the rest released the keepers but thore was a loss of $26,000 and the ea- cape of many convicts, ' ‘Thomas Paine, writer of “The Age ot Reason," together with Mme, Bonneville and her two eons, was lodged in a house én Herring Street (now No. 298 Bleecker), between Christopher and Jones Streets, New York City, He died on Juno 8, 1804. In the last months of Thomas~ Paine’> Ufe, Mme. Bonneville hired & small frame dwelling and re- moved him thither, The street, opened shortly after Paine's death, had first the name of Cozine and then Columbia, still later Burroughs and finally Grove; and was then deflected out of line #0 as to leave the house In 1886, Grove Street, New York City, was’ widened and straight. ened, the whole main bullding where Thomas Paine died being 4. stroyed, The back bullding rn mained for several years and w then replaced by the present No King William “Rutua") of I (known as island was killed, accidentally, an arrow fired by Sir Walter ‘Tyrrel, a Freno) knight, on At. 2, 1100, From his great wealth he had purchased two French provinces and founded Westminster Hall, Wooster Street, Now York City, reoalls the name of General David. Wooster, @ dashing oflcar, who was mortally wounded while leading a charge against the British at Ridge~ | field, Conn, during the Revolut