Golden Age, March 3, 1920

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March 3, 1920, VoL 1, No. 12

Published every other week ai 1265 Broadway, New York, US-A.

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Tomes 1 WEDNESDAY, xyrn a 1S20 Wion 11 CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE LABOR and ECONOMIC!

CondnetoFR and Engineers Shopmen*! Wages...——J..337 Not Overpaid..—.—.....355 Prodlffioue PlnndarwM mt

Conductor*' Wuw________365 Workinr for

Engineer*’ Wage*---------356 Austrailaa **4

SOCIAL end EDUCATIONAL

Hundred* of Million* far Temperance a Maotar Hoods w.r............—.—459 virtue - —

MANUFACTURING and MINING

Power Proepecti...—..—.303 Power Proepecti (Cont*d)-S60

FINANCE COMMERCE. TRANSPORTATION

POLITICAL, DOMESTIC end FOREIGN

Jnatleo and the Poor.—. J,G7 The More Excellent Way—.90S

AGRICULTURE and HUSBANDRY Ne flotrnner._______. -.. 470

East era JHermen Awakening ................369

SCIENCE ud

The notary Gaa Engtna-.371

A^fotbanatAeal Predict.. 472

Australia Mates ProgreM-370 INVENTION The Iron Who Invented ItL—.AIR

TRAVEL aU MISCELLANY . Tho Tertiary Colom.........373 Leoreay - ------------

Orhrtlan Art Coming to Smaller Newspaper*..,,..... ft? 4

Light______________-..373 Who Gets the Money!

HOUSEWIFERY and HYGIENE Food* That Nourish...........375 Health Food Radpea ■ ■■■ ■ITS

RELIGION and PHILOSOPHY

>-•!» It ftf the, Benefit erf -nie FearteM Confute the tn Jew*?... ............ 37? r^ainMv

Op« Doom to BMrtti«m...37R ____Tf-T

■ A* Tr**^"*^ PfMflyiy JuToolle Bible Study . 11 iStl

Ymr Cnrra a Oory—41.W a Xnaa. Make remittances to TAe GeMon Ape.

crA,? Golden Age

Volume I New York, Wednesday, March 3, 1920 Namber 12

Conductors and Engineers Not Overpaid

OCCASIONALLY an item from some alleged financial “authority” steers us for a time in the wrong direction, but not for long, we think; for we have a lot of sharp-eyed, friendly, interested readers, who no longer believe everything they see in print and will have nothing less than the truth on all subjects. The story that engineers and freight conductors were making high wages was widely published, and was manifestly unfair unless accompanied by the fact that it represented nearly two months’ work done in one month. We received no thanks from Wall Street for publishing their lies and now they will probably be sore at us for giving wide publicity to the truth. But we think our readers prefer to have us try to tell the truth at all times, rather than to follow a too common newspaper custom of telling lies and never correcting anything. The man who edits a magazine of this sort will inevitably make lots of mistakes. Shall we cover up these mistakes or '’face the music”? Wliat do you say?

Conductors' Wages .

FREIGHT conductor in Mississippi writes:

“We are considered as having one of the best

contracts in the country in the way of working conditions.. and I presume you know the rates of pay are about Uniform throughout the country in the same classes of service; I know of but one man on the Mobile Division of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad who makes the amount stated in your article, and this man has been in the service since 1874.

‘Tor more than eleven years I have served in the capacity of local or war freight conductor, and during that time my increase in wages has by no means kept . pace with the .ever-climbing cost .of living. I have had an increase of $1.32 per day since 1914; or, to be exact, for a month of twenty-six working days of eight hours each I receive $15L32. Do you think that an excessive amount for a man who tries to be honest and who has a wife, three children and a widowed aunt to support?

“I have used the same winter suit for three winters, buying a new one this Fall only from dire necessity, and I owe the tailor a balance of $20 on it My wife made over a dress she had in 1917, and waited until the season was more than half gone before she bought her hat and cloak; in other words she waited for the ‘sale prices'. We have not had an egg on our table since we had visitors, just three months ago, by actual count We own our own home; and I do not know how those get along who pay rent and have large families to support

“Are you going to call men robbers and highwaymen because they want enough to maintain their loved ones in some degree of comfort and see that they get proper food ? It may be true that the heads of the four brotherhoods did hold Congress up at the point of a gun, in a manner; but they were forced to do this by the men in the ranks. All were ready to bring the wheels of transportation to a standstill if demands were not granted.

“I have given the best part of my life to this work; I don’t know anything else; and I suspect I would have a harder time making a living at some other trade than-railroading, and there are thousands upon thousands in the same boat. But do you think it just and right that these men, who are necessary to our national well being, should be denied the right to a living wage because some few among them wear silk shirts? I have been in the service seventeen years, and during all that time I have never had a silk shirt

“You spoke of some of these men as making almost as much money as the governors of some of our states. Well, why shouldn’t they? The governors of all the states might form a conspiracy with that wonderful law-making body in Washington and all quit; but somehow the country would rock along and people would not miss them very much except at tax-paying time. But you let the transportation men cease to function and see how long it would be until things would be in an uproar.

“Did you ever stand behind an engineer and watch him as he bored his way through the blackness of the night at a rate of sixty miles per hour or more, and note with what keen interest he watches everything? He knows that one mistake on his part or the failure of some fellow employe to bring up his end of the rope properly means death, not only to himself, but to lives entrusted to his care. This is a great strain which no man can endure for long without a telling effect.

“Or did you ever watch the ‘fire boy’ as he climbs to his post in the engine deck and, with scoop and sometimes with a dirty tank of coal, fights that roaring furnace from one end of the road to the other? He is eager that proper steam pressure be maintained and his train reach destination on time.

“Possibly you have never been an eyewitness to these things, but no doubt you have lain comfortably asleep in the Pullman while all kinds of hardships were being endured by the men in charge of this train; and you felt perfectly safe, for you knew the company required men who had to measure up to a high standard.

• “These men are not criminals; but taken as a whole they are honest, hard working and charitable. They welcome publicity and would be only too glad if you would obtain the real facts and give them to your readers. I know of no class of men who will welcome the oncoming Golden Age with more real joy than the rank and file of railroad men.

“Very few people know or realize what a hard and trying life these men are forced to lead. Called out at all hours of the day and night, and exposed to all kinds of weather, is it any wonder that such a life does not appeal to the class of men who seek the governorship of our states ? Then why deny these men a living wage ?”

A passenger conductor in Iowa writes:

"You say that freight and passenger conductors now receive $300 per month, when the fact is that the salary of all passenger conductors is $180 per month. We grant that in very many cases conductors do receive as much as $200 per month, and that some do even receive as much as $300, but these are few in number; for in order to make extra wages one must have a long run and work long hours.

"Passenger conductors get only 75 cents per hour for overtime and that is only on straight time and not time and a half, as is figured in the case of men in the alow freight service and in the shops. The shop men get all the way from 75 cents to 87 cents per hour and are not compelled to be away from home a greater part of their time, as are the train and engine men; therefore their expenses are far less, and when the truth is known there is not so much difference in the net pay received each month by the two classes. Yard men, as well as track men and laborers, all get time and a half for all over eight hours. It costs the road man anywhere from $40 to $55 for board and bed away from home each month.”

A Massachusetts conductor says:

"I find you are misinformed as to the wages of a conductor. You say they receive $300 per month. The fact is they receive $180, and work every day in the month including Sundays, ten hours a day, to receive that guaranteed sum. This is the actual wage scale here in Massachusetts. If there are any exceptional cases receiving $300 it must be for overtime. Many of the conductors, myself included, have had to be away from home the last ten months at an added expense of $10 per week for room and board in order to hold my job and rating.” ;

A conductor in Maryland writes:

"Freight conductors here are making $167.40, and ■ passenger conductors $186, for a thirty-one-day month. By losing a lot of sleep and making lots of overtime we can sometimes make near $200. The freight conductors were receiving $4.10 per day in 1912 and today they receive $5.40. Figure the cost of living in 1912 by the side of the cost of living today and see if you think we have made a Jesse James hold-up. If we made as big a mistake in a train order as you made in your statement I think we would lose our jobs and have to go to digging potatoes or some other business.. If we could earn $250 per month we would think we were making big wages.”

Engineers* Wages

AN -ENGINEER in the state of Washington

» writes the following:

“Myself and crew made twenty-five days from January 1st to 15th, 1920: the conductor's wages, at $5.40 per day, equals $135 for two weeks’ work. Each trip I was at home eight hours and away thirty-six to fortyeight hours. Had I worked eight hours per day for the thirteen working days in the first half of January I would have made $73.20. How many editors, governors and other professional men have got the nerve to work ten days overtime out of fifteen? It looks good on paper; but come out and gallop with us for—a_few months.”

A subscriber writes of an Alabama engineer:

"He maintains that four or five years ago he received $5.00 per hundred miles in his grade of service, and that now he receives only $5.60 for the same service: and on the other hand the members of the unskilled unions, ‘car toads’, as he called them, were then getting 22 cents to 30 cents per hour and are now receiving 82 cents per hour; and, furthermore, that an engineer who is called out to do three hours’ work gets pay for three hours only, while in the case of the lowest classes of labor they get a full day’s pay for a like three hours of actual work.”

The same subscriber writes of an engineer’s wife:

“She says that the highest her husband ever knew a freight engineer to get was less than $300 per month. She also says that her husband’s expense on the road

is more than his home expense, for the reason that he has to have a room at two different places, and those who rent rooms charge railroad men more than they do • others; and in addition to this disadvantage, she savs, the local merchants charge members of the four big brotherhoods about five cents a pound more for the things the}- buy than they do others. She cited her own home as an evidence that the engineers were not living like lords, nor their wives enjoying the articles of luxury mentioned. Her rooms were small and plainly fur. nished. There was no appearance of wealth in either of these engineers’ homes.”

An engineer in Wyoming writes:

"I am a locomotive engineer on the highest rate of pay engines in the country in freight service. Employes in road sendee are not paid a monthly salary, but for actual service rendered; i. e., miles run or hours put in in actual service. The rate of pay is the same for Sundays and holidays as it is for weekdays; it is the same for the midnight hours as for the sunny hours in the day. This highest rate for locomotive m-nning in the freight service is $8 per 100 miles or eight hours of work Now, holding railroad men down to the hours of work of other mortals six days a week would be $48, or $200 per month, which I venture to suggest is about the average for locomotive freight engineers in regular service.”

A railroad telegrapher in New York-state writes:

“The statement that freight and passenger conductors now receive over $300 per month and freight engineers receive 8392 per month I believe is quite misleading and does these men an injury; for there arc, to the best of . niy knowledge, only a few of such positions, and with present rates no engineer nor conductor can make this ' amount unless he works every day, including Sundays, and also nearly sixteen hours per day, which is equal to nearly two months’ work in one month, from the popular standpoint of an eight-hour day.

“I am reliably informed that the only position drawing anywhere near your figure is one held by the oldest engineer on the road, and he has made as high as $326 in a month; but this man works twelve and one-half hours per day, thirty-one days a month, to earn this, but ennunt always do this because it is too steady and rest is needed. Therefore, he must needs lay off occasionally.

"At twelve and one-half hours per day this man is working four and one-half hours each day in excess of a day’s work of eight hours; and if we figure this on an eight-hour basis, with time and a half for overtime, he is earning less than 75 cents per hour for one of the most responsible positions in the country, from the standpoint of the human lives depending upon him.

"As to the average freight engineer, I am reliably informed that he rarely exceeds $225 for a thirty-one-day month. In fact, unless he makes overtime he positively cannot exceed $225, and there are many who make kji than $175 for a thirty-one-day month.

“The average freight conductors pay on this road, will not exceed $200 per month, and he must work thirty-one days per month to earn this. The only instances where the figures as given herein are exceeded i-? where a goodly amount of overtime is made.'’

Shopmen's Wages

IT IS claimed that at the time the railroad shopmen, last summer, put in their request to have their wages of 57 cents, 63 cents and 68 cents per hour raised to 85 cents per hour their average individual wages amounted to $1722 per year; but at forty-eight hours per week this amount would give 69 cents per hour, so it must have included some overtime. The wages of gang foremen before the last raise were said to be $2461 per year, and the wages of helpers, $1263. An increase of $250,000,600 was divided among the shopmen in 1918, and a further increase of $45,000,000 in 1919, the latter increase to put the shopmen on the same basis of a day’s pay for eight hours’ work previously granted to other railway employes.

Prodigious Plunderers

THE principal cause for undue profits on food and other stuffs has even been stated .

to be the fact that the people are willing for those profits to be made. This is only a part truth; for the average person is not possessed of the time and means necessary to conduct investigations and prosecutions. To secure any land of satisfaction would take as much money standing as the profiteers have; and if the aver- — age person had the financial and social standing which the profiteers enjoy, or are supposed to enjoy, that person would not be an average person any more, but would be a profiteer himself and interested in furthering and protecting the profiteers' interests.

Accordingly, as a thorougldy reputable American document has stated it, “experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while faults are sufferable, than to right thcie by abolishing the forms to which they are ac- ’ customed”. Can it be that instead of memory clinging tenderly to the little red school-house, the little grey home, the old swimmin’ hole, we are to become so accustomed to the dear profitshark that we are unwilling to sec him go ? At all events he is still here, and is able to keep up prices; yes, to boost them higher and higher by his ability to limit the market.

Health Commissioner Robertson, of Chicago, vouches for the correctness of these figures:

During the year 1918 there were two million pounds of foodstuffs shipped to Chicago which were necessarily destroyed, because they were spoiled and had to be condemned for the sake of the public health. There were 312,068 pounds of meat, presumably beef, pork, and mutton; 148,969 pounds of fish, 63,233 pounds of poultry, 240,553 pounds of fresh vegetables, 102,272 pounds of canned figs, 369,912 pounds of other cairned fruits, 527,943 pounds of canned vegetables, and 19,572 pounds of eggs. It will be remembered that this prodigious wastage occurred while millions of people were obliged to go on short rations, because they had not the money to buy at the high prices. If the market had been open, the prices would have fallen to make room for the disposal of these vast stocks before they spoiled. But why worry about spoiling stocks when you can make it all up by raising the prices on what you have left?

No one knows yet how great the waste was in 1919, but some idea can be gained from the fact that surplus stocks in Chicago were much greater in 1919 than in 1918. It is a safe assumption that stocks are proportionate in other cities. At the end of June there were 211,956,-577 pounds of foodstuffs in warehouses of Chicago, as compared with 155,248,487 pounds at the same time last year. Crated eggs are not counted in these figures.

Working for Profit

WHEN a man works for clients in a professional way he receives a fee, when he works in a white collar he receives a salary, when he works in a colored shirt he receives wages. What wages ought a man to receive for his work? He ought to receive enough compensation so that he can maintain a comfortable home, feed, clothe and educate himself, his wife and his children, with enough profit so that he can anticipate and provide for old age or other periods when he is unable to work.

Wages that will just keep, the man himself housed, fed, clothed and contented are not sufficient. Wages that will just renew and support life are not sufficient: wages that provide for support only during the producing years are not sufficient; it costs a lot of money to transform a six-pound baby into a six-foot man. Mothers are more important than machines; without mothers there would be no machines. The baby and the mother must be cared for, and the man must receive enough compensation to care for them, and to care for himself when he can no longer work. The pay which the man gets for the work he does in the shop must pay for the work done by both his wife and himself.

Wages today are usually the formal terms of an armistice in a battle that never really comes to an end. Employer and employe have diametrically opposite viewpoints and interests to serve; and the place where they come to agreement is the place where, for the time, it is more to the interests of both to have peace than to continue the fight.

The war has made tremendous changes in wages. It has made tremendous profits for employers and has witnessed a strenuous effort on the part of employes to retain the percentage of profit which has heretofore been theirs. With the end of the war came an earnest desire on the part of labor to retain all the advantages gained during the war, and an equally determined desire on the part of the employer to nullify these desires by boosting prices to a place where the net result to labor in the way of wages would be as little or less than that paid before the war came.

Foreigners who come to America manage to live and save fortunes on wages upon which Americans save nothing. The difference is in the standard of living. The desire for an improved standard of living for wife and children has much to do with the American’s clamor for more and ever more wages. The more he makes the more he spends, and the more he spends the more he boosts the price of life’s necessities for himself and everybody else.

Australian Items

AUSTRALIAN potteries are said to have lost much money from poor qualities in the clay; and the men of science have studied and tested the clays available, and are putting the business on its feet again.

The industrial unrest for which Australia was famous, between workers and employers, has been minimized, and according to the Journal of Commerce all classes seem to be working together on a better and more harmonious basis.

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Hundreds of Millions for Roads

THE high point in road building was reached in 1916. but that was only a fifth of what is planned for 1920. The nation is waking up. Good-roads associations, trail associations, highway councils, and so on, have urged communities, states and the nation to construct better highways at a cost of millions to billions of dollars, and through the free spirit of spending engendered by the World War have converted the country. Almost as one man the people are demanding instantly the most modem and comprehensive system of roads in the world, and arc ready to pay the price.

■According to the Koginccring News - Record American road-building presents demands for the building in five years of a mileage of roads greater than the 40,000-mile five-year record of railways in 1879.to 18S3. The railway mileage cost about $20,000 a mile, or a total of $800,000,000; the expectation is that the next five years are to see 100,000 miles of first-class roads built at an average cost of $30,000 a mile. The $3,01X1,000,000 that tins will cost does not affect anything but the imagination of a people accustomed to the raising of three to five billion at a time for purposes of destruction. The 1920 program alone calls for $633,000,000, obtainable by millions as follows: $1G5 unfinished work, $273 from county, state and Federal governments, $45 unexpended balances, $50 from old bond issues, and $100 from new bond issues.

No better roads have ever been constructed than some of those in project. Not even the ancient Roman roads equaled them. The world-famous French roads are not in the same class. These roads are not to he speedways or pleasure roads, but ways of the most substantial construction, fit to bear the brunt of the ever heavier impact of ever more powerful trucks and the coming trains of trucks, which are destined to appear in fleets on the American highways, and in large measure to supplant the railways as freight carriers.

The history of road-building in this country is typical of the progress from poverty to plenty. The original roads were forest or prairie trails. Then came the earth road maintained by the personal labor of the tartpayers. Hard-surfaced roads could not even be suggested by the progressive, but permanent culverts and bridges were built. Here and there first-class roads were built by the state for object lessons, and finally the voters were ready for the huge highway-construction projects of today.

The roads required are of four classes. Roads are needed for agricultural purposes. This includes traffic from town to farm and from farm to town, a rapidly growing type of transportation wherever cities have been made centers of road systems on which are carried the crops and foodstuffs from regions remote from rail transportation.

The second type of roads is recreational, for local and tourist traffic. The tourist traffic is large and important, us tens of thousands of sightseers travel from state to state over the entire country. But it is only incidental to the immense amount of mileage—about 90% —for pleasure and health near the homes of automobile owners.

The third, type of roads is commercial, to accommodate the traffic between large industrial centers, and is rapidly shaping up into an efficient transportation system for freight and express by truck which calls for a substantial type of road.

The fourth type is the military road, a variety of road not much in evidence in the United States, but wherever found it is of the most substantial character, intended to stand the roughwork of heavy trucks and guns. Other high-class roads will answer this purpose nearly everywhere, but short stretches' of distinctly military roads will be built here and there, as connecting links to the entire system.

There are country roads in the United States so muddy that it is said a baby carriage would be stuck on a 5% down grade. The mud assumes the consistency of sticky taffy and holds tight in its embrace anything that sets foot or wheel therein. In some Southern States the roads are practically impassable in certain months, and families that fail to stock up with coal and provisions for the mud siege go cold and hungry because stores and coal piles are inaccessible. It is nothing uncommon in many sections of the country for the fields to be better to ride over than the alleged roads. In such regions civilization is an impossibility, and prosperity must languish for lack of a market.

The grade of even a good road affects its usefulness. The worst grade on an entire highway, even though over only a little hill, represents the efficiency of the entire road. A horse that can pull 2000 pounds on a level earth road can pull 1000 up a 5% grade and only 750 up a 10% grade. Grades are relatively worse on good roads than on ordinary earth roads. The percentage of efficiency loss is greater on the grades. On a level, improved road the same horse may draw 5000 pounds but on a 5% grade he can move only 1600 and up a 10% grade but 960—only a little more than that up the same grade on an earth road. The total waste chargeable to poor roads and to excessive grades on even good roads, thought of in terms of inefficient use of equipment, loss of marketing ability, reduction of productivity of farms, higher cost of farm products’, and lower values of country properties, is simply too immense to be calculated. Some day it will be eliminated.

There is no question before the people, the solving of which would benefit them more than would the solution of the good-roads question. As famine impinges upon whole nations in the Old World and the signs of approaching distress are not wanting in America, the country does well to make provision for better methods of distributing food products with the minimum cost and the minimum number of middle-men.

The experience of one farmer is typical of that of tens of thousands. Writing to the New York Times, he says:

“Owning 240 acres I cultivated only about twenty-five, while .it. least 150 arc cultivable. A neighbor of mine owning 360 acres docs not cultivate his land at all. A very small part of the cultivable land in my district is tilled, and the question arises, Why? The answer is, Bad roads. My farm is four miles from the railroad; the country road by which we have to travel there is so bad that it is impossible, for me to get in due time all the materials needed for the proper cultivation of all my land. As a direct result of the roads most farmers in my neighborhood are forced to sell out their stock and leave their farms. There are ten farms along the road leading from the railroad to my house, and out of these onlv two are inhabited by their owners. The other eight have been vacated.’’

In the World War in France the condition of the roads became a question of national importance. It has been truly said that France has been saved by her roads. Even at that the French roads were of such light construction that they broke down under the heavy traffic of the conflict. France had not looked far enough ahead to build roads that would stand the terrific pounding of artillery and of trains of heavy trucks driven at breakneck speed. There is only one objection raised to good roads, and that is by some of the church people, who complain that the roads tempt the people away from the services and out into the good fresh air and sunlight and into good health, to the damage, it is alleged, of the souls of the autoists and of ecclesiastical revenues. It was perhaps irreverently suggested in one country church that if the people were travelling to “hell” via the good roads, it was fortunate for any that went in Fords, for the Ford always “brings you back”. That, however, is not an economic question, and for purposes of discussion is outside the scope of this article.

In the primitive era of road building the ownership of a pick and shovel or a team of horses constituted one a competent road architect; but, after much patient effort by civil engineers, the work has been reduced to the science of highway engineering, and roads are first designed and then built for economy, efficiency’ and permanency. At the best a road is a mechanism that lasts only a certain number of years before it is worn out; and it should be replaced.

The factors that enter into good road building are many and important. The principal one is that of obtaining trained engineering help to make surveys, plans, preliminary investigations and the inspection of work in progress. There is a distinct shortage of young engineers which cannot be very well overcome except through the slow process of techni' al education, for modern road work cannot be “picked up”.

The salaries paid to men in various engineering positions are: chief engineer in charge of all work, $8,000 to $15,000; engineer of construction, and engineer of maintenance, $6,000 to $10,000 each; engineer of bridges, $5,000 to $8,000; office engineer, $5,000 to $8,000; engineer of tests, $4,000 to $7,000; district engineer, $5,000 to $8,000; advisory engineer to the chief engineer, $5,000 to $10,000; first assistant engineers, $3,600 to $5,000; assistant engineers, $2,400 to $4,000; chief chemist, $3,500 to $5,000;

1 assistant chemists, $2,000 to $4,000. The inspection service calls for technically educated men earning $2,400 to $4,000; and there are many junior engineers and assistants getting $1,800 to $2,400. This schedule gives some idea of the number of trained men in a large road project. With the scarcity of such men the sal-; cues paid are likely to rise above these figures.

■ Another factor in the problem is that of obtaining the materials of construction. To F date there has been a hit-or-miss way of getting materials, which is bound to cause a scarcity during 1920, and hamper the carrying out of j the ambitious project for the year. Rumors are current of combinations of material-men to corner all available sup; iies and to carve out as large a slice as possible of the $633,000,000 appropriation. ‘‘The profiteer ye have always with you." Among the supplies is an enormous quantity of cement, on which the public has to pay hundreds of dollars per mile to dealers who under a manufacturer's agreement never handle or even see the cement used on the roads built.

It would be a visionary theorist that would imagine that the 1920 program could be carried out in.entirety with the present inefficient and inadequate car service. Where materials are to be carried a long distance by rail, they should be gathered in huge amounts at numerous supply depots; for when the busy season begins, railroad cars have to be diverted from such materials as those for road building. This difficulty alone has caused the highways for years back to bo strewn "with the financial wrecks of contracting concerns that could not get supplies, were held up in their work while expenses ran on, and were finally forced into bankruptcy, on account of lack of transportation facilities for their materials. The comment of President A. R. Hirst of the American Association of State Highway Officials, is, “We must interest ourselves in this railroad problem, because we can never build our roads, unless this American ‘sleeping beauty’, our railroad system, is given an injection of dynamite, and made to live."

But, for the highway engineer, the labor problem never sleeps. Men are scarce, when there is an estimated shortage of 2,000,000 common laborers. If different road projects or different states bid against .one another, up goes the wage of the laborer, and no more roads are built than before, for there are only so many workers for all the roads.

An important feature in modern road construction is the re-location of roads. The tendency has been to build along old roads; but now, when the roads are to be permanently located, they are being laid out with a view to the most efficient sendee both of today and of posterity. Sometimes the following of an old line over a hill preserves a grade that destroys the value of a section of miles of road. In road making the old order is passing and the new is already here. Roads are now built for the Golden Age.

The staggering cost of $20,000 to $30,000 a mile on roads that wear out in ten years or so unless properly maintained, has given pause to many that see roads financed with bonds running longer than the ten to twenty years’ life of the mechanism. Road bonds have been issued to run as long as 50 years, but the present sensible tendency is to have them run not over 15 years, and not saddle the cost of a dead horse upon two generations to come after the roads have worn out.

When our fathers were boys it was considered dishonest to contract debts, private or public, beyond ability to pay in reasonable time. Again there is a tendency to limit debts, but only because of the results of public extravagance.

The movement now in full tide will begin a system of transportation by truck that in time shall gridiron the world. The Good Book, too, speaks of a system of highways that shall be of benefit to every one, and constitute an integral part of the work of the Golden Age. “And an— highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, The way of holiness; the unclean [morally] shall not pass [all the way] over it; but it shall be [built] for those [made for the unclean, that they may progress up to goodness, when they shall be no longer unclean]; the wayfaring men [anyone going over the road] though fools [thoughtless persons] shall not err therein.” This is explained in plain words as follows: “The highway of the righteous is to depart from evil”. (Proverbs 16:17) Continuing, the Good Book adds. “No lion [the devil tempting men to err] shall be there; it shall not be found there; but the redeemed [Christ redeemed all men] shall walk there; and the ransomed [Christ gave himself "a ransom for all”] of the Lord shall return [from sin aiid death], and come to Zion [to the true, heartfc-lr worship of God], with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away [forever]”. (Isaiah 35:8-10) Thus shall humanity depart from evil and come to God during the Golden Ago.

Temperance—A Master Virtue Dy Joseph Greig

RECENT examples of the serving of alcoholic substitutes is evidence of evil as well as good in present efforts to banish hard drink from the earth. Prohibition has its dark side as well as its bright side. Its reactions are such as follow extreme positions on any subject.

We remember the arguments of certain sects who refuse to eat pork and other meats. They argue that Christ sent all the devils into the swine and hence that act puts a ban on pigs to the last ditch. They forget, that the Lord partook of lamb, fish and possibly other forms of flesh upon occasion, and that the Apostle counseled other Christians to eat what is set before them asking no questions for consciences’ sake, but to be thankful.

Now comes upon the scene a new class of reformers that has gone from hogs to pie crust, lard and other fats which generally enter a modern kitchen, and that denounces the brewing of harmless effervescent beverages.

By way of description of the “nip” of these effervesced waters let me tell a story I heard the other day. Sambo and Rastus were looking in at a drug store window exhibiting an array of sprudcl waters.

“Ever taste that, Sambo?” asked Rastus.

“Yaas, indeed!” responded Sambo.

“Bow’d it done feel?” inquired Rastus.

“I can’t ’zackly ’splain, but hits about like when yer foot’s asleep,” was the laconic reply.

Even common coffee is on the carpet now as an enemy of man, and some would wish its service curtailed by license, notwithstanding the fact that, certain poisons are requisite to offset other poisonscompound'vl in naturc’slaboratory. In these extreme positions we can see the need of reason and sense coming to the front, otherwise insanity may be enthroned as an angel of light. Such inconsistencies of an intemperate prohibition would make the cure worse Ilian was the disease.

That great logician, St. Paul, argues to the effect that we are to ‘•let no man therefore judge [rule] you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days”. (Colossians 2:16) Moreover, he counseled young Timothy, “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities”.—1 Tim. 5: 23.

The same principle is observable in the Master’s reproof of the Pharisees:

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint, anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the others undone.- Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and of excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been per-takers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers.” —Matthew 23:23-33.

In view of the foregoing we must concede that climatic conditions have to do with fermentation and that the old saying “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” is true. We must also agree that moderation serves as the best equilibrant in all questions of public interest. “Words” and not “eats” or "drinks” will be the criterion of character in the age to come (Luke 6:45), the age when “the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose” and when “the fields shall yield their increase”.

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Power Prospects

THE present status of the power situation throughout die world is that outside of man and beast power there are four primary sources of power—water, coal, oil, and gas. The application of the power obtained is made through the agency of steam, or electricity, or directly; for example, power from coal is usable only by heating water into steam which in turn moves machinery or rotates electrical machinery from which electricity turns motors to operate machinery. There are no other sources of power of commercial importance, though some of these are used to a very small extent. In the pursuit of new sources many keen minds are reaching out and heard of occasionally through the press.

The chief source of power is coal. The earth contains a fixed amount of coal and careful estimates have been made of how long the output of the black diamond can be relied upon. • Power is the index of civilization, and wherever power is to be had thither will the march of empire trend. Regions where coal has‘been abundant and in which great cities, teeming with industry, have sprung up, are destined to decay as power becomes dearer; for new industries are located in them, and old ones migrate to cheap-power places.

Ignoring the power situation in the rest of the world, that in the United States begins to present the phenomena attendant upon the local exhaustion of temporary sources of power. As the great Pennsylvania beds of coal are mined out and the price of coal in the E'ast doubles and trebles, manufacturing is bound to leave the East and locate in the midst of the larger and more lasting coal fields of the South and Middle West Even if there should be “a revolution in the use of coal”, the migration of industry would only be postponed; ultimately the remnants of Eastern coal would be reserved for the public utilities, such as gas, electric light, and electric railways. This signifies the final passing of industrial supremacy from such states as Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, which are destined to sink economically to the plane ot states like Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, except in water-power localities.

According to the State Geologist of Pennsylvania, in the Electrical World, the future of manufacturing, being determined by the price of power, the coming locations of industry are indicated by the Government prices of coal as follows, all of which are lower than Pennsylvania prices: Ohio, $2 to $3.75; Kentucky, $1.95 to $3.55; Illinois, $1.95 to $2.65. Wherever the cheap coals are, expressed in terms of power obtainable per dollar’s worth of coal, industry will go. and population will build up about the mills and factories.

The United States has about three and one-half trillion tons of coal, of which two trillions are inferior because of the presence of an excessive amount of water. Of the one and one-half trillions remaining a great proportion represents inferior coals, the better portion having been already dug. Industry is using half a billion a year. At this rate the coal would seem to be likely to last some 3000 years. But the rate of use of bituminous has jumped many fold in recent decades. If it should yet increase ten times, the available good coals would last some 300 years, but with the almost unimaginable population of the Golden Age it might multiply five times more, in which event the exhaustion of the better coals would be a matter of less than a century after the consumption had reached the ultimate figure. The Pennsylvania soft coals, with no increase in rate of use, are expected to see exhaustion in thirty-five years. The fine coals of the Pocahontas fields of Virginia and West Virginia are good for ninety years. Some of the anthracite beds are destined to be worked out in ten to twenty years, after which localities and cities now prosperous will begin to be abandoned. It will, of course, be a gradual process, for as the limits are approached, the cost of production will rise and cheaper coals be used. But the end of prosperity for certain regions is unavoidable, so far as coal is concerned. How fast the country’s coal is going is seen by the ton production:

1840.

______ 2,000.000

1890_____

_157.000.000

1850— 7,000,000

1900_____

_269.000.000

1860.

1870.

__14.000.000

___33.000,000

1910____

...501,000.000

1880______71,000,000

1918__

...685,000,000

The streams of the United States in their v.-aterialls and rapids possess a latent water power of 320,000.000 horse power, an amount vastly greater than the 30.000,000 horse power of all the country’s stationary steam, steam and gas engines and water power plants; but most of this could not he utilized economically, and the net available horse power from water is estimated at nine times that of all the power plants in use—steam, water and gas. It is estimated that about 270,000,000 is the available horse power from the streams.

It is urged that this ’'white coal” be developed rapidly, but its advocates forget that this would only bring a re-location of industry the sooner, for only a third of the water power is in the industrial section. They also forget that per unit of power, the construction of a water-power plant calls for a much larger investment than that of a steam plant, partly because no plant is economical unless it is pn a very large scale. The Central states have little water power, but that of the South totals 4.000,000 horsepower, the Far West 16,000,000 and the Pacific Coast 23,000,000. On a waterpower basis the natural re-location of industry would be in the states now having the least population; but this question of population would correct itself as power was made available, for the inevitable flow of industry is toward the regions having the most and the cheapest power, a condition that speaks volumes for the coming density of the population of states now but sparsely inhabited.

It is when speaking of electric power that the imagination of the people begins to soar. But electricity is not in itself a source of power, hut a product of one of the primary sources, and its coming use depends upon coal and water, without which there can be little electricity. for there is now no commercial method of obtaining it otherwise. There is, however, an ambitious plan for the mobilizing of the electric resources of the country into a national system composed of great groups of power-producing regions. The proposed districts are, New England, Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, "Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and the Southern States. The plan is to favor the large plants—financed by Wall Street, of course —eliruinate the smaller plants, connect all parts ot a region with long-distance transmission lines of 110,000 to ] 32,000 voltage, and interconnect the groups in the same manner, as far a< practicable. "it is of vital importance", says the Electrical World, ‘Tor conservation of resources, for economy of production and for general industrial efficiency that the bulk of the power used should be made by central systems as against isolated plants; therefore let us try to get our lawmakers and public executives, national, state, and municipal, to take the Government point of view; in other words, to think in terms of war, which are also terms of peace from a Governmental standpoint, and uniformly and rationally to encourage central power development, provide for a just return to capital in electric power business and grant monopolies under regulations that will foster coordination and interstate operations”. In plain words, “No more little electrical enterprises”, but a Government monopoly for the big ones now-existing and a gradual but sure extermination of the little fish by the big ones. Thus is the electrical transmission of power to be managed for the best interests of the people, if it is for their interest to have power at a slightly lower rate on condition of it being in the hands of what will amount to a Government-favored monopoly of this important power.

Of the other sources of power the most used is oil, in the form of crude oil, kerosene, or gasoline. Oil fields are of temporary productiveness, are quickly exhausted, and must be replaced by the discovery of new fields. It is questionable, in a long view of the power situation, how much dependence can be placed on oil. The Amp-ri erm fields are already drained nearly dry or showing signs of early exhaustion.

Alcohol appears to be destined to an increasing use as a source of power, but its cost keeps it out of the field until gasoline rises to a point to admit of competition. A new method of getting power from coal is to pump live steam and air down to a seam of coal, with the expectation that the combination will produce a combustible gas which can be utilized. Peat beds are looked upon as likely some time to be of importance in the production of power. Franco is developing a system of water-power plants to utilize the power of the tides. In the arid West there are a few plants in which the heat of the sun is concentrated by mirrors on a boiler that makes steam for a steam plant. <*o Page ssaj.

The Golden Age for March 3, igao 365

j FlNANCE<6^ERCE»TiwisPOR7XnON^

An Era of Progress bu xuetun t. BarMorn NEVER in the history of the human race have we been borne along on such a tide as now. A focal concentration of events, changes, and consummations is projecting us at an amazing speed in a current that cannot be accounted for by any theory of evolution cr development. It is a psychological phenomenon —a stupendous climax.

The events and results of the-war, the destruction of a large part of the social, Political, religious, financial and economic world, in addition to the great loss of human life, diverted our attention for the time from other events and results of equal significance, if not of equal importance. Une of these problems is the economic revolution in transportation that was in process of solution when the war commenced; and it continues with even greater impetus to hold the attention.

It is only seventy-five years since the six-horse team was the largest unit in land transportation, and the locomotive was then at the same stage of development that the flying machine is now; in fact the latter has far greater possibilities than the former ever had, because no grading or road-bed is needed. The initial cost of the machine is not a tenth of that of the locomotive or coach. The flying machine is not confined to any fixed course or road or altitude; it covers both land and water without transshipment of load; its friction is reduced to a minimum, and its attainable speed is fourfold that of the locomotive.

According to the New York Sim Major Reed Landis, second American ace, holds that aerial passengers can be carried from New York to Chicago in eight hours for $37.52, at a profit of 50C3 for the carrier. The eight-hour schedule is ten hours less than any paying passenger ever bridged the distance before. Major Landis makes his calculations of profit on the basis of $18.76 as the actual cost of the trip. The type of planes Major Landis recommends for the service would carry twenty-five passengers and make one trip a day. If there is an error in his figures, the Major says, it is in overestimation of the cost

As soon as steam transportation on land by steam power became general and stabilized, its economic value began to be threatened by the electric trolley; and as soon as the use of the trolley car became general and stabilized, its economic value began to bo threatened by the explosive motor, the auto car and auto truck; and now the flying macliine threatens the economic value of them all.

Is it not inevitable that a large part of the millions of freight and passenger cars and locomotives, besides the rails, will be valued only as old junk, and the largest part of the stations be used for other purposes than designed by the builders?

Already the stocks and bonds of most of the railroads and trolley lines have ceased to pay dividends and interest. May not the holders of large blocks of them be preparing to unload on the inexperienced public or to unload the junk on the Government? May we .not see them favoring Government ownership ere long?

If fares or freights are raised to produce more income, it will only speed up auto bus, truck and flying machine construction, and result in fewer passengers and less freight except for long hauls.

Still another feature in the economic revolution threatens to add many billions to the loss of hundreds of billions by war and by the scrapping of the railroads. It is only a relatively few years since the wires of the telegraph systems were first strung like a net over the earth and under the ocean, at the cost of billions. Soon the telephone began to threaten the economic value of the telegraph and the latter ceased to pay dividends, and now the latest discoveries in the wireless system threatens to send all the wires of both the telegraph and the telephone companies to the scrap heap, as the cost of the new system is negligible.

The foregoing is an illustration of the fundamental changes going on in every department of human life and activity; there is not a single exception; it is an astounding phenomenon. Only six years ago the great Russian, German and Austrian governments towered with mighty power, as firm apparently as the Rocky Mountains: now they have entirely disappeared from the political landscape; they are leveled to the plain. The great religious systems are no exception. The Methodist church reports the greatest loss of membership in 150 years.

All this, however, can be accounted for by the fact, which every one admits, that the human race has been living under a social, political, religious and economic system that was defective. We must submit to the compelling proof that the over-ruling divine power is now fairing direct control of human affairs and gradually substituting for the old defective system a better one—that of the Golden Age.

England’* New Advantage

IN VIEW of what England suffered during the

World War, few Americans will begrudge her the great advantage which she now enjoys in the markets of the world because of the carnival of high prices in the United States, and the high rates of exchange. Few countries can afford to import anything from the United States, at present prevailing prices, but they can afford to import from Britain, because the British prices for things are away down below the American level. Britain cannot afford to buy from America in large quantities when she ean get but $3.34 for her pound that is normally worth $4.86G|, but she can afford to buy in large quantities from the poverty-stricken countries about her and they are glad to sell to her.

As the situation stands, it is greatly to the benefit of Britain to buy from other countries and to sell to the United States; and there is no doubt that in the near future immense quantities of European goods, bought by Britain at low prices, will bo flooding the American markets. And when that happens prices here will come down with a bang, and those that have saved nothing out of their war profits will be caught in the pinch.

There are many truly patriotic men who believe that it would be best at this juncture to raise interest rates to 10% so as to compel the people to save something. But if that is done the thousands who have invested their savings in high-grade railroad 4% to 44% bonds will naturally feel that their investment in those bonds was a poor bargain.

The financial condition of the world reminds us of the words of the Psalmist, “All the foundations of the earth are out of course'- In the same connection he gives some very excellent advice to earth's rulers at the present time. It should be remembered in reading the psalm in question that the word “gods" means “mighty ones” and is used in the Scriptures not only respecting Jehovah but also respecting the mighty ones of earth. See Psalm 82:1 - 5.

Liberty in America

THE influence of liberty in America has been a potent factor in breaking the shackles of serfdom throughout the world. The practical illustration of people governing themselves so successfully, so prosperously, excited the admiration and envy of their relatives and friends in every part of Europe, and led to the concession of greater liberties everywhere. Still better times for this country and for all the world are ahead, in the better day, the Golden Age, foretold by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began. “In his days [Christ’s days] sha.ll the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.”—Psalm 72:7; Isaiah 9:7.

Power Prospect* (Continues from Page 364)

Here and there some one appears with claims to have developed, or to be on the track of, revolutionary ideas pertaining to the development of power. These claims seldom amount to anything, but a recital of them is useful as an index of the extent to which inventive minds are reaching out for the better and as yet unknown sources of power of the future, which some one is bound to discover in due time; for the Golden Age will be characterized by agencies and methods beside which those of today will appear like the crudities of ancient history. That such things are coming and are in the mind of the good Father is evident, and that he has a due time for suggesting the ideas to the minds of men appears from the fact that some important inventions of the past were foreknown and even the time of their appearance indicated. All these and many others will be included in the blessings of the better order of things that will shape up when the smoke of war and other disturbances begins to clear away. Of that time it is written, ‘T will open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it”.— Malachi 3:10.

__THc Golden Age for March 3, 1920 367

| POLITICAL— DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN"]

Justice and Ute Pool

Fiieedom and equality of justice—Freedom and equality of justice are twin fundamental conceptions of American jurisprudence. Together they form the basic principle on which our entire plan for the administration of justice is built. They are so deep-rooted in the body and spirit of our laws that the very meaning which we ascribe to the word justice embraces them. A system which created class distinctions, having one law for the rich and another for the poor, which was a respecter of persons, granting its protection to one citizen and denying it to his fellow, we would unhesitatingly condemn as unjust, as devoid of those essentials without which there can be no justice.

From the dawn of Anglo-Saxon legal history, Illis idea has been manifest. The earliest laws continually directed that justice be done alike to rich and poor. The equal right to law was asserted in the Charter of Liberties of Henry IL The idea received its classic embodiment and statement in the fortieth paragraph of Magna Charta, wherein was inscribed, “We will sell to no one, deny to no one, or make a difference in, either right or justice”. This did not signify, or inaugurate, an era of absolute freedom of justice, but it was a first stop in that direction. Its supreme importance, however, lies in the tradition which gradually attached to it, and which glorified the idea into an ideal— an ideal which steadily persisted in men's minds throughout five centuries, and which was brought by the colonists to the New World.

I11 the constitutional conventions which followed the American Revolution the ideal was given concrete expression in the various State Bills and Declarations of Rights. The Massachusetts Constitution, adopted in 1780, declared: “Every subject of the Commonwealth ought to find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in Ids person, property, or character. He ought to obtain right and justice freely, and without being obliged to purchase it; completely, and without any denial; promptly, and without delay; conformably to the laws.”

As state after state has been added to the Union, its people, in constitutional assembly, have written the same declaration into their fundamental law. In New York the declaration is contained in a statute, but this is exceptional. Today, the constitution of nearly every state, by express provision of the Bill of Rights, guarantees the freedom and equality of justice. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of (he United States adds to the state guaranty the authority of the supreme law of the land.

As a matter of law, the right stands inviolable. It is recognized and established by the highest possible authority. But that is not all. Its incorporation into the Bills of Rights transformed the principle from merely a legal or juristic conception to a political consideration of supreme importance. Not only was the right to freedom and equality of justice set apart with those other cardinal rights of liberty and of conscience which were deemed sacred and inalienable, but it was made the most important of all because on it all the other rights, even the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, were made to depend. In a word, it became the cornerstone of the Republic.

…