Golden Age, April 15, 1931

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Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT ’ < 'D_ COURAGE

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in this issue

ELECTRIC CURRENT COSTS

EVERY CHRISTIAN A PREACHER

SCOTCH MINERS NEED

GOD’S KINGDOM

MONEY

OBSTACLES TO JUSTICE

WOULD YOU' BE WILLING?

every other WEDNESDAY

five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25

Vol. XII . No. 302

April 15, 1931

CONTENTS

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

New York’s 100 Bread Lines . . 457

Urge Old Age Pensions .... 457 Why Should Industry Be

. Subsidized? ....... 457

Burden of World Unemployment 459

The Income of 1929 ..... 459

Tavistock’s Humanitarian Plan . 478

Workmen’s Compensation in

New York. ....... 479

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Gazing Out on the Sea .... 457

How We Have Grown Peaceful . 457

Sensible People Tired of War .

A Further Study in Nines . . .

Arab Proverb . . . . . . .

“We Need an Engineer’’ . . .

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Scotch Miners Need the Kingdom 464

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

Costs of Electric Current . . . 451 Canada Rejoices in Savings . . . 456 Mr. Pinchot and the Power

Trust .........456

New Giant Cunarder . . . . 457 $75,.000,000.,000 Free of Taxes . . 458

Efforts to Improve Day Coaches 462

Looks like a Nice (?) Profit . . 463

Money .......... 466

Feeding the Interest Octopus . 478

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN . ?

Idaho Falls W’ill Be Taxless . , 458

Rewarding the Officers .... 459

World Court Part of League . . 460

Big Business and Muscle Shoals 460

Mother and Son on Prohibition . 468

Obstacles in the Path of Justice 469

AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY

Would You Be Willing? .... 472

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

Mechanical Restaurants and

Bowling Alleys ...... 458

New Sextant Always Finds Sun 459

England’s New Bo-Railer . . . 461

Thermit for Ice Removal . . . 461

HOME AND HEALTH

No Cure for Influenza .... 459

More Bunk from the Health

Service ......... 460

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

No Autos in Bermuda . . . . 457

Terrorism in India.....461

The Electrical Transcriptions .

in Cleveland . . . . . .473

- RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Heading for the Rocks .... 461

No More Presbyterian Chaplains . 461

45 Stewards, and Why ..... 471

Every Christian Must Be a

Preacher ........ 474

Happy with His Harp .... 473

Published every other Wednesday at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn N. Y., U. S. A.s by WOODWOHTH, KNORR & MARTIN

Copartners and Proprietors Address: 111 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A. CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH.. Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN.. Business Manager NATHAN H. KNORR.. Secretary and Treasurer

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^Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, X Y.s under the Act of March 3, 187&

oa Golden Age

Volume Xll Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, April 15, 1931 Number 302

The Costs of Electric Current

[Compiled from the literature of The Public Ownership

IN 21 Ontario cities, each with a population of 10,000 and up, the cost of residence electricity per kilowatt hour is 1.6 cents. In 32 selected cities of the United States, with a total population of 25,000,000, the average cost of residence electricity per kilowatt hour is 7.4 cents. Even ■ when 30 percent is added to the Ontario rates to f ally cover payments of taxes, and dividends, and the difference between generation by coal and by water power, the rates in the United States cities are still more than three times the Ontario rates.

Some years ago Pasadena, California, undertook to own and operate its own municipal light and power plant. At the time the people began to talk about building an electric utility the rate for electrical energy was 15 cents per kilowatt hour, but a cut was made from this rate to 12*4 cents. This was being charged at the time the city entered the field and established a rate of 8 cents per kilowatt hour for domestic service and an 80-cent minimum instead of $1, with a top rate of 4 cents for power, ranging down to as low as 1.2 cents. This, it will be observed, was a little more than half what had boon charged before the city entered the field, and at the same time the service in those the service is today or since the city established its electric utility. .

The first year the municipal plant lost $5,463.71. The- next year they lost $12,525.63. The next year, however, they made a profit of $1,261.49 (that was the year 1908-9) and they have made a profit every year since. It went up to $8,000 the next year, then to $17,000 the next, to $18,000, to $23,000, and so on until in 1923-24 the surplus profit of that municipal plant was $297,223.33, with rates which, while not as low as they will be able to have them there, are away below what they ever dreamed of getting’ them when th>. ’ were subject to the control of a

League of America] privately owned plant generating and distributing for profit. They are paying something always toward the amortization of their investment, and eventually they will have it free of debt and have no expense but maintenance.

Cleveland, Ohio, has its own municipal electric plant. The plant has more than paid its way and today the city has an equity in it of over $2,000,000. Consistent with its original purposes it has rendered real service to the people of this city: It has saved the community at least $20,000,000 by reason of its low light and power rates to its own customers; and through the reduction of rates by the private company, which has consistently followed since the municipal plant started operation. As a result of its existence Cleveland enjoys the lowest domestic light rates in the United States, both through the municipal plant and the private company; and in addition, especially low streetlighting rates.

Tacoma, Washington, has muncipal ownership. Tacoma’s publicly owned light plant is saving her'citizens over $3,000,000 annually. If Tacoma raised its rates to meet the price charged in its neighboring city, Tacoma could cease to collect taxes and make the light department run the city. Some 2,700 homes use electric heat, many of them being without chimneys. Dirt is banished by the magic of "white coal”. Thousands of electric ranges are in use, and more are being added daily. The range goes on the lighting circuit, and practically all of the range current is at the 1-cent rate, which drops to one-half cent after using 800 kilowatt hours.

A “Wicked” Public Ownership

A distinguished public utility magnate is quoted in the press as declaring that public ownership is "wicked”. If that be true, Spring-451

field, the capital of Illinois, is an example of extreme and continuing wickedness.

In 1894 some public-spirited citizens qf that town got together and subscribed $60j&00 to build a plant for street lighting, to escape the extortion of the private corporation which then had a monopoly. The plant paid for itself in five years and then was donated to the city. This, from the corporation point of view, is appalling wickedness. It should have been capitalized at ‘‘reproduction cost” and unloaded on the community in that form.

For 21 years the plant continued lighting the streets. Then, in 1915, Willis J. Spaulding became manager and started in on commercial lighting and power distribution. By 1925 the city had secured 11,637 customers and had cut the rate for lights from 13 cents, per kilowatt hour to 6 cents. Obviously this is worse wickedness and more of it.

But that is not all. Instead of running behind, as publicly owned plants are supposed to do to suit corporation arithmetic, the public plant of Springfield is making money. It earned $115,000 above all charges in 1924, and $159,000 in 1925. This surplus, about $2 per year for each man, woman, and child in the city, belongs to the people instead of to a corporation. In addition, the plant saved the people $549,000 in 1925 through reduced rates. Samuel Insull would agree that this is unparalleled wickedness J

In other words, the people of Springfield are saving more out of their water and electric plants than their city government costs them. Words fail to describe such wickedness.

In the early years of the electric plant, a rather unusual incident occurred. For fear water works funds might be used to help the electric plant, the private utility company operating in Springfield sought and secured an injunction forbidding the use of water works funds for any other purpose; but still they were not satisfied! The company applied to and secured from the court an order under which the municipal light and power department was commanded to turn over all its books and accounts to expert accountants brought in by the company from outside the state, for the avo’wed purpose of proving that our accounts were not properly kept, and to show that the electric plant was not self-supporting; and that water funds were being diverted from their proper

use. When these bookkeepers completed their investigation, they found that the plant not only was paying its way, but was earning a profit. The auditors suddenly slipped away without making any report whatsoever, and have not _ been heard from since. ' ’

At Niagara Falls ■ -

Said Senator Norris: ' : :

There is a Niagara Falls, N. Y., and there is a : ■ Niagara Falls, Canada, just across the river. They are.....

supplied with electricity coming from Niagara Falls.

On the American side it is done by private initiative............

and the efficient methods of private ownership and : private distribution and private generation. On the Canadian side it is dope by the publicly owned hydroelectric commission. Here is the bill of a rivi who lives in Niagara Falls, N. Y. The bill is for the month'Z ZZZ ending January 2, 1929. That is not ancient. It is the ' last bill he has received. He lives in a 7-room house. ■■ ■ He has electric lighting, a vacuum sweeper, an electric iron, an electric washing machine, and an electric ~ ~ range. For the month of December, 1928, he consumed.-. 256 kilowatt hours of electricity. That is quite a large amount of electricity for a 7-room house. The ordinary consumption of electricity in a house of that size where they use electric lighting only would be between 40 and 45 kilowatt hours, but having all these electric appliances he consumed in that little modest home 256 kilowatt hours. He paid a bill for that amount of' p “' electricity of $6.44. As rates go in the UnitedtffiO®fiffi3 that is a cheap rate. But he had no discount on that bill. That was net. In fact, if he did not pay it within 10 days a 10 percent penalty was added. ......

Now let us see what that man would have had to pay for the same amount of electricity for the tame- - w v service if he had lived just across the line, in Niagara Falls, Canada. His bill then would have with a discount of 10 percent if lie paid it within 10 days, making a net bill of $2.96 on the Canadian side.... dZ as compared with the net bill of $6.4-1 on the American side for the same service, the power eomings-fSiC^^^^ the same water from the same river from the same Niagara Falls.

I have another bill from a man who Hvds:-:ihv^ZZS same city of Niagara Falls, N. Y. He J ives in an S-roorn .. house, and has electric lighting, a vacuum sweeper, an electric iron, an electric washing machine, and an / electric range. He consumed for the month of December, 1928, 493 kilowatt hours of electricity. He paid a bill of $9.64. That is net, with no discount. Had he lived across the river, in Niagara Falls, Canada, for the same electricity for the same month, generated from the same water from the same river, he ..would. . .--------

have had. to pay $5.77, with a discount of 10 percent if he made prompt payment, so that his net payment would have hem .$5.20; $5.20 on the Canadian side as against $9.64 on the Amerieaix side.

New York

Jamestown, New York, has two electric ligh.ti.ng systems, one within the city, owned by the city, operated with power generated from coal, and one with water power generated from ■Niagara Falls and supplied by a private syndicate. The charges of this latter company for electric service just outside the city limits are nearly Amble the rates charged by the municipal plant, although the private company is compelled as a result of the municipal competition to sell at the same low’ rates within the city, which rates, by the way, are the lowest in New York state.

Despite its low rates the municipal plant at Jamestown has been entirely paid for out of the revcmies. There has never been any tax levy for any purposes whatever in connection with the plant. Jf the city did not have competition and bed exclusive sale of current and sold the same nt the same rate at which the competing private company charges outside of the city, beyond municipal competition, there would be sufficient proiit to wipe out all taxes for city and school purposes. In other words, the people save enough as the result of present low rates, through municipal ownership, to pay these ifS3S|i|y iii t i '

The Jamestown municipal plant not only reduced rates to the lowest in the state of New York, but it lias paid for itself out of earnings, accumulated a sufficient surplus each year to pay for extensions and improvements, and is at the proscat moment adding new equipment that is doubling the capacity of the plant. And it has all been paid for out of the earnings at rates so-low that the private power.companies that are competing with the plant have been compelled to resort to the most desperate measures in trying to protect themselves from the extremely low rates macle possible by the success sliiiiiSitIie«luunicipal plant. The saving to the people in low rates exceeds $5,000,000 during the last

Some lime ago the private company that operates in Jamestown tried to persuade the :siiii“’S:l:teitylmfli.cials to enter into a contract by the ®»;'S’»stprms of which the private company offered to furnish lighting for street purposes at a lower rate than now supplied by the city, but with the stipulation that the city hind itself not to make any further enlargement in the capacity of the municipal plant. There were many citizens and some members of the city council who were captivated by this alluring proposition and urged its acceptance on the part of the city. But the friends of the municipal ownership, however, were able to discern the scheme back of this proposition, which meant in reality crippling municipal service and placing the city7 eventually at the mercy of the private company. One of the leading newspapers of the city advocated this scheme, and there has been a continuous effort to mold public sentiment against the public plant.

So successful, however, has been the management of the municipal plant that those in control decided upon a considerable reduction in rates, and then a strange thing happened. The private power company7 that has been in competition with the municipal plant filed a petition 'with the utility commission of the state, insisting that the municipal plant must raise its rates.

There you have it: the private company in competition with the municipal company went before the commission and filed a petition demanding that the municipal plant be compelled to increase its rates.

This is such an astonishing procedure that it led the Jamestown Journal, in a long editorial, to declare that this is—

Probably one of the most, unique and unusual proceedings that has ever claimed the attention of the Public Service Commission of New York. It is a proceeding to compel a corporation (municipality) to raise electric light rates.

The editorial then goes on to state:

The proceeding is brought by the Niagara. Power Co. against the city of Jamestown. The Niagara company contends that the rates are below cost, hence impose an unlawful burden on the taxpayers, of which this company is one, and incidentally, makes competition impossible without being confiscatory of its property.

On the specific question, however, as to whether the reduced rates proposed by the municipal plant are sufficient to meet all costs of operation, maintenance, capital charges, sinking fund, etc., the representatives of the city contend that in spite of the lower rates in effect during 1927 the plant earned a net profit of $162,336.43.

^4 Few Striking Examples

Of course the larger a city is- the greater the advantage in the production of electric power, and, therefore, the more money it can make on a municipal plant, and the lower rates it can offer. And yet even the smallest towns and villages have found great advantages in owning their own plants. Here are a few7 striking examples. ’

Kimballton, Iowa, a little village of only 382 population, owns a Diesel engine plant. It has paid for it out of earnings, is saving $302 a month, has $3,000 in the light fund, and is installing another unit.

Alma, Nebr., (population 1,000) has a little municipal light plant that the private companies have tried desperately to buy, but the people voted 410 to 14 not to sell. The town is earning $12,000 a year profit with rates lower than those in surrounding communities.

Walnut, Iowa, (population 1,072) started a municipal plant in 1925 and found that it could produce current at the switchboard for less than 2 cents a kilowatt hour, which was much cheaper than it could buy it from a private “high line” company. And, besides, the plant paid for itself in three years. '

Maquoketa, Iowa, a city of 3,600 population, because of its municipal light and power plant has a 7-cent maximum rate scaling down to as low as 2 cents, whereas in 22 other cities in that section of the state the maximum rate charged by private companies is from 14 to 18 cents per kilowatt hour.

Garland, Texas, (population 1,421) reduced its rates 10 percent at its municipal plant and still made enough profit that it was able to reduce taxes 40 cents on the $100 of valuation.

Muscatine, Iowa, has made so much more than had been anticipated by its new plant that a new unit costing $70,000 was purchased out of the surplus earnings early in 1927, thus making it unnecessary'to use the $100,000 bonds that had been issued.

The city of Winnetka, Illinois, (population 6,694) has recently built a beautiful and rather pretentious city hall out of the money it has earned on its municipal light plant. Logansport, Indiana, (population 21,626) has built a fire barn out of its light plant earnings. The municipal light plant at Jacksonville, Florida, has transferred out of net earnings, to the general city fund, a total of $3,547,720.99 during the eleven years ending 1925. This has been sufficient to reduce the tax rate in the city 5.2 mills. Independence, Iowa, (population 3,672) has $68,000 in the city treasury and not a single cent of bonded indebtedness, due largely to the fact that the earnings of its municipal light and. power plant have enabled it to make all public improvements in recent years without incurring any public debt. Cedar Falls, Iowa, (population 6,316) rebated all electric light bills to its pa-bi trons in October, 1926, amounting to approximately $8,500, giving as the reason that all of its bonded indebtedness had been paid off and a cash surplus of $48,021.32 was on hand in the, city treasury, practically all of which was the result of the operation of thffir municipally owned light and power plant. Other instances almost without number could be cited.

What Higginsville, Mo., Has Done

Since 1893 Higginsville, Mo., has twice rebuilt its municipal plant to keep it up to date-in efficient and economical equipment It has refused to buy current wholesale, voting bonds instead to improve and extend its plant. It has retired city administrations not favorable to municipal ownership and elected men who could not be bought, bribed, bulldozed or bludgeoned into betraying the people and selling the plant. It completely rehabilitated its plant in 1925 equipped with Fairbanks-Morse Diesel engines. It has paid for this equipment entirely out of the surplus earnings of the plant in 4'/^ years without costing the taxpayers a single eent. It has refused an offer of $150,000, later raised to $235,000, by the Power Company in 1929-and is now planning further extensions and enlargement of its part. It has twice reduced rates approximately 20 percent each time, and yet is making a total net profit of $35,500 a year. It has reduced the cost of producing current from 1.48 cents in 1926 to .86 of a cent in 1929, and now owns a property in its plants valued at $350,000.

Ponca City’s Experience <

Ponca City, Oklahoma, built its own plant, and instead of trying to see how much it could cut its rates it kept the rates up to the usual level charged by private companies and used the profits to operate the city. Tlte mayor of Ponca City says: . .............

For the year ending June 30, 1928, the municipal water and light department yielded a net income from operations of 20.81 percent interest on its investment, and after deducting interest paid on meter deposits, interest paid on the outstanding bonds, together with the necessary depreciation and sinking ./'fund requirement for outstanding bonds, it then yielded a net profit of 16.14 percent on its investment, roc the last six months of 1928 the municipal utilities yielded a net income from operations of 21.82 percent and a net profit of 17.36 percent on its investment.

gx'..This profiteering by the city in behalf of its citizens doesn't hurt the feelings of the citizens, especially ■•■hen they1 are not confronted with taxes to support the police department, street cleaning and garbage incinerator departments, public library, fire depa rt-meiu, park department, etc. To have well cleaned streets, parks beautified, properly maintained garbage and refuse collections with free, prompt and efficient service, streets brightly illuminated, up-to-date traffic signals, and finely-trained, well-disciplined police and fire departments, all without taxation, seems almost too good to be true.

Ponca City people pay county, state and school taxes, of course, but none for the operation of their local municipal government. There is also a sinking fund rax of 9.63 mills which is required by the state law. But none of the money derived from this fund eoes to pay local government expenses. Moreover the revenues of the water and light department are sufficient to pay interest and sinking fund requirements in addition to the local government expenses, so that Ponca City may be very truly said to be “A Tax-Free Town”.

The records of the city clerk, C. E. Norton, who has served the city efficiently for many years, disclose that $611,187.00 of the profits from the municipal light and water department has in five years been diverted, to maintaining other operating expenses of the city.

are but a few examples of literally hundreds that might be cited showing the success of municipal plants in smaller cities. With modern equipment, machinery and methods, which arc now easily available to any community, even the smallest city can have a municipal plant and make a success of it, no matter what the conditions are or the limitations.

The Larger the City, the Greater the Success

Coming now to some of the larger cities, here are some of the really amazing , reductions of rates that have been secured by municipally owned plants.

A FEW STRIKING EXAMPLES OF REDUCED RATES

RESULTING FROM MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP

Before Municipal Ownership Per k. w. h.

After

Municipal Ownership Pei’ k. w. Ii.

Cleveland, Ohio...................

........... 15c

3c

Seattle, Wash..........................

........... 20

Springfield, Ill.......................

........... 11

Winnipeg, Man., Can..

........... 20

3 •

London, Ont., Can..........

.......... 9

iy2

Pasadena, Calif....................

........... 15

Jamestown, N. Y...............

Ottawa, Ont., Can............

........... 7

Lincoln, Nebr..........................

.........» 12

Toronto, Ont., Can............

....... 8

1.7

You will notice that Cleveland, Ohio, has a maximum or retail rate of 3 cents a kilowatt. No private company has ever given or attempted to give such rates. Seattle has a 4-cent maximum rate, which is extremely low. But Tacoma, Wash., has probably the lowest rates of all. The maximum is <ty2 cents per kilowatt hour, but it scales down to as low as y> a cent for cooking, heating and other domestic uses, which is the lowest rate on the continent for that class of service.

Enormous Savings

As a result of these reductions of rates these cities have effected enormous annual savings as follows:

Los Angeles ............ $3,790,067 per year

Tacoma .............................. 3,014,000

Chicago .................................. 2,774,846 “

Ontario ......... 2,736,754 “

Cleveland ................................. 1,085,209 “

Seattle ..................................... 1,000,000 “

Jacksonville, Fla................... 600,000 “

Winnipeg.................................... 400,000 “

Pasadena ........................... 161,953

Springfield, Ill......______............. 109,976 “

More About the Ontario Bates

Across the Niagara River at Niagara Falls is the International Bridge. The lighting of the Canadian half comes from the Canadian Government power plant. The lighting of the American half comes from a private American power plant. It is said to cost $4.10 per hundred watts installed per year to light the Canadian half. It is said to cost $12.31 per hundred watts installed per year to light the American half. The same bridge, the same river. Three times as much to light the American half as the Canadian half.

There is another interesting observation at -Niagara Falls, Canada. A few hundred yards from the Canadian Government’s plant is the plant of a privately owned Canadian power utility. Both plants are on the Canadian side of the river. The Canadian Government plant sends its electricity to Windsor, 238 miles away, and sells it at a price of 1.6 cents. This private Canadian utility sends its electricity to Buffalo, N. Y., 28 miles away, and sells it at good American prices, 6 cents or 7 cents. The sam^ river, the same falls, the same power and plants within a few hundred yards of each other, on the same side of the river, shipping the same electricity, costing three or four times as much in an American city as it costs in a Canadian city ten times as far away.

What is the real reason for the Canadian Government’s ability to sell electricity at low prices ?

Guy Tripp, former chairman of the board of the Westinghouse Co., was authority for the statement that 80 percent of the cost of producing electricity from water power is fixed charges. Mr. Gano Dunn, from a result of his compilations, says that 77.4 percent of the cost of producing electricity by water power is fixed charges. -

Fixed charges mean principally dividends on stock and interest on bonds (and normally depreciation, and perhaps some other elements, according to some methods of accounting, but the main factors in fixed charges are the capital charges, dividends on stock, and interest on bonds).

Now, that is not true of any other business. In the ordinary manufacturing business the elements which go to make, up the cost are principally labor and material. In the mining business it is practically all labor and transportation. Go into an ordinary manufacturing plant and you will find swarms of workingmen and piles of material. Go into a power plant and you will find nothing sitting there but an investment.

When you get rid of your original investment you then get rid of these fixed capital charges which are the principal item in the cost of water power. If you retire your original investment down to only one-half you have still cut down your capital charges by one-half and are able to cut your rate accordingly. '

'And that is exactly wh'at the Canadian system is doing. The provincial government system, which is the producing system, is financed QU A;..........

debenture issue covering 40 years in some eases and 30 years in others. The local distributing systems are financed normally on a 20-year debenture basis, and part of that bond issue is retired annually. Indeed, 70 .cities have- canidj pletely retired their original investment and are absolutely debt free. They have no capital charges.

Incidentally, it may be added that in the early years when the Government water-pbwbf A system was new, the cities came in by a VotAcfr" their citizens of only 2 to 1, hometimes'Ajbltflf: majority; but today they are coming in by votes:-:-of as high as 14 to 1, and in some placesthyy'y unanimous vote. )

Canada Rejoices in Savings :........

CANADA is rejoicing in the fact that::.the: great publicly-owned electric power system has saved the citizens of Ontario "$425,000,000 since its inception. But just think of the fact that here in America the Power Trust claims to be worth $9,000,000,000, and to have gotten it all from the people. What a melon the Ontario power system would make if there were only some way that these purchasers of statBsSK college professors and newspapers 'eptffil®® hold of it.

Mr. Pinchot and the PowerTrust "''7

Gifford Pixchot, governor of Pennsylvania, is enough of a business man and enough of a statesman to see that in these times it is all wrong for the Power Trust to go on making 100, 200, 1,000, and, in one case uncovered by the Federal Trade Commission, more than|3|G 000 percent a year on the money actually invested. He says, very truly, “In no case should the rate ever exceed five cents, and probably often it should be much less.” He points out that Oregon is controlled by the Portland Electric Light Company, one of the Morgan interests. Indeed, so says Mr. Pinchot, “the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co.- in New York has so many affiliated electric interests that it controls/ I am informed, more than half the electricity produced in America.”

Gassing Out on the Sea

B. & 0. Man Will Manage Russian Railways

G hables A. Gill, a B. & 0. railway official, will spend a year in Russia, putting Russian railways on an efficiency basis. He will have 150 American railway men to assist him.

Flying Is Still Expensive

IT IS still expensive to fly around in the skies, instead of traveling in some one of the less spectacular ways here on earth. The army has figured that, not counting the pay of the officer pilot, it costs from $48.08 to $268.47 to fly an army plane, for every hour the plane is flown.

New York’s 100 Bread Lines

’P KFE-RRTNG to conditions in New York city

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise recently said: “No shame is greater than the 100 bread lines in New York, and that only two years after vulgar boasting throughout the country, from the White House down, of our great prosperity.”

New Giant Cunarder

ORK has been begun at Clydebank, Scot-V ¥' land, on the Cunard Company’s great new $25,000,000 liner, which will be much the largest vessel on the seas. The tonnage will be 78,000; the length. 1,018 feet. She will carry 4,000 passengers and have a crew of 1,200.

No Autos in Bermuda

BERMUDA’S legislative council has decided, by a vote of 5 to 2, that there shall be no automobiles in Bermuda, not even for physicians. The doctors, the council thought, would be sure to run over somebody, or scare somebody to death, and, anyway, they would be late arriving, if they had to come by horse and buggy, and in the meantime the patient might recover; so, all around, the autos were forbidden.

Governors Urge Old Age Pensions

TTTITHIN the past year fourteen American ’ V governors have urged old age pensions.

Governor Adams, of Colorado, says: “If the old age pension be socialistic, then our present system of caring for the poor is also socialistic, and there can be no impropriety of improving that rvhich we have operated for centuries. No one will contend that our present system of caring for the poor and aged does not stand sorely in need of improvement.”

Theaters Still Crowded

A LTHOUGH the times are hard there seems to be no diminution in theater attendance.

Of the 62,235 theaters in the world, 22,731, or more than a third, are located in the United States. More than 1,800 of these latter "were built during last year.

Einstein Rejects $200,000 Fortune

OFFERED $200,000 for a five-week contract in the movies, Albert Einstein staggered Hollywood by telling the movie magnates that he could not spare even a moment from his present work of studying the speed of light. It is good to know that there are some things in this world that money cannot buy.

How We Have Grown Peaceful

IN 1885 the appropriations for all the activities of the United States government amounted to $306,000,000. That is less than the appropriation for the United States army alone for 1931, and it is also less than the appropriation for the navy. Army and navy appropriations are now about ten times what they were forty years ago.

Why Should Industry Be Subsidized?

REFERRING to a common view that industry should be privileged at any time to throw its workers on the Red Cross or on public charity until again needed, Professor Leiser-son, of Antioch College, recently made the statement that this really amounts to subsidizing industry, and is the most pernicious of all doles, a dole to industry itself. Professor Leiser-son believes in unemployment insurance, paid out of funds built up by employers and employees, and supervised by the state.

Generosity of Public Service Companies

THE Kansas City Freemason is stirred up because a public service corporation makes a habit of turning off the gas from delinquent debtors and refusing to turn it on again until the delinquency has been paid and an additional sum deposited to guarantee against a recurrence. It is the demanding of this additional sum, at a time like this, that will gradually make the common people, who are the sufferers, appreciate what a great blessing the private ownership of public utilities really isx not.

25 Percent Had No Shoes

ON OCCASION of a visit to the Mount Pleasant School, Merthyr, Wales, 63 of the girls, or 25 percent of those on the rolls, remained away because they had no shoes wherewith to come to school in midwinter. Merthyr has 170 families living in cellars, and her citizens are occupying 900 houses that were long ago condemned as unfit for human habitation.

Cities of Wives and Children

AMERICA is becoming filled with cities of wives and children. The local industries have died, having been swallowed up either by Big Business or by general stagnation. The men have gone elsewhere looking for work, and leave their wives and children behind them, where they can live more economically in their own homes.

Idaho Falls Will Be Taxless

IN ANOTHER year or two Idaho Falls will be taxless. It would be so now except that it has just built a new city hall, and paid for it in cash, in two years. Of course you know’ the reason. The reason is that the city owns its owm municipal light and power plant. The city is about to build a new7 power plant, 87 miles from town.

Big Business Going Bolshevik

BIG BUSINESS is now talking of repealing all anti-trust legislation and organizing a super-trust which will coordinate all industry. This is exactly wThat has been done in Russia. In Russia the super-trust is run by Stalin; in the United States the trust ■would be run by Morgan. In the end both trusts -will be run by the Lord and the people will have relief.

$75,000,000,009 Free of Taxes

IN 1925 the National Conference Board estimated that there was at least $55,000,000,000 of property in the United States exempt from taxation, both as to principal and as to income. It is claimed that this amount, with governmental securities included, today approaches $75,000,000,000. It is the man with visible property who pays all the taxes. The bondholders are expressly excepted from the burdens which rest upon those less fortunate or less wealthy.

Naseby’s Hundred-Year-Old Soprano ;

NASEBY, England, has, in Mrs. Patience _

Done, a soprano soloist now nearly 100 years of age, who has-been singing for the public for more than seventy years. It is said that her voice still retains considers hie of the quality which made her a singer of note two goner-ations ago. ■ ■

Watt Street Forecasts 100% Wrong T

IN Commerce and Finance Preston S. Krccker __ says significantly: “Nineteen-thirty was a % year of disappointment and disillusionment in Wall Street. Rarely have financial soothsayers . been as unanimously mistaken in fore-easting events as they were a year ago. Nothing forecast by them came true. They were 100% wrong/3 It remains to add only that it is to these financial doctors that American newspapers and politicians look for guidance and inspiration. Every- r thing in Satan’s kingdom is upside down and spinning on its ear. >

Mechanical Restaurants and Bowling Alleys.......r /k

THERE is a restaurant in New York where the food is cooked, dished up and servvd by machinery, and it is expected that in a few months other devices will clear the plates away and clean them up. In Boston, and perhaps in many other places, are mechanically operated bowling alleys, which pick up the ten pins and. arrange them perfectly, exactly where they belong, without the intervention of a human hand. And so gradually pass the ec»ok, the waiter, and the boy who makes a living settifigiUS up tenpins in a bowling alley. ■ ..><>

Two Percent Could Do It ■

Professor Albert Einstein is of the opinion that if but two percent of the population of ■ the world should assert in time of peace that they would not engage in war, the problem of war would be solved, as there would not be jails ■ enough in the world to accommodate so great a number. There is a great deal of truth in the suggestion. History has proven over and over again that one man with a backbone and a conscience is more than a match for’ forty-nine persons in pants who can be shoved about this way or that as their masters for the moment think advisable-. / • < ■ ; />■

A Faithful Shepherd Dog

A T LIGONIER, Pa., a child a year and a half old went to sleep under a steam shovel, during the noon hour. A dog discovered her predicament and went iii beside her. For an hour he barked and growled but refused to come out, and meantime held up the operation of the shovel. At length the child was found, and it was discerned that the shepherd dog had saved her life.

Sensible People Tired of )Far

A ^EDITORIAL in The Army Quarterly of ....._ ^^jtLbndon says: “Today the whole civilized world, the more sensible portion of it at any rate, is tired of war, and its futility as a method of settling international disputes is apparent.” 'When even the militarists themselves are willing to make an admission like this, it is a pretty good sign that the toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s “Image ’ are breaking up.

No Cure for Influenza

WG. Campbell, chief of the food and drug

• administration of the department of agriculture, has made the official statement that ••'according to medical authorities, there is no known, drug or combination of drugs, nor any food, whi'.h will prevent or cure influenza”. Perhaps he did not mean to do it, but at one swoop Mr. Campbell has taken all influenza cases ent of the hands of the medical profession and put them into the hands of the osteopaths and chiropractors; and, after all, that is just where thc-v belong.

Rewarding the Officers

TIIE: Tyson act, passed at the behest of the

American Legion, puts 6,600 temporary World War officers on the payroll at $125 to $280 a momh for the rest of tltfeir lives. One officer on the list never saw an actual day’s service. He was called after the armistice. Fifteen hundred are medical officers who never saw any kind of service except a week or two at camp. Two chaplains each draw $125 a month; one of these was called into the service November 1, 1918, and the other on November 6, 1918. The average compensation to disabled, privates who were really in the war is $44 a month. Dan Morgan, who wrote “When the World Went Mad” for The Golden Age, receives not a cent.

New Sextant Always Finds the Sun

A NEW sextant, the invention of a Hun-tington (N. Y.) architect and engineer, enables the instant finding of the sun at any time it is above the horizon, no matter how thick may be the intervening fog. The new invention has been tried out on the Mauretania, and the captain of the vessel says it will revolutionize navigation. Eight years have been spent in perfecting the invention.

Burden of World Unemployment

"D EFERRING to the burden of world un--*-* employment, Herman Dietrich, German minister of finance, recently said: “Economic systems of other days have decayed and disappeared when they became unable to solve their own problems. The burden of unemployment is so staggering that theories must be put aside and courage found to devise new ways of meeting the problem. When millions stand on the brink of despair, positive measures are everything and beautiful theories nothing.”

'A Nation of Capitalists and Laborers

AVEDON’S, Fifth Avenue, Neiv York, did a business of $2,000,000 in 1925. Since then the sheriff has got the business, because, says Mr. Avedon, “we are fast becoming a nation of capitalists and laborers. All our wealth and buying power are concentrated in these two classes. The large, educated, tender-footed, white-collar middle class that would rather push a pen than a spade have barely enough for the necessities of life. Any store catering chiefly to this class must of necessity suffer with them.”

The Income of 1929

THE statisticians are trying to figure out what became of the national income of 1929, which is estimated to have been $90,000,000,000. It is admitted that the annual income of all workers exclusive of agriculture and those in Federal employ was less than half that sum, and that agriculture and the Federal employees could not have received more than $12,000,000,-000. The balance, which went to somebody who 'did not earn it, is about $33,000,000,000. Who got it? The answer is that it went into interest and dividends; and if anybody thinks a civilization can survive'Which spends over a third of its income in payment of interest, such person . needs the attention, of a trained alienist at once.

$49,000 to Break into Society

IT IS said to cost $40,000 for a coming-out party of one of New York’s debutantes, and there are about 200 of these parties a season. This makes a nice little total of about $8,000,000 a year just to get these 200 rich young women nicely started upon the expensive road of social preferment. Incidentally it helps to show what becomes of some of the millions that do not go to care for the necessities and comforts of the unemployed. But it is better that this money should be expended for food, flowers, music anti folderols than that it should not be spent at all.

World Court a Part of the League

IN A NATION-WIDE hook-up over the Columbia Broadcasting System, Senator Johnson of California recently said:

It is an amazing intellectual stultification to assert that the so-called “World Court” is not a part of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was begotten by the Versailles treaty. The League appointed a committee of experts to draft a scheme for the organization of the Court. The secretary-general of the League pointed out that the Court was to be the “most essential part of the League of Nations”. The French representative described the two institutions as complementary to each other. The official spokesman of the committee stated, “The new court being the judicial organ of the League of Nations can only be created within this League. The Court was intended to be, and is, the judicial tribunal of the League.”

More Bunk from the Health Service

ON J ANU ABY 9 the United States Public

Health Service officially admitted that after a year and a month of strenuous search it had been unable to find any of the germs supposed to be responsible for psittacosis disease. One hundred and sixty-nine persons are supposed to have contracted this imaginary disease from contact with birds imported in November and December, 1929, and thirty-three of them are supposed to have died. Now if those germs that were so well known a year ago will just come around and confess their wrongdoings, all the expense connected with this year of fruitless investigation and this useless waste of postage and paper by the Health Service will be forgiven. And, anyway, maybe if there is no such disease, then nobody was sick; and if nobody was sick there is nobody dead. Under the circumstances it looks as if the Health Service ■was the only one in need of attention.

Those Unhappy 26 Multimillionaires ..... v

ONE percent of the net income of the people of the United States is in the hands of 26 persons. Their total annual income is $253,000,- -000, or in the neighborhood of $10,000,000 a year apiece. These people arc intolerably burdened; they cannot even begin to think of spending their money; they need the help of u new and just arrangement, and it is on the way.-GhOtlEW kingdom will take away their unhappiness and the unhappiness of the millions who now do not know where the next meal is coming from.

Big Business and Muscle Shoals

HPHE United States Chamber of Commerce

-®- has been taking a straw vote as to whether--—-or not the people should operate their own power plant at Muscle Shoals, and finds that Big -Business is against government operation by a vote of 2,660 to 158. One wonders why the 158 stood out for the people. As to the 2,660, they set themselves on record as taking the position that .... among their entire number there could he found none who would be willing to honestly operate this plant in the interests of the whole people.

They would operate the plant for the Power ..... j

Trust, certainly, but for the people, certainly not. The desire of Big Business to impress upon the people that it is not now, never has been and never will be really patriotic is touching.

Waukegan Ministers on Warpath ■

TT SEEMS that Waukegan, Ill., is" a;;faypri;ttj;;:tj J- place for runaway couples to get masrkd, and though the state fee is $2 the elope|s:S|:;;j:v ways hand over $5. The custom has beehlfb|lSh::";;f:; marrying parsons and justices of the give $2 to each cab driver who brings some: - ? business. One of the justices raised the ante 50c, splitting fifty-fifty with the cabteCffiff™! there has been one of those imposing,, solemn,";:";;; ministerial conferences, about 'certain practices tending to lower the solemnization of marriage1, etc., etc., but Justice 'Wright, who has been get- - . ting the bulk of the business, asks: “Why be a"'"''"'"" hypocrite? The rest of them have been splitting with the cab drivers. It is business. I give the taxi driver $2.50 as his share. The rest of them would kick in with only $2. So the drivers..............

brought me the trade. That’s why they’re sore.” Now everybody is laughing at the solemn ministerial association.

England’s New Ro-Railer Vehicle

DO .YOU know what a ro-railer is? ............... new vehicle which is so designed

It is a that it

can run either on rails or on paved streets. It can run a few miles on a pavement, then run several hundred miles on rails, and complete the ■journey on a pavement at the other end. Such a vehicle has been invented in England, and it works all right. When traveling on the rails the iSflhtreet wheels are raised out of the way by an eccentric device.

Anything, Just So It Was a Serum

XTOT being able to get any serum to inject into girl’s blood, her physicians tele-to Chicago for advice and were told to the parents’ blood. The message was misunderstood. A parrot instead of a parent was mnput out of business and its blood was injected into the poor girl. Oddly enough the child improved, not because of the injection, but in spite of it. Now watch the price of parrots go up, and listen to the bleat of the putative press as it heralds forth to the world the great new __ discovery that fresh parrot’s blood is a sure cure for whatever it cures. As for the doctors, they are in favor of anything at all, just so long as it is a serum of some kind. They have proved that to us all. "

Heading for the Rocks

UpHE finance committee of Rose Hill Baptist Hi|8®L®hnrch, Columbus, Ga., are out with a postal card appeal upon which, in large type, lUwpSiffhe declaration “We Are Heading for the

Rocks”. The card goes on to say that the church is behind in its budget for October, November, Docosuber and January, and that unless something happens soon the jig will be up. There will IllIiBbimore such appeals before there are fewer. iirsrSlAhe<mcclesiastical institutions that are built ~ on the idea that an infinitely loving God is running a purgatory or blazing hell as an annex gggS^s?wilIisha.ye’:'to go. The times are hard, and the

people, Bavuii; already all the burdens they can hear, can get along without any of that kind of Su"cpmfortfi. The congregation will no doubt now

listen to die m-kly address of Judge Rutherford over the local radio station, provide themselves with his books, and get real comfort out of them while the '"'ship” pounds to pieces on the rocks.

Thermit for Ice Removal ;

TpORTY dollars’ worth of thermit, a eombina--®- tion of oxygen, iron and aluminum powder, will annihilate an iceberg. Lowered into a holo :""in the ice, and touched off -with a fuse, it produces a temperature of 5,000 degrees, and shoots streams of molten steel through the ice in all directions. Huge holes are torn in the ice, flames leap a hundred feet in the air, and the effect of the light generated is as disastrous on the ice as the heat itself. Other chemicals are also being used successfully for the same purpose.

No More Presbyterian Chaplains

IN CASE of another war there will be no more

Presbyterian chaplains; at least that,is the present .attitude of all chaplains of that persuasion that served during the World War. One of these ex-chaplains, Rev. Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, general secretary of the Federal Council of Churches, one of the spokesmen of the new movement, said: “I am disillusioned as to the results of the war. Today I see a world in which more money is being spent for armaments than at any other period in human history, and that, too, at a time of acute financial depression when millions of men are on the verge of starvation. I am disillusioned as to the relation of the church to war. Today I am convinced that the church must disentangle itself from the business of war.”

Terrorism in India

IF THE British lose India it will be because of the unexampled cruelties inflicted on the Hindu people by the British police. That seems to be the sense of an article in the Manchester Guardian from the pen of H. N. Brailsford, of New York. Mr. Brailsford reports that after some college students at Calcutta had shouted "Cowards!” at police who were beating participants in a peaceful procession, an English officer, accompanied by a squad of police, entered the classrooms and beat the students indiscriminately until the walls were spattered with blood. A similar scene took place at Lahore, where the teacher also was beaten. At Meerut a leading lawyer was the chief speaker at a dispersed meeting. While under arrest he was beaten, and while in this position was shot at close range by a policeman, so that his aim had to be amputated.

Efforts to Improve Day Coaches

STUNG into action by the rapid rise of motorcoach travel, and. falling passenger receipts, the railroads are doing what is humanly possible to regain some of their Jost patronage. Day coaches which have made little progress in fifty years are now being improved, and rates are coming down, the rate of 2c a mile being again in vogue on many of the roads running out of Chicago.

The Chesapeake & Ohio has put in operation a line of coaches which it claims is the greatest step forward in luxury, comfort and privacy of railway travel since the perfection of the sleeping car. These cars are open to all first-class passengers without any extra charges whatever.

The new cars are like the dining cars. They have two seats on one side of the aisle and one seat on the other. This allows plenty of room to revolve the seats; and all of them revolve, the double ones in pairs. The seats have double cushions.

Other attractions are extra large baggage ' racks, individual wall lamps, thermostatic heat control, concealed radiators, full-sized copper screens, electric fans, bright lights and dimmers, porcelain dental lavatories, and the little tables which are such a comfort in a Pullman car. In short, the new Chesapeake & Ohio day coaches have all the essential comforts of a first-class chair car.

Mooney Still in Prison ■

HDom Mooney is still in prison. This is by the recommendation of the majority of the Supreme Court of the state of California. To his everlasting credit, however, there was one justice on the California bench, William H. Langdon, who dared to disagree. Mr. Langdon said: “Considered either as an argument of an advocate or as a judicial review7 of the evidence, the consolidated majority report is unsound and indefensible. It is unsound because its conclusions are not founded upon established facts. Suspicious conjectures, unwarranted inferences, irreconcilable inconsistencies and admitted prejudices are treated as facts. It is indefensible because it appeals to passion and prejudice.” Besides the foregoing we have the facts that the judge v7ho tried Mooney says that he w7as unfairly, even criminally convicted; that the ten living Mooney jurors have pleaded for his freedom; that the detective captain wb.-. helped convict him says he did not have a fair trial, and that the sanctity of the courts has been violated. Mooney has discovered that in the fifteen years in which lie has been languishing in prison not only have the leaders of organized labor, both in the headquarters of the American Federation of Labor at Washington and in San Francisco and California in general, been cold and indifferent, but some of ihern have actually worked with Mooney’s enemies to make sure that nothing effective shall be done for him.

Program Sold the Set ..........J

THE following clipping from the Belleville

(N. J.)' Neu's shows that the people therein called “Holy Rollers’’ (but probably Amish or Dunkards) have the good sense to know the “Si difference between a low-class program, such commonly goes out from most of the radio stations, and the high-class programs put out by Judge Rutherford and his friends. At any rate, they were sufficiently7 impressed by Judge Rutherford’s lecture to purchase a radio receiv- ’ ing set which otherwise might not have been placed. : :

A clever story7 is told by a local radio service man. now connected with one of Newark’s department _: stores. When he was traveling and installing radios, he was asked to go to a town in Pennsylvania near York. Not knowing the locality, he was surprised when he reached the hall to find a queer sect there, called the Holy7 Rollers, awaiting his appearance vith th radio. ■■■■■<■

The women were dressed in black with dresses to' " J-their heels, high necks finished with a bit of lace and braids of hair down their backs. The men also wore black, long trousers and a queer kind of hat. lie installed the radio, and not having a program with him. tuned in on “jazz”. Well, ’twas a near riot, as these.........

people do not allow “jazz” or anything irreligious. One man was going to break the radio. Not feeling so happy, Mr. Radio Service Man then tried out another station and happened to get Judge Rather-ford in one of his lectures. There was a dead silence for a few minutes, then a delegation asked the price. It was considerably7 over $200, but they wont into conference in another room, called him in, and paid in. cold cash. He drove back over forty miles to the radio store and asked for particulars in regard to sending him. there, finding out that the local7 m®' diegiisabpitJhe ‘ ‘ job ’ ’» : t■ : ,|||||||||||||;||^^^^

Harvard Economic Society

BOSTON lawyer lias everybody laughing at the Harvard Economic Society. He has gathered together their prophetic bulletins issued during the past two years. Everything that they prophesied went wrong. What they said would happen did not happen, and what they said would not happen did happen. One of their most hopeful bulletins was issued just before the greatest stock crash of history. Everything was going to get better in the spring; and it got worse. Prices were supposed to be at the bottom; but they kept right on going si-dowus--Prophesying is risky business.

Bad Traffic Conditions in New York

ON THE second Sunday in each month hereafter, at a given point on 47th St., New York, a bone of St. Christopher, or some other hone, recently received from Vatican city, will he field above a priest’s head, and turned west, oast and touth (but not totvard the north) and I'oiy v ator will be sprinkled over the crowd and in the direction of a bunch of parked automobiles. It is known that traffic conditions in New York are very bad, and it is now expected that they will get very much worse. It will take a brave man to ride in one of those blessed automobiles, or to cross a street ahead of one.

Looks Like a Nice (?) Profit

SUBSCRIBER in British Columbia noticed in his newspaper, The Daily Province, that the quotation on No. 1 hard wheat was 53-7/8c, and on No. 6 wheat, 38-7/8c per bushel of 56 pounds. Tie then wrote to a gentleman who is in the feed business in Vancouver, rated as one of the city’s leading millionaires, and got the following answer (quoted exactly). Our subscriber asks, “What workman could not he prosperous if able to get such interest on his e> u-gy?” ,

reply to your letter of recent date our Feed Dept. inform us the price prevailing at the date of writing on Barley, is $1.50 per 100 lb. sack; on No. 1 hard wheat $3.00 per 100 lb. sack; and on No. 6 wheat. $1.60 per 100 lb. sack, Owing to market fluctuations. however, these prices are subject to change without notice. We might mention that we do not sell merchandise ar. wholesale prices, our business being retail trade only, (the above prices being quoted as such). Delivery charges on barley and wheat would be additional.

Eating Twice as Much Green Food rpiIE billboards carry posters urging the people to eat more bread, so as to help the millers and the farmers. But it is all to no avail. In the last seven years the consumption of green food has doubled in the United States; the people are better already, and they know it, and know why, and no effort of the millers can put them back on the diet they have abandoned. The farmers may as well face the facts. Wheat is a good food, but it will not be eaten in the future to the extent that it has been in the past. Fresh fruits and vegetables have in large measure taken its place, and the change is permanent.

America’s Middle Class Gone

WRITER in the Manchester Guardian sums it up well when he says that for years the tendency has been for America to become the land of a hundred thousand very rich people and a hundred million poor, that the Wall Street crash has cleaned out the middle class, most of whom were gambling in stocks, and that the' very rich have lost but only in name, for they now have possession of everything in the country. He mentions that he recently watched the shirts in a New York shop window drop from $1 apiece to 89 cents, then 65 cents, and finally 45c, but the middle class that used to buy have no money and are wearing their old shirts until they fall apart. Prices in New York are now considerably less than in London; usually they are 50% higher. When out of work the unemployed American lias no unemployment insurance to fall back upon; but that must inevitably come soon, in some form.

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