Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-09-17
LOOKER-ON In IOWA.
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Tor NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

Tor theTimeS- Republican.
Rhodes. Sept. 16.-Among the other
trusts now SO common is the cracker
trust or biscuit company, as it prefers
to be called. One sees in the stores oc-
casionally a cracker box with a big la :
bel, 49, Cracker Company,
does not belong to the trust" There
are two or three cracker manufactures
in Iowa that do not belong to the trust.
and some twenty such concerns east of
Chicago. These factories are doing a
good business and manage to make the
trust some trouble by selling goods say
one-half cent pound below regular
prices. But a travelling salesman for
trust goods tells the Looker-On that
such competition is met by the trust
having a few factories here and there
which the trust owns and controls, but
which are apparently out of the trust,
and go advertise, and keep statesmen on
the road who daily wax eloquent con-
corning the iniquitous practices of the
trust. "A representative of an independ-
ent oil house once told the writer of the
competition he receives from the Stand
ard Oil people. 1t semes there are from
twenty to thirty big wholesale dealers
outside of the trust who supply the
western independent companies But
said this representative of an independ-
ent oil company here in Iowa, II can not
at all sure but when we buy car load
of oil IN Pennsylvania or Ohio we actu-
ally get oil from the Standard Oil Com
pany. For all that we know, they may
be branches of the octopus
One day last summer the writer rode
on a passenger train and had for com
pany in the smoker United States
postoffice Inspector. OF course we all
knew he wasn't there for fun, and 50
when the next days paper announced
that route agent had been arrest
ed FOR robbing the mail we understood
why the inspector was aboard the train.
/. Only that morning he had dropped some
sdecoy letters in the postoffice at -,
had seen them placed in the letter
pouch, had ridden to the depot in the
mail wagon, saw the identical sack
thrown to the route agent, then taking
the train he rode behind the route agent
all the way to --, and when the
agent left the car arrested him and
found the letters on his person. Easy,
wasn't It?
All this came to the mind OF the writ
err the other evening in an Iowa town
mot here) where the railroad COM
pany are laying for coal thieves. Pa
thence has ceased to be virtue. Some
body is stealing coal off the cars by the
wagon load. And so for the past three
weeks night and day, week days and
Sunday regular shift. eight hours on
and hours off, of coal detectives are
watching these yards. and some body
will get pinched before long This is
no betrayal of secret service work, for
we all know coal thieves never read a
daily paper.
| "A suggestion has been made perhaps
| by this time has ben put into some le-
gal shape. that to finally settle the
Forest City hotel fight the travelling
men buy the Waldorf, and convert 1t in
to a travelling mans home, the object
being similar to the Soldiers Home,
where old unfortunate disabled travel
ing men can be cared for In comfort and
surroundings they have been accus-
toned to. The present tnlked OF plan
is for each travelling man to contribute
81. and thus accumulate the sum nee
essary. Other detailed arrangements
can then be made.
The tax ferrets. and there are a large
number Of them in this business now
tell some wonderful stories. Hows
this In one OF our Iowa towns lives Z