Evening journal., 1905-08-14
GAVE ICE AWAY
TO POOR PEOPLE
Car Refrigerator Officials
Thus Disposed of Their
Surplus Product
HULL ANl WAlSWORTH FARMERS

by WILLIAM WOLFF SMITH.
Washington. d. c. August io.-Saveral
days ago il was mentioned IN this correa-
pondence that because Of the shortage i'm
/ the Georgia peach crop the Armour Car
Line Company found itself with thousands
OF tons Of ice in ears EN- route from Lake
Erie to Georgia which promised TO he
a total loss A gentleman familiar with
the situation and noting the item contri-
butes some interesting Information on this
subject il appears that when the seal
SON Of shipping Georgia peaches came TO
an abrupt close the Armour people stop
ped the care Of ice wherever they could
reach them by telegraph Having been
unable to send refrigerator cars the
ice had been peacked In ordinary box
cars and was melting rapidly 10 attempt
20 dispose Of such large Quantities by
dumping il on the local markets would
have broken the price and so the Armour
people thought would work an injury
to the local ice dealers The Company
was therefore IN a quandary as to what
10 do with the ice other than let II melt
away when the local freight agent at
Tennessee point wired the company sug-
costing that its ice at his station be given
TO the poor.
Mr.. George B. Robbins, President Of the
Company. saw the point and not only re-
piled placing an the ice at his disposal
for this purpose, but notified the other
freight agents wherever the cars happen
ed to be. TO give the ice to charitable i'm
situations and to the poor of their towns
In some cases the ice was handed over
to the Salvation Army and In others given
away by the freight agents. At Chatta-
nooga alone between two hundred and
three hundred tons Of ice were distri-
buted and the total amount ran up into
the thousands. Counting the freight. the
ice was worth, at the points where it was
given away, about five dollars a ton, so il
it estimated that the distribution cost
the Armour company at least ten thou
sand dollars.
Representative Hull. of Iowa. IS a far
mer, having, in connection with Repre-
sentative Wadsworth Of New York. a
farm OF about four thousand acres I'm
Virginia not far from Washington. Mr..
wadsworth is chairman Of the House
lCommittee on Agriculture and story
was recently sent out 10 the effect that
the Department was shipping hundreds
of pounds of choice seeds 20 the farm
Of Messrs. Hull and Wadsworth while
ordinary farmers in the same district
could not obtain even a small package.
Mr.. Hull states that Secretary Wilson
wished to have some experiments made
n the growing Of alfalfa and at his re-
quest he and Mr.. Wadsforth set aside
three acres for the purpose The De-
partment furnished the seed and the ex-
priment was progressing nicely when
heavy rains washed out the crop.
Mr. Hull, who is chairman of the House
COMMITTEES on Military Affairs does moi
think the chances are favorable for ar
increase in the pay Of officers Of the army,
navy, marine corps and revenue cutter
service during the next Congress. The
officers have been supporting a bin to OBJ
tain a twenty per cent. increase In pay
from second lieutenants to the Lieuton-
ant General Mr. Hull says that Con-
gress will be busy trying to decrease rath-
er than increase expenses and this is a
bad time TO bring forward any such pro-
ject.
The army appropriation bill can be
reduced a million or two" said he lie
thought the naval appropriation Bill
could also be reduced and added: Il
know it is Speaker Cannons idea to cut
down the appropriations and he will have
the cordial cooperation of the various
committees that handle the big appropri-
alton bills" When asked whether he
would favor the re-imposltion of the
stamp taxes as a means Of raising more
revenue Mr.. Hull said ne was undecided
on this point. but thought it might be a
good idea. however, to impose a stamp
tax on patent medicines for such articles
easily can stand IT,"
Representative Littleheld, Of Maine,
who is now abroad is visiting the vari-
Gus European courts Of justice both for
the purpose of increasing his knowledge