Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-02-25
Looker-On In Iona

| Webster City, Feb. 25.-Altho 'the
coal famine" is apparently over. still
man towns are short Of this necessity
and when a carload comes to town, the
dealer does not have to unload it into
the coal bins, neither does "demurrage'
worry him. the farmers and twon dray
| teams make short work Of 1t. AS an
echo Of the coal famine the following
from the Ellsworth News is interest
ing:
There is coal dealer in Jewell who
! has no conscience, if reports are true.
When coal was scarce article at that
place, as well as others, he had the
hair-riasing nerve to charge SO q ton
for the same grade of coal that had
been selling at this place for IS ton.
If the good people of Ellsworth had to
rub elbows with that kind Of citizens
they never would get over it. Both Of
the coal dealers here have had coal
since that time, but have acted like
gentlemen, selling the coal at the regu-
lar price Of Sc a ton. If a man pulls
a gun on another. and relieves him Of
his money, he gets term IN the peni-
| Tertiary. When a man is out of coal
and dealer makes an assessment Of
from SO to 81 a ton, newell he swells
his bank account
And the writer was told in Jewell
that another firm has since gone into
| the coal business in that town. Dur
| ing this scarcity Of coal it would fire.
quently happen that one town would
get in some" while perhaps surround
| ing towns were out entirely Then the
telephone proved its usefulness. Word
Wa: sent by one man to his neighbor
and soon the teams were headed
towards the coal supply. Iowa Falls
dealers received such a benefit along
this line, that they had to send out
word that they would only sell to their
regular customers. Showing how reck-
| less some of the farmers can get, dur
| ing one of the coolest days of this "old
| fashioned winter" carload of coal
came to this town where rich, we'll
fixed farmer usually traded Over the
1 phone he heard of it, and knowing it
would be all sold before he could get
to town, he telephoned the town dray
man to put load in his wagon and
drive home with it. and he would come
! in after dinner. get it and pay him for
his time and trouble. Next year this
farmer is going to hail out coal when
/ he hauls in his oats.
ii
car famine" for grain and stock is at
its worst. In one very small town near
here, one day last week train load Of
twenty-f four cars OF grain was hauled
out, but leaving eleven more loaded cars
and full elevators. On the Story City
/ branch last week one shipper claimed
he had orders in for eight empty stock
cars for week and was only able to
| get one car Everything seems to be
"congested." There never were so
many crippled up engines in Iowa as
today. It's a common everyday exper-
fence for an engineer to have to stop
his train and repair his engine. The
other day a depot full Of passengers
waited two hours for train to come
ten miles from the next station, and
whey, It arrived the explanation was
the engineer stopped twice out in the
country to make needed repairs.
Superintendent Ashton. of the c. q
N. w, has sent to several, probably
all agents OF that road circular ex-
planning the cause Of this irregular and
insufficient service by the railroads.
| Ut amounts to this. That the talked OF
| legislation both by congress and state
| legislatures, to say nothing Of what ac-
tually has become law. produced a feel
ing in railroad circles that It was not
good business policy to expand, i. e.,
to build more miles Of railroad, to buy
more cars and engines, "till the clouds
rolled by" That capital, being timid
creature was frightened by the Roose-
welt regime, and even now are not
80 sure but what more drastic legis-
lation is at hand. Then comes the
point OF the whole circular, write
your congressman" and have this busi-
ness stopped OF course the inference
to be drawn by the public is that all
Of this trouble Of passenger and freight
business would not have occurred II
the railroads had been let alone. Com
ing Just at this time and being really
a truthful statement Of what has &C.
euarrrr eea Ia ii many abroad aa:-.eectc-s'
meetings, It's pretty cute to send 1t
out just now.
az Me11~r