Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1911-12-27


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land Colon, making the run one daa!y
quicker than private enterprise 81 is
running its steamers, and last year
our profit on our line was $3.50 900.
Yet--is this too adical'' I would
MT it be more profitable to us if we
ran it free, as business men, run
elevators in their Office buildings, and
pay the cost out Of our land valuesi
Then, on the Isthmus are two little
railroads, owned BY us. !" On the
cars and locomotives is the legend
~. s., and that spells us. Our
railroads down there show gross
earnings Of a little more than $4,000
600; and since passenger and freight
cars that travel up and down in
high buildings are run free Of direct
charges, the service being paid for
in rentals, can't we: do the same with
our back-and-f forth passenger and
freight cars, and pay expenses Of SER
vice out Of our increased land val
ues7 Is system that is conserva-.
tive enough for conservative business
men too radical for us3
We are doing still more down there
at Panama.
The great and good government Of
the United States has actually burg
larized the Socialist platform wei
are the burglars, mind you and is
conducting at Panama and along the
route Of the canal, publicly owned,
Common-Good hotels, laundries, ma
chine shops, bakeries, boarding
houses, stores, et-cet-e-ra! Lost
our minds, haven't we? And the
Supreme Court hasn't issued single
injunction against us, so that we are
doing at Panama must be judicially
reasonable, even if it be commercial
ly wild-eyed.
And again, worse and more Of it.
Those Of us who are doing our
work at Panama get the best food
for themselves and their families at
anti-race-suicide prices. At our ex-
pertinent station down there we are
showing that we can do our Com
mon Good housekeeping honestly and
efficiently without SHINING ourselves,
or permitting some Of us to skin the
rest Of us with the knife of public
enterprise for private profit"
It's quite jump from Panama to
Alaska, and there's some difference
between digging canal and digging
coal. But we can make Alaska an
experiment station, and difference
is a big factor in scientific expert
mentation. .@
We have vast coal fields in Alas
ka; great coal fields owned by us.
We are actually running coal mine
run by US, and private enterprise
has shown us how not to mine coal
as well as how to mine it.
Any reason why we can't dig our
our coal f}eldsand bringing our coal
coal deposits7 Any reason why we
can't build and operate our own rail
roads in Alaska, running them into
our coal fields and bringing our coal
in our cars over our tracks to our
shipping ports, there to be loaded in
to our ships, brought to our public
docks on the Pacific and the Allan
tic coasts, and sell it to ourselves
out of our coal bunkers?
Long ago Brutus said, .I pause fol
a reply Well, that's what I an
doing.
This coming winter, and the next
and the next, we shall heed coal al
reasonable prices more than we need
the Panama Canal. We don't need
a canal to furnish heat; we cant
cook breakfast with a canal: anG
possibly that's the reason the Gug-
genmorgans permitted us to build on1
canal. ...5 a..
! Then, We have a few water-powel
sites left unmorganheimed, and they
mean heat, power and light. Cam
we do Something for ourselves will
; our powers9
Crazy? Of course we are not.
But having made a good begin
, ming, and since we are getting rep
utation, for greatness, let's make
good job Of it-W. G. Eggleston, il
The Public.