The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-19
TIME OF YEARFOR CRIES OF ''GRAFT" 'It's Only Bad Walters Who
 Don't Want Tips ASTOR GETTING POOR Better Pass Ordinance to Prohibit Men Smoking Instead of Women.
 Louisiana Is Richest Sec
 tion of South
nv ROBERT LEE CARTER

| that the country learns oI tiAo "" S travagance of the city government ol
 New York, the vast sums of graft ol which the people are robbed and the utterly various policy of the powers that be that it would seem should make prop | erty holding in the metropolis an un- | bearsble burden, a burden, by the way, which few of the bearers voluntarily re-
 lnquish and which there are always enou- 1 sands not to say millions, anxious to as- sun,e.
 | That's politios and 1t makes little diner- 1 ence which party is in power, the oppo- sition invariably in these cool November
 days, bewails the fate of the poor New
 York property owner in the ruthless grasp
 of municipal pirates and grafters. l Yet the tax figures show that New York's tax rate is not so very high as compared with that of other first class | cities.
 1 Tor example, the tax rate in New 1orh | is 1855: in Baltimore it is 2.15, in Cieve- | land 2.99 in Detroit 1.83, in Newark, N. l.. 1.73, in Chicago 4.61. in Philadelpnla | 1.5o and in St. Louis 2.22
 l In Justice to Chicago 1t should be said that the assessment rate is very low in
 that city. only 8 per cent of the real 1 value so the, tax rate of that city for
 purposes of comparison should be only
 1.52 per cent.
 1 When it is taken into consideration the many things New York gets for her
 money 1t would appear that her city gov ernment compares rather favorably in
 honesty and efficiency with that of other
 American cities
 | ssOnly bad walters don't want tips be- cause they don't wish to please their
 patrons. I don't care what action the | Commercial Travellers league takes In the
 matter of tipping, because no association | can influence the public at large, ana when a gentleman has been properly served he wants to show his apprecia- ton to the man who serves him. Tripping, not exaggerated tipping, you
 know, is part of gentleman's bone and
 blood, just as his thank you is. A gen. tlsrnan always thanks his servants, and tips conservatively."
 Oscar of the Waldorf sums up his opin- ion of the war the Commercial Travellers National league has started against tip- ping in these terms. When he was asked | to discuss the action of President r. D.
 Dove of the league. who says that soe,ooo, | coo is spent annually foretips, Oscar said .sThere's always a lot of talk going on, | and oscar is a good listener. but he | doesnt say much l believe bad walters arc responsible for this new agitation against tipping, because they have not served guests properly. What man op- ice ts to showing his appreciation If he mas been properly served! There are Soou
 walters and bad ones, and we try to keep the bad ones out
 "Is it true that walters do not live long on account of making constant trips ron hot kitchens to cold dining rooms?' Oscar laughed. "Ive seen plenty that oughtn't to have lived as long as they have" he replied. You can fire a waiter, but you can't kill him.
 .If you can afford to go to big hotel and pay its prices for excellent food you car certainly afford to see that the man who served you-that is if his service was commensurate with the excellence or the food-is paid for his consideration. fou demand the best. you get it; why not show your appreciation?" | John Jacob Astor is worth less in per- sonal property now than he was before he married the second time, judging from the affidavit he recently made at the tax department in New York, in having his assessment for 1912 reduced.
 | This year and for several years back the personal property assessment against MT. | Astor has remained at $40o00o, and he has | paid taxes on that amount. Tn making l up the books for this year the tax board, | following a general plan resulting from the new law taxing unregistered securi- | ties of certain sorts, raised the ante on MT. Astor to ssOO,O0O and thereby, as It proved, lost money for the city. l Mir. Astor visited the department | Wednesday and told President Lawson purdy that his personal holdings were not worth more than $S50,0oo He made affidavit to this effect. The amount is composed almost entirely, it is under stood. of money in the bank, the greater part of MT. Astors fortune Icing in real estate and mortgages, and not In personal property. In accordance with the affidavit. the assessment against MT. Astor will be re- duced and he will be taxed on S5O.0c0 less than this year.
 A New York alderman has introduced an ordinance to prevent women smoking in restaurants. Why pass law to pre- vent women smoking? If there were any statistics on the subject you would prop ably find that about one woman III q thousand smokes cigarettes, and about two in a million smoke to excess. We arc speaking, of course. of our own country About 90 men out of 100 smoke, and all those who smoke do 1t to excess. Why not pass a law to prevent men smoking? rhet ,,oipht Ho some good. And another law might be passed to prevent aldermen chewing tobacco. W Louisiana, in my opinion. is the rioh- est section of the south," snid Garnault Arassiz of New Orleans. Thomas Jeff
 ferson was criticised by the people of
 every part of this country when he ap-
 proved the Louisiana purchase, but the injusttce of that criticism Is shown by casual computation of tho values of that
 vast treritory now. and at the time when
 tho sale was consummated for t16,oo0.00o.
 Ut is impossible to estimate the value
 of the territory ceded by France. It runs
 into billions of dollars. In Louisiana to-
 day $50 or 400 men are producing half of
 the worlds commercial sulphur supply;
 the other half Is produced in the Siciltan
 Italian government mines. Tho Italian
 government employs 2l,O00 men in this
 work. while Louisiana employs not more
 than +00.
 .'In rock salt Louisiana eventually will
 be the greatest producing section in the
 world, according to eminent geologists,
 There are 100000 acres of alluvial lands
 in Louisiana, greater territory than IS
 represented in the aggregate area of the
 famous fens of England; the lowlands of
 Holland and Belgium. and the entire al-
 luvial delta of the Nile.