Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-18
Washington
w LETTER
BY n. 70 WALKER
500 TALK TO ONE DRUNK"
BY n. . wa
Star Bureau,
Metropolitan National Bank Bldg.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1s.

Metropolitan National Bank Bldg,
WASHINGTON. Aug. Is.
Victor Murdoch, the Progressive
leader in the House, is telling with a
lot of merriment an experience ne
had in Sussex county last month
when he was making speeches in be-
half of Robert Bailey, the Bull
Moose candidate, in the recent spe-
cial election in the Sixth New Jersey
district.
when we got to one of the little
places where we were to have
meeting" said Murdoch. there was
an audience of just one man, and he
was drunk George Record was to
have made his speech first, but he
said he wouldn't talk to an audience
of less than two, and l began. l
had talked only a little While When
my audience went to sleep. some
more people came after a while. ana
there was a fairly good crowd for
Record. What has been worrying me,
though. is that the one that l start
ed on didn't appreciate the fact that
I was giving him a speech I've been
getting 500 for delivering on the
Chatauqua platform.
McDermott, the congressman from
the Chicago stockyards, who is ac-
cused of having taken money from
pawnbrokers and been on the payroll
of Mulhall, represents district
which in one respect, perhaps, is the
most unique in the country. Practi-
cally all of his constituents work in
the stockyards, and comparatively
few of them speak English. On one
street in the district there is a solid,
unbroken mile of saloons. When he
was first elected McDermott told me
one day of his campaign:
II had the other beaten at the
start" he said. "He was making
speeches. but he couldn't drink. l
didn't miss a saloon in the district
and I went to a dance or ball every
night of the campaign and slept IN
the DAYTIME. A fellow has to have
hollow legs to run for Congress In
that district, but I've got en-
New York newspaper men We're
little surprised by the TnaW escaPe'
Thev've been looking for 1t for sew
araI months. Jerome, the district
attorney who convicted Thaw, told
newspaper reporters months ago that
sone day Thaw would get INTO an
automobile and get out of the state.
With the tariff revision nearing
completion there is curious lack OF
enthusiasm among its sponsors over
the probable reduction in cost OF nv
Ing likely to follow. Now and then
Democratic senator declares that
cheaper living will follow, out tnere
is nv no means the unanimous. Ger
tainty about it that has narke9
Democratic campaign speeches. anu
promises for years
Now that they are getting to the
+o.t Mon who for years have been
ascrihing all industrial and economic
evils to the tariff are not by any
means as cocksure as they nave peen
that the tariff is the root OF tne
trouhle They are realizing tnat
cheaper cost of living, produced py
falling prices of commodities, VIM
nrobab be accomplished by taillns
vases. and that even If the purcnas-
ing mower of a dollar is Increased IIe
difficulty of getting the dollar WIN
probably be correspondlhgy
creased England, Win rev e,,
tariff has more poverty, unempioy-
,,1ent and restitution, than this coun-
try although cost of living Is mucn
lower Probably the biggest plessihs
to follow tariff revision will be the
discovery that it is not the paramount
nolitical issue the county mas loi
Years believed it to be, and tnat soiiie-
thing much more drastic than the
destruction of protection viii nave 70
be done to better the condition OF the
average wage-earner.
There's justice in the claims Oh the
railroads that they ought to get more
rnoney for carrying the mails since
tbe marcel post business has increased,
following rate reductions and weight
increases. The fact that the railroads
have been outrageously overpaid for
CARRYING the mails heretofore does not
change this fact.
Under the present system, the mails
are weighed once in four years, Tor
certain number of weeks, and the
average daily weight for that period
Is taken as the basis on whicn the
roads are paid. Since we got a parcel
post, the mails have been much heaV-
Ter, of course, and win the Iur tIe ,,
decrease in parcel post rates, they will
continue to be heavier. Not only do
the railroads, under present condi-
tions. have to carry this increased
weight without compensation until the
next weighing period, but they lose
the revenue which previously came to
them when the parcel post matter was
carried by express.
Congress will be again urged this
winter to build it's own mail cars and
pay the railroads on mileage basis
for hauling the cars. This plan has
been urged off and on for years, and
Postmaster-General Burleson is said
to be considering 1t favorably. Now
we rent the mail cars from the rail-
roads, pay an annual rental that
amounts to about as much as it costs
to build the car, and then, besides,
pay the roads so much per ton per
mile for all the mail carried in the
cars.
This matter of railway mail pay is
lust one of the numerous puzzles that
are going to be made more difficult
by the extension of parcel post. Wen
be sending packages up to hundred
pounds by mail in short time. That
will destroy most of the express bust
ness. Now the railroads get about so
per cent. of the total revenue of the
express companies. OF course we've
got to pay them more, and differ
emily. And we've got to have differ
ent facilities for handling big pack
ages.