Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-11-21

the same period Of last year. This is
an increase of $13,39S,357 in expendi-
lures. This makes difference of $751;
1886, 600 in the wrong direction so far
this fiscal year. Economy promises
were evidently merely platform deco
rations.
Burlington Hawk-Eye: 1t is pitiful,
but seems to be true that the more
battles and the faster they kill each
other off in Europe, the sooner the war
will end Apparently it is fight to
exhaustion of men and money. 1t will
wind up with treaties of peace. II
mankind only had the wisdom and the
foresight to concur in the terms of
settlement beforehand, what happy
world this would be!
Burlington Gazette: II the reports
are to be believed, the Germans are
maintaining some shuttle train serv-
ern operations and the arena of their
shunting soldiers west and the next
sending them back to the east.
hduSdS S1Iy oldT. "A very large
share of the bottles in which milk Is
delivered in Kansas City are not ster-
ilized. That's the statement of the
women who have been looking into the
situation for the consumers league.
Well, you ask, what of it? What's the
difference? The difference is just this:
Epidemics can be spread by unsteril-
lied bottles. Milk is delivered in a
home where there is typhoid or diph-
iberia or scarlet fever. The bottles
are collected and washed. They look
clean, but the germs that cause the
disease may be still on them. These
germs may be still on them. These
germs are killed only by boiling wa
ter Unless the bottles are boiled
they may carry the germs of infect
ious diseases to the next family where
they are delivered.
Chicago Evening Post: Fifty years
ago, recites the Topeka Capital, J. B.
Billiard arrived at Topeka in prairie
schooner, and Sunday his son flew
over the town in an aeroplane. We
have rather fallen out of the habit of
thinking about our own youth as
nation. We used to have SO many
familiar examples Of it close to hand
that we became tired of them. Their
picturesqueness palled. Nevertheless
the jump from the prairie schooner
to the aeroplane is as dramatic a
thumb sketch of the rapidity of our
advance as We have noted for some
time.
Davenport Times: The retrench-
ment and reform commission OF the
Iowa legislature has recommended
that the administrative power Of the
state he actually vested in the COVER
nor of Iowa rather than scattered, as
now, among large number of indie
pendent department heads each oper-
ating largely as he sees fit and without
sufficient coordination of effort.
At the governors conference at
Madison this week it was urged that
the governor of the states ought to
have the power to discharge for cause
any inefficient state employe.
In other words there is pretty
general drift toward the concentration
of authority so as at the same time
to concentrate responsibility and thus
make for greater efficiency in state
ADMINISTRATION.
Waterloo Courier: The auditor OF
state has Just issued his seventh an
nual report of the statistics of Iowa
towns and cities. There are some in
teresting comparisons contained there
in regarding the financial condition of
cities. For instance, Waterloo is
shown to have property tax for
municipal purposes of GA mills. This
is beaten by only one other city in the
state. That city is Clinton with a rate
of 6625.
OF course this high rate will be at
tributed by some to the absence Of sa-
looms and saloon licenses. But our to-
tai per capita debt obligations are $40
68, rate exceeded only by that of Keo-
kuk with $84.03. Keokuk has sought
relief by adopting the commission form
of government for the commission gov
eminent cities are gradually decreas-
ing their indebtedness. How about try
ing modern plan Of government in
Waterloo?