The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1914-09-10

public attitude toward wealth and
corporations, dating perhaps from
the insurance difficulties that began
with the Equitable in February,
1905, and leading rapidly into rail
roads and so-called trusts" whose
officers have had their attention di-
verted and their energies expended
in defending themselves and reor-
eanizing their methods and business
instead of proceeding along lines of
constructive, aggressive work.
There are signs that this attitude
is abating, that the country is grad
ually finding out that we are one
country, that we are commonly in
terested in all sources of wealth,
that to destroy the prosperity of the
great business institutions which
have so upbuilt this country does
not hurt few rich alone, but re-
duces their ability to pay dividends
to the hundreds of thousands stock
holders, most of them persons of
moderate or poor means, as we'll
as their ability to employ labor at
high wages.
The fact that there is a general
belief that the railroads should re-
ceive a freight advance, belief
shared in not only by those disin-
terested but by employees of rail-
roads themselves and by shippers.
is one indication of this fact. 1t is
to be remembered that for over ten
years railroads. the largest and
wealthiest buyers in the country,
have been Unable for various rea-
sons to develop as they should.
Prior to 1907 the rates for money
made large expenditures almost
prohibitive. Since then the acute
panic of 1907 and the government
tai attitude towards railroads fur
Their deferred them from making ex-
penditures that they should.
So eminent an authority on rail-
road matters and 50 far-sighted a
financier as James j. Hill years ago
said that $5O00,000,000 were re-
quired to be spent by railroads on
new equipment, and careful railroad !
men have since doubled this amount
as that required by the condition of
the country for the proper develop
ment of its transportation facilities.
For fifteen years the railroad equip
ments Of the country have been in
proportion to the requirements of
the country. gradually running down.
For this very reason, when the peri
cd of buying begins it must be very
great and long continued.
The number of automobiles regis
tered up to June Is, this year. is
already 1,2U3,770-13888O more
than the whole of last year-and
means one automobile for every
seventeen families. The number of
in Pennsylvania is 3d.
O98, or one to every sixteen families;
the number in Ohio is 102,280 or
one to every nine families.
Freight car shipment of automo-
biles for the first half of the year is
$500 cars, or 11.6 per cent over last
year. A country that is buying
automobiles at this rate, spending ;
as manufacturer tells me-$30O,.
100000 for tires alone and an equal
amount for oil alone, has sufficient
money to protect its families to an
extent many times what it now
does. In the community near my
home the number of Ford cars allot- {
ted the agent for this year is 100, ;
meaning the expenditure in this one
suburb of Pittsburgh for one kind
Of automobile of $4,000. Any t
keeper of automobiles knows the
of car, direct or indirect.
averages the cost of the t
car, and it is doubtful whether the {
paid annually in the same t
Community for the support of fami- {
lies is even a fraction of what is
paid for the pleasure Of families, as
reflected in the sales of this car
alone. Z
A Nation that is spending nearl, s
S2,500000,000 for liquor and con-
over $1,OO0,000,000 a year
for automobiles shows that the peo-
pie of the United States have the
money to buy what they really