Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1915-08-07

II WouIu Drlng the people race TO face
with facts that some of them are in
clined to dodge, and force them to
take the responsibility for further ex-
trayagance or put it upon recreant Ie-
/ gislators, where it belongs If he ac-
tually closed some departments of
the University and shut up few of
/ the oyerfed normal schools, it would
bring things to crisis. l, for one, be-
lieye that there are good many very
] intelligent citizens who have doubted
his ability to teach the Unworthy any
thing by gentle methods, who would
/ sit up and notice this sort of contest
and give him good backing. Expenses
can be cut in no other way. He is not
going to tame the progressive wild
cats with sugar plums. They have
tasted blood and like it too well. But
he can delimitate them, clearly, to
the taxpayers and it will be entirely
safe to let the tax payer handle the
| job. 1t may take time, but it will be
done, and done thoroughly.
FOR ONE CENT A MILE FARE
President F. ID. Underwood of the
Erie, who has returned to New York,
after breathing spell at the cold
4 Homestead" in Wauwatosa, has re-
peated to the Wall Street 10 urnal his
statement that passenger fares ought
to be reduced to one cent a mile, and
freight rates increased The New
York Times seemed to take it that
Mr.. Underwood was a man of "inti-
mite jest, and he is, but he usually
has some purpose, worth while, even
in his TESTING moods. The nub of his
proposal is that the railroads need
more TESTING moods. The nub of his
proposal is that the railroads need
more earnings, and the opportunity
to get them is in handling freight.
The freight revenues of the railroads
of the United States exceed 81 900, 900,
600; passenger revenues are about
one-third as large, so the philosophy
of Mr.. Underwood proposition is
not so occult, after all. In recent
communication to the New York
Times, Seth Low endorsed Mr.. I'm
derwood, and said that the govern
ment owned railroads of Europe all
had high freight and low passenger
rates. He also made the suggestive
statement that PASSENGERS vote and
freight does not, which suggests the
remark, long ago attributed to Alex
ander Mitchell, that passengers load
and unload themselves" There seems
TO be some other valid advantages in
low passenger fares, not the least of
which is that the advantages goes
directly to the man who pays the fare,
while the burden of freight charge
follows the freight through devious
and unseen channels to 1.-THE ultimate
consumer. Mr.. Underwood seems
to have started something" and to
have given turn to the discussion
that will reach somebody besides the
big shippers.
LEGISLATORS ONLY STUDENTS.
A Platteyille paper suggests that
the legislature has been in blast so
long that it ought to turn out some
good laws, as it has become ian ex-
perienced bunch" and this leads
Bob" Crawford, in the Mineral
Point Democrat, to suggest that ifaI
they are going to school they ought
to be charged tuition instead of being
paid salary. Evidently Bob"
doesn't understand the new ethics of
public education in this progressive
state, the measure of which seems to
be in inverse ratio with the cost. 1t
comes mighty high and it runs thin.
The one consolation for the tax ridden
farmer is to read the joyful stuff that
comes from the promotion bureau of
the Agricultural College, and thank
God that the white grubs, the cinch
bug, the pea weevil, and the legisla-
ture are merely rhetorical accessori-
es of that marvel of educational ac-
Movements. The only pity is that
the Agricultural College and the Uni
ted States Census Bureau are always
widely apart and impossible of recon
Citation, when it comes down to the
real facts of Wisconsin agriculture.
But we pay. regularly, and high
prices. for the transformation that
goes out from the Agricultural Col
lege, and in comparison the legisla-
ture is an inexpensive luxury.