The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-17


 faithful progressives the bull. moose's action was nothing short of be- trayal.
 At first the vice presidential can didate gave the public to believe that he would run alone-run on a headless ticket. Newspaper paragraphers were beginning to have fun at Mr. Parker's expense, but later the gentleman se- lected for the colonel's running mate decided to call progressive conven- tion for the purpose of nominating new cadidates for President and vice president. He will step down and work in the ranks. His call is spirited, and that it will have a strong appeal to a large proportion of the former parti- sans of Roosevelt cannot be doubted.
 His convention is to meet in Chicago August 5. It may be fiasco, but there are enough progressives who feel as MT. Parker does, whether or not they participate publicly in movement to revive the third party" organization, to defeat Hugghes and Fairbanks by decisive plurality.
 With apparently little republican defection in 1892 Cleveland swept the country.
 TN the hearing before the federal ! board of arbitrators of the de- mands of telegraphers of the New York Central and Nickle Plate rail- roads for more pay and shorter hours an official of the New York Central
 said that "good Cutting Down authority" h S the Cost of Living stated tn at a
 man can live on 6 cents day. The official hastened to add that he didn't want any railroad employe to live on that sum. He was simply quoting an authority"
 The experts seldom agree on the ex- act amount of money required to keep | soul and body together, but cents a day is perhaps the most conserva- tive figure ever arrived at. The ex- perts can work out the problem to | their own and everyboy else's satis- faction on paper, but when put to the test their theories fail. Not long ago | Chicago club women Investigating con- ditions among shop girls said they could get a good meal for 15 or 20 | cents, but as a steady diet the 20- cent restaurant meal is a snare and delusion.
 It is possible that man may live on cents day. That will buy a loaf of bread-or even two stale ones and he can quench his thirst at the nearest faucet, and still have a penny for amusements or the latest "extra." But a few weeks of that sort of life would make a bomb thrower out of anybody.
 T HAT the south and the railroads of this section are not making l the most of ther opportunities is the burden of an Illuminating and ex- haustive discussion by Richard H. Ed monds in a recent issue of the Manu- lecturers Record. The relation exist
 ing between rail | Study in Earnings road freight rates l of Southern Lines charged by the
 southern lines, the train loads and the cost of operation furnish the basis for the contention | that the carriers of this section are failing to reap the benefits offered by l iimitless resources. The development | of the territory traversed by these lines, as necessary consequence, is 
 Statistics offered by Mir. Edmonds show that such southern systems as the Louisville and Nashville, the Sea- board, the Atlantic Coast Line and the Southern have an average train load tonnage far lower than the Norfolk and Western, the Clinchfield, the and Ohio and the Vir- ginian. The rates charged by the former group of roads are far in ex- cess of those by the latter group, while the average earnings of the former are low when compared with the earnings per freight train mile of the latter lines. These apparent inconsistencies can not be reconciled on the ground that the roads which charge the higher rates and yet show the least earnings per freight train mile handle largely low class freight in the mineral dis tricts. Most of the roads named as having the low rates and showing