The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-11-04
DEMURRAGE RATES
RAISED BY BOARD
The State Commission Hopes to
Relieve the Present Short
age of Freight Cars.
THE RAILROADS CRITICISED
Lack of Equipment to Handle Traffic
Is Without Excuse. the Utili-
ties Body Says.

is Without Excuse. the Uti!i-
ties Body Says.
Topeka.-Charging that the short
age of equipment owned by the rail-
roads is inexcusable, the Kansas Pub
lie Utilities Commission has come to
the aid of the Kansas shippers and or
dered heavy increases in demurrage
charges. The car shortage situation in
Kansas has been acute for weeks.
Thousands of bushels of wheat are
piled on the ground in Central and
Western Kansas because it is impos-
sible to get cars. Merchants and bust
ness men have suffered heavy bust
ness losses because of the failure of
the roads to get cars for their ship
ments.
The new demurrage rates, as an
nounced by the commission are: The
forty eight hours of free time to be al
lowed as heretofore. For the next for
ty-eight hours after the free time has
expired, the demurrage charge will be
81 per day, which is the present rate,
thereby giving four days without any
increase in the present charge. For
the next succeeding forty-eight hours,
or the fifth and sixth days, the demur
rage charge will be 81 per day. For
the next succeeding forty-eight hours,
or the seventh and eighth days, the
charge will be SO per day For the
next succeeding forty-eight hours, or
ninth and tenth days, the charge will
be 81 per day.
For all the time above the tenth day
the charge will be flat rate of So per
day.
r. + +
Have Books on Kansas Papers.
One of the most valuable historical
records issued by the Kansas Histor-
ica1 Society came fTSm the state print
ing plant recently. 1t is history of
Kansas newspapers. The book COM
prises more than four hundred pages
and has list of the papers since the
first was printed, with the date of the
first issue, the founder, the subsequent
owners and combinations and, if dead,
when the last issue was published.
There are a few papers in which the
history is not complete.
+ + r
English Want Kansas Ranch
All I<1SI1SA uO1CdIC willis " III
vest in a big Kansas ranch TO grow
feed and raise cattle to eat it. J. @.
Mohler, secretary of the Kansas Board
of Agriculture, has a letter from W. ].
Stevenson of Kansas City, saying he
is commissioned to purchase as much
as ten thousand acres of land in Kan
sas or Oklahoma for a syndicate of
English investors who want to own
and operate the ranch. It is the plan.
of the syndicate to operate a big stock
growing and feeding business.
r + +
No More Free Records.
That all officers, clerks and en-
ployes of any department of the state
government, except that of the state
auditor, shall be prohibited from fur
nishing certified copies of records I'M
til he shall first obtain from the state
auditor a request for the same is
recommendation made by ]. E. Cation,
state accountant
Insurance Laws Need Revision.
Kansas laws concerning insurance
are an indiscriminate mass of statutes
that must either be codified or re-
placed by an entirely new code. This
is the opinion of Carey J. Wilson, su-
perintendent of insurance
+ + +
Reunited After % Years.
Without recognizing each other,
mother and daughter. separated for
twenty-three years, sat beside each
other in a depot here recently. The
daughter, Mrs Bessie Whitlow Of To
peka, was waiting for her mother, Mrs.
Abbey Conger of Rochester. Ind, to
arrive on a train. Mrs. Conger came
earlier than expected. She called her
daughters husband by telephone and
he repeated the message to his wife
at the depot. The reunion followed.
r + r
School Supplies Cost More.
The state board of administration,
in charge of state schools, in making
estimates of appropriations needed for
the next two years, has found the sup
plies for the institutions will cost 40
per cent more next year than last
year. Some of the supplies for the
Institutions will cost 40 per cent more
chemical laboratories cannot be OBJ
tanned at any price now. The board
will ask for some large appropriations
for additional room at some schools.
There is an increase of six hundred
students at the university and little
loom.
r + +
Gasoline Pumps Are Cheating.
An effort is being made to get the
government bureau of weights and
measures to make a test of gasoline
pumps used in Kansas The bureau
completed test of pumps in Illinois
recently, and found that 80 per cent
of the pumps were giving short meas
IRE. 1t is thought the pumps in Kan
sas are not as bad as a test made of
the pumps in three large towns in the
state indicated that only 20 per cent
of the pumps gave short measure, and
some only on the first gallon of each
purpose.
+ r
Typhoid On Increase.
An increase of over 20 per cent oc-
Cured in the number of typhoid cases
in Kansas reported to the state board
of health during August, over August,