Norwich bulletin., 1918-06-05
FACTS AND COMMENT

The expected increases in railway passenger and freight rates are defni- tely set for the 10th and 25th of this month respectively. Freight rates are be raised 25 per cent, while pas- Senger fares are to be on a basis of three cents a mile, with which in- creases comes the abolition of mileage books and higher charges for excess baggage. Communication fares are to advance ten per cent. Passengers in parlor and sleeping cars, besides the customary charge for these special ae- commodations must pay a transporta- tion fare one sixth more than that paid by the passenger in the ordin- ary day ycoach. The increase in freight rates will be reflected in the prices of commodities when sold to the consumer, while the added cost of passenger travel will t3 some degree reduce travelling for pleasure and thereby free track and equipment for the more necessary freight uansporta- tion. Pleasure trips by rail will in- deed be an expensive luxury, the more so that the regular war tax of eight per cent. will be reckoned on the new and higher rate of fare. The total in- creases should give the railways
 $e0,. 600 900 extra income each year, all of which will be absorbed by the added cost of labor and material. Under government operation and in the stress of war the railways are obtaining what they have been consistently deni- ed by the same government in time of peace.
 Major General Leonard Wood, the highest ranking officer of permanent grade in the regular army, on the If Pry. fT1 Er,-an has been relieved of the command of the S9th National Army division that
 he has trained at Camp Funston in
 Kansas, and assigned to purely ad- ministrative duties in San Francisco. No explanation of this astonishing order is forthcoming either from the l White House or the war department and the country is left to it's own conjectures as to the reasons for this latest surprise i'll Gen. Woods re-
 markahle career.
 Leonard Wood, NJ D., a splendid 1 type of volunteer officers became
 colonel of the so-called Rough Riders
 in the Spanish War, while Theodore l Roosevelt was the lieut.. colonel There after the former struck to the soldier s life and was transferred to the regular
 army while Roosevelt went to the White House. Woods rise was rapid but, because he was not a West Pointer, the appointment as head ot l the regular army would doubtless have
 never come to him except for the fact that his friend President Roosevelt had
 the appointing power. This rapid ad-
 vance of a civilian physician to the | highest military position in the nation 1 could not fail to cause a stir, yet ii was one of those things that Teddy could do and get away with, nor any one ever questioned Gen. Woods hlgf character and abality. AS father o1 the Plattsburg idea, Gen. Wood has
 rendered his greatest service, and as a direct result the nation has thou
 sands of officers adequately. trained to whip the new army into shape, ana themselves intellectually capable O learning the great game of moderr
 war in the shortest possible time a
 the front. It was Gen. Woods per sonality and enthusiasm that attract
 ed this splendid type of men to thu
 training camps months before tht
 country woke up to the fact that wa
 was imminent.
 The President Lincoln, sixth in sig
 of our army transports, was submarin : ed Friday morning in the war zone ant | sank Tn an hour. Like the AnllIls 7 and the Moldavia, the President Lin , coin was attacked on her return voy
 age, hence very few lives were lost The vessel was a former Hamburg American liner and was one of four t which their owners had given Ameri
 can names with the intention of mak ing them more popular with America, | travellers. In spite of the loss of thi one ship, the Hamburg American flee is even now carrying more America passengers than the company antici Z pated!