Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1918-12-23

claiming similar surplus years. Ney-
ertheless, there is good reason to be-
lieve that the department, il subjected
to systems of. accounting such as are.
imposed by the interstate commerce
commission, would show a. steady loss.
The railroad administration and the
postmaster general are certainly very
wobbly with reference to their new res
possibilities brought on by the war.
Their whole plea for continued control
of the great properties directed by
them, is justified by the claim that
they should be experimental upon dis
sected and improved in the public in
terests. And so Mr.. McAdoo and MI.
Burleson want to continue to turn the
politicians loose as prey upon these
industrials and utilities, assuming that
inexperienced men of this class, most
of whom have sOcialisitic tendencies,
are better equipped to lay out course
for these arteries of the nation, than.
the-men who have beep trained to the
job, and who have brought the proper
ties along the pathway from swaddlins,
clothes and pioneer days to matured
strength and modern times.
In this problem one finds the princi-
pal responsibility which other states
men and politicians assume towards
the multifarious affairs of the county.
Many big problems seem to be over
looked entirely, and official govern
ment appears to have lost its morale.
An oculist would define craftsmanship
as, near-sighted since at present it sees
nothing but rails, steam engines and
wires. And craftsmanship has no ears,
for any sounds except
those of the hello girl, dots and
dashes, and the whistle of locomotivess
Even demOcracy's stentOrian voice
seems choked with the flu, and the in
dications are that nobody works but
he's gone to Europe
bless his mission!
Can You Reconstruct Destruction?
With the shutters pulled down in
the American shooting gallery, the per-
iod of taking Inventories is upon us,
and the balance sheet displayed at the
reconstruction congress convened at
Atlantic City tells some startling
tales. While many industries have
profited immensely from the war,
there is also trail of destruction; and
the industrial casualty list reveals the
fact that large part of the public
utilities of the United States went into
the war without bullets for their guns.
While Mr.. McAdoO was saving the
railroad situation by shooting up the
charges for service thirty or forty per
cent, the street railroads. lighting and
power plants were struggling along un-
der conditions that have been carrying
them toward the same fate that over
took the classic one-hoss shay. Sixty
three per cent of the electric railway
lines of the United States has suffered
a falling off in net income OF eighty
two per cent for the first six months OF
1918 as compared with the correspond
ing period of 1917. Material and labor
costs have brought the utilities almost
to the verge OF destruction, and these
important features of civic and indus
rial life have turned to the communiT
ties that they serve for relief from
onerous conditions. While the world
talks reconstruction, the local appli-
cation of the principle seems difficult
to apply, and the politicians pop up
promiscuOusly in every locality to tell
the utility man that, well, you made
a bargain, now stick to it" Recon-
struction, to their minds, lis intended
for Europe, Asia and Africa, or any
other old place except nome. The Am
erican Electric Railway association has
set Oh foot movement TO make an
analysis of the reconstruction problems
relating to local franchises, with
view to bringing about Il radical reyi-
sion of the existing arrangements. The
stern fact that cOnfrOnts the public
with respect to public utilities calls
for remOdeling of the existing ar
rangements between the operators and
the owners of the properties and the
communities they serve. if destruction
OF this great national activity is to be.
avoided.
BOught a 1850 Acre