Norwich bulletin., 1918-08-21
FACTS AND COMMENT

Sence from Washington, and he has eX- pressed himself as favoring it as a na- tional enterprise in case the railways should long continue under govern ment control. The longest electrified piece of what was formerly steam -op- erated railway is the 40 mile stretch
 of the Chicago. Milwaukee & St. Paurs
 Pacific extension across the Rockies,
 the power being derived from Great
 Falls, Montana. What was formerly
 long and tedious piece of slow climb
 ing behind two or more locomotives
 during which firemen toiled and pas
 sengers choked, has now become a
 most delightful ascent of most beau
 tiful mountain range, fast, clean and
 quiet. To make the engineering feat
 ideally perfect the force of the de-
 scending train is utilized to store up
 energy to assist the ascent. Another stretch of over two hundred miles of
 the same railway in the same north
 west is almost completely electrified. Nearer home the identification of the Grand Central terminal of the New Haven lines and the Pennsylvania terminal and tunnels are proof that the technical difficulties have been largely overcome and that the remain ing problem is one of finance. The identification of a railroad is so expensive that only the richest roads have been able to afford it. To extend the system over the entire country | would be a problem so vast that it would call for the limitless resources | of the national government. Further
 more it is right and proper for the 1 government to embark on the project. Electrifcation is not for the present alone but for all time, hence the pres | ent generation of stockholders should not be called upon to pay the entire l cost out of their present dividends. 1 The resulting economy of coal also would be a blessing to the entire na- | tion, if indeed it would not always be
 as now necessary to it's continued eX- l istence. The locomotive is about the
 most Wasteful machine that man has
 devised. It uses three times the coal
 per horse power that would be neces-
 sary in modern electric power sta
 tion. At present the railroads use a | quarter of all the coal that is mined l Closely connected with the absolute
 saving of coal would be the sowing in | transportation. Under present condi- 1 ditionS sixteen per cent of the freight
 moved by the railways is coal for their own use. Central power stations could be placed so that their fuel could reach them by cheap water transpor- tation, but most plants would not de- pend on coal at all times but would
 derive their power from waterfalls.
 Coal is synonymous with discomfort
 and dirt, water with comfort anC cleanliness. Every pound of coal has
 to be toilsomely dug from the hear d of the earth. water once directed
 comes fairly running to it's task. Ont
 need but step into the cool clean anC
 airy powerhouse above the turbines a
 Niagara, and then let his imagination carry him over all the repulsive step:
 connected with the use of coal. Int
 darkness, danger and dirt of the mine
 the unhealthy toll of the miner, th'
 squalor of the mining town, the heav.
 clal king coal trains, the dirty dock
 and pockets, the hlackened drivers passers and trimmers, the hot, smell. ; | tirerooms-all mean the hard. unloVel.
 and uninspiring toll. of millions o men. To eliminate all this, the dam , age to property, the injury to health
 the crushing of the soul would be national benefit for witch d natiol
 should pay. Ire electritication of tn railways woGid be the longest ste toward that happy condition.
 Tn, Allies have made little visibI progress eastward in France durin the past week but have kept up 3 continuous pressure the whole lengt g of the line, On the Lys salient i Flanders the British keep nibblin
 ava above and below the Somm both British and French are gradual ly forcing the Germans to vabando g their advanced posts, and along tn s Aisne and the Vesle all the way | S Rheims American gunners among tn | c-TI-
 shells into the enemy lines north ( | those rivers. Any further offensiv for the hardpresSed Germans seem l impossible; a substantial retreat woul , seem to be inevitable. Already tn : Allies are pressing hard on Bra. l Ghaulnes, Rove, Lassigny and Noyol
 Thus far the retreating German lin a i.as hinged on Albert. Another re a |. eat would have to hinge on Ara - twenty miles further north, and tn . territory given up would include Ba Q tpaume. Peronne and Ham and woul 7 bring the fighting into the region { t the so-called Hindenburg Line Vine Il that moment comes the Germans wi . be back on the line from which the - started their March advance. the !, reserves expended, their morale low :. cred their home population deceive and disheartened and million and = half Americans on the fields of Franc Not only have the Allies consuls le
 Moscow but the removal of the Ge1
 .han consulate to Pskoy indicates u y complete failure of Germany's Russia
 policy. Through highhanded robbel
 and outrageous threats the count
 that might have filled the mouths
 her people and the ranks of her arn1i l. has been so thoroughly aroused thi J. nothing but sullen indifference and II
 taliatory murder has resulted. Vii :, decent treatment Russia would ha' proved Germany's salvation. The
 were no blacker moments in all u s war than those in which the Ali
 saw Russia crumbling and all h er limitless possibilities falling into u le power of the Kaiser But the ut l. inability of the Germans to understal
 the other people of the earth h ,s ruined their cause. The Russia ,a peasant wanted nothing but lal :; enough to cultivate and a chance
 Ill make a decent living. Instead of tr
 ing to establish law and order Gernnt ne agents, many of them prisoners
 k war. went throughout the count De posing as 'Internationals'' and preac
 ing the doctrine of the right of t ,a proletarian to everything that
 ~ could lay his hands on. Local COT III mittees were appointed by the Bolsh T. wiki in every place in Russia wi
 power to condemn and confiscate ell the name of the people. Every head be cattle, every field of grain, eve