Washington telegraph., 1919-10-31
WOULD OPEN STREETS

the trees is an ignoramus, / want to
ask him where this country would
be if we had not cut the trees He
can answer that question in but one
way-lt would be a bowling wilder
ness, filled with Indians. wild cats
and such like. Pegasus talks about
opening the streets, but if things were
as he would have them there would
be no streets to open. Don't under
stand that | oppose opening the
streets, for | do not; on the other
hand am in favor of opening up
all streets when you get to them, that
is, when they are needed for the pub
lie use, and not because some fellow
gets it into his hair that because he
is ordered to open street which is
needed that all must be opened up
at once. Now the way | understand
the matter, the streets in Washington
are not laid off with the land lines
but run northeast and southwest, and
the land upon which the town was laid
laid off was divided into square
forties, which necessarily makes
some of the streets on the outer
edges of the town very short; they
commence nowhere and end at the
same place. Why they were laid off
this way | have been unable to figure
out unless it was to give the "Sons
Of Rest" one shady side at any time
of day. Anyway, it does away with
the necessity for shade trees, that are
generally used to hitch mule to.
You say that the men who set out
these trees should call the marshaPs
attention to the matter and have the
mule removed and a line applied to
the owner, but did you ever reflect
that the owner of the mule is likely
] to be a Customer of the man who set
out the tree? If the merchant did
such thing, then the customer would
move his mule over in front of the
other fellows store and the nuisance
would continue, because the other fell
loA would figure that he had gained
a customer and keep his mouth shut
about the mule, so the trees are made
to serve as a hitching rack and the
streets continue to throw off the odors
of barnyard. say move the tree
and you will have no trouble with
the mule. and incidentally YOU may
save the annoyance of having a
chaw of tobacco kicked out of your
mouth, which, considering the high
cost Of living, would be expensive.
Speaking of the high cost of liv-
ing makes me think of many things,
as the "Walrus said" but | will take
up only a little time to mention a
few right now.
The first thing l want to know is,
what's the matter with the cattle bus
mess. Our quorum court says we
must continue to dip, but only every
twenty-eight days. What they have
got to do with that part of it / am
unable to figure out. My understand
ing is that it is their business to put
up and shut up; however, that is
neither here nor there, and perhaps
has nothing to do with the question
up for consideration.
What | want to know is, why is
it that the cattle are SO cheap when
you go to sell and so high when you
buy it back in the shape of beef? Why
are shoes so high when cattle are so
cheap? | notice where retailers take
whole pages of newspapers that must
cost hundreds of dollars for the space
to explain why shoes are so high,
when if they would take that amount
of money off of the price of shoes it
would be much more satisfactory to
the buyer. But they say the. high
price of shoes is from the fact that
leather is a by-product, as a COW is
not killed for the leather but for
the beef, and as people use so much
less beef now than they have hereto
fore, this by-product is scarce and
consequently high. Now, considering
the price of beef there is little won
der that people do not use more, and
the higher the price, the less they will
use, and the less they use, the higher
the price, so we may expect beef to
continue to go up and this by-product
to go higher and take shoes on up
with it. And all this time we are
dipping our cattle and making their
hides grow thicker so they will make
better shoes. Did anyone ever stop to
reflect how much better SHOES a COW
hide will msR when it will resist a
vat that will test rising Fl than a
hide that will peel or in a vat that
win test Is? Now here is some
thing to think about, and it is reason,
too. Suppose we commence dipping
our cattle at say ID and keep on in
creasing the dip in strength until we
get to 25LJust do this gradually so