Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1920-06-24


bad off since the European market
will not be as strong as it has been in
recent years. The difficulty that can
be foreseen at this time will be in
harvesting the crop and in transpor-
tation. At the hearings now being
held under Federal authority, at
tempts are being made to straighten
out the railroad situation, and to
make the legislation by which the
roads were returned to their owners
ebcient to the point of making the
railway properties pay returns on the
investments, while at the same time
enabling them to secure new equip
ment and make extensions. The sober
thought of the Nation, as it is being
digested at the Interstate Commerce
Commission hearing, seems to indi-
cate that the railroad problems will
be successfully solved.
Utilities Are Economically Sound.
The rising cost of power produced
by steam and oil has shown its effect
in most articles of manufacture, while
all of the public utilities have been
in disturbed condition because it
was not easy for them to increase the
price of their products to the pubic. Il
Many of the best engineering authoI.E
ties upon the subject believe that the
water power bill which met the ap-
proval of both branches of Congress
would have tendency toward stab
LIKING the public utility situation. The
Stone and Webster Journal saws that
the pre-war judgment of investors
that no business rests upon a more
secure foundation than that of the
electric light and power companies
has been proven during the extraordi-
nary stress Of the last five years"
There is hardly a line of business in
the country, large or small, but that
has its ups and downs. The public
utilities have had theirs and results
show that they are able to weather
adverse storms, just the same as have
agricultural, railroad and banking IN
terests. =
Crowding the Ships. ~
All the people who used to 90 to
Europe every year, but who have
had to stay home for while and see
their own country and learn its beau
ties and superiority over decadent
lands, are trying to get across the
pond again this summer. The steam
ships announce that they are ali
sold out" until Fall.
At the same time hundreds of thou
sands of Europeans who returned to
their native lands after 1914 to engage
IN their great national pastime Of war.
are trying to swell the figures of I'M
migration, and ten thousand aliens a
week have been returning to the Uni
ted States since early Spring. Doubt
less there are million more to come,
and they will all get here sooner or
later, depending upon the capacity of
ships.
Farm Products.
Out Of the war there came the ag-
itation by former Secretary of the
interior Lane favoring a back the
land movement But Mr.. Houston
Wao was then Secretary of Agricul-
ture, was not in sympathy with open
ing more farms. 1t was his idea that
the present farms if properly worked
would supply crops enough to meet all
demands
This latter view rs the essence of
the Mea embodied in the farm loan
act which has proved itself an ex-
ceilent method for man who owns
a farm to purchase another one. But
the whole policy of the Government
has furnished but very little aid to
the man with few or no assets to en-.
gage In farming.