The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1920-11-11
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL
By J. +. Jones.

utilities and the communities which
they serve. Primarily this is due TO
the d~eepseated n Of justice that
exists in the hearts of the American
people, whose common sense told
them that the universal change in
industrial and economic conditions
could not overlook the public utilities
in the readjustment.
In furtherance of this conviction
the appointment of the federal cleo
trio railways commission by the pres
ident, and the report which the latter
presented, served the purpose Of es-
tablishing a basis for the considera-
ton Of street railway fares and the
changes in franchise conditions in d.f-
ferent parts of the United Staes. AL
ready most of the street railways or
the country have been absolved from
the necessity Of doing business on the
fve-cent fare. The politicians who
sought to make capital out of the
upset relations between communities
and their street railways have been
met by a public apparently wiling
TO FACE the new conditions in trans
portation. The street railway man
agements that have shown a dispo-
sition to supply the public with the
highest efficiency at the lowest cost,
under public supervision and con-
troll broad enough to safeguard the
public interest and to protect the in
vestors, while at the same time pre-
serving a condition guaranteeing the
proper wages to employees, recoS-
nizing the right of the men to a
collectively with their employers,
have furnished a method of action
that has eased the way towards re-
constructing public relations with ref
erence to the utilities.
An interesting statement by the
car service division of the American
Railway association tells of the sue
cess of the railroads in producing
greatly enlarged service from their
existing equipment. At the termina-
ton of federal control the freight cars
of the American railroads were scat
tered helter-skelter. There were too
many box cars in the east and too
MANY coal cars in the west. Follow
ing the armistice the railroads pre-
pared for handling the crop OF lyle
bv providing a reserve of $4,000 cars
on western railroads. But in the
spring of 1920 the distribution of box
cars supplied to meet the demand an
ticipated in connection with an IN
usually heavy wheat crop, followed
.dy a rec~ord-breaking corn crop, pre-
scented a difficult situation. According
to the car service division, the rau-
roads succeeded in returning more
than 90 per cent of all box cars owned
by the western railroads to them by
September Is. The number of cars
actually delivered to western railroads
since that time amounts to over twice
the number OF cars they were snort
AS COlliIbiItu Nlih Nv wv 49,
June /. This relocation movement
has beer particularly difficult be-
cause of the great demand for cars
from all sections has made it neceS-
sary to deprive certain parts OF the
country of the cars belonging to their
roads, irrespective Of the rights OF
their particular lines. Eastern roads
are. as a matter of fact, delivering 10
western lines at Chicago, Peoria and
st. Louis a designated number OF cars
ner day in excess of the number re-
uuired for equalization of equipment
as provided for in the original reloca-
ton movement. These cars are be-
ing distributed between the roads of
the west in such manne as to give
quick relief to the roads whose sup
uply is below the average, and par
ticularly to lines which have been
losing cars during the past few weeks
bv a of heavy eastbound ship
ments.
1Io uulupVI Va ohiSSAp
who entered the war and who nave
now chosen army life as their perma-
nent occupation, indicates that the
life of a soldier is not altogether 1rk-
some in peace times. Educating the
men in khaki has proved a distinct
hit with the war department, and it
also appears that the men whom po-
liticians have been telling us are be
ing held in Germany and elsewhere,
are not having such a hard time after
all. Major General E. c. Harris. the
adjutant general of the army says:
"The service in Germany has proved
to be so attractive that the ranks are
always filled. Our chief difficulty is
that regiments are apt to be over
enlisted before We can stop the re-
cruiting officers from accepting more
applicants, and we must send such
men to the station for which they
were accepted"
Equally popular is army service in
Hawaii. and as a rule few recruits can
be accepted for duty there. However.
Tho 10Th EIald Artillery has left the