The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1920-02-12
SENATE WASTING
DAYLIGHT HOURS
APPOINTMENT OF IOWA MAN TO
CABINET POSITION APPROVED
BY MANY IN WASHINGTON
RAILROAD QUESTION CAUSE FOR WORRY
Congress Trying to Devise Plan TO
Make War Insurance More Popu-
lar With Ex.Soldiers.
by j. r. Jones.

/ by j. f. Jones.
In the senate recently there was a
sort of post-mortem on the Daylight
Saving Law" and through statements
that were introduced into the Con
gressional Record it is plain that the
commonly repeated charges against
the lighting interests" that they were
actively opposed to the daylight saw
ing law, cannot be sustained. Senator
William NJ. Calder of New York, stated
that he had investigated and found no
evidence to warrant the accusation
that the gas companies of the country
had been spreading propaganda among
the farmers. More directly bearing
upon the subject is the letter of Oscar
Fl. Fogg, secretary manager of the
American Gas Association, to Senator
Calder, in which he says that "the
effect of the daylight saving law upon
gas companies has been SO neglible
as 10 be unworthy of consideration,
and in several large situations which
the writer personally examined, the
difference in sale Of gas, due to day
! light saving, was so small that il
could not even be definitely estab-
| lished."
Incident to this subject an electric
light man at Denver has produced a
classic that should be framed and
hung in the office of every mayor, on
the walls Of all city council cham
bers, and everywhere about the oper-
ating establishments OF public utili-
ties, since the sentence in a few words
defines with absolute correctness the
ideal relations that should exist in
every locality. Says the illuminating
bard of Denver
IAN electric light company may lose
little temporary revenue, but the
r.esperity Of any utility corporation
! is dependent upon the prosperity and
and it will benefit in the long run from
any condition that helps the COM
munty"
A new member has come into the
presidents cabinet, and in assuming
his portfolio in the agricultural de
partment Mr.. Edwin T. Meredith, the
Iowa farm paper editor, has expounded
some very good philosophy to the ef-
feet that business men must look to
the operation of their Establishments,
no matter in what line they may be
engaged, and see that no useless en-
ployee is retained to add to the cost
of distributing what the, farmer now
produces"
Mr.. Meredith starts well, and il he
continues he may prune down the
useless employees" Of the depart
ment of agriculture, of which he is
! the head. He is likely, if he invest!-
gates, t. find that the common talk
in Washington that there are 10000
too many government clerks in the
capital, is an entirely conservative
estimate, and it would be very strange
if some of these were not loafing in
his department. Thousands Of war
workers have become mere parasites
upon the government, and attempts
! TO get rid of them usually result in
their transfer from one branch of
the public business to another. The
political pull' is working overtime.
Overhead costs in distributing what
the farmer now produces" might likely
be cut in the matter of transportation
itself, since General w. W. Atterbury,
who operated the American railroads
! in France put his finger on one Of
the sources of trouble in the Pennsyl-
vania shops, when he told the en-
into the war you were on a piece-work
basis as well as working on a ten
hour day When the government took
over the railroads, piecework was
stopped. The output per man per hour
fell 25 per cent. The shops were put
on an eighthour schedule. This cut
the output an additional Is per cent
so that the output per man per hour
in our shops is but go per cent OF what
it was before the war"
This is a concrete case, and it seems
to verify the statement that the rail.
roads with immensely increased num-
bers Of employees have not been carry
ing on larger volume of business
than under the days of privately con
trolled railroads. Mr. Meredith car
do no better work in Washington than
to help defiate things in the interests
OF the farmers. For he knows that
the men who till the soil, and who have
stuck by their jobs while farm help has
been focking to the city, lured, as a
farmer has put it to the government
by "the promise Of short hours, high
wages. and the promise of a good
time." deserve every consideration that
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