The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1921-06-23

several thousand feet altitude; ability
to land on very small plot of ground;
maneuvering readily in close quar-
tiers; can be held nearly stationary
close to the earth; discharges pas
sengers on rope ladder while machine
hovers over a secluded spot; can be
tied to a fixed object while crew fights
fire; can be used for transporting sup
pies; low cost of operation.
The blimps will be equipped with
75-horsepower Lawrence motors and
will carry three or four persons COM
fortbaly. The blimps will cost about
$1,000 and the operating cost is esti-
mated at about "a cents a mile, in
Guiding total maintenance of the ship
for twenty-four hours, or an actual
fiying-time cost of , y cents per mile.
10000
An Airplane Fire Patrol
An agreement has been signed by
the Forest Service of the United
States Department of Agriculture
and the Red River Lumber Co., in
California, by which the entire fire
protection of about 100000 acres of
timberland owned by the company
will be undertaken by the Govern
ment The cost will be about $4,000
a year. This means that every pre-
caution known to the Forest Service,
both for preventing and fighting for
est fire, will be used. Airplanes will
patrol the timberlands and every for
est ranger will be a fire warden.
The cumberland included in the
100000 acres is in what is called the
Lassen National Forest, in Lassen
County, Calf, near Susanville.
10000
They Don't Want Much
The railroads under the Esch-Cum-
Minis bill are raving failure. The
ownership is private; the control half
private, half public, and the respons-
Utility for earnings is public. AS a
result, the railroads are getting the
bonus habit. They have developed a
keen thirst for public benefaction and
now are asking that the whole bust
ness of the country be turned into
one vast paternalism for the benefit
of the railroads. Their spokesman,
certain Julius Kroninschmidt, of the
Southern Pacific, made five demands
of Congress on behalf of the Amer
lean railroads. Read them and con-
slider how far the roads have gone in
the demand for public swaddling.
They follow:
1. Lay tolls on the Panama Canal
that will discourage traffic and pract-
ically limit a government investment
of $3.50, 100000 to war purposes.
2. Lay tolls on automobiles and
trucks operated for profit that will
drive them off the highways built by
the public at cost of many hundreds
of millions of dollars.
3. Discourage water transportation
by laying prohibitive tolls on its COM
merce.
4. Restore the old short-and-long-
haul practice, with its destructive dis
elimination.
5. Reduce wages TO railroad work
ers.
Failing to comply with these stip-
ulations, Congress will be expected
to provide these alternative remedies:
1. Appropriate out of the public
treasury subsidies that will yield the
railroads the per cent guaranty of
the Cummins-Esch act.
2. The retention of existing freight
and passenger rates and such in
creases as may be necessary to pro-
vide adequate operating costs.
8. Freedom from regulations that
interfere with the Initiative" of rail-
road managers.
Public swaddling without public
ownership is madness. Either the
railroads should be cut loose from all
public control and all public respons-
Utility for their earnings, or the rail
roads should go under absolute public
ownership. The half way, two-phase
system is failure.-W. A. White.
10000
Cow Feed From Sawdust Now
Hydrolized sawdust as part of a
ration for cows is apparently giving
satisfactory results in Wisconsin. The
Forest Service of the United States
Department of Agriculture reports
that cows at the Agricultural College
of that State are doing as well on a
ration consisting of one-third sawdust
as they did when their feed was only
ene-fourth wood meal. That is to
say, they are keeping up their weight
and their milk production and show no
i'll effects from the diet.
The Bureau of Animal Industry is
considering the proposal of the Forest
Service laboratory to start feeding
trials with dairu animals in which the