Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1921-04-20

The railroads are beginning to find
out the truth of the adage that the
poorest business Of all is no business
Thousands of freight cars glut the
tracks because freight rates are so
high that goods are not moving.
Passenger cars are empty because no
one can afford to travel. Factories
are idle because shipping charges ex-
coed manufacturing costs. Coal mines
are deserted because freight rates per
ton exceed by far the cost of mining.
And so on.
1t is evident that if some good gen.
Jus would transport commodities free
the price of lumber would be the same
in Wisconsin as it is in Georgia in
stead of being SAT per thousand feet
here and $12 a thousand feet there.
Corn would be as cheap in New York
as it is in Iowa and hard coal as cheap
in Kansas as it is in Pennsylvania. A
few cents here and there in freight
schedules apparently mean nothing
but in reality they mean a great deal
The hand that writes the freight sched-
ule is the hand that rules the world
Freight rates were so high last fall
that Nebraska farmers burned corn
Pennsylvania miners were warm but
hungry for bread
The entire welfare of the country
is inextricably bound up in this
problem of transportation. 1t must
be grappled with intelligently and
before there can be any real pros
perity.
1t is a common habit with us to de-
ride and belittle those We place in
authority The American people have
done this from the time when the
greater number regarded Washington
as an aristocrat Lincoln, many said
was half-baked tyrant. Roosevelt
was called an egotistical blunder-buss.
Wilson has been called insane and a
number of other things. The same
things or worse will be said of Hard
ing In fast have already been said
although they would not stand print
ing. IN fact have already been said
in seeking proof of the first statement;
they abound all through our history.
We regard congress as a joke, rep
resentatives as half-wits, senators as
polished crooks, legislators as grafters
and incOmpetentS and city councils
as lazy louis and petty robbers. We
take the same attitude toward our pub
lie service corporations. Is there a
town anywhere where the water rates
are not too high, the phone service
impossible, the electric service poor
and expensive? If So please write.
All officials in any sense in touch
with public service work are incom-
petent dubS too lazy to draw an hon
est breath and too crooked to lay in
bed straight. To even suggest that
any one of them could be brainy, effic-
lent or industrious would be answered
as derisively as to hint that lawyer
knew anything or could be trusted,
that banker was by any means hon
est, clergyman not a hypocrite, a
doctor anything but a quack and a
lecherOuS butcher or that an news
paper ever took the trouble to ascer-
tain let alone tell the truth--that the
editor was not a perverted rascal who
could be bought in half dozen diff
ferent ways and that his product was
not joke combination-half lies and
the other half mistakes!
People without a saving sense of
humor take all this very seriously
and it hurts them greatly They do
not realize that the American people
are the greatest kidders and joshers
eXtant from the time of the flood to
the present and beyond We think
we mean all the rubbish we talk but
we don't. Consciously or unconscious
ly we recognize that our public ser
wants are about as good as we our
selves are and that we don't deserve
better.