The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-11-19
Proposed Business Bloch of NJ. Roth on West NJ ain 81.

| distracted owners and run by the ma
jional administration.
"Then followed that saturnalia o.
| mismanagement which left those
| properties bound and. gagged by
| agreements, regulations and workins
rules.
Rates Must Come Down
Immediate action is vital. Mos
rates must come down, and especially
and farthest those on basic necessi
ties like fuel and foodstuffs; and
therefore, since wages and rates are
inseparable, wages must also come
down.
Our whole economic system has
been inflated to the bursting point
and general deflation was and is in
dispensable. The farmers have de.
fated, business men have Debated,
most other labor has debated or is
Debating; and railroad labor must
undergo that common, universal and
necessary process-indeed, labor in
flation in the production of the abso-
lutte necessities of human life such as
coal, housing, food and Transports
ton, is one of the principal elements
in the high cost of living; and nor
NAL wages in such industries is in
dispensable to normal prices.
THE Adamson law must be re-
pealed. The wartime labor classifi-
cations, regulations and so-called
national agreements must be abol-
ished. That curious contriver of
makeshifts, the so-called labor board.
that tells the railway owners how
much they must spend, must be con
nected with that other organ of our
bureaucracy, the Interstate Commerce
Commission, which tells the railway
owners how much they may receive.
If railways are to continue to suffer
straight-iacket regulation, at least
let there be coordination between
outlay and income.
The contract made by the govern
ment with the railway owners when
the lines were taken by the admins
tration must be carried out, the in
debtedness of the roads to the gov
eminent for improvements funded and
that of the government to the roads
paid-all is provided in the agree
ment. Thus railway insolvency will
be averted, hundreds of millions ex-
pended on equipment and better
ments, scores of thousands of now
idle workingmen employed, and all
industries vitalized.
''In short the railway bill passed
by the house months ago. and held up
in the senate, must be speedily en-
acted into law, without mutilation or
fundamental change Sound business
requires and honor demands it.
Auto as Regulator
"No need fear revival of railway
autocracy; a new industrial factor,
the automobile, will moderate rail
way earnings. Auto trucks and motor
busses are already making heavy
reductions in short haul freight and
passenger railway revenue.
IF business is to revive, invest
ing capital must be freed as far as
possible. The excess profits tax must
be repealed-it ought to have been
abolised when the pretext for it dis
appeared.
I'm place of these intricate, in
volved and destructive war expedi-
ents which weaken and destroy bust
ness, give us plain. simple, easily
understood revenue system, based on
business principles, which will, at
once, work less hardship on all the
people and permit business to get in
to action.
FaVors Sales Tax
'In the end we must put a tax on
expenditures as a non-cumulative tax
on sales-while all, alike and equally,
must pay in exact proportion to pur-
chases. That would be genuine and
honest tax on wealth.
"a sales tax is open, above board,
and in plain light of day. 1t is fixed,
certain and cannot be multiplied at
the expense of the consumer by I'M
foreground manipulation.
IF the genius and energy which our
best minds are devoting to the dis
armament conference shall, after the
brilliant success which we know will
crown their efforts in that historic
parley, be employed in devising and
executing ways and means to in
crease American trade in these re-
gions allotted to us by nature, we
might possibly secure desperately
needed markets for our surplus. If
so, more idle laborers would be given
work than were provided with jobs
by the unemployment conference.
"But even the highest statecraft is
not, alone, sufficient; it must be sup
ported by the sense and sentiment of
a staunch patent, level-headed, high
minded people. The situation will APP
ply the supreme test to American
character and to American institu-
lions.
'But never doubt that we shall pre-
vail. American craftsmanship will
be equal to the demand; American
character will stand the test; Amer.
lean institutions will prove adequate,
and vindicate, once more, the wisdom
of the founders Of the republic"