Norwich bulletin., 1922-12-01

Written Specially For The Bullettr.) -.-It <iEn't only the wheat-growers of the northwest who are in trouble because of the failure of the railroads to carry their crops to market. -.
 The Enillers who grind that wheat in- to flour arc about as badly of. When they've ground what little wheat the roads manage to bring to them. they uant get 1t hauled away to the eastern markets. At least, so says The North western Miller, 8 trade publication de- voted to the milling business and pub ltshed right In tho heart of It.
 AccordInK to this paper. tho north western millerS "aTe up against the worst experienced" For example: One car left Minneapolis August 3 and reached New York October 16. eleven week5 on he road Several shipments made In August or early September are not yet delivered at the seaboard. Two ship ments which were made in August are actually lost, no one being able to find out how far they've got or where they now are. Other shipments which were made to connect with European steam ships were delayed so that they had to be replaced. Even tho capacity of the take fleet of grain carriers has been cut down by half. At least one big Minne- Apolis milling company has withdrawn from all attempts to do an export bus mess, driven out by the cost of freights end sloWness of delivery
 Nice pictures of our boasted trans portation sysson, eh? Makes us all proud of it, eh? Gives us renewed faith ln government control. eh? Fortifes our conviction that railroad wages must be raised. eh? Increases our admiration for Inc congressman who make the laws and he "fussy-minded bureaucrats' who en- force them for railroad regulation, eh?
 Oh, rats!
 Not long ago, one of the wiId-eyed radicals in congress, Mir. LaFollette of Wisconsin, succeeded, by persistent rant tngs and sobbings, in getting his tired colleagues to enact law, supposedly Tor the protection of suffering American Eailors from the extortions and i'll treat nentS of their employers and officers In order to accomplish this end the law so Btrait-jacketed and fettered shipowners and ship-masters, so bound them in the matters of wages, hours, etc, that they have been, ever since it's passage, put 1t almost lnsuperable disadvantage in competing with English. Dutch, Scandi- navian or even German shipping, which was subjected to no comparable
 
 cap. involved in at attempt to enforce Volsteadism on all American vessels threatens to complete the destruction of our infant merchant marine. Already the work Of transferring American ships to. foreign, registry has begun. Unless the subsidy bill is passed, right soon, that process promises to go on with in sreasing momentum.
 In other words, government meddlinE with our water-borne commerce has al- ready brought 1t to a sick bed and threatens to kill 1t unless something powerful In the way of stimulant can be given 1t in. time to stay deaths creep mg fingers.
 Very similar results have followed in he railroad field. For years congress has been poking and pushing and fum- bling at the railroads. It has regulated them, and managed them, and sand bagGed them; 1t has jerked them one way and kicked them another; 1t has wAlloped them with one hand to make them go ahead, adn throttled them with the other for going too fast It has eegulated the wages, they shall pay; it has fixed the rates they shall charge: 1t has undertaken to oversee them in theil down-sitting and their uprising; it has thrown not only monkey-wrenches, but crow-bars and bags of cement into heir machinery. As result they can't hther draw the farmers wheat from North Dakota to Minneapolis, or haul the four from Minneapolis to New York. It's . sweet sort of muddle, now isn't N7 Lack Of vessels on lakes and ocean ack of cars on land; freight rates, when Syen an insufficient number of cars can ee mustered up, so high as to forbid decent payment to producers for their crops while compelling or at least per hitting outrageous -overcharges to con Dtmers.
 And. right in the midst of this come. news from Chicago that the brother. aood of railway and steamship clerks freight handlers, express and station employees Is making formal applica- ton to, the labor board for an advance h wages. Their president is reported to have told the board that their pres. ant average yearly wage Is "only ST., sS7.76." and they can't live for less thar l,s66.SS a year. So they want tht board to order the roads to raise ther, pay to this latter amount.
 At the same time, the whole country k on it's hind legs. bowling that tht railroads must reduce their freigh charges.
 The Idea seems to be that the road. must cut down their incomes by quar ter or half and, at the same time, in Is.
 Talk about the hard lot of the He 6rews when their Egyptian master compelled them to make bricks withou
 trawl y
 Were they any worse treated tha, Ae land and water carriers of this coun s@------- ----A----.---