Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-04-30
THE REFEREE
(By Albert Apple)

Prices
Nothing could kill the current
prosperity quicker than a too rapid
advance in prices. Get a runaway
market, with prices jumping out of
reasonable bounds, and the stage
would be set for another period of
depression. Business men, fearing
another buyers strike. seem to real
,ze this.
Wholesale prices of 327 leading
commodities advanced only q trihe
during March. Now they are only
90 per cent (three-ffths) higher
than they were in 1918.
Mummy
1t took those ancient Egyptians
about 20 days to mako a mummy,
undertakeds estimate. The post ex-
pensive method was picking the
body In plain baking soda solution.
Herodotus. about 2373 years ago,
recorded that the Egyptian en-
balmers, when a body is brought
20 them, show the bearers various
models of corpses, made in wood,
and painted so as to resemble ma
iture.'
That was zone ancient form of
scientific salesmanship.
Daughter
1 II Cp9AS pa POV a 1AiOillb " EdP
( port a girl who Is going to high
school. This is estimated in Cleve-
land. It's probably q good average
figure for cities.
Economists tell you that cost of
living is not quite three-fifths higher
than befors the war. You doubt
them, If you have a son or daughter
in school. A man with aan income
Of $50 a month was reasonably we'll
off in the old days. Why, as recent
ly as 1908, we recall how visitors
were driven about the home town
to see the house of the local Stan
dard Oil official who made the in
| credible salary of $3.50 a month.
Piper
Long-distance dancing craze con-
tinues. A New York couple trips
the light fantastic for So hours and
is minutes without stopping.
Claimed they weren't tired at the
finish. They will be. later in life,
| when over-exertion collects the bill.
Like flimsily dressed girls who'll
be wondering 20 years from now
| where they got their rheumatism.
Travelling
/ More passenger autos and trucks
were manufactured in March than
in any month of the past. Total
was 346,3S3 cars, or at a rate of
| over four million a year. We're on
wheels. weakening our legs and get
ting round-shouldered. Good news
for doctors.
You wonder where the growth OF
the auto industry will stop.
1t all depends on how fast the
inventors perfect a fool-proof air.
plane that can be sold cheaply. I'M
portant developments in Dayton
where a new helicopter rises 20 feet
in the air. H~elicopters, rising
straight up and descending straight
down, do away with the need of a
long landing field, They're the COM
ing thing" will be kept in garages
with the door in the roof.
Boom
Railroads are getting ready for
the heaviest movement of freight on
record. next autumn. Looks as if
they will not be disappointed. A
business boom, almost beyond inn
~agination, is getting under way. Hope
it doesn't die in youth. The rail-
roads, since Jan. l, 1e22, have spent
over a billion and a half dollars OH
new equipment and improvements.
There's already a shortage of over
10000 freight cars now. And nearly
10000 locomotives are laid up fol-
repairs-getting to he a chronic con-
dition. The present boom will be-
gin to break down in the transperta-
ton end. Shortage CT adequate
terminals is more severe than car
shortage. Population is getting so
congested it's becoming physically
impossible to keep us producing at
full speed.