Evening star., 1923-04-25

The American Railway Association
announces a program of increasing
efficiency, that, in itself, demonstrates
how much slack there has been,
which may be taken up. For example,
1t is proposed to increase the aver
age mileage per car to thirty miles
a day. 1t has been only about TWEEN
ty-two miles q day. Cars have been
running at the whizzing speed of a
miles an hour, or less. Now, If they
can be speeded up so that they will
60 q mile and q third an hour, actu-
ally beating q tortoise, 1t will be
equivalent to adding millions Of
dollars worth of equipment.
It is proposed also to load the cars
better, so as to average thirty tons
per car, and to reduce the proportion
Of cars in the shops, laid up for re.
more than s per cent of the equip
ment of cars and 15 per cent of loco
motives out OF service.
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During 1929 the railroads borrowed
money and invested s44o,o00,ooo in
equipment and trackage; in 1929. the
program calls for $1,54o.oo0.000 for
the same purpose. but il the taking
up OF the slack In the matter of mile
age per day per car, and the full
loading, be accomplished, it will
amount to more, in efficient service,
than all the new equipment. The low
mileage is mainly due to the time the
cars are held stationary while load
ing and unloading, and that can be
reduced by the adoption of better
methods.
The Department of Agriculture
announces that the grain futures act,
which the Supreme Court has recently
upheld, does not necessarily abolish
trading in futures, SO long as the
exchanges do not seek to corner the
market or send out misinformation,
and do not bar cooperative farm
organizations from seats on change:
The law empowers the Secretary of
Agriculture to control the actlons OF
exchanges In these matters, which
gives assurance OF a square oeai iof
the grain rdisers.
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1t is not only lumber that we
Americans are using faster than
nature can reproduce the supply. 1t
is announced by DIR. II. +. Moore.
deputy commissioner OF the United
States bureau of fisheries, that the
Maryland oyster beds suffer net de-
crease of $4,000 bushels of oysters an
nually. We are using 100000 bushels
wear At the present rate, the
supply which had been bult up
through the centuries, Will soon be
exhausted.
The remedy proposed includes the
shutting down on gathering any
years, and the return of all oyster
shells to the ocean, instead or using
them for road making oysters must
have a firm foundation on whlcn 10
cling, and that had been gotten III
the ocean bed through the centuries
OF accumulation of the bivalves, their
shells forming the hard bottom. Ine
oyster gatherers have not returned
shells and the ocean bed has accumu-
lated slime or sand so that the oysters
cannot anchor. The industry EN-
pIoyes $4,000 people and the loss OF
the millions of bushels OF the pivaiees
would be a serious blow TO the dietary
OF hungry Americans.
An expert announces that all the
world is on the road to insanity. lie
saws this is indicated by the fact that
Nobody works, or plays, or does any
tbtns, normally. We work like mad
we play like mad; whatever we do,
we do it with all the intensity OF
crazy enthusiasm"
+ This conclusion had been reached
before the marathon dancing craze
had struck the country. but that craze
certainly tends to verify what the
ts nT
when one loses poisc and moderation
and reasonableness in his conduct.
The world war was an outbreak OF
an insane kaiser, and the lunacy be
came contagious, as lunacy is apt to
do. 1t is said that il is rare that
sane patients fail to betray some
form of insanity themselves, after
years of contact. The world has not
uecome normal since the war. 1t is
even now acting as If on the verge
of a great outbreak OF violence,
which, in the light of reason, Is
nothing short of national suicide. 1t
may be suicide of civilization.
The motto of the new president
general of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, Mrs. Cook,
might well be taken as world
motto: Keep steady" There is
nothing more needed than just that
idea: Keep steady" Conserve poise.
both personal and national. Nerves
are tangled, nothing moves quickly
enough; nothing goes right; people
do not act as we are sure they ought
to act Keep steady"
When Stutterer wants to over
come his trouble, he sometimes sings
what he wants to say, depending on
the regular rhythm of the music to
keep him steady, as a governor