T

HE critics of railway operation under government management have been answered in a statement recently issued by Theodore H. Price, who is now actuary to the United States Railroad Administration at Washington.

Mr. Price briefs the grievances of the various complainants as follows:

1. The advance in freight and passenger

rates.

2. The abolition of the through bill of lading for export freight and the cancellation of export and import rates.

3. The dismissal of solicitors who "took an interest in the handling of the traffic" and the consolidation of freight and ticket offices.

4. The withdrawal of the credit previously allowed in the matter of freight charges which must now be paid before or upon the delivery of the goods unless the consignee gives a bond that will protect the Government.

5. The difficulty of getting information regarding tariffs and rates.

6. The discontinuance of the package car service between important jobbing and consuming sections.

7. The withdrawal of the shippers' right to route their freight as they chose.

Mr. Price also quotes the following editorial from a prominent daily newspaper:

"We have now some details as to the first five months of government operation of the railways; and while it is far too soon to pass any judgment, two facts stand out very strongly and are worthy of note.

"The first is that in these five months, on the face of the figures, the roads carried slightly less ton-mileage than in 1917. This, in spite of the tremendous pressures of war and of the known increase in many lines of production, is certainly very significant. Extra traffic has been carried in other ways, largely, as we know, by motor trucks.

"The second fact is that the number of available locomotives and cars remained practically the same as in the first part of 1917. There was no increase. The roads were taken over for their supposed inefficiency. But the Government, with all its money and power, has found it easier to acquire experience than to increase the efficiency of the railroad machine.

"After five months of unlimited credit and power there is no increase in cars or locomotives, or rail movement, or tonnage hauled. To move their increased traffic the industries

of the country have had to resort to the highly expensive carriage by motor trucks over the country roads. This may have been unavoidable, and the railway administration, like the fuel bureau, may have done everything possible. It may prove its wonderful efficiency and high superiority in time. We merely point out there is no evidence yet that the Government is performing no miracles that might not have been expected of the roads themselves, if they had simply had enough money to go ahead in their ordinary way."

Mr. Price says that this is a fairly complete summary of the criticism that is being directed at governmental administration of railways, and after quoting the statistics upon which it purports to be based he adds that while they show that the number of tons of freight carried one mile during the first five months of the year was 0.6 per cent less than during the same months last year, they also show that the loaded car freight mileage traveled in the carriage of this freight was 552.868.512 miles, or 8.6 per cent less than the distance traveled under private management in the carriage of nearly the same ton mileage of revenue freight during the same period in 1917.

Dealing with the reduction in the average daily mileage of locomotives and freight cars, he points out that this is due to the heavier train load and car load, and explains that it is not economically practicable to haul heavy trains as fast as light ones, and that the Railroad Administration has adopted the policy of loading trains to capacity and moving them on schedules that are not too fast to be maintained.

This showing, he claims, indicates not inefficiency, but a striking increase in the efficiency with which the railroads are being operated, and asserts that it is directly due to the heavier loading of the freight cars and the greater train load now pulled by each engine.

He continues as follows:

The average carload has been increased from 26.2 to 28.5 tons, or 8.8 per cent. If this ratio is maintained, it will be the equivalent of an addition of 8.8 per cent. or 211,200 freight cars to the present equipment of about 2,400,000 cars, and if the ratio of increase in the train load, equal to 2.7 per cent, is maintained, it will be the equivalent of adding about 1,750 to the present equipment of some 65,000 locomotives of all sorts.

Surely this is better than buying new cars and locomotives at a time when they can only be had at extravagant prices and the manufacturing energies of the country are overtaxed to provide the things required for the winning of the war.

Instead of proving the inefficiency of government management, these figures furnish the strongest possible proof of its efficiency and wisdom in demonstrating that the old cars and engines are being made to do more work than they performed under private management. The same progress toward the intensive use of the present equipment is to be found in the report of loaded cars arriving at Philadelphia and Pittsburgh during the first four weeks of July. This report is as follows:

Comparative statement loaded cars and tonnage contents arriving at Philadelphia and Pittsburgh four weeks ending July 27, 1918, and corresponding four weeks previous year.

1918...

1917...

Cars. Tonnage. 100,228 3.023,207 107,158 2,752,765

These figures show an increase of 9 per cent in the tonnage and a decrease of 7 per cent in the cars used. The number of tons per car in July, this year, is 30.2 as against 25.7 tons in the same period last year. The increase of 18 per cent if it were general throughout the country, would be the equivalent of an addition of about 432,000 cars to the freight car equipment of the railroads.

Although the Government has recently ordered 100,000 new freight cars and about 4,000 engines have been under order for a long time, to provide for the expected increase in the traffic, they cannot be turned out in a day and while waiting for them the present capacity of motive power and rolling stock is being scientifically increased, not only by increasing the car load and train load, but by sending the traffic over the shortest and least resistant routes without regard to the caprice of the shipper. Moreover, priority has been given to orders for the large number of locomotives required by General Pershing for military operations in France and the locomotive works have been thereby prevented from delivering promptly the engines ordered for the railroads.

In several cases the distance that freight in transit between two important cities formerly traveled has been shortened by from 200 to 500 miles and in one instance recently some 8,999 cars carrying freight between two western cities were within a period of sixty days re-routed so as to effect a saving of 195 miles in the mileage traveled by each car. This was the equivalent of 1,754,644 car miles, which at six cents a car mile means a saving of $105,278.

As to the alleged movement of freight by motor truck it can only be said that the Government is moving regular freight and passenger trains promptly, notwithstanding the extra tax imposed on its facilities by a troop movement now averaging 1,100,000 men per month, that there is no freight congestion or delay, that the cars supplied to the coal mines are now in excess of the daily loadings and that if shippers are sending their goods in unusual quantities by motor truck, which is not provable and is doubtful, their action is not the result of a lack of railway transportation.

In fact, the Railroad Administration has of late been urging merchants to take advantage of the present carrying ability of the railways to stock up against their winter's needs when weather conditions make train operation more difficult.

Of the other items in the indictment of government operation of the railways referred to it Mr. Price remarks:

1. That the advance in the cost of transportation is less than the advance in wages and the price of almost every other commodity that society requires.

2. That through bills of lading for export cannot be issued because the Government has preempted the ocean room and there is no assurance that the goods can be forwarded upon arrival at the seaboard.

3. That as competition between the railroads no longer exists there is no occasion for competitive solicitors and ticket offices and that their abandonment will save the railroads about $23,000,000 annually.

4. That the Government is not authorized to extend credit to consignees for the freight they owe when the goods are delivered, and that it cannot exceed its legal authority.

5. That a new and simplified classification and rate book has been prepared and will be effective and available as soon as the shippers themselves approve it.

6. That a continuance of the package car service would have involved a wasteful use of facilities that are needed for the winning of the war, and

7. That if shippers were allowed to select the routes by which their freight would be carried, the efficiency and economy that are shown to have been secured by re-routing could not have been obtained.

To this categorical refutation of the grievances alleged by complainants whose attitude reminds one of the couplet which

runs

"The good old times

All times are good when old,”

and suggests that they are to be classed with the chronic reactionaries and opponents of progress, I can only add that two months' close study of what has been and may be done under a unified management

toward increasing the serviceable efficiency of the American railways convinces me that the wisdom of the President's action in

taking over the transportation facilities of the country will be cumulatively demonstrated as the years roll by.

WHAT YOUR SUBSCRIPTION MEANS

When you subscribe to a Liberty Loan you subscribe to the sentiment that the word must be made safe for democracy and subscribe to the fund that is to make the world safe for democracy.

You subscribe to the belief that innocent women and children on unarmed ships shall not be sent to the bottom of the sea; that women and children and old men shall not be ravished and tortured and murdered under the plea of military necessity; that nurses shall not be shot for deeds of mercy, nor hospital ships be sunk without warning, or hospitals and unfortified cities be bombed or cannonaded with long-range guns.

You subscribe to the doctrine that small nations have the same rights as great and powerful ones; that might is not right, and that Germany shall not force upon the world the dominion of her military masters.

You subscribe, when you subscribe to a Liberty Loan, to the belief that America entered this war for a just and noble cause; that our soldiers in France and our sailors on the sea are fighting for right and justice. And you subscribe to the American sentiment that they must and shall be powerful, efficient, and victorious.

SOME OF THE BITS YOUR LIBERTY BOND
WILL DO

If you buy a $100 bond of the Fourth Liberty Loan you are lending the United States Government enough money to feed a soldier in France a little more than seven months. Or you have furnished enough money to give him a complete outfit of winter and summer clothing, including shoes and stockings, and slicker and overcoat and blankets, with enough left over to arm him with a good revolver. You have done that much to beat back the Hun.

It takes $35 more to arm him with a rifle with a bayonet on it, and if you buy a second $100 bond you furnish him this rifle and 1,000 cartridges for it; and there will still be enough of your money left to purchase a good-sized bomb to throw in a dugout, or demolish a machine gun together with the Huns operating it.

WAR PROFITS TAX AND EXCESS PROFITS TAXTHE DIFFERENCE

"By a war-profits tax we mean a tax upon profits in excess of those realized before the

war.

"By an excess-profits tax we mean a tax upon profits in excess of a given return upon capital.

"The theory of a war-profits tax is to tax profits due to the war.

"The theory of an excess-profits tax is to tax profits over and above a given return on capital. The excess-profits tax falls less heavily on big business than on small business, because big business is generally overcapitalized and small businesses are often undercapitalized.

"The war-profits tax would tax all war profits at one high rate; the excess-profits tax does and for safety must tax all excess profits at lower and graduated rates."

The above extract from Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo's testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee gives his differentiation between war-profits and excess-profits taxes and explains his position in urging upon Congress an excessprofits tax with an alternative war-profits tax in the forthcoming revenue legislation.

To the average citizen Secretary McAdoo's position seems well taken. Most small and local corporations are capitalized at an actual valuation. Many of the very large corporations are greatly overcapitalized; the stock of some of them has been repeatedly watered. With only an excessprofits tax a corporation earning 10 per cent on grossly watered capital will pay the same tax as another corporation not overcapitalized earning 10 per cent on the real, actual valuation of the money and property invested in its business. The profits of the first corporation might be 30 per cent on its actual valuation, and it is to cover such cases that a war-profits tax is urged.

As many of these large corporations are engaged in government work and drawing huge sums from the United States, it seems particularly just that they should pay taxes on the same actual basis as corporations not overcapitalized. A tax that taxes equally a 10 per cent profit on watered capital and a 10 per cent profit on unwatered capital is not equal and uniform and scarcely just.

COMING REUNION DATES

The Scottish Rite Bodies in Washington, D. C., hold their meetings every Tuesday evening.

The San Francisco and the California Bodies of the Rite in San Francisco, Cal., hold their meetings, the former every Friday evening, and the latter every Wednesday evening.

The Scottish Rite Bodies in Oakland, Cal., hold their meetings every Monday evening. The Bodies of the Rite in Sacramento, Cal., hold their meetings every Saturday evening.

The Bodies of the Rite in Fresno, Cal., hold their meetings every Monday evening.

The Scottish Rite Bodies of Los Angeles, Cal., hold their meetings every Friday evening.

The Scottish Rite Bodies of San Diego, Cal., hold their meetings every Wednesday evening.

The Bodies of the Rite in Passadena, Ca.., hold their meetings every Saturday evening. The Bodies of the Rite in Tucson, Arizona, hold their meetings every Friday evening.

The Scottish Rite Bodies in the Valley of Seattle, Wash., hold their meetings every Tuesday evening.

The Bodies of the Rite in Portland, Ore., hold their meetings every Tuesday evening.

The Scottish Rite Bodies in the Valley of St. Paul, Minn., hold their meetings every Wednesday evening.

The Bodies of the Rite in Juneau, Alaska, hold their meetings every Friday evening.

The Bodies of the Rite in Chicago, Ills., (Northern Jurisdiction), hold their meetings every Thursday evening.

The Bodies of the Rite in St. Paul, Minn., in addition to their regular Wednesday evening work, will hold a reunion November 9 to 22 inclusive.

The Scottish Rite Bodies in Wichita, Kas., will hold their Fall Reunion November 11 to 14 inclusive.

The Bodies of the Rite in Fargo, N. Dak., will hold their Fall Reunion November 11 to 14 inclusive.

The Bodies of the Rite in Dallas, Tex., wil hold their Fall Reunion November 11 to 15 inclusive.

The Bodies of the Rite in Nashville, Tenn., I will hold their Fall Reunion November 12 to 15. inclusive.

The Bodies of the Rite in Jacksonville, Fla., will hold their 22nd Reunion November 18 to 21, inclusive.

The Scottish Rite Bodies of Boise, Idaho, will hold a Reunion November 18 to 21 inclusive.

The Bodies of the Rite in the Valley of

Savannah, Ga., will hold their regular Fall Reunion November 19 to 22 inclusive.

The Scottish Rite Bodies in St. Louis, Mo., will hold a Reunion November 20 to 23 inclusive.

FROM SAVANNAH, GA.

The Secretary's annual report for the year ending June 30, shows a total membership in Alpha Lodge of 541, as against 484 last year. The Temple Chapter has now a membership of 509, as against 458 last year. Gethsemane Council has 515, as against 430 last year; and Richard Joseph Nunn Consistory has 498 members, as against 408 last year. The Lodge has initiated 86, the Chapter 96, the Council 92, and the Consistory 98 during the past year.

THE REUNION AT SANTA FE,

NEW MEXICO

The twenty-eighth reunion of the Santa Fe Bodies, held August 19-21, was one of the best ever held by Bodies of the Rite in New Mexico. Ninety-eight initiates took the degrees of the Lodge of Perfection and none of them dropped out, while six others joined the class during the conferring of the degrees in the other bodies, so that one hundred and four received the degree of Master of the Royal Secret. With the exception of the "Cody" class of last March, this is the largest class that has ever received the degrees of the Rite in New Mexico Consistory.

As is customary, the class organized, choosing for themselves the name Acoma Class. The word Acoma means Century in the language of the Acoma Pueblo Indians, a well-known Indian cominunity in New Mexico and which had a civilization, laws and a system of government at a time when our ancestors were living in caves and chasing each other with clubs.

As the class started with a little less than one hundred and finished with slightly more, Acoma was considered an appropriate name therefor. Incidentally, Bro. James Bryan Garcia, a member of the class, is a native of the Pueblo Acoma, and, so far as is known, is the only Pueblo Indian who is a Master of the Royal Secret.

FROM CHEYENNE, WYOMING

During the fiscal year ending September 1, 1918, two reunions were held, one in December, 1917, and the other in June, 1918, when two good representative classes, numerically the largest in the history of the Bodies, were initiated into the mysteries of the Ancient

and Accepted Scottish Rite. In addition to these, eight special classes were passed at different dates for the accommodation of brethren serving in the Army and Navy, who by reason of joining the colors were unable to be present at the regular reunions.

The net gain in membership during the year is as follows:

In the Lodge of Perfection, 160; in the Chapter of Rose Croix, 170; in the Council of Kadosh, 167, and in the Consistory, 161.

SOMETHING VERY UNUSUAL

We gather from several of our exchanges that, some time ago, Eugene Lodge, of Eugene, Oregon, was the scene of something entirely new in the way of a funeral cere

mony.

One of the brethren of the Lodge, who was also a member of the Roman Catholic Church, died. He had been a member of the Lodge for forty years; and just previous to his death, he requested a Masonic burial, the service to be conducted by a particular brother.

The Lodge met on the afternoon of the burial and proceeded in a body to the chapel of an undertaker, where the funeral was to be held. In the chapel, a service was conducted by a Roman Catholic priest who not only conducted the rites of his church, but also made a short address, of a nature such that no one present could find any fault with it. He closed with a prayer for the repose of the soul of the departed to which the members of the church present responded. The service ended with the singing of "Nearer My God To Thee," by a choir of Masons.

The Lodge ti.en took charge of the remains and conveyed them to the cemetery where they were interred with full Masonic honors. A large number of Catholics witnessed the Masonic service.

We are not informed whether the priest accompanied the remains to the cemetery, but we infer that he did not. Indeed that could hardly be expected of him; but, evidently, he did not consider the deceased excommunicated because of his affiliation with a Masonic Lodge; more than that, he held a funeral service over his remains with the knowledge that the Masons would afterwards take charge and conduct their own funeral rites; showing that this priest is very far in advance of his church in this particular..

EAST MEETS WEST

Friday evening, August 9, was the occasion of the official visit of Illustrious Brother William Parker Filmer, 33°. Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Northern California, to the San Francisco Bodies of the Rite. He was accompanied by Brother Choa-Hsin-Chu, 32°, of Pekin Consistory,

China, the Chinese Consul-General in San Francisco.

During the conferring of the thirty-second degree one of the principal tableaux presented Brothers Filmer and Chu clasping hands in "fraternal greeting," with the background appropriately draped with the colors of the United States and China, symbolizing the glory of the union of hearts and hands and the triumph of our Masonry, which is destined to bind together all the nations of the earth.

THE DEDICATION OF THE BELL

All, or nearly all, the brethren have seen or heard something about a collection of old silver that was being made by the brethren of Los Angeles (Cal.) Consistory for the purpose of having a silver bell cast for the use of the Bodies, and all may, and probably will, be interested in knowing that nearly a quarter of a ton of sterling silver was collected, cast into bars, and transported to Watervliet, N. Y., where it was cast into the bell.

Previous to the conception of the "bell" idea there had been set on foot a collection of old gold, resulting in the gathering from the brethren and their ladies of enough gold to make a lavabo of generous size to be used in some of the degrees of the Rite. When, therefore, the bell was brought home for presentation and dedication it was but natural that the gold lavabo should play a prominent part in the ceremonies.

The presentation was made in very forceful style by the chairman of the bell committee, Brother Walton, after which, according to the Bulletin of Los Angeles Consistory, "the 'ights were extinguished, the entire assemblage joined the orchestra and male choir in The Star Spangled Banner.' In the midst of this wonderful psalm of our nation's hopes and ideals a single light from directly above brought to view, as if by magic, a most wonderfully graceful creation, appearing at first to be a part of the light itself, its curves with all their grace and dignity like the moonlit waves of the sea. It seemed floating in the air, and it is no wonder that, swift as a sword-thrust, it brought silence to every throat; for to many it was not alone a bell, but the cup or spoon of his baby, now grown or long since passed through the Great Portal which swings only inward, the watch given by a long-sleeping mother-the dearest trinkets which a man can own. Then, as its first note rolled out, virile and rich, every voice was raised in cheer upon cheer-and the bell had come home."

The bell was solemnly consecrated by Dean MacCormack, sprinkling it with water brought from the River Jordan years ago and contained in the lavabo. Then, after music and addresses, the program concluded with the singing of "America." It was an