"T BY STEPHEN BELL (Reprinted from "Commerce and Finance") 66 HERE are things which are mine, things which are thine, and things which are ours," said the late John S. Crosby. There is no disposition anywhere to dispute the principle, but the application of it is combated on hand. every No serious attempt has been made to classify businesses which should be private (mine and thine) and those which should be public (ours). If there was no money in it," nobody engaged in a given service or business until public sentiment forced the Government to attend to it. So it comes that the maintenance of public highways, public schools, police and fire department, etc., are public businesses. But if there was money, or the promise of money, in them, private enterprise was eager to exploit them, with the result that railroading, the telegraph and telephone business, supplying gas, water, light, etc., are in private hands are considered by their possessors as private business. It has occurred to a few minds that there is a better, truer, more scientific classification of public and private business and service than the possible profits that may be made from them. If, they say, a given business requires the exercise of no public right, the exclusive use of no public property, the granting of no privilege not open to all, it is a private business; but if it does require any of these things, which really constitute a quasi-public partnership, then it is a public business. The railroad business seems to fall naturally into this class. It requires for its existence probably the most important of public rights-the right of eminent domain, the power to condemn and take the property of private parties for public use. It is impossible to imagine the acquisition of these interminable strips of land for the building of a railroad without this power. And the granting of the power has been made on the only defensible ground-that it was for "public use." The public acquisition of these "private businesses will be attended with much trouble, labor, friction. Their present owners will find it difficult to see the matter except through their "vested right" glasses. The owners of our railroads naturally feel just now that an unfair advantage is likely to be taken of their patriotic willingness to turn their property over to the Government for the prosecution of the war, and hence are disposed to cast an anchor to windward by limiting the Government's operation of their property to the time necessary to prosecute the war to a victorious finish and a decent period after for the proper "unscrambling" of the omelet. Some of them may be inclined to do more than this even to do things calculated to discredit Government ownership. We are fully warranted in saying that" sabotage is not confined to those who receive their pay in an envelope." The history of the attempts of cities which have acquired street railroads, ferries, gas and electric lighting business, etc., afford too many illustrations of overloading them with unnecessary employees, purchasing supplies at extravagant prices, etc. Suggestions are not lacking for a compromise between Government ownership and the old system, a return to which is seen even by the most conservative to be impossible. Mr. William W. Cook, counsel of the Postal Telegraph, the Commercial, and the Commercial Pacific cable companies, has sent to each United States Senator a letter in which he advocates a plan for private ownership under Government control. He quotes approvingly a dent of the Guaranty Trust Company, who recent utterance of Mr. Sisson, Vice-Presisaid in part: "It is very certain that the old days of enforced competition, anti-trust laws, anti-pooling laws, conflicting State regulation, wasteful competition, duplication of service, will not be permitted by a public alive to its own interests." The" Railway Age," long the champion of the old system, has seen a light, too, for it says: "There clearly is a growing belief among both railway men and public men system of regulation or the old system of that it is undesirable that either the old management shall be restored." It suggests the elimination of unnecessary competition, reorganization along regional lines, private ownership with Government guarantees of minimum net returns, and Government control with pooling of facilities in so far as such pooling will promote efficiency. promise arrangement and demands GovBrother Hearst is out against any comernment ownership and nothing else. That truly good and consistent soul quotes himself for years past as having always favored it. There be friends of the proposition who regret that he favors it, and manifest a disposition to apologize for the fact, fearing his advocacy may give it a black eye-that responsible for the unexpected action of the he even may have been at least partially Senate in setting a time limit of eighteen months for Government operation. The "Manufacturer's Record".contrib- Government ownership may meet with One of our jokesmiths has defined a Federal Income Tax Law Contains the full text of the law and a summary of the most important regulations of the Treasury Department affecting individuals, fiduciaries and partnerships. Excess Profits Tax Law The War Excess Profits Tax Regulations (No. 41) and the full text of the Law. War Tax Law This Act covers the War Excess We shall issue in the near future, a synopsis of the Federal Income Tax Law and regulations affecting non-resident aliens, including individuals, partnerships, fiduciaries and corporations. Shall we send you a copy of this booklet when issued? Guaranty Trust Company FIFTH AVE. OFFICE 343 344 Smoke Five With Me Here is the sweetest smoke that I ever knew, and I've smoked for over 40 years. It was handed me once by a connoisseur, who told me where to get it. Later I had it made specially for me-made as a Panatela, the size of this picture, for a short, sweet smoke. It is made solely from Havana leaf. So are many others. But I call this the finest flavored leaf that ever came from Cuba. All my friends think likewise. Last year I sold more than 2,000,000 cigars to over 21,000 customers and friends. It occurs to me now that countless other men would be glad to share this discovery. am going to let some of them do it. Not for profit so much as a hobby. I will supply a few love good cigars, at $5.50 per hundred, or $2.85 for fifty, mail or express prepaid. That's not far from my cost. If you must have big, heavy cigars, these won't please you. These are for men who like mild and exquisite smokes. I have never tasted anything like them. FIVE CIGARS FREE I will let 500 men try five cigars free. Just send me 10 cents to cover postage, packing, and revenue stamp. I will supply the cigars. I only ask this 10 cents to pick out the right sort of people. If you like them, send me your check for $2.85 for the fifty, and I'll replace the WARNER J.R.W HABANA five trial cigars FREE, and if you prefer will open a 30 day charge account with you. Write now for the five cigars. J. ROGERS WARNER 198 Lockwood Building EST. Buffalo, N. Y. Never a Dollar's Loss to Clients This has been our record in handling Real Estate Gold Bonds and First Farm Mortgages for more than 34 years. Our many satisfied clients testify to the value of our watchful service. We're right on the ground ready to serve you at all times. Bonds in $100-$200-$500 and $1,000 denominations. Mortgages $500 and up. Let us send you Pamphlet "S" and current offerings. E. J. LANDER & CO. (A562) Grand Forks Capital and Surplus $500,000 North Dakota 1883 THE OUTLOOK Government Ownership of Railroads (Continued) that these same economic ills arise from the abuse of individual rights, would merge all rights in the collectivity, making the Government supreme in all things and the individual nothing or near it. Like sabotage, Anarchism and Socialism are not confined to the lowly, and the fundamental ideas of these schools are held by many who hotly resent the imputation. We must, if this world is ever to become truly fit to bring children into it, steadfastly set our faces to eradicate two kinds of evils the abuses of government and the abuses of individualism. We must learn what John S. Crosby would have taught us "There are things which are mine, things which are thine, and things which are ours." With the heart to do justice to all, let us apply this principle to the railroads of the Nation. KEEP YOUR LIBERTY BONDS In a recent issue of The Outlook we pointed out that the use of Liberty Bonds during the war for the purchase of securities carrying a higher rate of interest ought not to be encouraged by investment houses. Another phase of this use of Government bonds as currency is brought to public attention by the appeal of the Secretary of the Treasury to merchants not to attempt to increase their sales by offering to accept Liberty Bonds in payment for goods. Mr. McAdoo's statement, made immediately after Christmas, was as follows: While I have no doubt that these merchants are actuated by patriotic motives, I am sure that they have failed to consider the effect which the acceptance of their offers would have upon the situation. We are making the strongest effort to have these Government bonds purchased for permanent investment by the people at large, to be paid for out of the past or future savings of those who buy them. Purchases thus made not only result in providing funds for the uses of the Government, but they also effect a conservation of labor and material. When the bonds are exchanged for merchandise, it defeats the primary object of their sale-it discourages thrift and increases expenditures, thus depriving the Government of labor and material needed for war purposes. In addition to this, such bonds when taken in exchange for merchandise must, in most cases, be immediately sold in the open market. This naturally tends to depress the 27 February market price of the issue, and makes it less easy to sell future issues at the same rate. When the second Liberty Loan was offered to the public, we pointed out that the purchase of Government bonds out of current savings offered an excellent opportunity for helping the Government finance the war and at the same time provide for one's future capital needs. We suggested, for example, that a man who was saving money with which to build a home after the war could apply these savings now to the purchase of Liberty Bonds, and then, after the war, use the bonds to finance the home building. But we emphasized the fact that these savings must be put at the service of the Government during the war and not withdrawn for other purposes until after the Government need was over. Mr. McAdoo has done well to bring this home to the public, and especially to merchants and others who have evidently failed to realize the purpose of the war loans. Over and over again it must be impressed upon the people of this country that the one thing the Government needs to-day for the successful prosecution of the war is a large part of their current savings. It does the Government no good to invest one's savings in Liberty Bonds and then turn around and withdraw the savings by the sale of the bonds. This simply means that the burden of saving for the Government is transferred from one citizen to another. Liberty Bonds that have been used as money for the purchase of merchandise come back into the market at once because the merchants sell them to get the funds. The holder of Liberty Bonds who needs some or all of the money he has invested in them in order to meet unexpected living expenses, of course, is perfectly justified in putting himself in funds in this way. But he is not helping the Government if he sells Liberty Bonds to purchase things that he can do without. to Since the second Liberty Loan was floated the bonds have declined from par 95. This decline is due to selling in excess of the market's capacity to buy them. A considerable part of this decline in Liberty Bonds, which has been a matter of considerable comment, is undoubtedly due to the liquidation by merchants and others who have taken them in payment for their wares. WHAT IS RAGTIME? In The Outlook of November 7 there appeared an editorial called "Primitive Folk Songs of Broadway" which contained what might be considered a just plea for a deal to ragtime music. square As a pianist and teacher it has been my privilege to get in touch with the musical hearts of a great many classes of people (Americans en masse), and out of my experience I think I have gained a fair knowledge of what the real American. wants in music. No one is better situated to discover the actual musical inclinations of America than the American musicteacher; I mean the teacher of average attainment, the one who deals with the average American. Alas! no one sees more clearly or feels more forcibly the musical demands of the people than those teachers who, like myself, have spent so much time and energy in trying to instill in them something they do not seem to want. Just what ragtime is and why it lives is not easily told. It covers entirely that type of music referred to and cleverly designated by The Outlook as "Broadway folk songs." But the common conception of it is obscure and confused. A great many people, including (apparently) some of its composers, seem to think that it is merely another word for syncopation. That this is by no means true we shall see presently. Ragtime seems to be going through a course of evolution. Its scope is becoming broader. Year after year an increasing variety of musical style is conveniently falling under this head. And it is gaining favor. Perhaps the most vigorous objection voiced against ragtime comes from those who, by their loftier instincts, detest its favorite haunts, namely, popular dance halls, places of ill repute, cabarets, etc. Another serious objection is its frequent adaptation in vulgar and suggestive songs. In these, however, there is no just cause for its denunciation. Being sorely neglected among cultured folks, the outcast finds refuge among the rough and worldly, where it is, in truth, much abused. Strictly speaking, I believe there is but one well-founded theoretical objection to ragtime, and that is the occasional excessive use of its peculiar kind of syncopation. Syncopation, by its stimulating effect, is pleasant when administered in well-regulated form. It is spice. But when taken to excess it overstimulates; it irritates. That which at first is dazzling in due time becomes tiresome. The listener will soon surfeit on syncopation. Admiration turns to disgust. It is gratifying to observe, however, that this one-time doubtful feature is gradually losing favor and promises to be eventually overcome. It is also a fact of significance that these over-syncopated songs are by no means the most successful. Perhaps the best way to define ragtime and prove that it and syncopation are not necessarily analogous will be to go to the bottom of things and summon up some actual illustrations. In other words, deal with it in the concrete. A short time ago Madame SchumannHeink sang for the soldiers at Camp Meade, Maryland. Immediately after the applause which greeted her first appearance on the stage one of the soldiers called out: "Sing 'For Me and My Gal.'" This was merely one of the comedies of camp life, and no doubt amused the great singer as much as any one else. She declined with a smile, If you have any of the follow- most chronic afflictions, in I can build you up or re- Write to me! Ask for my Booklet sent you without charge. Let me tell you all about my wonderful experience! Then you will understand the great work I am doing for womankind; and how I can help you. Susanna Cocroft, Dept. 8, 624 Michigan Ave., Chicago and said she would sing a beautiful French love song instead. The boy knew what he liked and called for it. No doubt there were a great many more present who would have been delighted with the captivating rhythm of this now popular song. "For Me and My Gal" is typically ragtime, yet it is practically free from syncopation-to be exact, there are just three measures of syncopated melody, those near the close of the chorus. The most striking example of all ragtime music came out a few years ago in Irving Berlin's song "Alexander's Ragtime Band." It may be interesting to note that this song was received in London and Paris with the same enthusiasm as in New York. Over a million copies were sold in Europe. What made this song so popular? It was not syncopation, for there is no syncopation at all in the chorus, which is the most pleasing part of the song. Ragtime songs like the following, "Are You from Dixie ?" "Back Home in Tennessee,' ," "I Want to Go Back to Michigan," "Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula," etc., owe their success to a certain peculiar enchanting rhythm, but not to syncopation. HAROLD HUBBS. Gleason, West Virginia. TOPSYTURVY STATES MANSHIP The extraordinary reasoning of the Bolsheviki leaders in Petrograd, who disband their armies without making a peace treaty, recalls a clever bit of burlesque contained in one of Mr. Simeon Strunsky's "PostImpressions" in the New York" Evening Post." Mr. Strunsky's modern Sinbad was (in imagination) in Brest-Litovsk, where Germany are going on. He says: the peace pourparlers between Russia and I was walking one night in the outskirts of Brest-Litovsk when I noticed a familiar figure leaning against the stone coping of the bridge promenade and gazing sadly into the waters of the River Bug. I recog nized him as one of the German peace delegates with whom I happened to be on speaking terms. I inquired courteously after his health. "Well enough in the body, friend Sinbad," he said, "but my mind, alas, is giving way. One more session with these Bolsheviki and I am done for." "And yet they seem such pleasant people," I said. 66 Pleasant, yes. But they are undermining my mental constitution," he said, pressing his hands wearily to his throbbing temples. "I was born in Prussia, friend Sinbad. For the space of eleven years I used to leave home for school at 8:47 and return at 3:53, going to bed at 7:30. Then in high school my hours were from 9:15 to 5:25. At the university I regularly took twenty-five minutes for lunch and threequarters of an hour for exercise. My annual expenditures were 2,545 marks and 50 pfennigs, as my note-books balanced at the end of the year would show. And thus it has been throughout my career. "But now the Bolshevik delegates," he went on, "set a meeting for ten o clock and show up at 2:30. They speak two or three at a time. When we say to them that we ought to dictate terms because we are the victors, they say, 'Oh, no, you have beaten us, but we are the victors.' When we ask them what they expect to do in case hostilities are resumed, they say they will compel us to capture Petrograd. When we ask how about the army, they reply cheerfully that most of the army has run away and the rest is starving, and that consequently they must insist on our accepting their terms without changing a dot. After a couple of sessions, friend Sinbad, our delegates from the Central Powers are on the edge of nervous prostration. The head of our mission cannot write home because he has forgotten his wife's name, and more than once he has been overheard calling himself up on the telephone. I suspect a nefarious plot, Sinbad. The Bolsheviki are planning to drive the leading statesmen of the Central Powers into a lunatic asylum, and then they can work their will upon poor Germany." 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Cloth 35c The Biglow and Main Co., New York - Chicago BY THE WAY "The next morning, as treacherous and as hypocritical as ever, a large company of Germans, which included all the principal and senior men, came to his quarters, with a double object to clear themselves (so they alleged) for engaging in a battle the day before contrary to the agreement and to their own request therein, and also by deceit to get what they could in respect of the truce." This is not an extract from an account of current happenings in Russia in respect to the making of peace between that country and Germany. It is from Cæsar's history of his dealings with certain German tribes in the year 55 B.C. Reply. ing to the spokesman of these Germans (who had crossed the Rhine to invade Gaul) the narrative reads: "To this Cæsar replied as seemed good; but the conclusion of his speech was as follows: He could have no friendship with them if they remained in Gaul." These extracts from a famous book are commended to the attention of the powers that be. A subscriber writes, apropos of a recent paragraph in this department, that an "unintentionally irreverent prayer" uttered in perfect solemnity by an old-time hill-town parson was as follows: "O Lord, Thou art like a chipping-squirrel in the wall-Thou canst see us, but we can't see Thee!" In 1775, says C. C. Gill in "Naval Power in the War," David Bushnell, of Connecticut, built the "diving boat" known as the "American Turtle." Its design was astonishingly modern in many ways. "It was made of iron plates, propelled by a screw, and guided by a compass made visible by phosphorus. The torpedo was car ried outside.... These attempts with the submarine and the torpedo, although they did very little actual harm, caused so much alarm... that it is perfectly fair to say that the submarine and torpedo had a tactical value in the Revolutionary War." John M. Browning, the inventor of the Browning automatic gun, is, according to the New York "Sun," a resident of Ogden, Utah. He has been making guns since boyhood, and comes by his interest in them honestly, his father having been a to gunsmith. He is, the "Sun" states, the Important Subscribers When you notify The Outlook of a change in your address, both the old and the new address should be given. Kindly write, if possible, two weeks before the change is to take effect. originator of the machine gun used by the United States forces during the Spanish War and the Boxer uprising. A bullet from a Browning automatic pistol, it is said, killed the Austrian Archduke whose death precipitated the war. An English paper prints this goodnatured joke at the expense of the Irish recruit: "The little Irishman was being examined for admission to the army. He seemed all right in every way except one. The doctor said: You're a little stiff.' Quickly the Irish blood mounted as the applicant retorted: And you're a big stiff!" " The Recruiting Service of the United States Shipping Board has, according to "Shipping," appointed an official chantey man, Mr. Stanton H. King, who is described as the country's best-known chantey singer. His work will be to revive chantey singing among merchant sailors on the new sailing vessels. The singing of these songs insures team work when a crew are pulling on ropes or performing other duties that require united action. To hear Mr. King lead his sailor friends in Shenandoah," 'Bound for the Rio Grande,' or 'Blow the By the Way (Continued) Man Down," says the journal quoted, "is to understand the psychologic punch of the well-sung chantey." A Nevada subscriber bewails the loss to the tables of the country of 1,500 jack rabbits which he saw just after they had been destroyed by poison. This huge pile of good food, he says, might have helped out on the meatless day or the day after. This systematic poisoning of rabbits by the Biological Survey should, he says, be abandoned in favor of some less wasteful method of ridding the country of these pests, which furnish really good eating. But he suggests no alternative method of killing them by wholesale. Perhaps some other reader can? The seamen who come to New York left the unprecedented sum of $533,459 for safekeeping with the Seamen's Church Institute last year. They could afford to do this because their wages are now higher than ever before known. The men who were drawing $30 a month before the war are now getting $60, and in addition they receive a fifty per cent bonus for hazardous trips through the submarine-infested waters, bringing their earnings up to $90 a month. An odd reminder of the days when phrenology was popular as a means of "reading character," with a sly dig at the tendency of its professors to give complimentary explanations of the "bumps," is found in a letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning advertised for sale in a London bookseller's catalogue. It reads in part: "Do you believe in phrenology? Did you ever consult a phrenological oracle? and did it answer, My son, thou art invincible'?" A theater devoted to magical mysteries and the conjuring art is planned for New York City, under the management of Houdini, a past-master of this kind of entertainment. "From the minute one enters the portals," an announcement says, everything will smack of the black arts. The hand which reaches out for the money at the ticket office will have no apparent connection with any human form, and a voice from nowhere will direct the audience to their seats. Music will be furnished by invisible chimes." 66 The Student Council showed a good spirit last week," says the "Harvard Alumni Bulletin," "when it put itself on record in favor of opening and closing the exercises of the University one hour earlier each day for the sake of saving the fuel used for lighting purposes." This news item may serve as a reminder that Congress has yet to pass on the Daylight Saving Bill. my "A Yankee in the Trenches," Corporal Holmes, after being disabled during an attack, says: "Back in hospital I was found to be suffering from shell shock. Also heart was pushed out of place. I was sore all over, and several ribs were pulled around so that it was like a knifethrust at every breath. My nerves were shattered. I jumped a foot at the slightest noise. I asked the M. O. [doctor] if I would get Blighty [be sent home], and he said he didn't think so, not directly. I told him if this jamming wasn't going to get me Blighty, I wanted to go back to duty and get a real one. He laughed and tagged me for a beach resort on the northern coast of France.... I think that glorious week at the beach made the hardships of the front almost worth while." At the end of the week Corporal Holmes was sent back to his battalion to get "a real one." |