The effect of raising wages under such conditions is to increase the demands upon the limited supply of goods and raise prices. There are two remedies for the situation, and only two, viz.: (1) Personal economy: Let every person reduce his purchases as much as possible; (2) increased production: Let every person do his part in his own way to relieve the existing shortage and get the world back into easy conditions again. Prosperity has but one possible basis. That basis is production. Volume of business in tons and dozens and bales is its true measure. There is now no fundamental reason to deter production, and, not until it has. increased to its new peace-time proportions can we rest in the assurance that, as far as its effects on our economic life are concerned, the war has passed into history. To this end, every man and woman industrially or commercially employed must produce to capacity. Not only is production essential, but capital must be accumulated at a rate rapid enough to offset the destruction which took place during five years. The consuming public must recognize that it cannot continue indefinitely the scale of expenditure which followed as a reaction from the self-denial of war, but that thrift for personal benefit is as essential as thrift for one's country. When every individual capable of gainful employment is producing to capacity our economic adjustment will be complete. COST OF AMERICAN RAILROAD SERVICE. In a recent speech Frederic C. Howe, Director of the Conference on Democratic Control of the Railroads, was reported as making a statement. to the effect that American railroad charges were the highest in the world. This statement was called to Mr. Howe's attention, and he replied: Briefly, the statement I have made about railroad rates is as follows: (1) That the per capita cost of railroads in European countries is very much below what it is in this country; (2) that we cannot compare our rates, and that if we could compare service rendered and individual commodities we would probably find that the rate was lower in some European countries than it is here, and that so far as service to the consuming public is concerned, the passenger rates are lower in many countries than they are in this country. tation in European countries is below what it is in the United States ignores the fact that Americans travel more miles per capita, and ship more goods more miles per capita than do the peoples of European countries. Then, too, we have more miles of line per capita than European countries have. In 1913 the miles of line per 10,000 of population in the United States. was 26, as against less than 7 miles per 10,000 of population in France, about 5 in the United Kingdom, and less than 6 in Germany. According to statistics just prepared by the Bureau of Railroad Economies for the Association of Railway Executives, the ton-miles per capita carried by United States railroads in 1913 were 3101. In France 447 ton-miles per capita were carried by the railroads; and in Germany only 631. This is conclusive evidence as to the greater amount of railroad transportation supplied and used in the United States. Naturally the amount paid to the railroads is more. But Americans according to the same statistics, which refer to the year 1913 (the last year available for comparative purposes) paid the lowest charges per ton-mile. The average receipts of all railroads per tonmile in the United States were about 3-4 of a cent (.729 cents), while the average receipts per ton-mile of French railroads were 1.16 cents, and of the German railroads were 1.24 cents. DEPORTING UNDESIRABLE ALIENS. On June 29, 1919, a picnic and meeting was held at Horse Shoe Bend, near Minnehaha Falls, under the auspices of the Minneapolis Trades and Labor Assembly. The hand bills announcing this gathering and spread broadcast throughout Minneapolis were headed "Breaking up the Family." Arthur LeSeuer of the Non-Partisan League and Delbert Early, who was introduced as the organizer for Hennepin County of the Socialist party, were the principal speakers. Attracted by the gathering, a woman approached the solemn faced assembly, just as a youth of some sixteen years stepped out of the crowd. The youth appeared to the woman to be very sad and downhearted. She said to him, "You seem very sad and downhearted, my boy." "Yes, I am. Everything is wrong." "What makes you feel that way?" "They are going to send a poor man back to Russia." "Who is sending him back to Russia?" "The Government of the United States." "Why is the Government sending him back to Russia?" "Oh, he said some things about the Government." "What did he say, was it very bad?" "Yes, it was pretty bad all right. He said this country should be like Russia." "Oh, did he like Russia better than the United States?" "No, he didn't, but he likes the way they do things over there now." "Did he come from Russia?" "Yes, I believe he did some years ago." "Did he ever become an American citizen?" "No, he did not become a citizen, or they would not be able to send him back." "Why didn't he become an American citizen?" "Well, I don't know, but I suppose because he is a Socialist, and doesn't believe in this Government." "Well," the woman said, "Russia now has had a revolution-the Socialists are in control of things over there, if he likes the Russian form of Government better than the American form, why shouldn't he be glad to go back at this time?" "Well, I suppose it is because he has a wife and some children and the Government won't send his wife back with him." "Then he thinks Russia is a better place to live in than the United States?" "Oh, yes, the Socialists rule there." "Then the Government will pay the expenses of sending him back to the country which he thinks is better than the United States ?" "Oh, sure, but not his family." "Well, what's this meeting all about?" "Well, they are trying to raise enough money to pay the expenses of sending his family back with him to Russia, and also to kick against sending him back there." "Are they going to get enough money ?" "No, I don't think they will." "You say he believes they have a better Government in Russia than we have in the United States, and yet this meeting is protesting against his going to Socialist Russia? If it is true that conditions are so much better in Russia than they are here, according to his way of thinking, why can't he go to Russia and earn money over there? Then let him send back to the United States for his family, just like thousands of Russians, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians and people from other countries in Europe who believed that the United States was better than their own country, who came here and found this the land of opportunity and freedom. Many left their families in Europe, but they earned and saved enough money in free America to send back home for the mother and children. If he really believes that Russia is so much better than America, why can't he do the same thing when he gets to Russia?" The downhearted youth replied, "I never thought of that," and walked away. HOME MARKET CLUB Plans are well under way for the annual Home Market Club dinner. The present prospects are that the speakers will be Hon. Warren G. Harding, Senator from Ohio; Hon. Joseph W. Fordney, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and Major General Leonard Wood if his engagements will permit. THE REWARD OF SUCCESS. By Lord Leverhulme. The power to create wealth is not a power against the public interest and well-being, any more than is bodily health and strength or great intellectual power. A man is not an enemy of the human race because, by exercise of foresight, thrift, and intelligence, he has accumulated great wealth, any more than is the man who, by temperate living and good habits, accumulates a store of good health, and consequently is fitted to live a long life. It would be as logical, as right, and as reasonable for the consumptives, the weak, the feeble, and the diseased to denounce the healthy and strong as it is for those possessing little or no wealth to denounce the rich and wealthy. And it would be just as effective a cure for consumption, weakness, feebleness, and disease to take steps to reduce the healthy and strong to a state of weakness, feebleness, and disease as it would be a cure for poverty to attempt to conscript the riches of the wealthy. A man's ability for making money comes more from extraordinary ability for avoiding mistakes than from anything else. There are such men. It is a faculty that is very rare. I am convinced from my own observation that there is less than one per 100 people who would be capable of running a business, however small, and making a profit in it; that there is less than one in 100,000 who would be capable of running a large busi ness. Invariably, without a single excep tion that I know of, the men who have made these colossal fortunes have actually made them by special service to the public and by produc ing a cheaper and ever cheaper article. Not one of them has been able to make money by advancing prices. The only time that money is made is when, by improved process of manufacture, prices can be lowered. You will find that without a single excep tion. A DEMAGOGIC ARGUMENT. It will be remembered that in 1916 the Democratic campaign managers appealed to the country for support largely upon the argument that the United States was then more prosperous than ever before in its history, and that President Wilson had "kept us had “kept us out of war." Manifestly, it is impossible for the Democrats to continue the "kept us out of war" argument. But they are resuming the "prosperity" plea, utterly ignoring the fact that present prosperity is born of war conditions. In its latest publicity sheet, the Democratic National Committee republishes a portion of the speech of Senator McKellar of Tennessee, presenting "fourteen American points" in behalf of the Democratic administration. Ten of these fourteen points relate entirely and exclusively to the subject of prosperity. The Committee asks during whose administration the American farmer has received the greatest returns; the American laborer had his fullest dinner-pail; the American business man his largest profits, the American banker and corporation stockholder their largest dividends, etc. The only conclusion to be drawn from the questions propounded is that the Democratic Administration is entitled to credit for the great prosperity the country has enjoyed, the large dividends paid by corporations having war-order contracts, and the high wages received by labor. Possibly some people will be deceived by this plea, just as they were fooled by the plea "kept us out of war." But the fact remains and will be patent to all intelligent persons that whatever degree of abnormal prosperity this country has enjoyed during the past five years has been due to the war necessity which compelled European nations to buy freely and pay excessive prices for American products by reason of the fact that they themselves were close to the field of battle, were compelled to supply, early in the war, the larger proportion of soldiers, and their own. productive activities were curtailed or turned to the production of strictly war materials. The twelve billion dollars trade credit which the United States has accumulated in the past five years has been due-not to any act or policy of the Democratic administration, but solely to the fact that this country is one of almost limitless natural resources, and its people exerted themselves to the limit of their strength and sacrificed to the limit of their endurance during the war, in order to supply provisions and material to support the armies in Europe. The Democratic National Commit tee heads its article "Let Us Be Fair." Under such a hypocritical heading as that, the Committee inferentially claims credit to the Wilson administration for the prosperity that exists in this country today. THIS COUNTRY'S URGENT NEED. From The Albany Journal. In the following resolution which was adopted at the annual meeting of the Home Market Club, a condition which confronts this country at the dawn of new peace was clearly and strongly set forth: We remind the people of the country that we were unprepared for war. We warn the country that we are unprepared for peace. While every other great nation among the belligerents has given careful and constant study to the problems of reconstruction, we face the future without plan or program or preparation. We still retain upon our statute books a tariff law passed nearly a year before the outbreak of the war, and which is entirely unsuited to the new conditions which will confront us now that the war has ended. It was clearly demonstrated before the war that the Underwood-Simmons tariff law brought distress to the country, unemployment to labor and loss and bankruptcy to business. The energies of the nation will now be directed to industry and commerce. Competitive conditions will be restored and the struggle for world markets will be renewed. The war brought tremendous expansion our industries and largely increased wages to labor. These industries cannot prosper nor can labor be properly remunerated if competition with foreign countries is unreg to |