V.gabond Editorials

Bv Jack Dionne

There's plenty of horse sense left in this country, but the horses seem to have a monopoly on it.

*d<* well! well! Some of ltJ; Democratic newspapers have finally taken time out to read the new potato control law passed by the recent congress, and have discovered to their horror that the law makes a bootlegger, not only of the farmer who sells them, but also out of every housewife who buys potatoes not properly packaged and stamped.

Personally I'rn perfectly neutral with regard to Mussolini; I don't care who licks him.

*rf* rF ,F >F

Proverbs say: "fle that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread; but he that followeth vain persons shall be void of understanding."

Someone once asked the late John McGraw, famous leader of the New York Giants for many years, what was the chief difference between a big leaguer and a bush leaguer. John said: "The big leaguer steps forward to meet the ball, and the bush leaguer waits for the ball to get to him." That's pretty much the difference between the big and the bush leaguer in every human activity. It isn't confined to baseball.

***

I remarked in these columns about ten years ago that the only improvement the railroads have made in their service or equipment in a generation was the slot in the wash room to drop old safety razor blades through. I'll have to take that back, now. These railroad folks are really doing something for themselves-and the public.

Air conditioning "ro"u l"lo"*" -o"a radical and amazing change. It isn't alone keeping cool and comfortable even in the desert in mid summer. The improvement goes much farther than that. The cleanliness, the comfort, the protection of the clothing of the rail traveler, the saving in cleaning and pressing bills, are important items.

***

Add to that the intelligent rate reductions that have been placed in effect, and you have two good reasons why people are riding trains again. Now, if the railroad folks will see the wisdom of making these just the starting-rather than the stopping points-of this metamorphosis, and keep right on hiring people with brains to work out plans for improving their service, they will easily build their way back to popularity and prosperity. There is plenty of necessity in this country for every line of transportation service; a sufficiency for all, if they will alt use their brains and consider the subject continually from the standpoint of Mr. John Citizen.

*rk*

Of course we must perforce admit that not too much credit can be given the railroads in this matter, because they waited until the last dog was hung; until their hides were literally hanging on the branches of the trees, before they awoke to the understanding that they were NOT keeping up with the march of progress, and that the sign-boards all read: "GET UP OR GET OUT."

They were in the "-.; ; J, .n" dog the fellow was talking about, who was chased by the bear, and finding that the bear was gaining on him no matter how fast he ran, he just ran up a tree and escaped. "But," said a listener, "a dog can't climb a tree." "Can't flell," said the narrator. "This dog HAD TO climb a tree." ***

Men who have to, frequently do things they never knew they could. Much of the real progress of this world comes about that way. Necessity is truly the mother of invention. And desperation is often the daddy.

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Now I would like to see the railroads go ahead and work out their own salvation, and their salvation lies along the line of pleasing the public with new, improved, perhaps unheard-of service. Nothing could be more perfectly ridiculous than to suppose that because the truck has come the railroads must go; or that if the railroads are to survive it must be through the destruction of the truck. Ridiculous ! The world and this fast-growing nation has need of both. They need be no more deadly competitors than bacon and coffee" Both are prominent on the breakfast menu, but they serve different purposes. So will ultimately the truck and the railroad.

Already that proble- i"".,"i"n long strides toward a comprehensive development. What was it Longfellow said: "As unto the bow the cord is. so unto the man is woman; though she bends him, she obeys him, though she

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