THURSDAY. AUGUST 20, 1931 THE SPRINGFIELD NEWS PAGE POUR muk * me S" «•‘hamel T ï « ï Elf? T H E S P R IN G F IE L D N E W S Ihiblished Every Thursday at Springfield. Lane Cooiity, Oregon, by THE W ILLAM ETTE PRESS H. E MAXEY. Editor Entered rs M A IL S U B S C R IP T IO N RATE Three Months Single Copy ........ ........ THURSDAY. AUGUST 20. 1S31 HIGHWAY HANGERS INCREASE That I he unrestricted speed limit on Oregon highways has greatly Increased the dangers of driving and turned our roads into race tracks where an almost daily death toll is taken by wrecks must be evident to those who travel and read the newspapers. While statistics are not yet available, the steady rise in insurance rates conforms what the aver­ age observer can find out. There is reckless driving on every hand and few arrests have been made under the new law. With the state police now dividing their duties among a dozen other law enforce mer.t jobs we can expect even less policing of our highways. Speeders no longer fear arrest and they run wide open in all kinds of traffic. The auto truck is also becoming more and more of a real menace. Drivers turn them down the highway as fast as they will go. With the truck bodies obstructing the view and the trailers bouncing from side to side it became* a game of chance whether a car can safely pass one or not. Now days trucks are traveling in fleets which also increase the hazards of the lieht car driver. Oregon highways are daily strewn with wrecks, people are killed or injured for life, and there is a great loss of time and of property by the reckless way a minority of the people travel. How long will we. the majority, stand for this kind of a condition? WAGES AND DIVIDENDS It is a most significent sign of the times that the direc­ tors of the United States Steel Corporation, confronted with diminishing profits, elected to make their stockholders in­ stead of their employes stand part of the loss. They reduced the quarterly dividends from $1.75 to $1. and at the same time went on record for the maintenance of wages at the old scale. There have been a few instances of important industries resorting to the old-fashioned method of reducing expenses by reducing wages. On the whole, however, wage scales have been maintained throughout the business depression in a way that clearly indicates that the industrial world real­ izes that any degree of prosperity depends upon the pur­ chasing power of the common people, and that general wage reductions, by reducing the purchasing power, merely delay the restoration of business prosperity. We do not know how much Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., actually has to do with the management of the Colorado Fuel and Iron company, but we hope that he will use his in­ fluence to restore the wages paid by that company to the former scale, as he has been petitioned to do. The Bureau of Census analyzes the population of the United States according to color and race and reports that of the total of 122,755,046 in 1930 there were 108,864,207 whites. 11,8^1,143 negroes, 1,422.533 Mexicans and 332,397 Indians. The remainder, amounting to only 2-10 of 1 per cent of the total is composed of Chinese, Japanese, Philip­ pines, Hindus and all others.^_______ Of course it doesn't help much so far as swelling the bank account is concerned to know that if wheat is lower in this country than it ever was before it is lower on the Liverpool market than it has been since 1654. And yet it ought to do something toward keeping our thinking straight. Nobody in Liverpool is blaming the low price of wheat on President Hoover or the American farm board. ----------«---------- "1 WAS WRONG” Like many other business men, I subscribe to a confi­ dential bulletin issued by a private news agency in Wash, ington. It contains interesting comment on affairs both here and abroad, gathered from official sources and from important visitors to the capitol. No one is quoted by name and hence the writers of the bulletin can exercise considerable free­ dom. Sometimes their information is useful. In a recent number they answered certain questions as to how they get their news. I quote the following para­ graph: “For example, take the Washington predictions as to when business will recover. There have been two kinds. First, the formal, publishable statement of officials, which the newspapers have carried. Second, the unofficial, priv­ ate, more sincere views which the Washington correspond­ ents have known but were under obligations not to print We have sent you the latter. Our advices have been less wrong than most, hut not particularly good at that, and this is one example of why you should not trust our letters 100 per cent.” That made a great hit with me. If the writers had said: "We misled you a little about the time of the business recov­ ery, but we were not responsible. The officials deceived us;” or, "While we were wrong on the business recovery, still our competitors were much worse”—If they had written any sort of alibi at all, every word of it would have lessened my confidence. But when they come out frankly and say: ‘We were wrong, and you should never depend on us one hundred per cent,” then 1 begin to think they must be pretty smart men. 1 have never forgotten an experience with one of my lirst employers, a man who is now at the very top of his profession. In those days I was getting $40 a week, and he was earn­ ing $40,COO a year. lie lived in a fine apartment on Park Avenue, and 1 lived in one room In the Y. M. C. A. One morning early I was called out of bed to answer the telephone. It was my employer. He said: "After you left the office last night I hunted up some ad­ ditional information on the subject wi had been discussing. I tried to reach you during the evening, but you were out. 1 am calling you now to let you know that you were right, and I was wrong.” You can imagine what that did to me! I would have jumped off the roof for that boss, and I never meet him even now without an impulse to raise my hat. Little fellows feel that they must be infallible in order to maintain the world's respect. It is a badge of bigness to be able to say frankly, "I was wrong.” "Ridin' foh Mlssua Murin', down which now siiri* a blackened and In the valley,, Widow woman. Old sm art.ng window "gah hraud where “Well. nobody nuked you to!” yesterday had boon a tan rolered Nellie retorted. "You can suit your­ man that was killed and put the R everse E. She reined her horse neetahs on the fight the lime they self, you know.' over Io thi corral and stir <1 In tip' "Shoah »Ini Io. Miss Murray," the shot Babe. Ibal was her husband. d lrru p s Io look over the li'iicc m ’ h I kid grimly assured her, and loped The one Babe got the bounn on Inspect the milling herd. Eyes turned aid-wine to meet , ;f it"« u the MUiMin without M M | Well, thevre all here. I guess.' other guarded glances i abe s looking back shoulders Jerked backward us it she remarked III the kid who, tell He looked back up the canyon from a blow on the chest, but no feel away, was kn-ellng beside the and rode Into the willows. At the calf wrestler and was yanking the one spoke. fence the kid turned and rode to­ "Lost some cattle last night." the la