Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1901 — Few-Line Interviews. [ARTICLE]

Few-Line Interviews.

James J. Hill—We have as a nation gone further in mastering the problems of land transportation tliiin any other country in tin* world. We have some advantages over Europe in matters of railway transportation on account of the enormous size of our country and the length of our extreme hauls, but even with that a comparison of the rates paid by the public in the. United States with those paid by the people in Europe is very instructive. The average rates paid in Great Britain is more than 2*4, cents a ton mile. The average on the continent outside of Russia is from 2 to 2.1 cents per ton. mile. Russia is about 1.8 cents. In the United States about 7 mills is the average rate, or less than one-third of the average rate charged throughout Europe, whether the roads are operated by private corporations or by the respective governments. In Germany the rate is about 2 cents per ton mile. The rates east of Chicago are, I may say, % cent a mile. West of Chicago they are from % of a cent to 1) mills.

Andrew Carnegie—Capital, business ability, manual labor are the legs of a three-legged stool. While the three legs stand sound and firm the stool stands, but let any one of the three weaken and break, let it l>e pulled out or struck out, down goes th?* stool to tht* ground. .And the stool is of no use until the third leg is restored. Now, the capitalist is wrong who thinks that capital is more important than either of the other two legs. Their support is essential to him. Without them or with only one of them be topples over. Business ability is wrong when it thinks that the leg which it represents is the most important. Without the legs of capital and lalior it is useless. And lust, let it not lw forgotten that labor also is wrong, wildly wrong, when it assumes that it is of more importance than either of the two other legs. That idea has been in the past the source of many sad mistakes.

Matt Dougherty of Sydney, Neb.— There is one improvement in the cattlesheep situation that I am glad to see, and which I hav?* long hopeil would come nround, and that is tlie realization on the part of the sheepmen of the need of I>ermanent pastures. The time is fast drawing to a clone when free and tinreatructed range can Im* had in the West. The country is becoming too thickly populated, Those parts of the country where It can Im* said that it is twenty to forty miles from OU4* ranch to another are now very few, mid the “cattle on u thousand hills” have become the cattle on a thousand acres.

Capt. F. N. Dickens, U. S. N.—The Indiana was put out of commission Im-cpusc the navy had not enough men to officer ami man her. Our navy, so far as whips, ordnance and men go, is admirable. But there Is n dearth of men nnd officers even now. We can’t, as It is, keep nil our ships at sen. What will be tin* discrepancy when the new ships building dr soon to lie built nre demanding men and offi cers along with those ships we now have? The crying need of the navy is more men and otticers, very many more. Bishop Thompson of Mississippi—l snppoze there is n larger penvntnge of old men in Mississippi than in any other State—at least, It seems so to me, and I have been in a good many. By old I mean from 80 to IX). They nre not decrepit old men who hug the fireside, but are quite lively old fellows. There is no chance to b4*eome rich in Mississippi, Everybody knows it and does not w?>rry himself into an early grave trying to. The population of Arizona is now 122,000, a gain of 65,000 in ten years.