Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1918 — LOOEY SMOKED OUT AT LAST [ARTICLE]

LOOEY SMOKED OUT AT LAST

Republican Editor Admits He Is Interested in Coal Profits. r ■ One of Thomas Jefferson’s axioms which we read as a boy in one of our school boo kb, was: “When angry count ten; when very angry count a hundred.” Of course, having been reared in the g. o. p. faith and being a partisan of the most bitter sort continuously all these years—except during the brief time he strayed over to the Bull Moose pastures where he remained until Jim Watson and Harry New had fumigated and purified his old stomping grounds—it is not surprising that the Republican editor has never profited from the words of wisdom that fell from the lips of the immortal Jefferson. In fact, he may never have heard of Jefferson, for Jefferson was a Democrat. But, getting back to the subject. The Republican editor is angry, thoroughly angry. In fact, he is mad clear through at The Democrat man for having partially, at least, smoked him out and shown his personal interest in camouflaging the coal business. He didn't even stop to count ten, nence he wees words and phrases that one would scarcely expect a good, Godfearing Christian gentleman to use. Of course, he forgets that he was the first to cast the dornick, and nerw that he has been hit himself — and that, too, without anger or malice —he is all wrought up and wants The Democrat man tied and gagged. „ For Looey, how could you? V’e submit that we never said a word about your coal interests until you forced it, and now you are crying stop! The boomerang was of your own throwing and you ought to be man enough to take the stinging blow it brought. Well, to make a long story short, Looey now admits that he owns three shares of stock in the Farmers’ Elevator Co., which has probably handled more coal than any other one firm in Rensselaer this season, but he does not say positively that he has no other interests, and we will not press him. This admission is enough, for he well knows, as does practically every other 'person who was asked to subscribe for stock in this elevator — and we do not want to be understood as taking a rap at this elevator, for we are not —was told that the profits from tjie coal business alone paid all the running expenses of this elevator! And if the coal profits did this last year, what will it do now with the much greater profits this year? And the Republican editor admits that he has an interest in this business!! Now, just a word about coal prices in Indianapolis. The Republican copies an article from Friday evening’s Indianapolis News where Dr. Jameson, the fuel administrator of

that city, had recommended an increase of 25 cents a ton on coal there to be effective only until April 1, and says Indianapolis has a lower freight rate than Rensselaer but that prices—before this raise was recommended —were as high or higher than the prices here. As a matter of fact the prices in Indianapolis are no criterion to go by here. But. for the sake of argument, let us suppose they are. Dr. Jamison recommends the increase of 25 cents per ton, as he says, because, the dealers there are required to make “one-half and one-ton deliveries to all parts of the city under the most disadvantageous conditions.” Do you know what it means to make deliveries to all parts of a city like Indianapolis without any additional allowance for distance or for delivering a half ton ? A reputable Indianapolis gentleman who was in Rensselaer Monday informed us Monday evening that the dealer who. supplied him had to haul the coal four and one-half miles, from the Monon tracks. In many instances, no doubt, to deliver to all parts of the city the dealer has to haul it five and six miles, perhaps eight and ten miles!

In Rensselaer three-fourths of a mile will cover the. most extreme distances and the average is not half a mile! Does this make any difference? The Democrat is also informed by Assistant- County Fuel Administrator Mose Leopold that when the state council of defense met in Indianapolis, Fuel Administrator Fendig called on Mr. Woolen and said,' “Why, I find coal prices here are about as high as in Rensselaer, and you have a lower freight rate.” To which Mr. Woolen, the state fuel administrator, replied, “Wei!, suppose we do have a lower freight rate. Coal might come in here absolutely free o>l freight and still the? retail price be legitimately higher than in Rensselaer, where the overhead expenses are much lower, Ar i in the little crossroads stations where it is handled as a side line the overhead expense would be much less than in Rensselaer,” This is very reasonable and can be comprehended at a glance. The very ground on which an Indianapolis coal yard, is locate.!

might cost more rental for one year than several blocks of ground could be bought for here. Also, the item of delivery would be much less for an extreme distance of three-fourths of .a mile than ’Where it is from five to ten times that distance. Mr. Woolen also told Mr. Fendig, said our informant —who said he, Leopold, opposed the 35 cents per ton binning allowance when it was made—that this binning item was wrong and could not be allowed and charged up to the ppblic; that only the actual cost of binning—whicli was then 10 cents per ton where the dealers had bins next to the track-—could be allowed; and

the fact that one of the five dealers here had to haul his coal from the car to his bins was his misfortune and the public could not be held up for an additional 23 cents per ton because of this. Yet, if this binning charge was ever reduced, the public has had no information of the fact nor has it benefited thereby, for §6 per ton has been the price charged for the poorest quality of mine run coal sold here since the prices were fixed by the fuel administrator—so cents per ton more than the liberal prices fixed and published by the fuel administrator. But, speaking again of Indianapolis prices, the Republican editor, in his attempt to spread a little more I camouflage, neglects to say that Dr. Jameson said in last Wednesday’s News, page 4, column 3, in response to a request from State Fuel Administrator Evans Woolen for “a report on the prevailing retail price of the grade of coal being most ' largely used in that city at the present time: In pursuance of your request for 1 a report on the prevailing retail price of coal that sells in the largest , volume in this city, I would reI spectfully state that Indiana lump and Indiana mine run are about the I only grades of coal that are in the market at this point, and these being in very limited quantities, there being in the bins of all the dealers at this time less than 2,000 tons. The average price is about $5.40 a ton delivered at the sidewalk. These i deliveries have been made in quan- , tities of half a ton and one ton, ex- ' cept in a few special cases where 1 deliveries Of two tons have been permitted. Now it was delivered to all parts of Indianapolis at the above figure, i Delivering at„ the sidewalk —they : would just as cheerfully shovel it into one’s bin where the purchaser had one—means that a great deal of the coal sold in a large city must be carried upstairs of into houses built so closely together that a wag'on cannot drive in to the yards, for there are no yards in many instances, and it is up’ to the purchaser to hire it carried in at his own expense. The Republican editor read this letter of Dr. Jameson’s to Mr. Woolen, but was too unfair to mention it. Now $5.40 a ton is- GO cents less than the Rensselaer consumer had to pay for a very poor quality lof mine run coal, and the freight rate from the mines to this city is but $1.07 a ton, with -3 cents a ‘ ton war tax and $ 2.3 5 per ton, at j most, for this mine run at the ■ mines, a of $3.42 f. o. b. Rensselaer, leaving $2.68 profit for handling it! The sniveling appeal of the Republican editor to the public for sympathy after he has been exposed is disgusting, to say the least. He betrayed the public—for a newspaper owes a duty to the public that is greater than the personal interests of any -one man or set of men, and especially its editor —and now he wants its sympathy because of his great patriotism and the fact that he has “a son in the war.’ 1 Well, The Democrat man has two sons in the war—or in the training camps in preparation therefor—but he is not playing the fact up as a continued story. . Of course, well admit the Republican editor’s son)

got over to “the other side” before our sons, but there may have been | some particular reason Tor this of which the Rensselaer public, at, least, is conversant.