OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16003, 20 February 1914, Page 10

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

(Fbom Ode Own Correspondent.) NEW YORK, January 8. It is very evident that President Woodrow Wilson is to go down in history as one of the very greatest of our Presidents or as one of tile most lamentable failures that ever hold the post of chief executive of the nation. In one year he and his Democratic Congress have accomplished more than perhaps any preceding Administration has in four years. The party platform lias been carried out in full. The President has shown himself to be a very remarkable mail in the way he has held his legislators in line, and has achieved practically all that he expected. If the Tariff Bill and tho New Currency Bill accomplish what has been expected of them, Wilson and his Administration will indeed be covered with glory. The President will stand with Washington and Lincoln as one of the country's greatest benefactors. But unfortunately there is a great deal of doubt as to what the results _of the tariff and currency legislation are going to be. The country 6eems to be withholding judgment concerning its new President until it can tell a little better how his reforms are going to work out. So far prices have not fallen as a result of tariff reductions. The cost of living is as high as ever. If it continues to be unaffected by the Tariff Bill, the present Administration will not be likely to have the support of a, majority of people. Already there is a great deal of grumbling as to the failure of the tariff legislation to reduce the prices of the necessaries of life. Even the very heavy importations of beef from the Argentine'R-epublic have failed to have the 'slightest effect upon the prices of meat. This, however, may largely be due to the fact that the troubles in Mexico have prevented the usual importations of meat from that country, a fact that offsets to a large extent the importations from South America.

The result of the Administration's work to curb the trusts, however, is much more fortunate. Several big monopolies, in anticipation of suits brought by the Attor-ney-general, have already declared their intention to dissolve into their original units. Indeed, with the exception of the United States Steel Corporation, all of our greatest monopolies seem to be reduced to a state of abject fear of the Government and of willingness to abide by whatever the Attorney-general may decide. Another striking victory for the Administration has just been gained by the decision of the members of the J.P. Morgan banking firm to withdraw, in deference to public opinion, from all of the many directorates to which thev belong, This decision of the Morgan bankers will probably be followed >by the withdrawal of other large financiers from corporation directorates. Thus all the fuss over the charge of interlocking directorates was laid at rest.

A deeper significance is now being placed upon the refusal of Great Britain and Germany to participate in the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco. It is asserted that the British-German understanding extends to opposition to financial and commercial activities of the United States, particularly in South America. It is charged that an agreement exists on the part of London and Berlin to combat the United States in everything connected with the extension of trade and commerce, and the refusal to participate in the San Francisco Exposition is merely a minor incident in a far-reaching programme. It is declared that political as well as industrial questions are involved in the understanding between the British and German Governments. Before leaving Washington, former British Ambassador Bryce, received assurances from President Wilson that seemed to show conclusively that Mr Wilson was not in sympathy with the atti-' tilde of Congress and of the Taft Administration in connection with the Panama tolls question, and that he,would use his best endeavours to bring about a reconsideration of the principle laid down in legislative enactment • that American coastwise vessels should be permitted to pass through the Panama Canal without payment of tolls. For some time it has been the understanding in this country that this canal issue was responsible for the refusal of some foreign Governments to participate in the fair. Therefore the knowledge of the information imparted to Mr Bryce by President Wilson, makes the attitude of the British Government all the more puzzling.

According to figures given out to-day by the Inter-State Commerce Commission, the net operating revenue of 152 of the largest railroads of this country during the period of five months ending December 1 shows a shrinkage of 39,000,000 dollars, as compared with the corresponding five months' period of the previous year. About 26,000,000 dollars of this total represented the loss in net operating Tevenue of 61 leading railroads in Eastern territory, where there is a demand from the carriers for a 5 per cent, increase in freight rates. For the five months„tho operating Tevenue of these 61 roads increased 4,500,000 dollars, but the operating expenses during the same period increased 31,000,000 dollars. This increase in operating expenses was due almost entirely to recent legislation and to decisions by arbitration boards regarding wages.

In spite of tlie hard times that our railroads and most of our other large cor; porations are facing, our export trade increased during the year 1913 more than 100,000,000 dollars. The known figures of exports for 1913 are 2,251,000,000 dollars for the 11 months ended November 30, and should the December output equal that of November, the actual total for the year would be 2,497,000,000 dollors. In -imports the totals for 1913 will be less than 1912, but larger than in any previous year. This decline in 1913 is due in part to reduction in prices of certain articles imported.

Wisconsin, which has become notorious for what is referred to in the moro conservative Eastern States as "freak legislation,'' is having a hard time putting one of its most recent radical laws into practice. This law provides that couples seeking marriage licenses must produce certificates from physicians showing that they have passed certain health tests. Most of the physicians of the State declared that it would be impossible to certify that a person was in fit physical condition to marry without having applied what 'is known as the Wasscrman test. This Washerman test costs both time and money. Its application is a matter of several weeks at least. As the law allows the physicians only three dollars for a health certificate,.

a lot of trouble ha 6 naturally resulted. In .some counties health certificates have been obtained by couples seeking marriago without the Wasserman test. The Attorneygeneral of the State declares that the Washerman test is not necessary. The physicians of Milwaukee, the State's largest city, do not a.gree with him. One perplexed Milwaukee candidate for nijitriinony, who is unable to find a physician who will give him a certificate of health for three dollars and without the Wasserman test, has petitioned for a, writ of mandamus compelling the physician to give him a certificate for the price named in the law, to the courts will decide the matter before very long.

Warning against fake . radium cancer cures has just been given by X)r Alsberg, chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture. J)r Alsberg says that because of the wonderful cures ''effected by application to cancer of tho radium "gamma" rays there lias sprung up a host of impostors and quacks who are foisting alleged cures upon the public under the representation that they contain radium, lie declares that there are to-day less than two grams of radium in the United States, values at 120,000 dollars a gram, and that consequently these claims are not plausible. On the other hand, people in tliirt country have suddenly become deeply interested in the recent experiments in applying the radium raya to cancer. A cancer patient in Newark, a foTmcr member of oongress, has within the last few days attained to nation-wide publicity because of the.se experiments that have been applied in his case. His physicians have been using almost a gram of radium in treating hira, or, if Dr Alberg is correct, almost half the total supply of tho United States.

The city of Dayton, Ohio, is trying a brand-new experiment in municipal government. It has just entered the ranks of the commission-governed cities, and has entrusted its business affairs to a city manager. Henry Al. Waite, formerly of Cincinnati, where he served as service director, and who before that was an active figure in railroad and coalfield -developments, has been chosen for this position at a salary of 12,500d0l a year. Most American cities of the size of Dayton do not pay their mayors more than one-fifth of this sum. Under the old form Dayton- was governed by a mayor chosen by the entire electorate and a city council of 15 members, three of whom were elected at la'rge and 12 by wards. Under the new form the entire electorate elects a commission of five men, who appoint a clerk and city manager. • The manager has entire appointing power, including the heads of five departments and all their subordinates. The new government is. divided into five departments—safety, service, public welfare, finance, and law. The head of each of these departments is appointed by the city manager, with the approval of the commissioners, and is accountable only to him. The power of removal without notice is reserved to the manager, who, in turn, can be removed by the commissioners. As a further safeguard, the right to recall all officials is reserved to the people. The new government is based on the principle of fixed responsibility as an impetus, to efficiency. The job of city manager of Dayton was offered recently to Theodore Roosevelt at a salary of 25,000d01, and was refused.

A striking illustration of the gigantic strides the automobile business has made in this country has iust been given by the Ford Motor Company, 'of Detroit, which announces that it will distribute 10,000,000d0l of one year's profits among its 26,000 employees. The company announces that the minimum wage will be sdol a day. Even the office boys and floor scrubbers will get that much. As the FoTd Company's profits were 20,000,0Q0d0l last year, it can easily afford this adventure in Utopia. At about the same time comes the failure of the city of Chicago to receive any contractor's bid for the construction of its 131,0C0,000d0l subway. The difference between private industrial freedom and the bondage of public regulation is thus impressively presented. The private corporation in Detroit is makinir so much money that it fairly shovels Its gains out in largess to employees, while the city of Chicago, by imposing conditions that compel the contractor to recover his entire investment out of excess profits over and above interest and other charges in a 20-year period of operation, including the four or five years spent in construction, effectually scares away all bidders. There was a great deal of shaking of heads over the motor company's surprising experiment. It is declared that, while the Chicago policy has failed utterly, the other is almost certainly foredoomed to failure. Says the motor company: "We think that one concern can make a start and create an example for other employers. That is our chief object." But the other employers are not at all pleased by this example that has just been presented to them. These other employers declare that the theory of the management of the Ford Company runs dead against all experience. They say it makes the pace hard for other employers, for there aT6 very few industries in the country that can make up a payroll upon the basis of sdol a day as a minimum wage. They also declare that serious disturbances in the automobile industry labour market will follow. The Ford Company cannot hire all the men, and there will be unrest and dissatisfaction in the shops of other companies, with the strong probability of strikes. A spectacular result of the Ford Company's announcement came yesterday, when 10,000 men struggled or actually fought around the works of the motor company clamouring forjobs. The Ford Company announces that its men are to receive their share of the profits in semi-monthly payments; but efficiency is to be insisted upon, and the company will have a ■ sociological department to keep an eye on the men, and .any who are found using the extra money in a way considered improper for right livin: will be eliminated as beneficiaries under the plan.