Page 16 



BETTER FRUIT 



Published Monthly 

 by 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



Twelfth and Jefferson Streets 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



W. H. WALTON Ej'"'' 



lERROLD OWEN Associate Editor 



C. I. MOODY Advertising Manager 



EASTERN REPRESENTATIVES 



A. H. BILLINGSLEA -. V ' ' V i, 



No. 1 Madison Avenue, New York 



J. C. BILLINGSLEA ........ 



Advertising Bldg., Chicago 



SAN FRANCISCO REPRESENTATIVE 



EDWIN C. WILLIAMS 



Hobart Bldg.. San Francisco 



ST.\TE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON — C. I. Lewis, Horticulturist. 



WASHINGTON— Dr. A. L. Melander, Ento- 

 mologist; O. M. Morris, Horticulturist, Pull- 

 man. 



COLOR.\DO— C. P- Gillette. Director and Ento- 

 mologist; E. B. House. Irrigation Expert, State 

 Agricultural College, Fort Collins. 



ARIZONA — F. J. Cridcr, Horticulturist, Tuscon. 



MONTANA— H. Thornber. Victor. 



CALIFORNIA — C. W. Woodworth, Entomolo- 

 gist Berkelev; W. H. Volck, Entomologist. 

 Watsonville; Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist, 

 Riverside. 



INDLANA— H. S. Jackson, Pathol ogist, Lafayette. 



All Communications should be addressed and 



Remittances made payable to 



BETTER FRUIT PUBLISHING COMPANY 



Subscription Price: 



In the United States, $1.00 per year in advance. 



Canada and Foreign, including postage, $2.00, 



payable in American exchange. 



Advertising Rates on Application. 



The Railroad Situation 



The railway executives of the 

 country have recently resorted to 

 an advertising campaign that they 

 claim is necessary to educate the 

 people of the country to the neces- 

 sit>' for a pronounced raise in pas- 

 senger and freight rates. To make a 

 short cut in coming to the point this 

 action has not been viewed with 

 either tolera^on or complacency by 

 the shippnig public, more particu- 

 larly the farmer — and when we 

 say farmer we mean anyone who 

 cultivates the soil whether for the 

 production of fruit or other 

 products. The farmer in asking 

 and expecting more liberal terms 

 in making it possible to market his 

 wares is justified. In fact, he is 

 justified by even the railroads who 

 say that compared to other products 

 those from the soil have taken a 

 greater drop than in any other line 

 of business. But — the railway 

 executives point out that the prices 

 of farm products in 1919, when 

 they reached their peak, were 234 

 per cent higher than in 1913, and 

 are now only 13 per cent higher 

 than in the pre-war period of 1913. 

 On this basis, while admitting 



BETTER FRUIT 



that transportation rates on farm 

 products are too high, the railway 

 executives say that they are not so 

 high, but that the farmer can do 

 business on a profitable or at least a 

 living basis. On the other hand it is 

 claimed by the railway executives 

 that the railroads at the present 

 time cannot remain in existence on 

 a lower scale of rates and earnings 

 than at present. These rates, it is 

 officially stated by the railroads 

 were intended by the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission to enable 

 them on the average to earn an an- 

 nual return of 6 per cent on a val- 

 uation of $18,900,000,000. This 

 valuation, which it has been claimed 

 by many is too high, was not made, 

 however, at the instigation of the 

 railways, but by the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission under a law, the 

 passage of which was secured by 

 Senators La Toilette and which was 

 considered fair, although the rail- 

 roads opposed it. 



The fact now remains that owing 

 to their greatly increased operating 

 cost the railways are far from mak- 

 ing the earnings allowed them by 

 the Interstate Commerce Commis- 

 sion and since they were returned 

 from government ownership and 

 placed under the present rates have 

 incurred enormous losses. For 

 these reasons the executives of the 

 railways, while stating that a re- 

 duction in the present rates should 

 not be indefinitely postponed, em- 

 phatically proclaim that a general 

 reduction at the present time would 

 be ruinous to the roads. 



As a matter of fact the crux of 

 the situation seems to be in the fact 

 that while the railways recognize 

 the plight of the farmer in regard 

 to needing a change in rates, the 

 railways cannot assist in changing 

 this condition until the plight they 

 are in themselves permits of it. 



The most certain feature in re- 

 gard to the situation is that while 

 some commodities are so situated 

 that they can be marketed at a price 

 commensurate with the principle 

 that they can stand all the traffic 

 will bear, others can not. They 

 must have a fair transportation 



October, 1921 



rate to survive. On the other hand 

 it is a well known fact that when 

 the railroads are prosperous the 

 country is prosperous and that we 

 should exert our influence in a fair 

 and equable manner to have the 

 great arteries of the nation be 

 made so. 



Fire Prevention 



The week devoted to the cause 

 of fire prevention is assuming an 

 important place in the national cal- 

 endar devoted to civic affairs Fire 

 losses even under the most protec- 

 tive surroundings are often of a 

 heart and purse rending nature. 

 Money cannot in many cases re- 

 place or restore things that have 

 been destroyed by the unquench- 

 able flame. 



In later years this has become 

 more and more emphasized and 

 while the protection by insurance of 

 architecture in its many forms is 

 more greatly resorted to at present 

 and is made much more easily ob- 

 tainable than formerly, building to 

 prevent fires through the use of in- 

 flammable materials is being taken 

 up to a much greater extent. The 

 fruit of this observance or precau- 

 tion in what may be called a "bet- 

 ter material, better building" cam- 

 paign, has been noted in many com- 

 munities, as well as their more com- 

 plete observance of the things that 

 make fires more impossible. In 

 other words, do not build of wood 

 if concrete and stone will make you- 

 structure safer and more valuable. 

 And it will make it safer and more 

 valuable by the greater security it 

 gives and its lessened insurance risk. 



In America very little was done 

 along this line until a few vears 

 ago when the National Fire Pro- 

 tection Association was organized 

 at Boston. Since then Fire Protec- 

 tion Week has become a special 

 event in every city and town in the 

 country and has even been taken up 

 by the schools. Fire Prevention 

 Week commences October 9. Do 

 something during this week to help 

 reduce our $1,000,000 annual fire 

 loss. 



