12 
North Shore Breeze 
Published every Friday afternoon by 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE CO. 
Knight Building Manchester, Mass. 
J. ALEX. LODGE, Editor. 
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Vol, “X). March @i5 16013" No: 12: 
Tue B. & M. Stock 
Louis D. Brandeis has stated that 
the drop in Boston and Maine R. R. 
stock has not been due to “knockers,” 
but because the New Haven managers 
of the road have not “been using 
arithmetic” in their methods. Many 
persons who claim to be close to the 
railroad authorities assert that the 
knocking which the road has received 
from the Public Franchise League and 
the Chamber of Commerce of Boston, 
coupled with the suits by the Federal 
government for alleged violation of 
the Sherman anti-trust law, had much 
to do with the depreciation in value 
of the stock. 
Whatever the cause, it is hard to 
perceive how such inveterate ‘‘knock- 
ing” of any quasi-public corporation 
is going to help the public or the 
road. In the past few days common 
stockholders have lost thousands of 
dollars owing to the depreciation in the 
value of the stock which they hold 
In most cases these common. stock- 
holders can ill afford to lose the mon- 
ey which their stock represents and 
quite naturally they do not look in 
favor at the various causes for the 
drop. ~The public is virtually the 
stockholders of any railroad, and a 
drop such as the one of the last few 
days comes directly back at them. 
This seems to be an age of “knock- 
ing.” Instead of giving a mana 
chance to do what he can to build up 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
a corporation in the interests of the 
public and the company, he is obliged 
to spend the greater part of his time 
defending government law _ suits, 
which in many cases have proven un- 
necessary. It seems sometimes as 
though the officials at Washington 
were hunting for trouble with a dark- 
lantern. 
To be sure, our railroads are not 
entirely blameless. Their service may 
be improved, if we but give them a 
chance. Such organizations as the 
Boston Chamber of Commerce have 
been known to make mistakes, and 
have more than once broken faith 
with the public and their own coterie 
of business men whom they presum- 
ably serve. It would not seem that 
they are protecting their own inter- 
ests in coming out flat-footed against 
the railroads of this section ‘Their 
interests are centered in more than 
one way in the corporations and by 
persistently “knocking” them, they are 
sjuring themcelves. 
Also, the modern adage, “Get as 
much out of employer as you can, if 
you use force to do it,’ comes indi- 
rectly into the limelight as a reason 
for the depreciation in value of our 
railroads. The too frequent demands 
of the engineers for what they term 
a “square deal” seems to many to be 
one form of highway robbery. The 
engineers and all of the employees of 
the railroad are well-paid, and can ap- 
parently find but little cause for com- 
plaint. It would seem that some of 
the money which goes into raises in 
salary for certain branches of the rail- 
road employes should find its way in- 
to the pockets of the common stock- 
holders. The long and gradual de- 
cline in the value of the road’s com- 
mon securities for the past 25 years 
has certainly not been helped any by 
the adverse criticism. 
Hic ScHoor CurricuLuMSs 
There is a great deal of truth in 
the recent statement of Dr. David 
Snedden, Massachusetts Commissioner 
of Education, that ‘in the upper grades 
and High schools of Massachusetts 
we neither know what we are trying 
to do nor where we are going.” It is 
true that there is no intelligent reason 
for the presence of many of the sub- 
jects in the ordinary High school cur- 
riculum. 
For many years it has. been other 
people’s say-so and not experience that 
has allowed certain subjects to remain 
in the courses. As Dr. Snedden says, 
“We have been taking matters in edu- 
cation on faith and table.” Fable has 
it that algebra should be taught in the 
High schools. Yet there is no apparent 
reason why aigebra shouid ve tabu 
up by the student unless he is tO ve- 
come a civil engineer. History, as it 
In taupiit Wwiddy, is Of ilttie Tcal use im 
making good citizens of the school 
children. 
Probably the principal reason for 
the average High school curriculum 
is the standard of lessons set as col- 
lege entrance requirements. When 
President Eliot said that in “fitting a 
man for college you can best fit him 
for life’ he was making a rather 
questionable statement. From _ the 
viewpoint of the college president this 
may seem to be correct, but there 
have been thousands of graduates 
from High schools who have been 
greatly hampered in their life work 
by the useless studies they took there. 
The sooner the High schools wake up 
to the fact that Latin, Greek, German 
and algebra do not constitute the best 
weapons in the battle of life the bet- 
ter it will be for the student. 
PuBLICITY IN THE CABINET 
President Wilson has said that he 
intends to give publicity to most of 
the business of the cabinet, but with 
a collection of men so identical in the 
interests of the policies of the Demo- 
cracy it is not evident that any of the 
heart-to-heart purposes of the admin- 
istration will reach the ears of the 
public. On the other hand, no mat- 
ter how identical the purposes and how 
intimate the men may be, it is a diff- 
cult matter to maintain any degree of 
secrecy regarding cabinet matters, for 
the reason that its members are per- 
sistently questioned as to what is go- 
ing on within their body. 
It is no easy matter to keep a secret 
among eleven men, and although there 
will always be some secrecy in the do- 
ings of the cabinet, there promises to 
be more publicity in the present ad- 
ministration than ever before. 
Although there are no “rank out- 
siders” in the cabinet, the individual 
members probably do not invite the 
fullest confidence in each other. If 
they do the situation will be a novel 
one. ‘The larger cabinet assumes a 
situation which might be compared 
to a town meeting—but little can be 
G. E. WILLMONTON 
Attorney and 
Counselor at Law 
WILLMONTON’S AGENCY 
Real Estate and Insurance of All Kinds 
School and Union Ses., Manchester :-: Old South Bldg., Boston 
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