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FROM THE LIBRARY OF
GEORGE FILLMORE SWAIN
Gordon McKay Professor of
Civil Engineering
1909–1929








THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON





THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
A STORY OF TODAY AND
ITS TOMORROWS
TO a hundred million AMERICANS — the thinkers and
1 doers, the buyers and sellers upon whose wisdom and
foresight depend our country's strength, but who now stand
so close at grips with the baleful octopus of rising costs —
this little book is dedicated in the hope that it may be of
interest, inspiration, and help; suggesting, as it does, a
source of permanent protection against the great
and growing national evil of WASTE.





WISDOM OF SOLOMON
THE
CERTAIN VIEWS
AS CONCEIVED AND EXPRESSED BY
Mr. SOLOMON BAKER, STOREKEEPER
HATCH'S HARBOR
BOSTON
PRIVATELY PRINTED
1919


ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
" Solomon Baker, of Hatch's Harbor".
Frontispiece
“He pitied the horse, but he had to do the pityin' as they
went along ..” . · · ·
·
“There,” says she, “Thank God, that bill is paid!”.
.
“
... he sells right there at the gate . ..”
.
“No,” says Hiram, “the scent was on him.”
.
.
“Think of it! Think of the wicked, sinful waste of it ..."
“ Crash!! down he went, plumb through to the floor.”
"... there's nine extry pieces left over that I didn't need."
“... he'd be seven cents out the first trip.”
.
.
.
“Sim Brown, the town constable.”
.
.
.
.
.
Pennsylvania Railroad Bulletin
.
.
.
.





THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
during the three months of my stay I have tried to put down
here. They read as if they were said all on the same day,
continuously. They were not, of course. And you must
imagine, also, that about every twentieth sentence would be
interrupted by instructions to a clerk or greetings to a cus-
tomer, somewhat after this fashion:
"And this question of whether a Democratic politician is
better'n a Republican, or vicy-backwards, is consider'ble like
guessin' which corner is the hottest down in (Here, John, if
you're lookin' for maple syrup you're wastin' time huntin'
for it amongst them cans of axle-grease. Look over on them
shelves there.) Yes, well, as I was sayin', all professional
politicians is about alike. If I know where there's an honest
one I'll be — (Oh, how d'ye do, Mrs. Cooper? Nice, season-
able weather, ain't it?)”
Leaving out some of these interruptions and Mr. Baker's
vigorous adjectives, here are a few of his last winter's obser-
vations. His sermon dealt with, for the most part, the avoid-
ance of unnecessary waste: his text I have already stated.
He began, I remember, by talking about a man he knew
named Cyrus Blake. Cyrus, according to Solomon Baker,
was an example of a man who had seen the light and profited
thereby.
"Cy,” began Solomon,“is a milk farmer over on the Liberty
Centre road, about seven miles from the Harbor here and ten
or so from Metropolite, which is, as of course you know, the
only city of any size in this part of the state. He bought
the house and land about fifteen years ago, stocked up with
some cows and a horse and a wife, and set out to get a livin'.
For twelve of them fifteen years he was as busy as a one-
legged man would be larnin' to skate, and the results he got
was about as unsatisfactory. When he started in he figgered
to raise his own cattle and their feed and everything right on
the place. Yes, sir-ee, when it comes to the milk business
Cy Blake was goin' to raise everlastin' (Hi, there, you Sim,
don't you see there's a customer down to the front of the


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON .
store? Wake up! What do you think you be; a statue of
Liberty?)
“Well, when his first ten years was up, he hadn't managed
to raise nothin' except children and the interest on the farm
mortgage. He'd had a mighty tough time, too, those ten
years, gettin' up before daylight to milk the cows, and
spendin' his forenoons draggin' cans of milk through miles
and miles of mud to the city, and the rest of the day peddlin'
it out in three cent bits. It wouldn't have been so bad if
there had been any profit in it, but as he says, it took all the
money he saved to pay for horse-flesh. He'd wear the best
horse he could get into skin and bones in about six months,
over the rough roads. He pitied the horse, but he had to do
the pityin' as they went along; he couldn't stop to do it be-
cause the milk had to get there. And every new horse he
bought took the Lord knows how many months' profits. Cy
says he used to cal’late 'twas a race who'd get him first, the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals folks or the sheriff. Be-
tween the two 'twas about horse and horse, the way he looked
at it.
“For them ten years Cy hardly knew his family; never
saw 'em scarcely by daylight; and in order to keep the pot
bilin' his wife and the young ones had to do all the plantin'
and hoein'. Of course this meant that, when the weather
was good, the children had to stay at home and hoe, and in
the winter time when there was no hoein' to do the roads was
so bad they couldn't get to school.
FROM LITERATURE OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATION, “NA.
TIONAL HIGHWAYS AND GOOD ROADS; WHOM DO THEY BENEFIT;
AND WHY AND HOW?” BY FREDERICK REMSEN HUTTON.
“There are 30,000,000 children in the United States who should be
attending school, of this number only 18,000,000 get there.
“Cy wan't one of them cheap-skate fellers that don't care
a hang, and it must have been mighty discouragin' to peddle
milk 'round all day where everybody was well-dressed and


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
children takin' music lessons and the like of that, and then
come home to a run-down shack at night and find everybody
so everlastin' tired they'd all gone to bed. He's often told
me he'd dream how his wife would look all dolled-up in city
frills instead of an old wrapper, and how pretty and cute the
children would be if they could wear city clothes 'stead of the
old hand-downs, or cut-overs from his own or his wife's
things. But a dream like that come mighty nigh bein' a
nightmare after ten years of it. And Cy had had all the
horse trouble he needed daytimes, without ‘mares' at night.
“The women folks where Cy peddled never seemed to
have a care, dressed well, went everywhere, but ‘Mandy,' that
was Cy's wife, couldn't even get out to see the circus parade.
When people don't get out anywhere they talk out pretty
nigh all the subjects there are, and it's either the divorce court
or the insane asylum, then. You know, when a man and
woman don't get on together, it's the man that usually gets
off. The woman has to stay behind and take care of the
children. She never has time to go out anywhere — except
out of her head.
LITERATURE OF THE GARFORD MOTOR TRUCK COMPANY, “ROADS,
THEIR INFLUENCE UPON ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS.”
“A farmer whose wife had been committed to an asylum said that
he could not understand the reason for her insanity. He said
“She has always lived a quiet life in a quiet place, in fact, I don't
think she's been out of the kitchen hardly for eighteen years.
"It is : only fair to say that the National Association of Mothers
and Teachers, with its branches in forty states, is wielding a good
influence for good roads. A woman who spends her time cook.
ing, washing, ironing and sewing, should have some means of pro-
viding herself with intellectual food, thru which she can help her
family to become useful citizens."
“If Cy complained about things to his friends, which was
something he did mighty seldom, they kept advisin' him to
charge more for his milk. Every time the weight of the
mortgage cracked a beam in the barn roof or the horse got
so thin he slipped half way through the collar and broke a
rib, these kind, obligin' advisers would say, 'Put on another
14



"He pitied the horse, but he had to do the pityin' as they went
along...”


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
“The advertisement gives three reasons for this result, well or.
ganized distribution, ample milk supply and low cost of hauling.
And it avers that all three of these are the natural consequences
of a system of 129 miles of cement highways radiating from the
city. Only a small portion of the Milwaukee milk supply comes in
by rail. The most of it is hauled by motor trucks over these con-
crete roads. As a sample of the saving, they quote the president
of the largest dairy company of that vicinity as saying that where
one man with two horses, which had to be changed every other
day, formerly could haul about forty cans a day, now a little two
ton truck will haul about one hundred eight-gallon cans, making
two trips instead of one.
"The advertisement closes with the pertinent question: 'How much
of your milk bill is for bad roads?":
“When a feller is havin' a hard time, it sort of softens the
rough spots to think of somebody that's worse off. Cy says
he used to think of the horse and family, but the horses always
died and got out of it in about six months, while he and his
family had to stick to it. Well, it's a dry well that makes
you know how good water is. Cy has pulled through the
drought, and he is sartinly enjoyin' the water. The children
have their time to go to school now, and he's got the old place
fixed up in good shape so you wouldn't know it nor the folks
in it. He's mighty sorry that at first he didn't buy more land,
because what he could have bought for $100 an acre has
gone up now to $500. However, he says if it had been only
ten dollars a hogshead when he did buy, he couldn't have
bought another teaspoonful then. He's like the feller that
pointed out a handsome buildin' to a stranger and says, “Fif-
teen years ago the land that stands on could have been bought
for a song. "Why didn't you buy it?' says t'other feller.
‘Oh,' says he, ‘my voice hadn't been cultivated in them days.'
: he says if it he
bought anoth hogshead when
LITERATURE OF GARFORD MOTOR TRUCK COMPANY, “ROADS,
THEIR INFLUENCE UPON ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS."
"It is a matter of common observation that where any community
passes from a condition dominated by bad roads to one character.
ized by good roads, land values in that community advance. Prior
to the building of good roads, in one part of Alabama the average
price of land was $6.00 to $15.00 an acre, after 24% of the roads
were changed to good roads, the prices averaged from $15.00 to
$25.00 an acre.".
16


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
“I'm talkin' about waste, that's what set me to thinkin' of
Cy Blake, and right here I want to say that bad roads are
the cause of more waste in this country than almost anything
else. There's only one thing that's more wasteful and that's
the kindlin' pile out back of my store here. Not out back
of my store alone, but back of every store from Maine to
Galveston and from New York to San Francisco. If them
kindlin' piles ain't sinful waste then I'll be (Hold on there,
John! Don't spill them prunes all over the floor like that.
Think you're back again in the furrer plantin' pertaters?)
“But never mind the kindlin' wood piles now. I'll come
back to them by and by. Let's talk a little more about good
hard roads, and automobile trucks. What they've meant to
Cy Blake ought to larn the rest of us somethin'. Bad roads
cost us a heap up here, and we ought to get busy and build
decent ones. I have to charge you fellers extra on everythin'
that comes into this store, on account of them bad roads, and
everythin' you ship costs more on account of the same thing.
LITERATURE OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATION, “THE HIGH-
WAY PROBLEM,” BY GENERAL COLEMAN DUPONT.
“Just before the war it cost more to ship a ton of wheat from the
farm to the railroad than to ship the same ton from New York to
Liverpool. It cost more to deliver freight from station to farm
than to ship it from factory to station, and roads, or the lack of
them, are responsible. The road question and the truck question
is a national question."
"If the money we've spent on the roads durin' the last
twenty years had been spent as it should be, we wouldn't be
in this fix. The trouble is with us, just us ourselves. We're
too careless and easy-goin'. We vote money for the politi-
cians to spend, but we're too blessed lazy to keep on the job
and see that they spend it right.
FROM LITERATURE OF NATIONAL HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION, “GOOD
ROADS EVERYWHERE.”
“STATE AID. Again history repeated itself in the form of State
Aid to the countries and towns, to be spent by them, or under joint
authority of the State Officials. And again most of such money
went into politics, and not into roads, and lack of efficiency and
uniformity persisted."
17


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
“We've always scrimped and saved our own money, but
when it comes to the public money, nobody looks after it.
When a thing has got to be paid a long way off, we don't
notice it. I remember the Jenkinses owed me a bill for a
long time, till finally I went down and I said to Mrs. Jenkins,
right afore a whole lot of company, 'I've waited long enough
for that money, I must have it right now. She got hotter
than a scalded pup and, after givin' me a glare that ought to
have set my hair afire, but didn't, she turned to one of the
women-folks in the party and asked her if she would lend
her five dollars. The woman lent the money. Mrs. Jenkins
passed it over to me. Then she drew herself up, proud and
haughty. “There,' says she, “Thank God that bill is paid!'
All we seem to think of is just the present. Like the Jenkins
woman, we don't seem to see that it's all got to be paid later.
You heard about the feller that said at last he could hold
up his head among honest men 'cause his last debt was out-
lawed that day. Well, there's some debts that can't be out-
lawed.
“Too much politics is the trouble mainly. There's a lot of
fellers that, when they get ready to milk, instead of chasin'
the cows, just sit down and wait for the cows to come to them.
It's my judgment that it pays to chase the cows, and to chase
the politicians, that is if we want the milk that's due us.
“It's a funny thing, but the biggest part of our politicians
of the state and country are lawyers. Did you ever sit
around a court room? I did last summer on that Rollins'
accident. We would come in with a dozen witnesses, some
of them had to come as much as a hundred miles, and we'd
sit around and wait for the judge and lawyers to get through
swappin' stories. When the stories was finished we'd be
told the case was carried over. And we wan't even privileged
to hear the stories.
"Well, I just figgered out that the lack of good business
common-sense was costin' somebody there over one hundred
dollars a day. I told one of the lawyer fellers so, and he
18





THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
want to stop lockin' the wheels and try greasin' 'em a spell.
We want to start puttin' our brains to work for the public
benefit and then wear mittens, if it's necessary, so our fingers
won't always be scratchin' in the public pocket-book. We've
got all kinds of Secretaries down in the Cabinet at Washing.
ton. Why not have a Secretary of Business Common Sense?
FROM “INDUSTRY,” JANUARY 11, 1918.
“There is no department in Washington which is constructive in
the interests of industry, but there are many which are potentially
or actually, obstructive or destructive.
“WHAT IS CONGRESS DOING? With the ending of the war
come industrial problems. How can Industry meet the competi-
tion of Japan and of Europe in the face of the Underwood Law?
What is Congress doing to solve the problem?
“The present reconstruction activity of Congress is confined to two
departments. The Department of Labor wants to get all workers
into Industry; the Treasury Department wants to get all the money
out of Industry. And the pathetic humor of the situation is that
each thinks it can accomplish its end.
"A DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY. All of which is evidence
that there is a vital need for a Department of Industry in Wash-
ington, a department which shall be as wholeheartedly devoted to
the interests of American Industries as the Department of Labor
is to the Interests of American wage earners; a department which
shall be as thoroughly organized out of Industry as the Department
of Labor is out of Labor, a department which is qualified to speak
and act, before the country and in interdepartmental matters,
for Industry and Industry alone. If Japan can see the wisdom
of having all its cabinet comprised of business men and industrial
men, surely the United States can endure having one manufacturer
upon its Cabinet."
“This high cost of livin' that everybody's talkin' about,
what is it? What makes livin' cost so much? There's all
kinds of answers to that riddle, but if you was to bile 'em
down, you'd find, I guess likely, that the main answer sticks
pretty close around this lack of common sense and the amazin'
amount of waste. For one thing we don't produce enough;
for another we don't half really use what we produce.
“The high cost of livin' makes everybody grumble, and
makes them discontented. There never was such a row all
over the country as there is today with labor. Those soap-box
orators are shakin' the red flag everywhere. Two or three


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
of them was arrested in Chicago the other day. I can't pro-
nounce their names without sneezin', and even then I'd be
scared to try on account of the risk of startin' a loose tooth
or so, but I'd never seen any of them names mentioned in
the list of those that have helped make America great. It's
a cinch them fellows with the lock-jaw names wan't satisfied
with their own country or they wouldn't be here. There
ought to be some way to ship them back home and let them
work it out there and not experiment on us.
"Hunger and cussedness are the things that's kickin' up
this row with labor, as I see it, and the cussedness has got
a mighty strong place now on account of this high cost of
livin' bugbear. Prices was bound to go up in the last year or
two, because nobody's been producin' much of anythin' and
’most all the men we had in this country was workin' on war
stuff. It was bad enough before as far as food was concerned,
because the boys for the last fifty years have been leavin' the
farms. Take it right in this town, as fast as the boys get
feathered out they fly to the city. The country towns have
been just sort of incubators for the cities. If you want to
bring the prices of food down, you have got to produce more
things to eat.
FROM LITERATURE OF NATIONAL HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION, “NA-
TIONAL HIGHWAYS AND GOOD ROADS; WHOM DO THEY BENEFIT,
AND WHY AND HOW?” BY FREDERICK REMSEN HUTTON.
“At the close of the Civil War, census showed that 42% of the
population were engaged in food producing vocations, today only
19% of the population is engaged in these vocations."
“Whenever we get big crops, you notice we get lower prices,
so to make food cheap you've got to raise more of it, and cart
it cheaper. My wife's cousin Jerry has got a farm right down
on the State Road below Metropolite, and everything he raises,
he sells right there at the gate to automobile folks that come
along, and he gets the same prices as they pay in the city.
You can't buy a bit of land now along that road but if you go


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
back only ten miles where Jerry's brother has got a farm,
you find that he slaves for sixteen hours a day and can't
hardly keep body and soul together, and farm land there
ain't worth as much as it was ten years ago.
FROM LITERATURE OF NATIONAL HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION, “WHY
THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BUILD, OWN, AND MAINTAIN A SYSTEM
OF PUBLIC HIGHWAYS,” BY SYDNEY SUGGS.
“Life, liberty and the peaceful pursuit of happiness are guaranteed
to the people of America, from the most exalted to the most
humble citizen. To my mind the building of good roads will bring
this about more effectively and more permanently than any other
issue which is now confronting our people.
“We can advise, preach and urge the back-to-the-soil movement
until doomsday; the federal and state government can continue
to send agricultural experts and scientific farmers throughout the
country, but unless we provide easy and quick transportation, and
give the laboring people an opportunity to buy and own small
farms, it will be as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.”
"Now the reason Jerry's farm is doin' so well is just on
account of it's being on a good hard highway. Lord a' mercy,
how we have wasted money by not spendin' it right! By not
spendin' more of it on good roads, for instance. Cost?
Course they cost. So does everything worth while in this
world. They tell us salvation is free, but we don't get that
till by and by, and some folks you and I know are takin' des-
perate chances even then.
“The Panama Canal cost $422,000,000, and it's a mighty
good thing, but it never will carry as much freight as had
to go over our mean, muddy, country roads, and yet it's
only lately that much has been said about roads. We've
heard a lot about railroads, but the railroads don't come
up to the farmers' gates. Everything that goes over
the railroads or through the canals, has to go over
these dirt roads. When it gets so they can bring stuff
across the ocean for less than the farmer can take it to the
railroads, it's a pretty serious proposition, because it's liable
to mean that all along the shore they will be buyin' their stuff
from foreigners. Them foreigners don't get more than ten



APPLES
FOR SALE
“...he sells right there at the gate...."


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
"I just heard about a farmer down in Rhode Island who
always used to bring his stuff to Providence and sell it for
whatever they'd give him. Well, this feller sort of got his
head a-workin' last summer to mighty good advantage. Seems
that the War Food Board, to help things along, posted some-
body in the different cities to watch the prices and sort of
'wise-up’ the farmers. This farmer got his thinkin' cap on
and bought him a truck, just the same as Cy Blake, you see.
He'd load it up at night and about one o'clock in the mornin'
he'd call up Boston, Worcester and Providence by 'phone to
find which place was givin' the most for the stuff he had on
the truck, then he would shoot it right into the place where
they needed the stuff most. Well, you know, he made that
truck pay for itself in just about a month and it was the Gov-
ernment help that made this possible.
"There you are! That feller and Cy, we'll say, are makin'
the beginnin's, and the Government is beginnin', too—but only
beginnin' — to help along. Some of these days there'll be
good roads everywhere all over the country and along 'em
will be rollin' lines of motor trucks, actin' as common car-
riers, helpin' the railroads and the canals, and all the rest
get the farmers' produce to market. Such a state of affairs
as that'll mean more and more land put to producin', and
more producin' will mean more food, more food’ll mean
lower prices for food, and down'll come your old high cost
of livin', same as Deacon Asaph Pennock came down his
front steps on the icy mornin' — 'with one slip, two hiccoughs
and a jolt.'
“Yes, the Government's got to help more. Now when I
say that I don't want you to think I'm startin' in arguin' for
Government ownership. I'm about as anxious to have uni-
versal Government ownership as Hiram Woodbury's dog
is to chase any more little black and white animals in Hiram's
woodlot. Young Woodbury sent his dad the dog from the
city. The first evenin' the old man had the critter it started


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
tearin' into them woods tail up and nose to the ground. “I
could see he was hot on the scent of somethin',' says Hi, tellin'
me about it. 'I yelled to him to come back, but he never
stopped. He did come back in about another hour though!'
'Oh!' says I, "he wan't on the scent then, eh?” “No,' says
Hiram, 'the scent was on him.' Well, a spell ago the Gov-
ernment took over the railroads and telegraphs and one thing
or 'nother and the scent of the expense and taxes are on us
yet. I don't like the perfumery well enough to hanker for
any more of it.
“But, just the same, this war has shown us that the Gov-
ernment can do a whole lot to help private ownership along
and make it decent, law-abidin', helpful-to-all-hands private
ownership. It can help to build roads that are public benefits
for every private individual. It can irrigate waste lands, it
can teach everybody's boy and girl how to save money and
effort — yes, and what to eat and do to be healthy, worth-
while boys and girls, too. Do you realize how much the
right food has to do with keepin' children right? If part of
the trainin' in school was to know just what was necessary to
eat to keep goin' on, and what kind of food would give the
most red blood for the money, there'd be less work for the
divorce courts. It's a mighty important thing that our chil-
dren should be fed on stuff that makes them red-blooded, and
if you are goin' to take it on a matter of value, it's important.
“When you go into the slums of some of these big cities
you see the kids all white-livered, and just naturally think
that it's because they're too poor to have food. It ain't that,
it's because they come to this country and try to live in this
climate on the same food they had over across. Imagine an
Eskimo eatin' blubber here in Summer-time. Children must
be taught in school that sartin kind of foods are fitted for
sartin climates, and these have got to be changed accordin'
to the seasons. This will save doctors' bills, and will give
us a better race of humans.
25





THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
“Uncle Sam must mend his fences. There's so many, many
ways we can stop this fool waste and mend the fences if we
only will. Here's one way; here's one of the biggest fool
holes to plug, that's the hole made by that kindlin' pile back
of my store here and back of every store in this country.
When I think of the wicked waste of them kindlin' piles, I
declare I do lose my temper! There ain't any more excuse
for that waste than there would be for tryin' to set up an
ice-cream saloon at the North Pole or peddlin' mittens in
(Well, well? Yes, yes! Here I be. What do you want?
Can't one of you clerks find anything for yourself without
hollerin' to me about it? If you'd open your eyes as often
as you do your mouths, you'd get along better, maybe.)
“What do I mean by my kindlin' pile? I'll tell you. That
pile is made up of old boxes, packin'-cases and such, that
goods I buy for my store here come to me in. Each one of
them boxes is used just once and then it's ripped open and
chucked out on the kindlin’-pile. Think of it! Think of the
wicked, sinful waste of it, with lumber the price it is now
and gettin' scarcer every year! You don't look real interested
yet. Maybe you don't figger that that waste hits you very
hard. Every unnecessary waste hits every individual one of
us, fur as that goes, and this one hits you, just as it hits me —
and Bill Smith and Tony Spaghetti — and Woodrow Wilson
- everybody, high or low. That pile of old boxes in the first
place cost more than I made on the goods that come in 'em.
Every man that shipped a box charged that on to the price of
his goods, and I charged it back on to you and my other
customers. Every time you buy a dollar's worth of groceries
you pay ten cents or a quarter to cover the cost of the box.
FROM BOSTON “TRANSCRIPT,” FEBRUARY 15, 1919. “MILLIONS
SQUANDERED IN PRODUCE PACKAGES,” INTERVIEW WITH R. W.
MERRICK, LATE OF THE BUREAU OF MARKETS, UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
“But why does the public stand for the mountains of empty prod.
uce containers? Why does the public allow itself to be taxed
a quarter billion dollars each year for worthless empty crates and
boxes?” (See page 53.)


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
“The way I charge for these boxes you don't fuss, but if
your wife come down to get a package of starch and I charged
her ten cents for the starch and one cent for the box, she
would just naturally ask me why I didn't use the boxes over
and over again and save her that extra cent. That's what
Cy Blake has always done with his milk bottles, and it's what
we used to do with the vinegar barrels, oil barrels, egg crates,
berry crates, and a thousand and one things; but that was
when the railroads used to bring the empties back free. Now
I tell you, if we can cut a man's grocery bill down ten or
fifteen cents on a dollar, it ought to be done. Of course, rail.
roads say they can't afford to bring them empties back free,
but when you find these weak flimsy boxes they carry now
are costin' them very railroads more in loss and damage
claims than the freight they get out of them, it looks to me
as though they could carry good strong boxes free, if there
are such things to be had. Don't it look so to you? Or to
any business man? I guess it does! And don't it look as if
'twould pay to find out if they are to be had? (See page 53,
“American Shoemaking.")
"$250,000,000 a year wasted on kindlin’-piles, like mine
back of the store here, hits us all.
“Let's take a look at it from another point — just one point,
for there's as many points to this kindlin'-pile thing as there is
prickles on a chestnut burr, and at least one of them prickles
sticks into each separate citizen in this U. S. A. Let's talk
about the feller that ships eggs to market. Let's suppose, for
instance, that you was doin' it yourself.
"To begin with you give fifty cents a-piece for the wooden
cases, and they're mighty thin at that. When they get to the
city more than half of the eggs are broken because the cases
are weak. Of course, you may say that's all right, the cus-
tomer pays for all that, but you want to bear in mind that
you are payin' for somebody else's mean cases, same as he
is for yours. This world is one big community, when you


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
**********They claim that $120,000,000 is wasted each year on
containers of wood and fibre, which might much better be ground
into pulp for paper, so far as continuous usefulness goes, and that
these are thrown away after completing a single trip.” (More
recent reports show that this $120,000,000 should be $250,000,000.
See page 54.)
“And here's a little mite of prophecy I'm chuckin' in free
gratis for nothin'. And it's good straight goods too, even if
it is a present. Some of these fine days our Uncle Sam is
goin' to speak up loud and say: 'Stop usin' your flimsy
wooden cases. I need the wood for more important things.
Use the right kind of case, one that can be packed right goin'
out and carried back easy in little space, and used over and
over again. 'Use that kind of case!' Uncle Sam'll say, “and
I'll have 'em carried back free for you!
“Why, the heavy wooden boxes used in shippin' army
supplies to France have cost between $40,000,000 and
$50,000,000. And where are they now? In the kindlin' piles
of French towns and villages and cities. Waste, WASTE,
WASTE, I tell you. And wicked waste, 'cause it could all
be done away with. Or, if not all, then pretty nigh all. Sup-
pose you was a farmer with a grown up son. Suppose you
had given your boy the next farm to yours. Supposin', in
the winter, instead of cuttin' down trees, he used the fences
up for the stove, and in the summer the cows come in and
ate up the corn he'd planted. I bet you when he came around
to you for corn to feed his chickens you'd kick some and
say, 'Well, I'll help you this time to keep your chickens from
starvin' but you've got to mend your fences. We've bought
Liberty Bonds and helped Uncle Sam all we could, but don't
you think he's got some fences to mend afore he calls for
much more corn? Here he's been tellin' us to save paper,
and yet, accordin' to his own story, $250,000,000 is added to
our grocery bills on account of the kindlin' wood piles out
back. (See page 54.)
“The boxmakers have got to buildin' these wooden packin'
boxes of theirs so thin now that a little dried up five-footer
30



“Think of it! Think of the wicked, sinful waste of it...."


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
like Seth Peters can't sit on one and tell a lie in comfort.
Seth was in here the other day and set down on a box that
had just come off the cart from the city. He hadn't much
more than begun to tell about the fish he caught last summer
up in Maine than I heard the boards of that box beginnin' to
crack, and when he switched off to the Prohibition Act and
give out that it didn't make no difference to him, he hadn't
tasted a drop of liquor for up’ards of a year, Crash!! down
he went, plumb through to the floor. Of course the weight of
a lie like that would strain 'most any kind of box, but if a
man can't sit around in a grocery store and lie without gettin'
his every-day trousers full of splinters a lot of folks you
and me know'll get flat-footed standin' up.
“To be serious again, the waste of our lumber in this
country is a mighty wicked thing. When we're usin' up tim-
ber faster than it's grown, our grandchildren are liable to
come along when it's all gone and find fault because we
wasted $250,000,000 worth a year in one-trip boxes and
crates.
FROM BOSTON “TRANSCRIPT” EDITORIAL “THE FORESTERS' CON-
GRESS,” FEBRUARY 25, 1919.
“According to figures which Professor E. F. Fisher lately published
the United States has been consuming its merchantable timber at
the rate of three and one half times the rate of production.”
“Well, when business men get to runnin' the business of
this country, as they've got to some day, after they've run the
politicians out — when they do, and when they realize that
more of our precious lumber is bein' cut up than is grown
and that $250,000,000 worth of it is bein' wasted in one-
trip flimsy boxes, which on account of their flimsiness mean
loss and damage of $80,000,000 to the railroads and smash
$25,000,000 worth of our main food product, eggs — they
will see that packin' cases are made of somethin' that will
last and can't break. You bet they will! It's an immoral
condition now makin' thieves out of everybody, because the


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
wooden and fibre cases are just a straight invitation to steal.
And the dear land knows there's thieves a-plenty without
sendin' out invitations.
FROM MACON, GEORGIA, “TELEGRAM,” JANUARY 8, 1919.
“MORE CAR LOOTING THAN EVER KNOWN.” RAILROADS ARE
HEAVY LOSERS BY SERIES OF OPERATIONS BY BOLD GANGS OF
THIEVES.
"Because of the robbery and pilfering of freight and baggage at
all freight depots, the transportation departments have paid out
during the last four or five months three hundred per cent more
claims than ever before in the history of the railroads.” (See
page 60.)
“When business men run this country they'll see that if
flimsy containers are makin' all this trouble for the railroads,
they are goin' to make just as much for the trucks, and that
when truck routes are formed and trucks, as common carriers,
are stoppin' regular at the farmers' gates, the stuff must be
packed in strong metal boxes so that they can be thrown on
hit or miss, without stoppin' to reload. Returnable cases
that nobody can break will make trucks profitable and the
cost of livin' will go down fifteen per cent.
"You notice I say 'metal boxes. Well, I might better
have said “steel boxes. That's what the container that's
comin' is goin' to be, as sure as you and I are settin' here
talkin' this minute. That is, as sure as I'm talkin' and you're
goin' to (Hurry up, Sam! Old Miss Henderson's been
standin' there waitin' for you so long she'll turn into a pillar
of salt, like Lot's wife in Scriptur'. 'Twill be consider’ble of
a change for her; judgin' by what I hear of the way she man-
ages to pry into her neighbor's affairs she must be mostly
rubber at present.)
“Let's see. Where was I? Oh, yes! A steel box is what's
comin'. A steel box that will fold down flat when it's empty
and can be shipped back home flat, takin' up hardly any space
at all. With one of them steel boxes that I've been tellin'
you about, the farmer and every other shipper will see that
32



SOLOMO
HAT
“Crash!! Down he went plumb through to the floor.”


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
it's cheaper for him. It will go a thousand trips, and besides
he'll have his name on that box so as to get it back. That
name will be his brand, his trademark. He's goin' to learn
that his brand and reputation mean somethin' and if he packs
wormy apples he'll lose his customers.
FROM BOSTON “POST,” JULY 21, 1917.
“An indestructible container would largely eliminate the waste on
one-trip boxes.” (See page 54.)
“Did I say those collapsible, non-breakable steel boxes was
comin'? Well, they're better than comin' — they're here.
And as for goin' back and forth and back and forth again —
why, they'll go six hundred times, and six times six hundred,
for what I know!
LETTER FROM E. T. WRIGHT & COMPANY, ROCKLAND, MASS., TO
PNEUMATIC SCALE CORPORATION, LTD.
"October 18, 1916.
GENTLEMEN:
In response to your inquiry, would say that the 50 collapsible
steel cases purchased of you in 1915, have now made over 600
trips each, and apparently are in condition to make as many more
trips.
“Although designed for 70 lbs. we have loaded these cases with
from 200 to 300 lbs. per trip. In fact, we have spared the cases
in no way, but, on the contrary, have given them the most severe
service to determine how much abuse the same would stand. As
compared with the usual railroad trips, we consider that these
cases have received much more than ordinary abuse.
“We consider the case is absolutely pilfer-proof, and when col-
lapsed it occupies no more space than wooden shooks for the same
box. The labor of handling is less than that of the ordinary
case, and we believe would save the railroads an immense amount
of labor, if put into universal use. We regret that the railroads
have not recognized the benefits to be secured by the use of this
case, and so equalized the rates as to make it the universal con-
tainer. If the rates were so equalized that it cost us no more for
freight out and return than it now costs us to ship out, we believe
by the use of this case, we can find the solution of the rapidly
rising freight rates from the East.”
Yours very truly,
E.". WRIGHT & CO. INC.
“And with stout steel boxes like these another big waste
can be saved, that's the waste space in loadin', in loadin' cars,
33


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
such a case one big hole in the fence would be mended, that's
the hole made by damage claims. Since they stopped the
free return of empty cases, loss and damage claims have gone
up from practically nothin' to over $80,000,000 a year, and
everybody says there was as much more that wan't paid last
year, but just left until Uncle Sam catches his breath after
the fight he's been in with Germany.
“Now, as I've said, the short loadin' of freight cars was
another big hole in the fence.
FROM PHILADELPHIA “PUBLIC LEDGER,” SATURDAY, SEPT. 22, 1917.
$200,000,000 WASTED YEARLY IN UNDERLOADING OF CARS. “HIGH
COST OF VACUUM.” BY PROF. GROVER G. HUEBNER.
“By adding the interest paid by the railroads on freight cars which
are not used to produce revenue, to the cost of hauling this empty
car space, we have the astonishing total of not less than
$209,000,000.” (See page 63.)
“Course the railroads saw they'd have to do somethin' to
stop this short loadin', so it was decided to hold cars, and not
send 'em out until they was full. Well, they couldn't load
’em full without smashin' all the flimsy stuff, but they did
get more in. But when they come to pile more of this stuff
in, the loss and damage claims doubled. So our Boston feller
saw that, first of all, a steel box was what was needed. But
if such a box was made of heavy steel to get strength, the
extra freight would cost more than the flimsy box. So he got
up a cute scheme of takin' three thin sheets of steel and
puttin' them together in such a way that, while it makes a
box as strong as ordinary steel five times its weight, it only
weighs about the same as a good, sensible wooden box would,
the kind of wooden box we used to get before they stopped
bringin' 'em back free. You can't smash it. And he found,
same as the express companies found, that a whole lot of
boxes got lost and had to be paid for by the railroads because
they had four or five marks on them. Why, the Interstate
Commerce Commission said they lost millions each year this
35


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
way. So he fixed his box so the marks would always be in
one place, and couldn't get rubbed off.
FROM “MANUFACTURERS RECORD,” BALTIMORE, MD., FEB. 13, 1919,
“BETTER PACKING AND BETTER MARKING OF EXPRESS PACKAGES.”
“The American Railway Express Company will start a "better
packing — better marking" campaign, and a marked improvement
in the express service of the whole country is expected to follow
this campaign.”
"His box has handles on it, so it's easy to move it. These
are set in flush with the box so they won't scratch anything
else, and he's fixed it so it will fold up when it ain't bein'
used, just like a paper-hanger's board. All the railroad fel-
lers said, 'If you'll only make it pilfer-proof, we'll do most
anythin' for you.' I'll be darned if he hasn't done even that,
too! A thief can't get into it without bein' caught.
“All right then, there was the box, the box all hands was
lookin' for, and endorsed by all hands, too.
FROM REPORT OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY ASSOCIATION, COM.
MITTEE ON FREIGHT HANDLING AND PACKING.
“It is many times stronger than a wooden box and practically in-
destructible in the ordinary wear and tear of freight handling.
By the use of an automatic lock the case cannot be opened with-
out clear evidence of robbery, therefore, its advantages as we see
them are as follows:
1. Prevents concealed losses.
2. On account of construction, prevents damage, also
concealed damage.
3. Does not absorb moisture, as a wooden or fibre-
board container would.
Can be used over and over again indefinitely."
(See page 55.)
“Yes, well you'd think that settled it, wouldn't you? You'd
think that when the folks that shipped the stuff wanted just
that kind of a packin'-case, and the truck companies and ex-
press companies that carried the stuff wanted it, and the folks
that bought and used the stuff wanted it because they would
see what a savin' to them its use would mean, you'd think
then that the argument was all over, that all that was neces-
36


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
sary to do was to start in makin' the steel cases as fast as
they could be turned out, while the rest of creation set up
nights beggin' you to hurry.
“If you think that way, son, your thinker needs tinkerin'.
Elnathan Pease's boy took the old man's watch to pieces one
time. When Elnathan found out what was goin' on he was
a little mite worried, cause he thought consider’ble of that
watch. “Can you get it back together again?” he asks. The
boy grinned, ‘Land yes, Pop,' says he, “gettin' it back is the
easiest part. It's together already and there's nine extry
pieces left over that I didn't need.' Same way with your
thinker if you think the steel case man's need for argument
was ended. He had convinced everybody except — well, ex-
cept them who couldn't afford to be convinced.
"You remember the yarn about the near-sighted judge
down South, who asked what was the plea in the case and a
little darky stood up and said ‘Not guilty.' The judge squinted
at him and asked, “Are you the attorney for the defendant?'
The little darky says, 'No, judge, I's only de nigger what
stole de chickens.
“He couldn't afford to plead guilty you see. Well, neither
can all the makers of wooden packin'-boxes and fibre boxes
in this big country. Down inside of them they might know,
same as the little darky knew, just who stole the chickens, but
they wasn't goin' to risk their bread and butter by saying so.
You can't blame them altogether. Their capital was invested
in the wooden and fibre box plants and they was bound to
fight.
"So our Boston steel box-maker, after goin' afore one
Government committee after another, decided to bring a
test case. In fact the committee asked him to bring one. His
argument was about like this: If a shipper had to pay more
freight to get the strong steel box out and back than he now
pays to get the flimsy wood and fibre box out, the steel box
37


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
couldn't be used no matter how good or how cheap it was.
He vowed that it ought to go out without payin' any freight
for the box, but only on the stuff in it, and the railroads ought
to return it at the low price they charged for sheet steel, be-
cause it didn't take up any more room than such steel. This
would give the railroads just as much money for freight as
they was gettin' today, as a whole. Of course, they'd have to
haul it once more, but when 'twas laid down flat, it was only
three-quarters of an inch thick, so it wouldn't take up any
room to speak of and could be thrown in ’most any way.
"He pointed out that the tank car didn't pay any freight
at all, and it didn't save near as much damages and labor as
his steel box would, and that he and eleven hundred shippers
thought he was entitled to the same treatment.
"Well, he brought the test case. Must have cost him a
heap of money. He gave in letters signed by over eleven
hundred shippers from all over the country, the very same
fellers that put up the packages that are on my shelves here.
Some of 'em said they didn't know as they could use a steel
box themselves, but they thought somethin' ought to be done
to stop this wicked waste, and even if they couldn't use it,
they'd like to see it put in operation. So they asked the
railroads to give the rates that this box feller asked for.
"Some of these fellers whose business was makin' flimsy
boxes found out about the petitions that the eleven hundred
shippers signed, and did their darndest to get them signa-
tures back. Thirty out of the eleven hundred got sort of
weak-kneed and asked for the petitions back again. But if
you could see the letters some of these shippers wrote back to
the flimsy-box men, you'd be sartin that they knew a good
thing when they saw it, and were workin' for the good of the
public, instead of that a few individuals. (See page 57.)
“Here are a few of the replies sent in answer to this appeal
of the wood and fibre box manufacturers:



“...there's nine extry pieces left over that I didn't need."





THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
J. J. HOOPER, OF THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY, HAVING RECEIVED A
COPY OF THE COMPLAINT CONTAINING RULE 14, WHICH IS THE
RATING ASKED FOR, ON JAN. 26, 1918, SAID:
"I do not see how anything could be added to your articles of
faith, especially Rule 14. It would seem to me that anything cap-
able of reducing and minimizing the frightful economic waste that
now obtains should be encouraged in every possible manner. I do
not know whether it is a propitious moment to press matters of
this kind, until we all know the result of federal control, but it
would strike me that the principle ought to be fostered and en.
couraged by the Government or by individual carriers.” (See
page 59.)
“When the Boston feller's test case come up for trial, there
was a regular regiment of lawyers on the other side. There
was lawyers from the lumber trusts, barrel trusts, box trusts,
paper trusts, and 'most every other trust, and some railroad
lawyers; but he didn't see any of the witnesses there from
the railroads that had been sayin' such good things about
his box; the reason bein' that the fellers you'd just naturally
suppose would know somethin' about it hadn't been called.
In fact, some chaps that had had a whole lot to say and was
goin' to come as witnesses for him just sort of hinted at the
last minute that he'd better not call 'em. Of course, this box
feller didn't want anybody to lose his job, so he thought he'd
paddle along alone.
“He stated his side, told about the losses to the railroads,
to the shippers and to everybody, and proved his statements
by figgers. Of course, some of what he said they had to agree
to, because a blind man could see it was the truth. Most of
it, though, they tried to dodge or get away from. The lawyers
for the opposition had picked out one feller for a witness
that was a sort of pacemaker, you might say, for the lot of
'em. He'd do the heft of the runnin' and the others would
set around and sic him on. One of the arguments this pace-
maker man used started out to be a complete agreement. He
give in at once that the Boston man's steel box was a good
thing. But he declared it was so good it wouldn't need any
help from the railroads in the way of carryin' it back at a



.
XXX
SUSANA
XX
XX
XX
NANA
XX
“...he'd be seven cents out the first trip.”





THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
showin', but look at the weeds. I never saw so many weeds.
See them! 'Thunder!' says Caleb, “I don't want to see them!'
That's the way 'twas with that pacemaker. He only saw what
he wanted to see.
"Then there was a lot of time wasted in arguin' about what
was painted on the steel box, or how 'twas painted. Old pace-
maker, he said the box was painted red, and if they was all
painted red, you couldn't tell what was in 'em. He seemed to
put a lot of heft on this point. Then he said that 'twan't
marked right, anyhow, it oughter be stenciled on the top of
the box. Well, now, I suppose just naturally the shipper'd
want to paint it with all his advertisin' on it. That would
probably tell what was in it, more or less, as most of these
fellers use every chance they can get to advertise. As far as
stencilin' the name is concerned, I suppose they could stencil
it on top as well as on the ends, if they buckled right down
to the job and hired a flock of lawyers to show 'em how.
"Now think of it! Just think of wastin' good valuable
time and money arguin' such little mites of fool arguments as
whether a box ought to be stenciled on top or on the side!
Ain't it ridiculous! Don't such nonsense from grown-up men
beat (Sam! Sam! Don't let them empty barrels sit out on the
front platform any longer. Wrastle 'em in and put 'em down
cellar. Yes, and say, start this week, will you, to oblige me!)
"I ain't got time to go into the whole of this test case. I
wish I had. 'Twas improvin', but kind of similar, as the
feller said about readin' the list of begats' in the Bible. One
point which made a hit with the judge who was hearin' the
case was this — our pacemaker friend doin' the figgerin' of
course.
"He figgered that there's 6,000,000,000 feet of lumber
bein' used in boxes every year, and as it weighed two pounds
to a foot, the railroads was gettin' $41,000,000 freight for
carryin' it. To lose that $41,000,000 freight by takin' on
the steel box free looked bad to the judge. But you'll notice
that old Deacon Pacemaker got his figgers by givin' out that


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
the lumber weighed two pounds to a foot. Now in one of
the Government reports, the one they call Bulletin No. 117,
on page 41, it shows that lumber should have been figgered as
one-half inch thick instead of an inch thick. That makes a
little difference of $20,000,000 in the freight received. You
know everybody's got a blind side, they say, and this pace-
maker feller evidently had one to the extent of $20,000,000
because he lost out twice on that same amount.
"Well, leavin' out a lot more that was interestin', if not
illuminatin', like the lamp the old woman filled with machine
oil, the gist of the report the Washin'ton judge gave out, after
hearin' the case, was to the effect that the Boston man's steel
box would save on boots and shoes; clothin', dry goods and
notions; butter and cheese; eggs; flour and other mill prod-
ucts; sugar; groceries; wines; liquors and beers; tobacco
and tobacco products; glass and glassware; but that
$41,000,000, the supposed loss on freight, was too much
to pay for it. (See page 59, “N.Y. Journal of Commerce.”)
"Now if, as they say, this steel box would save part of this
loss and damage, why didn't they make it possible to use it
on these different lines of goods, instead of waitin' to be
prodded up again? And prodded up they're goin' to be.
This test case was only the beginnin', so the steel box man
told me himself.
“And now here I be back to my text again. Stop waste!
I don't mean save pins and needles, but stop big wastes. Stop
lettin' our splendid water power — the heft of it go for
nothin'. (See page 71.)
"Stop lettin' good farm land lie idle, while the country's
sufferin' for food to be raised on it. (See page 21, F. R.
Hutton.) Make farmin' attractive, so that farmers will be
business men and handle their stuff at a profit. (See page
68, “Benefits of Improved Roads.")
"Stop usin' out-o'-date methods, that pull the money out
of everybody's pocket-books, when there's better to be had.
(See pages 54 and 76, Boston “Post.")
44


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
of the big game of Public Shuffle Board that's played in
Washin'ton and in every state capital with the dollars of us
all as counters. (See page 74.)
"How are we goin' to do it? There's ways. The business
men could fix it in a hurry, but each one has got somethin'
of his own to do. One way would be to pay politicians
enough money so that business men would take the jobs.
Another way would be to make political positions so honor-
able that honorable business men would want to take 'em.
You know, a man will do a heap for honor. Take the town
constable here - Sim Brown. He struts around on the
Fourth of July with that tin star, and I'll bet he thinks more
of that than he does of his wife and family.
“Of course, business men couldn't be coaxed with a tin
star; but they could occupy a position equal to the President
of the United States, and if they did all these things I'm
talkin' about, they'd be a mighty sight more use to the people
generally. And when anythin' was put up to 'em, they could
employ good engineers to investigate and get a business
man's squint on it. When they made a report afore Congress,
recommendin' this thing or that, Congress wouldn't turn it
down, if it affected the cost of livin', because Congressmen
always want to be re-elected. A genuine, workable, workin’
committee of business men would have the power to look into
every Government contract, to see how near we get to one
hundred cents on the dollar. They could act as a sort of
balance wheel for the whole proposition. And then when
you'd read the appropriations in Uncle Sam's census, you'd
came pretty nigh to knowin' where the money went to.
“Waste? Look here. Here's some figgers somebody has
reckoned out shows what a year's waste in the United States
means. The figgers ain't guess work; they've been got by
careful estimation and cal’latin'. One set is more or less
dependent on another, of course, just as the waste in car space
comes from the loss and damage claims against railroads, and
that's helped out by the cost of deliveries, and both are run


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
up and made possible by the waste in flimsy boxes. The
waste in bad roads has a bearin' on the waste in education
and the waste in education hits good health and political
economy. They're all dependent on one another. Cut out
one big waste like the flimsy box waste, the waste of the
kindlin' piles, and you're cuttin' down on all of 'em. But as
figgers they're worth thinkin' over and considerin'. Here
they be:
Page
p
boxes...................
53
1. One Trip Boxes....
$250,000,000
2. Loss and Damage to Railroads...... 80,000,000
3. Car Space Lost Due to Weak Containers 100,000,000
4. Good Roads........
13,077,100,000
5. Education.....
2,000,000,000
6. Store Deliveries....
60,000,000
7. Coal Saved by Utilizing Water Power.. 2,000,000,000
8. Daylight........
40.000.000
9. Military Training.....;;''' Diblic
500,000,000
10. Greater Efficiency in Use of Public
Funds............................ 2,000,000,000
11. Labor Turnover....
200,000,000
12. Miscellaneous Conservation Savings.. 177,400,000
Total............... .........$20,474,500,000
“It don't make so much difference, as I see it, what wages
we get, whether they're high or low. The whole thing depends
on what we get for our wages.
“Every man that works is entitled to a good home, good
food and plenty of it, and he ought to be dressed just as well
as anybody else. He is entitled to amusement, and after all
his bills is paid he should be able to pile up somethin' for
rainy days. Now, if he has all these things, what does it
matter whether he gets ten cents a day or ten dollars? It's
how much can he buy with the ten cents or the ten dollars, and
how much has he got left after his bills are paid. I remember
when everybody was scootin' up to the Klondike, because they
could get fifty dollars a day up there. But they come
stragglin' back pretty quick because it cost forty-nine dollars
47


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
and ninety-eight cents a day to live there. It just goes to
show that high wages ain't the thing. A balance must be
struck up somehow with the cost of livin'.
“The feller that figgered this table of waste I just showed
you, figgers that the waste amounts to over $1,000 a family,
because there are 20,000,000 families in the United States.
Now take a carpenter, allowin' even that he gets eight dollars
a day which makes his salary $2,400 a year. You can't call
that kind of pay 'wages' no more, — it's salary. Well, if his
pay does go down, but he saves $1,000 on the stuff that he
buys over what he is payin' today, then $1,400 is goin' to do
just as much for him as $2,400. In other words, he can do a
job of shinglin' for you then for about one-half of what he
could before, and have just as much left at the end of the year.
Then he could pass this right along to the shoemaker, and
everybody else.
“Suppose you was a poultry farmer and suppose you
shipped four hundred cases of eggs last year, and you got an
average of thirty cents a dozen, say $3,600. Now, if you had
shipped those in these steel cases you would have saved $400
right there. You would have saved half your taxes, there's
another $180, and the food and clothin' I've sold your fam-
ily the last year from this store, you would have saved $180
on. Instead of payin' sixty cents a case for haulin' your eggs
to town you would have got it done for thirty cents, and there
would have been $120 saved. You surely would have saved
$300 more in what you paid the hired man, because when
everybody's livin' gets cheaper, wages are goin' to be cheaper.
Take it on the barn you had shingled, these boxes saved from
the kindlin'-wood pile would make the shingles $30 lower.
With all this cuttin' of waste to everybody, the cost of chicken
feed would be cut down $350. Now under these conditions,
if you had sold your eggs at eighteen cents a dozen instead
of thirty cents, you would have had more money left than
you could have had last year. As a matter of fact, you would
have saved a good deal more than this because I haven't fol.
48


SOLOMON BAKER'S EVIDENCE
1. ONE TRIP vs MANY TRIP BOXES.
FROM BOSTON “TRANSCRIPT” FEBRUARY 15, 1919. “MILLIONS
SQUANDERED IN PRODUCE PACKAGES,” INTERVIEW WITH R. W.
MERRICK, LATE OF THE BUREAU OF MARKETS, UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
The war saddled America with the high cost of living. It imposed its heav.
iest burden on foodstuffs. Those contentions are beyond question. At the
same time, economists point out, the extravagant and wasteful ways in which
our food products are marketed, for which the war is not to blame, are also
responsible for existing high prices, and from which there is no escape until
this extravagance is modified, corrected.
Shipping fruits and vegetables in expensive baskets and crates that frequently
cost as much, or more, than the produce which they contain, which baskets and
crates are destroyed, after one time use is a case in point. Few persons have
any conception of what an enormous sum of money this unnecessary practice
involves, and how it stands in the way of cheaper foods even when crops are
over-abundant and glutting the markets.
But why does the public stand for the mountains of empty produce con-
tainers? Why does the public allow itself to be taxed a quarter billion dollars
each year for worthless empty crates and boxes? Fundamentally there is no
difference between the two classes of containers. If milk cans and milk bottles
can be returned and used over and over again, there is no reason why fruit and
vegetable containers should not be made of substantial material, such as metal,
and used many, many times. In fact, there is no reason why returnable cases of
suitable steel construction should not be made to replace virtually all of the
wooden cases now used for dry goods and other merchandise.
FROM "AMERICAN SHOEMAKING,” FEBRUARY 22, 1919, “THE METAL
SHOE CONTAINER.”
In a statement recently made by one of the leading New England shoe manu-
facturers the typical situation is plainly shown. This particular company paid
in 1917 freight charges amounting to $92,351 on shipments for which the one trip
boxes alone cost $50,000. Some of the boxes were of wood, the rest of fibre.
In the same year this shoe company collected in loss and damage claims $16,475,
and besides this they lost goods valued at $500 for which they could not collect.
The actual loss to this company in dollars and cents is plainly $500 plus the
interest on $16,475 for the time it took to collect this loss and damage claim,
plus the attendant clerical and other expenses. Could anyone estimate the dead
loss to this shoe company at less than $1,000 for the year 1917?
Let us look at the railroad side of this account. The boxes used weighed
18 pounds per 100 pounds of contents. The railroads therefore, collected freight
charges amounting to $14,086 on the boxes alone, leaving $78,255 freight
charges on goods contained in the boxes. But the net actual charge the rail.
roads collected, after paying loss and damage claims was $75,866. Had these
shipments all gone in many trip steel boxes and the freight charges been com-
puted on the net weight of the contents, the railroads would have collected a
freight charge of $78,255 or $2,389 more money, and would, in addition, have
53


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON IS
been saved all of the expense incident to these claims. One large railroad
places the cost of claim adjustments at one-third of the settlement-price. If
this is typical, then the railroads lost on shipment of this one shoe company
in 1917 about $8,000, when compared with what its experience would have
been had the steel box been used and freight rates charged on the net weight of
the contents.
BOSTON “POST,” JULY 21, 1917.
Secretary of Commerce Redfield has appealed to the people of the country
to save old newspapers and to help relieve the situation and the National Gov-
ernment is understood to be contemplating further steps to conserve the supply
and regulate prices. ... They claim that $120,000,000 is wasted each year on
containers of wood and fibre which might much better be ground into pulp for
paper, so far as continuous usefulness goes, and that these are thrown away
after completing a single trip." (More recent reports show that this $120,000,000
should be $250,000,000.) A single Sunday edition of some of the New York
newspapers consumes the pulp from fifteen acres of forest trees or 780 acres
of trees for one year's Sunday editions of only one of the great newspapers.
... and if this be so then in one year nearly 2,000 acres of forest trees would
have to be cut down and reduced to pulp to meet the needs of a single news-
paper of the largest circulation.
BOSTON “POST,” JULY 21, 1917.
An indestructible container would largely eliminate the waste on one-trip
boxes. It could be used over and over again, and if strongly built, surely would
save the railroads hundreds of dollars annually paid out for damages and for
goods stolen from freight cars and at the terminals, as well as conserve the
forest supply. It would make it possible to pack freight so as to secure much
larger advantage of the car space than now is possible with the fragile con-
tainers of thin wood and fibre. These cannot be piled one on top of the other
without breakage.
FROM BOSTON “TRANSCRIPT,” MAY 19, 1917.
Even the estimates for the British Navy were, for the fiscal year 1914–15,
placed at only $256,150,026. The German naval estimates for the same year
amounted to less than the cost of the American kindling wood-pile, $113,918,367.
... Notwithstanding that America is actually at war with a country which
has effectually conserved its resources, it is allowing many chances for national
economies to be entirely neglected. For instance, in the matter of containers-
millions of wooden boxes and fibre cases, and the like are thrown away or
broken up for kindling after only one or two trips. While we are spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars of Federal, State and even municipal funds to
protect the forests against fires, still few people even give a thought to the
$250,000,000 kindling wood pile of discarded containers. ... If wood and
fibre boxes could be given up entirely (an impossibility, of course) it would
mean that there would be a saving of forest cutting of more than one-third of
all material entering into the paper industry of this country. Such a saving
as this would tend to relieve the paper shortage which is affecting newspapers
and nearly every other line of business. ... One effect of the increased cost
of wooden boxes has been the substitution of the less substantial fibre cases.
In turn the wooden case makers have been forced to slice their stock thinner


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
and thinner in order to meet this competition for lessened cost and weight.
Each of these moves has meant heavy loss in tonnage for the railroads the
country over, and also a tendency to larger damage claims on account of more
goods being crushed or stolen in transit.
FROM “CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR,” OCTOBER 8, 1918.
During the last ten years, the annual cut out of timber in Maine averaged
close to 1,000,000 feet, but the annual growth has been only one-tenth of the
amount cut. Maine is the leading State in the Union in the consumption of
pulp wood, using 1,025,000 cords per year.
PNEUMATIC SCALE CORP. vs. ABERDEEN & ROCKFISH RAILROAD
COMPANY ET AL.
The greatest preponderance of the 1,000,000,000 containers annually used,
consist of ordinary wooden and fibre boxes which are weak as compared to
the Doble Box.
PNEUMATIC SCALE CORP. vs. ABERDEEN & ROCKFISH RAILROAD
COMPANY ET AL.
6,000,000,000 feet of lumber is used in the manufacture of boxes at the
present time.
MANY TRIP CONTAINER ENDORSED BY ALL HANDS.
FROM REPORT OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY ASSOCIATION, COM-
MITTEE ON FREIGHT HANDLING AND PACKING.
"It is many times stronger than a wooden box and practically indestructible
in the ordinary wear and tear of freight handling. By the use of an auto-
matic lock the case cannot be opened without clear evidence of robbery, there-
fore, its advantages as we see them are as follows:
1. Prevents concealed losses.
2. On account of construction, prevents damage, also concealed
damage.
3. Does not absorb moisture, as a wooden or fibre-board container
would.
4. Can be used over and over again indefinitely."
F. O'MEARE, FREIGHT CLAIM AGENT, CHESAPEAKE & OHIO RY. CO.,
SAYS:
I am very decidedly of the same view as brought out by Mr. Doble in his
correspondence as to the efficiency of the proposed container. The statement
made in the enclosed correspondence that fully one-half of the disbursements
account loss and damage could be saved by substantial containers is not, in my
opinion, exaggerated in the least. A large per cent of the containers in use
today are only stout enough to stand preferred handling, and will not stand
55


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
the required handling which makes it necessary to mis different kinds of
freight in cars fully loaded.
The proposed container would not only go far towards solving the loss and
damage expense, but would bring about an immense saving by permitting a
more extensive loading of the cars than under present conditions. Anything
the carriers can consistently do to bring about such conditions should, in my
opinion, by all means be done.
G. D. CURTIS, VICE-PRESIDENT, ADAMS EXPRESS CO., CHICAGO, ILL.,
SAYS:
In my judgment, the field is unlimited for reform in packing methods, as at
present practiced by too many shippers in this country, and I wish you all
possible success in your endeavor.
I think, if many shippers would take the time and trouble to visit the depots
and warehouses of the railroads and express companies they would be astounded
to note the evidences of flimsy packing and poor marking, by shippers, which
they would see, and no longer wonder why so many of their shipments fail to
go through in good condition.
G. E. HARLEY, FREIGHT CLAIM AGENT, THE LAKE ERIE & WESTERN
RAILROAD CO., INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SAYS:
I have noted the advantages of your container and it certainly appeals to me
as a good means of preventing loss and damage claims.
A. H. GUEST, AUDITOR, ELGIN, JOLIET & EASTERN RY. CO., SAYS:
I fully endorse the steel packing cases.
J. M. SHAEHILL, AGENT, ERIE RAILROAD COMPANY, SAYS:
This case seems to be the only solution for the conservation of property ac-
count of improper handling of cars and pilferage, and I would be very grateful
if you would send me some information in connection with these new cases.
H. Q. WASSON, GENERAL FREIGHT AGENT, THE HOCKING VALLEY
RY. CO., SAYS:
It goes without saying that the Hocking Valley is in favor of the adoption of
a container that will stand up under all conditions and prevent loss.
FROM BRIEF FILED IN CASE OF PNEUMATIC SCALE CORPORATION,
LTD. vs. ABERDEEN & ROCKFISH RAILROAD CO., ET AL.
Interveners sought to change the opinion of shippers, and so sent a circular
letter to each shipper whose name is in the complaint. While the same form
of letter was not always used, the following fairly represents the efforts of
interveners.
We copy and supply bold type.


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF Box MANUFACTURERS.
In re Complaint of Pneumatic Scale Corporation v. All Carriers in the United
States.
March 22, 1918.
We are listing in this letter names of parties located in your city or vicinity,
who are made a party to the complaint of the Pneumatic Scale Corporation,
against all the carriers of the United States, as shown on page 7, paragraph 13,
also pages 11 to 83 inclusive.
Please read this complaint carefully, and you will see how necessary it is for
the Wooden Box Industry to defend itself. We expect you to do your part as
a loyal manufacturer, and want to suggest that you see the parties listed in this
letter, and develop from them the following information, first asking them to
read paragraph 13 on page 7, and show them where their name is listed.
1. Was the use of their name as indicated authorized ?
2. Can you secure from them their original correspondence with the Pneu.
matic Scale Corporation, and send to us, with statement of their position?
3. Do they wish the railroads to handle anything without full charges, as
the complaint claims?
4. Could you secure a letter from them, addressed to the Interstate
Commerce Commission at Washington, declining to have anything to do
with the case, and saying that their name was used without authority?
If so, have copy of such letter sent us.
Yours truly,
F. C. GIFFORD, Secretary.
The Richardson Paper Co.,
Lockland, Ohio.
Gentlemen:-
Our present situation—that of our nation engaged in a great war-has caused
many of us to have different thoughts and ideas on many questions than we
have ever entertained before, and one of the questions is that of waste. We
have been a terribly extravagant nation and have wasted our natural resources
with a riotous hand, and the waste as applied to lumber and its by-products
is one of the most terrible of all. We have reached the situation where it is im.
possible for us to look a pine box in the face, so to speak, because the cost is
absolutely prohibitive. At the same time, the good old pine box has been
almost entirely replaced by wood veneer boxes and fibre boxes, but the time
is surely coming when they, like the pine box, will be a luxury—but what are
we going to do?
It is with the idea of this situation in mind that we have approved the idea
of the adoption of a steel case. We have not committed ourselves to any
particular style or variety of case or to any particular features in reference to
the freight rate and the transportation thereof. The idea of shipping goods
in a container without paying freight on the container is not a new one to us,
because we are quite accustomed to it in the handling of material in tank
cars. This feature of the steel package would mean the adoption of the tank
car proposition on a smaller scale, and we cannot say that we seriously object
to having the packages returned free, although we should not make any ob-
jection to a charge by the carriers for the return of empty cases.
LAUTZ BROS. & COMPANY,
Buffalo, N. Y.


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
Mr. W. S. Salt,
Sec’y. Fibre Shipping Container Ass'n.,
Chicago, Ill.
Dear Sir:-
I signed the petition favoring this complaint, believing that the classification
provisions requested would be of benefit. Still holding this view, I could not
consistently furnish the information requested in your letter to be used in op-
position to the complaint.
C. M. GILBERT,
Savannah, Ga.
Fibre Shipping Container Ass'n.,
2140 Transportation Bldg.,
Chicago, Ill.
Gentlemen:
We have your letter of the 25th, and in answer to your first question we may
say that we heartily endorse the use of steel containers if the railroad rates can
be made consistent with other shipping.
In closing we might add that our idea is that the railroads would gain many
millions of dollars a year from the stoppage of loss by theft. Records show
that the railroads pay out some fifty millions of dollars a year from their claim
department.
THE W. H. MARVIN COMPANY,
Urbana, Ohio.
The National Association of Corrugated
Fibre Box Mfrs.,
900 Lytton Bldg.,
Chicago, Ill.
Dear Sirs:-
At any rate, this is our experience in our particular line, and we are in
favor of the Pneumatic Scale Corporation's effort to provide free returns for
their containers. We believe this is about as near 100% as anything we have
yet found.
THE STETSON SHOE CO.,
South Weymouth, Mass.
J. J. HOOPER, OF THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY, HAVING RECEIVED A
COPY OF THE COMPLAINT CONTAINING RULE 14, WHICH IS THE
RATING ASKED FOR, ON JAN. 26, 1918, SAID:
I do not see how anything could be added to your articles of faith, especially
Rule 14. It would seem to me that anything capable of reducing and minimiz.
ing the frightful economic waste that now obtains should be encouraged in every
possible manner. I do not know whether it is a propitious moment to press
matters of this kind, until we all know the result of federal control, but it would
strike me that the principle ought to be fostered and encouraged by the Gov.
ernment or by individual carriers.


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
GEORGE WINLOCK, OF THE N. Y., N. H. & H. R.R. CO., WROTE:
We receive from time to time large numbers of claims of alleged concealed
losses of shoes from cases both fibre and wood. I am under the impression that
the regular use of this container would obviate this trouble, or at least show
that it did not occur with the transportation company. Speaking in a general
way I am heartily in favor of the idea. Would suggest that your rules for
the use of this container be submitted to Mr. L. H. Kentfield, our general
freight agent.
G. H. HUNT, OF THE CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD CO.,
SAID:
I am impressed with the idea that a uniform container of a non-breakage
nature is something that would interest the shipping industries and would
be a step in the right direction in conserving packing material and in the pro-
tection of miscellaneous less carload freight, obviating loss and damage claims.
There is no question that the fundamental principle of shipping is the con-
tainer, and in these days of high prices of material and other facts in connec-
tion therewith, too numerous to mention, there is no question in my mind that
should the shipping public adopt the container that the problem of obviating
loss and damage claims would be solved.
FROM "NEW YORK JOURNAL OF COMMERCE,” “I. C. C. ADVOCATES
USE OF STEEL CONTAINERS.” THE COMMISSION IN EXPLAINING
THIS PRINCIPLE SAID:
The payments by railroads on account of loss and damage claims have been
a substantial drain upon their revenues for many years. Beginning in 1906,
when the act was so amended as to require careful scrutiny of all payments
by carriers to shippers, special attention began to be focussed upon this source
of expense.
The record indicates that a steel shipping case like complainant's if quite
generally used, would probably reduce the loss and damage bill of the carriers
on the commodities numbered and classified in table A as follows: (1) Boots
and shoes; (2) clothing, dry goods and notions; (3) butter and cheese (4)
eggs; (10) flour and other mill products; (11) sugar; (12) groceries; (13)
wines, liquors and beers; (14) tobacco and tobacco products; (19) glass and
glassware; (24) all other commodities. It further shows that while other
causes might be slightly affected, the following numbered and classified causes
of loss and damage would be reduced to some extent by the use of a steel
container like complainant's; (3) concealed loss; (6) fire; (7) wrecks;
(9) defective equipment; (11) rough handling of cars; (13) improper
handling and loading of freight and improper packing and packages.
FROM "SOAP GAZETTE AND PERFUMER,” JANUARY 1, 1919.
Down and Back, a railroad story—is the title of a little book privately printed,
which delves into the problem of transportation in the most novel and interest-
ing narrative form. In it the problem of shipping cases is skilfully developed
and solved by the replacement of wooden and other temporary containers with
collapsible, pilfer-proof metal packing cases manufactured by the Pneumatic
Scale Corporation of Norfolk Downs, Mass., who claim that they are many
times stronger than wooden boxes and practically indestructible in the ordinary
wear and tear of freight handling. By the use of an automatic lock the case
59



THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY
THE PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON RAILROAD COMPANY
WEST JERSEY AND SEASHORE RAILROAD COMPANY
NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA AND NORFOLK RAILROAD COMPANY
OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT STATIONS AND TRANSFERS
Philadelphia, September 1, 1917.
LOSS AND DAMAGE BULLETIN No. 6
DEBRERO
After Production Comes Conservation
The PRESIDENT urged all Farmers, Merchants, Manufacturers, etc., to produce
more to help win out in the great world struggle. Response was immediate and effective.
But now in the transportation of these products there is great waste because many ship-
ments are not properly prepared.
Millions of dollars worth of merchandise is damaged and de-
stroyed yearly because of weak and poorly made containers.
It is Time to Stop This Waste.
MR. SHIPPER, WILL YOU DO YOUR PART BY PACKING YOUR GOODS SECURELY
AND BY USING CONTAINERS THAT ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO
WITHSTAND THE ORDINARY SHOCKS OF HANDLING?
be
These are samples of the flimsy barrels and crates which cause waste of
potatoes and onions.



Copyright U & U
Catsup — Shipped in paper boxes.

IDE I
INSIDU
INSIDE
2
Copyright U & U
Flaked fish — Shipped in paper boxes.
Demonstrations of Loss and Damage caused by Aimsy containers.





THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
FROM "BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER,” DECEMBER 13, 1918.
In one month recently the claims paid by two Canadian express companies
amounted to over twenty-five thousand dollars, and practically the entire loss
was due to careless or improper packing or marking.
FROM "ADVERTISING & SELLING,” JANUARY 11, 1918.
An officer of an insurance company that does a big business in insuring
parcels sent by express is quoted as asserting that “so many losses have recently
occurred that we have been compelled to cancel all insurance of certain lines of
goods sent by express.”
FROM BOSTON “POST,” JANUARY 18, 1919. ARREST FOUR IN CLOTH
ROBBERY. POLICE BELIEVE ORGANIZED GANG OF PORTUGUESE
LOOTED GOODS WORTH $100,000.
With three alleged receivers under arrest in this city, another awaiting trial
on a larceny charge in Plymouth and a fifth suspect under arrest in Phila-
delphia, police officials of this city and railroad detectives believe that they are
near to the solution of the mystery surrounding the thefts of $100,000 worth
of cloth from the American Woolen Company during the past two years. The
cloth, the authorities believe, was stolen in bolts from packing cases on board
Fall River Line steamers docked here.
FROM "TRANSFER AND STORAGE,” NOVEMBER, 1918.
The Railroad Administration has issued the following bulletin regarding the
proper method of packing and marking:
A total of 27,541 small shipments offered were refused by railroads during
four months on one middle western district recently because of faulty packing.
Of these shipments 14,570 were repaired or recoopered and finally accepted,
but 12,971 were rejected entirely.
Be careful in the stowing and bracing of your carload shipments to avoid
disarrangement or shifting of packages, which often causes loss and damage in
the usual course of transportation.
Do not use weak and fragile packages for commodities of excessive weight
that will not stand the ordinary transportation.
Tariffs require that full name and address of consignee shall be marked on
each and every piece of less-than-carload freight. To comply carefully with this
rule, it is greatly to the interest of the owner of the freight to avoid mistakes in
identity, bearing in mind that many losses are due to marks becoming detached
or blurred so they cannot be read. Your own name and address should appear
on each package, so that carriers may confer with you promptly if a package
goes astray or is refused and unclaimed at destination.
Your co-operation in carrying out these suggestions not only helps to conserve
the necessities for winning the war, but goes far in eliminating the complaints
of your patrons as well as the labor and annoyance of claims.
“FREIGHT HANDLING AND TERMINAL ENGINEERING,” JAN. 1919.
For years loss and damage sustained by the railroads, thanks to some narrow-
minded policies and methods, has been growing at an alarming rate. It has
been predicted that for 1918 it would surely reach the sum of $80,000,000. It
has become a very serious item of loss, and the natural inference and assump-


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
4. GOOD ROADS.
“WONDERS OF THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY,” NATIONAL AUTOMO-
BILE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. THE VALUE OF THE AUTOMOBILE
TO THE FARMER IS INDICATED BY THESE FACTS:
The increase in farm values during the twenty years prior to the end of 1900
averaged $400,000,000 annually. During the same time our population in-
creased, roughly, 50 per cent, or 242 per cent per annum.
The increase in farm values in the 16 years following (these are the latest
figures available) averaged $1,300,000,000 a year, over three times as much as
in the pre-automobile period. Our population increased during the same period
33 per cent, or 2 per cent per annum.
While the population increased in the 20 years 50 per cent and farm values
57 per cent, or 3.35 per cent a year, the population in the 16 years increased
only 33 per cent and the farm values 100 per cent, or 6.25 per cent a year. The
percentage of increase of population fell off 17 per cent, but farm values gained
33 per cent in the 16-year period.
Farmers use, at a conservative estimate, 2,000,000 automobiles every day and
drive, let us say, a ridiculously low average of 10 miles a day, a total of
100,000 years in each year. If horses were substituted, the loss of time would
be 300,000 years in each year, multiplied by the number of persons usually
carried in the car.
If the car were occupied by only one person, the loss of production would
exceed $250,000,000, which must be multiplied by the number of persons
usually carried in the car.
The automobile is used in the country for the service of the farmer, by
doctors, mail carriers, commercial travelers, livery stable owners and telephone
companies.
The disappearance of the automobile would make it necessary to increase
the horse population by about 25,000,000. It requires 5 acres to feed a
horse. This would mean that an additional 125,000,000 acres must be used.
There are now 25,000,000 horses. If these could be disposed of, automobiles
substituted and wheat raised on the land now required to feed them, its value
would be sufficient to pay the National debt, including the Liberty Bond issues
to date.
LITERATURE OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS ASS’N., F. R. HUTTON.
It costs on good roads of hard resistant surfaces, 8c to haul one ton per mile,
or 80c per trip of ten miles. On poor roads, soft, muddy and slippery, the cost
of horse hauling rises to 23c or 25c, or $2.30 or $2.50 for the trip, as compared
to what it would cost if the roads were all good, and multiplying 5,000,000,000
times $1.50 we get $7,500,000,000 part of which ought to go to the consumer
in lowered prices.
FROM “SATURDAY EVENING POST,” ALFRED J. BEVERIDGE.
The throwing away of actual produce because of bad roads or no roads, would
build every year forty permanent ocean to ocean highways, such as the Lincoln
Highway is to be, for to perfect the Lincoln Highway will cost $25,000,000.
Astounding is it not, that out of what we produce, even with our poor methods
of transportation, that this wastage would build forty Lincoln Highways, and
not only would good roads throughout the nation save this billion dollars' worth
64


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
of produce now wasted annually, but they would increase the raising of food
stuff and other products because the ease of marketing would be a selfish in-
centive to more careful production.
Good roads will do more to lower the high cost of living than most people
think, just as bad roads have done more to create that problem than is gen-
erally supposed.
Is it too much to say that if the whole people could be so awakened to the
need of universal good road building that they would act on that need, it would
do more for their prosperity, comfort, culture and happiness than the things
fought over in twelve presidential campaigns?
FROM “TRAVEL,” NOVEMBER, 1915. FIFTY THOUSAND MILES OF
NATIONAL HIGHWAY WILL:-
Provide steady employment for all idle and unemployed.
Provide remunerative employment for delinquents and materially improve
their condition, beside aiding them towards re-establishment in the community
as desirable citizens.
Add to the annual increase of our National wealth not less than $300,000,000.
Save annually in wear and tear of vehicles not less than $500,000,000.
Increase land value adjacent to such highways over $600,000,000.
Increase the prosperity of the farmer more than any other improvement.
Reduce the cost of living more than most any other factor.
Provide better social conditions in the rural communities and thus elevate
their intelligence and their moral well-being.
Make rural life more attractive, facilitate intercommunication and thus re-
duce migration to cities and encourage the movement "back to the farms."
Enable the building of rural schools and thus reduce illiteracy.
Increase travel throughout the country, inducing people to "See America
First,” thus keeping home annually more than $250,000,000.
And finally provide a great system of internal communication which may be
used in case of military necessity.
ESTIMATED BY THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON FEDERAL AID IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF POST ROADS, 63RD CONGRESS.
On account of our neglect of Highways, the United States is paying a penalty
of more than $504,000,000 per year in excessive cost for transportation alone,
of agricultural products from farm to market.
HERBERT E. HOOVER, IN “THE INTERNATIONAL TRAIL,” PUBLISHED
BY THE INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY
OUR DUTY. If we are to do our duty by the world and ourselves, we must
utilize every means to increase production and distribute food efficiently. The
development of the rural express using highways of the country commands
every moral support of which we are capable. Another of the results of the
perfected highways' use would be to cut down the waste of perishable foods.
Fifty per cent of our perishables never reach the consumer. We lose from
40 to 60 per cent of our potatoes yearly. Besides stopping this terrific waste
a highly developed rural express would work to establish lower prices.
FROM “SAFEGUARDING THE HOME AGAINST FIRE.”
In the country at large there is an average of 1,500 fires daily. In rural


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
districts poor roads mean that these are nearly always fatal. Better roads en-
able each town to furnish protection by fire apparatus.
N. Y. “TRIBUNE,” DECEMBER 5, 1918.
Fire costs us $250,000,000 annually.
“RURAL MOTOR AND EXPRESS LINES.” NATIONAL AUTOMOBILE
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
Every horse displaced means five more acres of land that can be devoted to
raising food for human beings. There are 25,000,000 horses on farms in the
United States. The Department of Agriculture has determined that five acres
of land are needed to support each horse and three acres to feed a man for a
year. The 125,000,000 acres devoted to raising oats, corn and hay for horses
would support nearly 42,000,000 human beings.
HERBERT E. HOOVER, IN “THE INTERNATIONAL TRAIL," PUBLISHED
BY THE INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY.
WILL REDUCE LIVING COSTS. The establishment of motor truck ex-
press lines in every farming community will stimulate the production of more
food, reduce the cost of living, and make it unnecessary to keep so many draft
animals on the farm. It will also, probably, make public markets successful in
American cities.
FROM NATIONAL MOTOR TRUCK COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
The increase of food supply being the principal object in advocating better
roads, suggestions to farmer are given in part as follows:
Gathers up produce on the road side at no more loss of time to him than
the trip to the farm from the main road.
Does errands for him in town.
You can enable him to market material which has heretofore been wasted.
A Maryland farmer fed milk to his pigs, because he had no sale for it. Since
motor truck line has been started, he sends it to the city, and receives money
for that which otherwise would have been wasted, at the same time increasing
the supply to city consumers.
He can spend more time on the farm, and no matter how much he can pro-
duce, he can get it to market.
By being relieved of the drive to town he can make up in a measure for the
difficulty in obtaining labor.
When the farmer and his horse go to town no one will work. Don't let him
forget it.
The better the highway, the lower the cost of operation, and of course, the
lower the charge.
E. STAG BRITTON.
Open up your jails, penitentiaries and prisons, cry the Good Roads Associ-
ation throughout the country, the solution is at hand for your most difficult
problem. Bad men and bad roads make good roads while good roads make
good men.
Today we have a preventive medicine, instead of waiting to cure a disease
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THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
after it has been contracted. Crime is a kind of disease. Why not do away
with the things that will cause crime. Idleness produces crime. The building
of good roads everywhere by the nation, states, towns, will give employment
to the army of unemployed. It will tend to overcome crime. In the building
of good roads everywhere, such an operation will be of vast economic ad-
vantage to the nations. It will give those who need it freedom of mind and
body. Tear down our prison walls and rear them no more. Let us no longer
go back on those of our own mold. Give our pals a square deal. We can be
sure they will answer in kind.
DEPT. OF COMMERCE.
479,487 inmates in penal institutions in 1910.
FROM BOOKLET PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL MOTOR TRUCK
COMMITTEE, NATIONAL AUTOMOBILE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
7 E. 42ND ST., NEW YORK CITY. RURAL MOTOR EXPRESS LINES.
THEIR ADVANTAGES TO THE FARMER, MERCHANT, TRUCK OWNER
AND TO THE PUBLIC.
Opinions Expressed by Farmers.
The greatest labor-saver we have ever had. Without it we should have to
stop shipping milk.
The farmers have increased their business, their products being hauled at less
expense and labor.
The truck means one man less, one horse less, and more work on the farm.
We can put three times as much produce on the market.
The truck is more help than any other power employed.
It will be impossible to continue farming without this help.
The quick delivery of goods enables us to keep up stock and prevents loss of
trade.
FROM “HIGH COST OF LIVING,” BY GENERAL COLEMAN DUPONT.
The Dept. of Agriculture gives the net earnings per farm in 1912 as $318 per
year. Probably five persons on a farm do the work and include men and
women. The average earning power per person is $63.00 per year, or $5.25 per
month, equivalent to 20c for each working day in that year. All other laborers,
masons, carpenters, trainmen, etc. receive an average of $4.50 per day.
FROM LITERATURE OF NATIONAL HIGHWAY ASS’N. “GOOD ROADS
EVERYWHERE.”
Economic and financial benefits resulting from good roads everywhere. An.
nual increase in value of farming lands, $1,398,300, saving of annual use of
27,000,000 horses and mules and 4,000,000 vehicles also of $600,000,000;
saving on investment in extra vehicles and animals annually $70,000,000. An
increase of 10% in freight $1,000,000; saving in cost of annual transportation
of 5,000,000 tons of freight over roads, $7,500,000,000; total financial benefit
$10,668,800,000. Financial cost annually, 10 years to build, $2,500,000,000,
profit to the nation annually $8,558,800,000.
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THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
84,899,973 people or 92% of the whole population of the United States. To
build this system would cost less than five hundred million dollars—not much
more than the Panama Canal has cost. Spread over a period of ten years
the work could be easily financed. But even if it cost far more the returns
to the farmer would make it worth building. It would increase land values
along the highways by $600,000,000. It would reduce the wear and tear on
vehicles by $250,000,000 a year. It would provide satisfactory employment for
thousands of workmen. It would increase the better social conditions in the
rural districts, make farm life more attractive, check migration to the cities, in-
crease attendance at country schools and reduce illiteracy.
5. EDUCATION.
PAGE 72, DEPT. OF COMMERCE.
5,516,163 illiterate persons, ten years of age and over, in the United States
in 1910.
FROM “PACKAGE ADVERTISER,” MARCH, 1919, “EDUCATE THE ILLI-
TERATES,” BY HERBERT KAUFMAN, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE
SECRETARY, DEPT. OF THE INTERIOR, WASHINGTON.
Brought within the reach of the printed word, these persons will be worth
at least five dollars a week more to themselves and to the nation as workers,
which increased earning power alone would provide $2,000,000,000 a year
toward paying the interest on our war debt, and help amortise it as well.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY ASSOCIATION.
In states notorious for bad roads, like South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama
and Mississippi, the average illiteracy is from 25 to 28%.
FROM “HIGH COST OF LIVING,” BY GENERAL COLEMAN DUPONT.
Experience shows there is a very close relation between the roads and the
schools, bad roads and illiteracy. From a report made a few years ago from
the Office on Public Roads, in five states, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con-
necticut, Ohio, Indiana, 77 of each 100 pupils were enrolled in the five states;
from the five states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and South
Dakota, 59 of each 100 pupils attended public schools.
HUTTON.
There are 30,000,000 children in the United States who should be attending
school, of this number only 18,000,000 get there.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE U.S. OF AMERICA, MARCH 25, 1918.
It no longer needs any argument to demonstrate that intelligence and educa.
tion are among the chief economic assets of any nation. However much we may
regard system and method as indispensable aids to business efficiency, we now
know full well that they are of small avail unless administered by intelligent
human units.
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THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
FROM “CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR,” NOVEMBER 27, 1918.
Expenditure of more than $6,300,000 in Massachusetts for reducing illiteracy,
for Americanization and other educational work, would be made possible under
the provisions of a bill now before Congress, which authorizes the distribution
of $10,000,000 by the Federal government among the several states. The
Massachusetts State Board of Education advocates the bill, which requires the
State to appropriate a sum equal to its share of the Federal grant. Massa-
chusetts' share of the proposed fund in this State would be $3,169,842.
The apportionment of the proposed fund in this State would be in part as
follows: For the removal of illiteracy, $46,847; Americanization of immi-
grants, $1,175,761; equalizing educational opportunities, $2,809,811; teacher-
preparation, $842,873.
6. STORE DELIVERIES.
FROM “COOPERATIVE RETAIL DELIVERY,” PAGE 13, BY WALTON S.
BITTNER.
Ultimately the cost of every delivered parcel must be paid by the purchaser,
and the person who pays should select the carrier ... The delivery problem
will never be solved and settled until the sales-person can say "How do you
wish to have the goods sent, madam?” with the knowledge that the customer is
paying for the delivery herself. It is obviously unfair and unendurable to assess
part of every delivery charge on the price of every article in the store as is the
case today; for, while the policy lasts, the customer who carries her own goods
is at the same time helping to pay the cost of delivering everything bought by
the women who will not carry even a spool of cotton. She will not stand it
when she knows it.”
The secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of an Indiana city says “The
Union Delivery Company has been a success in this city and it has saved the
merchants a good deal of money. This may be partly responsible for the fact
that the cost of living in Elwood is probably the lowest of any city in the State."
FROM "THE PAPER MILL AND WOOD PULP NEWS,” FEBRUARY 10,
1917.
A report from the United States Department of Commerce states that the
cost of delivery of small parcels by the stores of the United States is 8 per cent.
Using the figures of the United States Department of Commerce the people by
taking home their small parcels, instead of having them delivered by depart-
ment stores and small stores, will save 5 cents on every purchase under $1.00.
PAGE 11, BULLETIN OF THE EXTENSION DIVISION, INDIANA UNI-
VERSITY. “CO-OPERATIVE RETAIL DELIVERY,” BY WALTON S.
BITTNER.
1. It is economically unsound for each store to build up and maintain its
individual system of delivery while six or sixty other concerns cover the same
routes each day with their independent deliveries. That is definite and costly
waste.
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THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
2. It is folly to deliver the light and fragile goods in the same wagon as the
heavy goods. It wastes time of packers, packing materials and takes a large
space for packing.
Reports indicate that central delivery brings about a reduction in the cost
of delivery of from 20 to 50 per cent of the former cost. Exact figures are not
available largely because few retailers keep sufficiently standardized, complete
cost accounts.
A Harvard University study arrives at the conclusion that total delivery ex-
pense of retail grocery stores varies between 1.1 per cent of net sales to 5.9
per cent. A common figure is 3 per cent. The expense of delivery is about
18 per cent of the total expense of doing business. Stated another way, “De-
livery expenses of provision dealers are from 5 to 7 per cent of their gross
business,” according to the figures collected in a New England city. It is clear
that if the heavy expense of delivery can be cut even 20 per cent the dealer
will be making a substantial saving.
Reports from merchants and managers all agree that delivery expense has
constantly risen with a constant increase in the demands of customers for
service, and with rising costs of materials and labor. At a recent meet.
ing of proprietors of small stores in New York City one merchant said of
delivery expense, “Storekeepers are compelled by the necessities of competition
to incur this unprofitable expense, which in some cases was as high as 35 cents
per package.” He added that the expense in the dull season becomes extremely
burdensome. The group of merchants of which the one quoted is a member
has taken steps to introduce co-operative delivery. The following is a striking
statement of the cost of delivery in department store service. “This far-flung
convenience, the big stores' supreme effort to serve the consumer, levies on the
average 2 cents from every dollar spent in New York City's larger retail
concerns.
FROM “CO-OPERATIVE OR CENTRAL DELIVERY SYSTEMS.”
When the goods have been carried by all teams to the Central Station they
are sorted and each team takes the goods which are to be delivered to the terri-
tory of its route, and immediately starts out delivering.
This system is almost identical with the System of Mail Collection and
Delivery in any city except that more deliveries are usually made. The average
city System is making four collections and four deliveries to every section of the
city on regular days, and five or six on Saturdays and the days previous to
holidays.
7. COAL SAVED BY UTILIZING WATER POWER.
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
Average potential water power in United States equals 40,924,000 horsepower,
representing 538,000,000 tons of coal per year or $2,000,000,000. This could be
saved through the utilization of water power in the United States.
0. F. MERRILL, CHIEF ENGINEER, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE,
FOREST SERVICE.
If the average annual output of hydraulic plants be taken as 40% of their
developed capacity 20,000,000 horsepower would produce approximately


THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
They reported that it is possible to develop a total of 700,000 horsepower
of electrical energy upon the six principal rivers of Maine, at a cost of
$32,000,000 at the turbines, and increased storage of these rivers which would
greatly improve present power conditions can be provided at a cost of
$2,700,000.
8. DAYLIGHT.
FROM “THE WORLD'S ALMANAC AND ENCYCLOPEDIA.”
DAY LIGHT SAVING. The movement known by this name proposed “to set
the clock ahead” one hour in the Summer months or to be more exact, from
May 1 to October 1; the idea being to substitute an hour of sunlight at one end
of the day for an hour of artificial light at the other.
The father of the movement was an Englishman, William Willett, who in 1907
published a booklet on the “Waste of Daylight." In 1908 a Daylight Saving
bill was introduced in the House of Commons but failed to pass. The measure
was opposed on the ground of being needless, deceptive and confusing.
On April 6, 1916, the German Federal Council passed a measure providing
that on May 1, 1916, all clocks should be set ahead one hour. The measure
was adopted for hygienic and economic reasons. Within three months twelve
European countries had followed the lead of Germany, and "Summer Time”
was used in Germany, Holland, Austria, Turkey, England, France, Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. Nova Scotia had
the honor of introducing the new order in the New World.
Practically no confusion resulted; everything went on as before, people doing
exactly the same thing at the same hour o'clock, but in reality the whole routine
of life had been brought one hour nearer sunrise. The scheme had brought
about in the simplest way a vital change affecting millions. A simple twist of
the wrist had given these nations their place in the sun.
So gratifying was the result of the experience of 1916, that the scheme was
again put in operation in the Spring of 1917, but at a much earlier date; in
France the change was made on Saturday midnight, March 24.
The world-wide interest felt in the matter was further shown in 1917 when
Australia and Iceland adopted daylight saving.
In England, where the change was avowedly a war measure and not designed
to outlast the war, a prime consideration was the conserving of the coal supply
for naval and military uses. Also it is estimated that the British people are
saving $12,000,000 on gas and electric light bills in a single season. The
American friends of the measure have contended that the annual conservation
of coal in the United States would amount to no less a sum than $40,000,000.
On March 16, 1918, the Congress of the United States passed and on March
19, 1918, the President approved the Daylight Saving Act, under the terms of
which standard time throughout the United States and Alaska is advanced
one hour for the period in each year beginning at 2 A.M. on the last Sunday
of March and ending at 2 A.M. on the last Sunday of October.
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THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
“THE PROBLEMS OF PEACE,” NATIONAL SHAWMUT BANK.
In Massachusetts municipalities during the period under consideration
(1911-15) as measured by the assessors' valuations wealth averages an increase
of only twenty per cent, while municipal expenditures increased annually at a
rate of fifty per cent greater than the wealth taxed to produce the revenue to
meet them.
FROM “INDUSTRY,” DECEMBER 28, 1918.
EMPHASIS ON PREVENTION. Emphasis is placed upon preventive
measures, and these are carried to a high degree of efficiency. Thus sickness
is lessened, physical efficiency increased, contagious disease prevented, and ab-
sence due to sickness materially decreased.
When it is remembered that the proportion of time lost from sickness is
from seven to ten times that lost by accident, the importance of such preventive
measures is obvious.
The expense of maintaining such a health department in a factory varies with
its extent and thoroughness. At the Morton companies' plants it is estimated
at $3 per factory position per year.
FROM “INDUSTRY,” JANUARY 11, 1918.
If Japan can see the wisdom of having all its cabinet comprised of business
men and industrial men, surely the United States can endure having one manu-
facturer upon its Cabinet.
Let Commerce have its representation in the Department of Commerce.
Let Labor continue its representation in the Department of Labor.
Industry should have its representation in the Department of Industry.
Only an Act of Congress is needed to properly create the organization for such
a department.
TAXATION. There is too little understanding of what taxation is. The
man in the street gives little thought to it, thinking that it does not concern
him as he does not pay any or large taxes.
The fact is, taxation is vital to every individual in this country, and the
sooner that fact is understood the sooner will we have proper, scientific tax
laws and less extravagance and waste of money in Washington.
Analyzed, taxation is merely the creation of a collection agent for govern-
Under the 1917 Federal law some 3,000,000 persons and corporations paid
$4,000,000,000 into the Treasury Department. And the 100,000,000 said “It
never touched me." Yet with the next breath they complained about the "high
cost of living.”
Taxes and raises in wages go into cost of production and increased prices.
So long as the demand exceeds the supply all will be rosy. But what will hap-
pen when the supply exceeds the demand, through the influx of foreign goods,
and through diminished purchasing power?
FROM "GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF RAILROADS, AND WAR
TAXATION,” BY OTTO H. KAHN.
Mr. Acworth mentions as a characteristic indication that after years of sad
experience with governmentally owned and operated railways, the Italian Gov.
ernment, just before the war, started on the new departure (or rather returned
to the old system) of granting a concession to a private enterprise which was to
75