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THE INDEX, Saturday, February 25, 1928
F R O M T H E E D I T O R ' S W I N D O W
This appears to be the period, in the face of
political contests, when seekers after office feel that
one of the requisites is to father some public improvement.
As a result we have a plethora of proposed
bond issues at a time when the land
Taxes owner as well as the renter feels that the
burden of taxation is quite heavy enough.
We cannot afford to stop necessary public improvements
but can go slowly, and we should. There are
some things which should be done without delay.
That is to select a major flying field and airplane
landing port and build a public hall. We are going
to leave to the good judgment of the committee
selected to secure a site for commercial aviation to
do the best for all concerned. We believe the results
will justify the painstaking efforts of those
who have given so much time to the project. As for
the public hall we are inclined to believe that Pittsburgh
is in danger of repeating its past stupidity
and selecting the site for the great convention hall in
the neighborhood of Schenley Park. Nothing in our
judgment could be worse. The hall which is to be
built will be for all of Western Pennsylvania. It
should be where it can be reached easily from every
railroad station and every important highway. It
will be folly to take it away from the downtown
section, however expensive the site. The taxpayers
who vote upon the bond issue should know where it
is to be built before the money is provided. One of
the reasons Pittsburgh has slipped in the last two
decades is because of the bad judgment of those supposed
to be big men and leaders. We cannot afford
to make many more mistakes. What is to be done
should be done for the best interests of the community
without the selfish motives which have ruined
so many projects in the past. We are to be confronted
with bond issues running into many millions.
Some of them are for bridges and tunnels which
should not be built for 20 or 30 years, if then. Such
projects should be rejected. This is no time for extravagance.
If we are driving industries away because
our taxes are too high we should be courageous
enough to be sensible and stop useless public
improvements. The air field and public hall are
urgent, in our judgment. The rest can wait without
hampering any person or community and they should
be made to wait.
Appeal has been made at Washington for some
relief for the pottery industry, which has been suffering
from excessive importations from Japan and
France. Last fall imports broke all records. The
difficulty is to get any person at Wash-
Tariff ington to do anything. Pittsburgh may not
think it is in the pottery business but the
great East Liverpool district, which is tributary, has
suffered so much that this section has been severely
hurt. Pennsylvania has been compelled to see the
logical markets for its products go one by one as the
manufacturers of Europe have gained momentum.
Pottery is not alone. Window glass, plate glass,
china, stoneware, glassware, cement, shoes, pig iron
have stood defenceless against the flood from abroad.
The direct loss to the Pittsburgh District is heavy.
Published Everu, Saturday Du,
^ of Pittsburgh Life
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Vol. LVII. February 25, 1928 No. 8
SENATOR DAVID A. REED
Has courageously fought the radical and other misinformed
senators at Washington who have tried to
play politics by maligning Pennsylvania industries and
has made a name for himself by his ability and independence.
We are not only deprived of the employment, wages
and profits in these industries but we are compelled
to see millions of tons of coal used in these various
factories taken out of the market. We have been
wondering when we are going to awaken to our own
menace. We have a national election approaching
without any more definite national policy involved
than in a ward contest. People wonder why business
is not as it should be. They cannot understand
any relation they may have as to whether a
wet or a dry moves into the White House. In the
meantime Germany, France, Belgium, Japan keep
pouring their products into our markets, reducing
the prices of our wares, endangering the wages of
our workingpeople and seeing that their own toilers
are growing in prosperity. When we awaken the
horse will have gone.
If the Senatorial Committee, which has injected itself
into the coal strike situation in Western Pennsylvania,
gives this district a square deal and actual­
ly uncovers all of the facts, it will be a good thing.
Pittsburgh has suffered for some years be-
Light cause an unfair Interstate Commerce Commission
did not see the injustice of the railroad
rates it was enforcing. In addition to that
Pittsburgh was compelled to submit to arbitrary and
unfair wages in comparison with those of its competitors.
The coal industry has been prostrated and
its serious effect has been felt in every line of endeavor.
The railroads quietly saw an important buying
center fade away because they did not wish to
disturb other markets to which they were carrying
larger tonnages. Pittsburgh cannot suffer from the
light which an honest investigation will pour upon
it. We dread more the political circus which most
of these investigations are. There is a suspicion
that the journey from Washington is more of an
effort to cast aspersions upon the Secretary of the
Treasury than to find whether unfair methods are
used in the mining of bituminous coal. Those in
charge of presenting the facts should see that no
stone is left unturned to permit the world to realize
how unfairly this district has been treated in an
official way. Perhaps after the inquiry is over the
country will think better of us. It cannot be worse.
Residents of Pittsburgh will be interested in the
fact that an authentic biography of the late Henry
Clay Frick, whose extraordinary ability was for so
many years devoted to the upbuilding and expansion
of this district, has just been published.
A Life There are many items in the industrial
controversies of several decades ago
which the new volume clears up. It reveals in addition
on how slender a thread the industrial expansion
of Western Pennsylvania was dependent and
how the situation was saved by a very small group
of men of courage, vision and ability. There should
be many lessons in this book for those who are content
to believe that Pittsburgh promotes progress.
If there is any doubt let them read how by a very
slim chance Pittsburgh was able to control the iron
ore situation and thereby save its prestige and its
prosperity.