IMM1111111mm 4141101;,.-;,0, INIRA MEMBER U.S. WE DO OUR PART etAffilit PT ,1t) 41 ■ N,AZ%"..k pro .., \ • k / . 7 ' ror 'ant 0 0 ia .11 Lii 110 - . - iii..W --,........, \ ................. -....., - N....,......1 '- - - .... . _.. , ... No. 10 Vol. XIV OCTOBER 1933 `"AfW-SMI L(M. --37Rter&O--EWMA I Am Still Rich! By ROY L. SMITH C HEN the depression came I was compelled to take an inventory and soon discovered that I was still rich. All my capacity for the enjoy- W ment of life was intact. la My two-hundred-thousand-dollar eyes are just as good as they ever were. Every landscape and sunset is mine if I want it. Twenty-thousand-dollar scenes and views are added to my collection almost every week. A hundred-thousand- dollar sense of hearing is still unimpaired and by it I become an heir to a world of beauty and inspiration. Then there's my million-dollar stomach and a half-million-dollar appe- tite. No doctor has sentenced me to spinach for the rest of my life. Better to have plain food and an appetite than to sit down to a banquet with no appetite. No man can be rich who is compelled to take orders daily from his lF stomach. ro The depression has not lowered the value of a single friendship. Neigh- 71 bors still greet us in the same old cordial way, business associates believe in us, (01 and our sons hold us in high respect. The wife's welcome at the close of the day has not depreciated in the least and our children continue to lavish their affection upon us with the same old extravagance. The prayers my mother taught me and the faith in God she instilled in B me remain as priceless treasures no depression can touch. No nation becomes great by becoming rich. Neither does a man find enduring satisfaction in life by owning something—only by becoming some- thing. The most degrading poverty is that which results from killing the spirit that the body may be served. This depression has cost us some of the things we created but it has robbed us of none of our power to create. We may lose some beautiful things but we have lost no love of the beautiful. A financial crisis can wipe out profits and bring business to a standstill but character is beyond its reach. It can rob us of all we have but it cannot affect what we are. The deepest satisfactions of life—those which come from sharing and serving—remain secure. I am still rich because I am independently rich—none of my wealth depends upon business conditions or market reports. (Reprinted from The Rotarian Magazine) It is the service we render not the Nowadays the electric switch service we promise that creates con- makes things go. In the old days fidence and good will. they used the hickory switch. "Nothing worth while is lost by It is said that nothing is impos- taking time enough to do it right."— sible; but there are lots of people do- Abraham Lincoln. ing nothing every day. Published Monthly by and for Employes of the Los Angeles Railway Number Ten Volume Fourteen October, Nineteen Thirty-three Publicity Manager and Editor IANET C. McNEILL in time of economic stress. Fixed charges must be met if a solvent President Haskins Answers the Mayor condition is to be maintained." For its revenues the city resorts to EDITOR'S NOTE—Many calls have been received from employes protesting the unjust criticism of our Company which appeared in the newspapers in the form of the power to tax. It would be a sim- an interview with the Mayor of the city. For the benefit of these employes and ple matter to balance the municipal others, the full text of the letter of President Haskins to the Mayor in reply is budget were it not for the fact that the aroused taxpayer will not stand a published herewith,. It contains a great deal of information which is interesting to heavier burden. The only source of every employe of the Los Angeles Railway. revenue of the city railway is the fare Honorable Frank L. Shaw, September 11th, 1933. the passenger pays. An effect of the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, depression is a very large decrease in City Hall, that revenue. In 1929 the passenger Los Angeles, California, revenue amounted to $14,745,891; in 1932 it was $10,266,247, a decrease in My dear Mayor Shaw. money of $4,486,644, or 31%. The de- crease in revenue passengers was In the newspapers during the past week you launched an attack against from 223,730,740 to 154,446,454. These Los Angeles Railway Corporation criticising service, including one-man car figures, without comment, reveal the operation and speed of cars, and declaring that the rates of fare are exorbitant. hard task of keeping expenses within It is necessary for me, on behalf of the company, to contradict statements current revenues. The decline in both made in the published interviews. This I do respectfully, having faith that income and traffic during this year, your sense of fairness would not permit you knowingly to mislead the public. up to September 1st, as compared with last year is approximately 7%. operating costs in order to keep the The basic difficulty of the street Your course of action in handling cost of government within the reve- railway company is the same as that the city's predicament is the same as nues of the various departments which confronts the city. It is the that adopted by the street railway and also protect the interests of the problem of keeping expenses within executives. It became imperative taxpayers. current revenues. You have clearly that every department of the rail- stated this problem and the method "In order to meet this emergency, way exercise the strictest economy in of solving it in an article published I have launched a survey of all de- paring expenses and operating costs September 7th in Independent-Review partments, with a view toward re- in order to keep expenses within reve- under the heading "Mayor Shaw's Col- organizing and simplifying the func- nues. A survey was launched of all umn". You say: tions of government, so as to bring departments with a view toward re- "The revenues of the city govern- the operating costs within the limits organizing and simplifying the various ment and its various departments, of revenues for the present fiscal functions of the system. Incidentally, like those of private business and year." the company was forced to ask a loyal industry, are adversely affected in You close your column with the fol- and faithful force of more than three time of economic stress. Fixed lowing paragraph: thousand persons to accept two suc- charges on the City's obligations "I shall work unceasingly toward cessive reductions of salaries and must be met, however, if a solvent accomplishing this purpose and I wages. Only by the strictest economy condition is to be maintained." ask the citizens of Los Angeles did the company escape receivership. You then proceed to point out that to give me their support and co- Disregarding the obligation to inves- under the budget which you inherited operation in bringing success to this tors no sensible person will argue from the former administration, the necessary retrenchment program." that receivership would be advanta- City faces a deficit of $4,200,000 dur- The paragraph I have first quoted geous to the City of Los Angeles or ing the present fiscal year. You con- might truthfully be revamped to read those of its inhabitants who are car tinue: as follows: riders. The acquisition of capital for "It is imperative, therefore, that improvements depends upon earning "The revenue of private business every department of city govern- capacity. and industry, like those of the City ment must exercise the strictest Curtailment of service was a neces• economy in paring expenses and government, are adversely affected Page 3 OCTOBER, 1 9 3 3 sary effect, not a cause, of decline that the average distance travelled by in income and traffic. But, neverthe- passengers on the Los Angeles Rail- Back from Auld Reekie less, it is a fact that the railway way system is more than 4% miles, JACK BARE:, Shops Scribe which is longer than in any other company in relation to number of T. T. Tripney, of South Park Shops, large city in the country. Considera- cars operated and passengers trans- and Mrs. Tripney doing their ups and tion should also be given to the fact ported is furnishing more and better downs on the good ship S. S. Athenia that Los Angeles Railway Corporation service today than at any time since which brought them safely home after 1927. pays heavy taxes. Its state, city, county and federal taxes in 1932 a three months tour of Scotland and The continuous drop in street rail- England. They made principal stops way revenues since the depression amounted to more than $1,200,000. These being the facts, it cannot be at Edinburgh and Winchburgh, visit- began is not only local. It is co- ing friends and relatives. extensive with the area of the de- justly claimed that the rates are ex- pression regardless of difference in orbitant. It is not contended that the service rates of fare. is above criticism, but it is confidently One-man service is an economic asserted that everyone familiar with necessity, here and elsewhere.