I

The Universal

Itch

By BILL ADAMS

WISH that I could express myself, but fear that I cannot.

The waitress who waits at the table where I sometimes go for lunch is eating out her heart with longing to become a writer. A man who works in the drycleaning shop found a fragment of old manuscript in the pocket of a pair of trousers that I sent to be cleaned, and, eager-eyed, came to my house that evening with a story which he begged me to criticise. The wife of the man who keeps the shoe store tucks pencil and paper beneath her pillow at bedtime lest ideas come to her in the night. (This may lead to a divorce.) Mrs. Haslin, who lives two hundred miles south, sold a cooking recipe to a daily paper a little while ago, and has written to me to ask for the address of a "reliable literary agent."

Every one wants to write. Want is not enough. When one is hungry, one eats; when thirsty, one drinks. That is comparatively simple. But to write is quite impossible unless the goblin with the little golden fiddle in his fingers takes his seat within one's ear. Writing has nothing to do with one's self. I'd like to be a writer ever so much. But I don't write. I cannot. Often I get up in the morning, determined to write, and I come here and make a lot of words, and they are dry, and full of platitudes, stupid, and bare. The goblin with the fiddle in his fingers stays away; for the goblin knows nothing of ambition. He is never hungry or thirsty, tired, sorry, or sick. He dwells above, beyond, and yet within. the world, and laughs at it.

When the waitress and the cleaner and the wife of the clerk beg me to help them, I say, "I don't know." I read their manuscripts until I get a headache, and I try to help them. They go away discouraged, and we are all sad together.

Could I but catch the goblin, could I share him with them then? Should then we all know nothing of ambition, care nothing for publicity and pennies? When he sits within one's ear and draws his magic bow across the strings, all else is forgotten. When he goes, all goes.

I would that one of us might catch him and tell the world his tune.

One does not love because one wants to. One cannot help it. It is the same with writing. To try to write because the writing will bring pennies wherewith to pay for bread and meat is silly. The fiddle goblin knows nor bread nor meat. Ah, could I but catch the happy fiddle goblin!

in

again this winter

sunny days for sonny

California

The journey there is a real pleasure-
via the Santa Fe-the shortest way
Chicago to California-through a sunny
scenic wonderland.

Those who seek travel-luxury will find
the fulfillment of their wishes on the
California Limited-always exclusively
first-class. Another exclusive feature is
the Fred Harvey Dining service. You
can visit Grand Canyon National Park
on the way without change of Pullman.

just

mail

this

W. J. Black, Passenger Traffic Manager, Santa Fe System Lines. 1258. Railway Exchange, Chicago, Illinois Send me Santa Fe picture-folders of winter trip to California.

sold in 1918. This increase of practically one-third in this short period does not, however, tell the whole story. In the last ten years the industrial use of gas is estimated by authorities to have grown 1,000 per cent. The gas stove and hot-water heater in the domestic kitchen; the gas radiator for house, store, and office heating; and the gas oven for industrial purposes and to supplant the old-fashioned range for cooking in the family-these have more than recovered the ground lost by the substitution of the electric filament for the gas-burner. Or, if they have not made up what had to be surrendered, they sufficiently indicate that there is a tremendous legitimate field for the selling of gas.

It is now predicted in the industry itself that one next important use for gas is its adaptation in house-heating; another, the development of the gas refrig

erator.

Entering for a moment into the realm of the forecaster, let me quote H. C. Abell, President of the American Gas Association:

"America will be the first nation to have its homes heated by gas, thermostatically controlled. We shall be the first nation to discard ice for gas-operated refrigeration, the first to adopt universally the temperature method of cooking food by gas, and the first to outlaw smoke, soot, and ashes by using gas fuel, instead of solid fuel, for all heating processes in shops and factories."

Just where the line will be drawn between gas and electricity; whether electricity can successfully compete with gas as a heating agent; whether electricity is rot a power producer rather than a substitute for fuel, I shall not attempt to say. These are highly technical questions. They are questions, also, of vital importance to these two industries, to the users of their products, and to the owners of the stocks and bonds of gas and electric corporations. But we cannot answer them here.

The gas industry represents a tremendous investment in plant and mains, estimated at some billion and a half dollars. Collateral to it is the business of making and selling appliances. There is also to be considered in this connection the considerable and growing investment in appliances on the part of the public. In service on December 31, 1924 to give an idea of the extent of this itemthere were 10,240,000 gas meters, serving, it is estimated, over 50,000,000 of the population. Thanks, further, to the "customer-ownership" policy, the ownership of the gas industry is widely scattered, so that thousands are keenly inter

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6-C

ested in its prosperity, both as consumers and partners.

I cite these facts, few but significant, because, should there be a revolution in the heating business unfavorable to gas, it is evident that it could not be a very sudden revolution. You cannot, in a day or in a year, hardly in a decade, perhaps, change completely the habits and purchases of half a nation. So that, assuming that the curve of production and consumption of gas should stop going up and should begin to fall, the investor in gas securities would, in all likelihood, have ample time to sell out and save his capital.

All of this is, as the reader possibly suspects by now, introductory to the statement that the securities of gas companies are well worth consideration by the investor. John Moody's statement that gas company stocks were among the first to become true investments and have made one of the best records should be borne in mind. Gas bonds have yielded during the difficult last ten years a trifle more than those of telephone and telegraph bonds and about half a point more than power and light bonds. The course of wholesale gas prices from about 1900 to date shows that they have been large enough to give adequate returnslow, it is true, to rise in some instances

and yet, thanks to the control by public service commissions, not too high to be fair to the consumer. As to gas stocks, it is impossible to make any general statement other than that they have shown themselves to be steady earners and have frequently brought valuable rights during periods of expansion.

Taking it all in all, the manufacturedgas industry may be described as an essential industry on the whole, conservatively managed and occupying a field of growing usefulness, particularly in and around the larger population centers. Within the industry itself these facts are recognized and have been made the basis of plans which the prospective investor in gas stocks would do well to realize. A plan is pending to create a new organization in the industry to develop efficient gas-burning equipment for all fuel users, domestic and commercial. An official of the American Gas Association says:

"The present tendency to conserve our National resources, especially of oil and natural gas, makes it inevitable that the manufactured-gas industry will have to shoulder the heating burdens of the country. The gas industry is now equipped to supply all the immediate fuel requirements for industry, millions of dollars having been spent for improvements and new construction during the past two years.

"The progress of fuel conservation de

pends on the progress of gas utilization. We do not burn anything till it has first been transformed into a gas. The public is beginning to see this truth, and is acting accordingly. The gas industry labors incessantly to conserve the sources of the Nation's heat. Its whole plan and scope of operation is based on the most efficient extraction of heat from its sources, and its most economical distribution and utilization."

The manager of the Association recently added this statement: "To take care of present and anticipated heating demands we must plan for a gas industry three times its present size."

Fortunately for the investor, there is little chance of purchasing gas securities without adequate knowledge. Most of

the established companies have histories, readily available, that run back twentyfive years or even half a century. In one sense of the term the gas industry is a simple industry. It has, it is true, certain by-products to sell, but its chief source of income comes from one source. While the amount of product sold per year varies-usually upward-the vast majority of its customers are "repeats." Once gas is installed in a house, some gas will be used there as long as the house is inhabited. Steadiness of distribution makes for steadiness of operation. and the minimum of those sharp fluctuations which are the curse of many a business. Within reasonable limits, it is quite possible for a gas company to tell its stockholders on January first what the net earnings will be at the close of the year. At least, it is possible to predict what the minimum net will be.

On the basis of their yield, gas bonds rank with electric light and power bonds, if not above them. Depending on the circumstances of the particular issue, gas bonds are surely as safe; and their marketability, easily determined, is as high. Gas company stocks represent partners' interest in what, from all accounts, is an expanding basic industry. If purchased, they should be purchased for an investment, not because of market position. and speculative possibility, based on the idea that they will rise rapidly in price. Gas stocks should, if our analysis is correct, gradually appreciate in value over a period of years, always assuming that the company is well managed, that it operates in a mixed, growing residential and industrial community, and that public service commissions and the public are fair-minded.

Let it not, of course, be supposed that we are pointing any rapid path to wealth. via the bonds or the stocks of local gas companies. But he who feels that his capital, or rather a portion of his capital, can reasonably be placed where it will

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