OCR Text |
Show FOR HIGHER FREIGHT RATES. Eminent railroad men from all parts of the country have been explaining to the interstate commerce commission at Washington vhy the railroads should be allowed to increase freight rates. This is a vital question, for the industries and prosperity of the country are in large measure involved in the railroad problem. . . President McCroa of the Pennsylvania testified that during the past 10 years the wages of railway workers had been increased 33 per cent. During that period his road had spent $262,000,000 in improvements, improve-ments, such as better terminals, heavier equipment, etc. It was to the interest of the people of this country, said he, that railroad service should be ample and efficient, but it would be impossible to find capital cap-ital to carry on improvements unless fair profits were assured. Some of the biggest shippers in the country have joined the railroads rail-roads and the railway labor unions in urging increases in freight rates. They say that in order that trade shall thrive there must be more and better means of transportation, and that if railway betterments better-ments are now stopped it will be a heavy blow to business of all kinds. It is better, they argue, to pay a little more freight than to suffer a paralysis of tr?de is a result of squeezing the railroads. |