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Show plies which tt railroad! them scire consume. "The- combined effect of falling rate for transportation and the falling fall-ing purchasing power of the dollar ha been to greatly .reduce the contribution contribu-tion to net earning and return on investment in-vestment yielded out of each dollar paid by the public for transportation service. "Universal bankruptcy ha been avoided by the carrier only by heavy capital expenditures to reduce grade, eliminate curvature and purchase heavier locomotive and cars, all Incurred In-curred for the purpose of Increasing efficiency In train movement by hauling haul-ing more ton per locomotive. The opportunity to offset these increasing costs by economies in operation ha been largely diminished; in other words, car and locomotives are about a large a can be constructed within clearance limit. Certain it is that to whatever extent, the railroads have been able, to arrest the continued tendency ten-dency toward Increased cost of labor and material by new operating methods. meth-ods. It I now Impossible for them to offset the abnormal Increase in operating oper-ating cost which now confront them." New capital for railroad development, develop-ment, said Mr. Kruttschnttt, was increasingly in-creasingly dlflcult to obtain because of the diminishing return on the Investment. In-vestment. "There has been no time In recent year when the credit of the world has been so strained," he said, "as it I today, and the ability of the railroad rail-road to procure capital for necessary Improvement with which to meet the growing demand of commercial and government transportation should be strengthened rather than . impaired. There is no question that capital ex-. ex-. pondltme foe myoh weeded second tracks, yards and terminal and motive mo-tive power have een deferred on many line during the past few years, because be-cause of financial difficulties, and, latterly, because of high price for materials and equipment. This account ac-count in part for the congestion of the past two year. It Is perfectly obvious that such expenditures cannot longer be deferred." iliTIiis FtRATIVE, SAYS ItanscHNin for Foods Will Tax rriers to the Limit, He Declares. )r Istareatlonal New Service, !mNGT0N. May U.-Juliu. Titt member of the execu-' execu-' ZrA of the railroad committee ' 'JSonal defense. In arguing today a7 intrastate commerce com M need of emergency relief u. the railroad to meet the of opening, said: "tjJInt action of the carriers In "-VsDeclal committee on na-fttlnsecontemplate na-fttlnsecontemplate the ubor- ;2VJoad to the preferred needs l2masdallfor food products of slid the demand for hlp-.Inti hlp-.Inti wl " resources ' sad they are so urgent J7af expense. A ,,d IH be curtailed and freight j it full commercial rate will . drt war to government btisi-dle btisi-dle at 'less than commercial j .sder condition which will ,7 Hicressed costs. The move-d move-d troops usually Involved a one-, one-, uil of empty equipment, and ilmsted that both troop and tlie United States govern-irt govern-irt handled over Western road ...trrsxeof about one-third lea . ft rat applicable to commer-. commer-. kSe The ktos revenue on Jiit trasine will be mate-, mate-, 1m than on the same volume wMfdsl busines.-r busines.-r (.rattschnltt said that for twen-mj twen-mj there had been a constant jill commodities except trans-ai trans-ai the srice of which had ac-rMllned. ac-rMllned. During the past few and especially since the besot be-sot the year, this situation had serious menace to railway aauntly Increasing commodity t" he said, "have Increased the I a Urine for the railroads Just a I undone for individual. They reflected themselves in Increased , aase necessary to enable rall-eplores rall-eplores to buy that which they ulr consume, and an In-t In-t nest In all materials and sup- |