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Show ACOSTLYEXPERiMENT Washington, D. C, Jan. 2 4. Government Gov-ernment operation of American railways rail-ways has ceased. The books have been closed and the American people, in taxes alone, have paid substantially substantial-ly one and three-quarter billion of dollars for the experiment. The additional ad-ditional costs which the travelers and shippers of America were obliged to meet because of indifferent service and extraordinarily high rates can hardly be estimated. It can be fairly fair-ly said that this additional burden will come near equalling the actual total of American dollars paid out by the government, which the taxpayers had to meet. President Coolidge in announcing the dissolution of the governmental war-time operation organization did not attempt to conceal his satisfaction satisfac-tion at being able to relieve the American people of this extraordinary burden. Staggering as these totals are the one element of satisfaction is that happily we only embarked on government operation. Had we been driven into government ownership, which was the real aim of many people peo-ple at the time, the total loss of the people's money would have been many times over the present figure, impressive as that is. A study of the cost of this most unfortunate experiment, experi-ment, not only in money values, but in efficiency, should serve to check the gentlemen who, devoid ot any personal responsibility, have been preaching governmental operation of public utilities as the one sure way to secure the millennium for American Amer-ican citizens. |