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Show THE CRUX OF THE RAILROAD QUESTION I , ii 1 . WASinNCJTON. April 24. "Thero la nothing to bo pained by gottlue hysterica over discussion of the railroad rail-road freight rate question," says the Kepubllcan Publicity Association, through Us president. Hon. Jpnathan IJourne Jr. "It Is truo thai the sit-' sit-' uatlon is badeven critical ad (Tint something must be done with the least possible delay,, but mora denunciation of the rates charged ttets us nowhere. The Question Is . whether the rates ought to be lower stat. If so, how that can be accomplished. accom-plished. "Now, for one thing, the official ' teports o tine railroads as filed with tho Interstate commerce commission und subject to checking by the commission com-mission to ascertain their accuracy, show that the roads as a whole aro not getting enough out of current op oi'atlon to pay current operation expenses. ex-penses. Vrhe roads are not getting rich at the expense of the people that Is certain. Moreover ,thero is something of Interest In a comparison of freight tales with prices of commodities. Such a comparison, taking tho year 1013, before tho war, as a basis for computation, shows that freight rates, when figured on an average ton-mllo basis have advanced C6 per cent, wfillo tho avrago wholesale lce of commodities have advanced "VT per cent. Comparisons- for other years make an even more Impressive ahowlng. In 1919 tho averago receipts re-ceipts per ton mllo had advanced 35 per cent as compared with 1913 while the average wholesalo price of commodities had advanced 112 per ceht. "It Is clear from this that freight rates did not go up In proportion to the prices of commodlles. There w.b god renson why they didn't. Piics of commodities nro deterined b' Flip-ply Flip-ply and demand by private ag-o;-ment 08 to prices. Freight rates nro regulated by the government through the Interstate Commission. During 1915, 1916 and 1917 th cv-7 cv-7 erngo. receipts of railroads per ion ; ,' mile remained practically statlono.v. i ib there was no advance In rates. ' Hut commodity prices had advanced k 24 per cent by 1916 and 76 pef cent j.S by 1917. ' & "The unfortunate' circumstance la 1 r that the railroads did not get their advances along with the advances in ohcr lines of business. Their rates ' were not materially Increased until near tho tlmo for tho after-war jtlunip. The government failed to nuthorlzo tho collection of higher rates when everybody would have been both ablo and willing to pay them out of tho high prices received for commodities and then authorized-) K tho lncreaso when prices of -basic m commodities had fallen almost to ifl jrc-war lovels. In addition to that I tho government through Its railroad I administration adopted fulc3 which required tho railroads to pay for serif ser-if Iccs not rendered and placed upon m !J'?c'r Da'rol,s mr0 numbers of men m not ncedod. "These aro factB shown by tho re-j re-j cords. Tho private managers of the M railroads aro not responsible for tho H conditions above described. It la 9 qulto HUely of courso that private H management can effect some econ-J econ-J omies and this has evldontly been H done, as Indicated by the Increased flj amount of freight carried per car H and tho Increased mileage tho cars H mako per day. Dut economies of this HJ kind -cannot possibly be sufficient to BE inout the critical sluatton. Qovern-MB Qovern-MB nicnt regulation proved unequal to Its task In the days when tho country could havo eablly paid freight rates somowhat In proportion to Incrcasea prices of commodities. Tho owners or tho roads ought not bo mado to suffer for the acts of the government 'or its agents. Manifestly freight 'dates cannot go up, tho roads cannot, pay the present operating cxpenso on present rates, hence the expenses must come down or tho government must tako over tho roads and pay the deficits out of the tretsury a It did In ho period of the McAdoo nc-jglme." |