Show T A GRIFFIN REPLIES TO DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL ON FREIGHT RATE ADVANCES from chicago dally daily news mr griffin replies I 1 desire to call attention to am aa editorial printed in the daily news may 21 headed beaded hack back fire on the shippers in which you make the following statements darst that my representation of 0 the case la Is not candid second that what I 1 did have to may aay was based upon the action of the shippers conference and third that I 1 had bad no righetto right to pose as a business man having interests la in common with the shippers tho the circulation for signatures of a statement tat ement relating to freight rates was as far as I 1 was aas concerned confined to fellow members of the railway hallway nual busi mess association arid and no reference was made to the shippers conference I 1 personally attended this conference and have no criticism to ta matte make om oa anything that was done there and none was waa made or intended by me but what I 1 deprecated was vaa contained ill hi an article sent seat out by the illinois manufacturers association dated may 7 and as a member of that association I 1 personally wrote a letter to each of its individual members dated slay may 17 in this I 1 referred to the he misleading rind and unfair statements contained in the circular of may 7 mentioned above anil and in doing so I 1 was candid I 1 said that the statement that railroads are rapidly increasing their not net earnings was not true and as to the correctness of my statement I 1 beg to refer to the following the latest interstate commerce commission reports show that during the month of march eleven systems depre benting every railroad north and west on a line drawn through chicago and st louis show an increase in gross byrease earnings for 1 the he m month on h of 0 march of nearly compared with march 1909 while the net earnings for the will lame roads in the same period show 1 decrease of and the interstate commerce commission figures for the ten months july to march 31 in 1810 1910 he bs compared with 1909 show an increase in gross of over while the net earnings of these thes same systems in the same period of comparison comparion on show a falling oft off of over 3 BOO and as aa comparatively little of the increases in wages had even gone into effect during march the railroads must provide some means to increase a revenue that Is already decreasing on n an increased amount of business and there is no way for railroads to provide this except by increasing their aratea ale and surely there Is reason for the need of it in im the third paragraph on the second 0 n d page of this illinois manufacturers association circular of may 7 it Is stated that per cent was earned on the dividend paying stock making no allowance for the 24 34 per cent of stock on which no dividends were paid I 1 might with a ath equal propriety eav make the statement that there was wa no dividend paid on the non divi bend paying block torn nr a clearer definition the average earnings s bould be ba based upon the entire stock and not upon the best paying portion ot of tt it unless there Is some reason why the C representing tho the 34 24 per cent should not have received any dividends at all in the final paragraph ot of the editorial it ft la Is stated that I 1 should riot not be ba allowed to pose as a business man having no interest in common with the shippers inasmuch as my concern shipped an average of tons of f finished product during 1906 and IT 1307 and we were obliged to receive more than tons of iron to furnish this plus enormous quantities of coke coal and other supplies I 1 can safely claim to have shipped in and out tons a year and as there thera are no railroads who can afford to haul this material or any part of it without having a revenue from it an increase of 10 cents a ton on my hauling chargo charge would amount to and therefore I 1 have business interests in common with other shippers the tons of finished product shipped represented in the neighborhood of this represented mostly labor with tho the exception of the cost of the ore and coal in the mines all the balance was made up of wages arid and profit on the different conditions condition of the raw material until it was finished product my illinois plants produced 60 per cent of this amount or a year for three years our chicago plants have riot not run more than halt capacity therefore there here was a year less in distribution because of a corresponding shrinkage in sales salem As most of our iron and coal cornea comes from illinois this a year was waa riot not distributed in chicago as would have been the case had wo we worked on the same output that we did in 1906 and 1907 and a great deal of that which was not paid was waa taken out of the business firms situated in or near chicago by the non purchases pui chases from their varied business on the part of the community that would have received the a year for three years that Is the reason why I 1 have a right as a business man to deprecate any unfair or un called for obstacles that are placed in the way of my business and the hundred other varieties of bus business inthis in athla country that are affectedly affect edby the money put into circulation by the railroads when it Is further considered that my business constitutes but 10 per cent of the cost of a car and that there thera were nine other units similarly affected most moat of which would have been tributary to chicago anyone can see how important it la Is to his individual interests that the railroad companies should have ample funds tomake to make these improvements and purchases and will realize how comparatively easy it will be to stand a reasonable advance on the freight tor for any material he will need it if he Is receiving increased orders S chicago T A grimn gill mi N advertisement |