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Show ' ' Transportation Never Was Better" According to Professor William J. Cunningham, of Harvard University, one of the most pronounced aspects of railroad operation since 1921 has been the lower transportation cost. He attributes this to a combination of three factors: improved equipment, more efficient business methods and a higher morale among employes. Rrom 1921 to 1928 inclusive the railroads spent more than $6,000,000,-000 $6,000,000,-000 for additions and improvements. Without these improvements, in the opinion of Professor Cunningham, gains in operating efficiency would have been impossible. "It required courage to go out and raise new money for capital investment invest-ment when, as has been the case, the 'elurn the railroads have been permitted per-mitted to earn since the war has been so inadequate and so far below the fair return contemplated by Congress, when the Transportation Act was passed pas-sed in 1920," says Professor Cunningham, Cunning-ham, "but the railroad executives have evidently grounded their courage cour-age on three principles: (1) That adequate and satisfactory transportation transpor-tation service cannot be given without improved facilities and equipment; (2) ' that if such service is given and its -ontinuance assured, the public confidence con-fidence in and good will toward railroads rail-roads will bear fruit in fair treatment and in net income, and (3) that the expenditures will produce economies which in themselves yield a fair return on the additional investment and al-;o al-;o tend to increase the return on the existing investment. "The universal testimony is that -ail transportation service is adequate, "xpedious and dependable. It has never been better. Yet the hops that such service will be rewarded by Governmental approval of rates which would yield a fair return on the value of the property devoted to public use has not been realized." |