The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-08-11
GOOD NEWS FOR THE FARNERS
Yesterdays Telegram says:

on wheat from the interior to Portland,
to offset, as far as possible, the low prices
for wheat to the farmers. In this con-
nection, the o. r. & N. will also reduce
its operating expenses by the cutting of
wages of shop employees. Neither the
new schedule of wages nor the reduced
rates on wheat have yet been definitely
decided on, but the matter is now under
consideration, and both will De made
public tomorrow. The o. R. & N. shop
men under the present schedule. when
on full time, are paid about 40 per cent
more than the same class of employees in
the Missouri river territory. The cut
does not contemplate reduction equal
to this difference, but will average about
1216 per cent, though in some instances
it will exceed that amount.
"This will leave the wages of the en-
ployes from % to so per cent higher
Missouri river territory. As the shop
employees have not been working on full
time for several months, and often on
less than half time for weeks together,
with the cut, when given steady en-
ployment, they will be enabled to earn
more money than they have heretofore
done, on account of the longer hours and
more days work.
i'It is necessary to make these reduc-
tions in the operating expenses in order
to justify;a reduction in the rates for
hauling wheat from the interior. The
shopmen gain in longer hours more than
they lose in the reduced schedule, and
this latter loss is the gain, first OF the
farmers in lower grain rates, and later
of all with whom the farmers do bust
ness, and of the whole country by further
relieving the strlngency in money
matters. 1t will be the policy of the o.
r. & N, under its present management,
to work to the greatest possible extent
in the interest of Oregon, realizing that
upon the condition of this state and of
the Walla Walla and Palouse countries
in Washington, through which its lines
pass, must depend the volume of busi-
ness over the o. R. & n. and the conse-
quent amount of its revenue. The
wheat rates will be cut to the lowest
ating expenses of the road, and to make
it lower every department will have it's
expenses reduced to minimum.
s'The exact point where the expenses
will be reduced cannot now be made
public, and, in fact, have not yet been
definitely decided on, but they will be
carefully gone over, and wherever little
pruning can be done without working a
hardship on any one one, the knife will
be applied, and fancy salaries on the o.
r. & N. system will soon be thing of
the past. Useless expenditures natur-
ally creep into the operation of any great
railroad system, and an occasional turn
ing over of the order of things with a
view to economy is always required, and
especially is this the case at this time,
when the reduction in expenses is to be
Offset by decreased earnings on account
of reduced rates of the staple products
of the state, which must be moved from
the interior to the seaboard.
''The rolling stock of the o. R. & N.
is in good condition, and there will be
plenty of cars to move the crops, which
will be brought in as fast as delivered to
the railroad company, in contradistinc-
ton of the policies pun sued in some pre-
vious years, when there has been a
Widely-believed rumor of a combine be-
tween the railroads and the elevator
companies to keep the price of wheat to
Oregon and Washington producers down
to the lowest possible point, by the re-
fusal of the railroads to move it out of
the country, and the inability of farmers
to realize on it at home.
"The o. R. & N. will not be party to
any such scheme, and with this road
out. no other can go in, so that it will be
a scramble between the railroads as to
which shall get the shipments from COM
petitive territory.
reduction in wheat rates cannot be esti-
mated at this time, but that its influence
must be felt in every line of business is
certain. The railroads will derive a
benefit, partly compensating for the re-
duction, by the shipment of more goods
into the interior, than would be the case
if the profits of producers were entirely
absorbed, and this, in turn, will furnish
more employment to the men whose
wages will be reduced by the new sched-
ule. There will be few, if any. sufferers
from the course decided on, and there
will be many benefciaries.