The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-01-01
The Railway Problem,

In the course or recent speech In
Detroit Mayor Pingree said:
There is no question in the minds of men
familiar with general conditions but that
transportation levies too great tax upon
producers. The economists of the col,n-
try point out that in the last few years
labor and the products of labor have fallen
In value 1G to II per cent, while transpor-
tation has not fallen per cent. This in
itself Is enough to attract the serious at
tention of legislatures to the question of
artificial. prices granted by those bodies
and charged by corporations. But further
proof of the gravity of the question may
be found in the following facts which
show the enormous profits growing out Of
railway transportation. In Australia YOU
can ride distance of 1000 miles across
country for $3.50 first class, while work.
men can ride six miles for 2 cents, twelve
miles for cents, thirty miles for 10 cents,
and railroad men receive from % to 90 per
cent. more wages for eight hours of labor
than they are paid in this country for ten
hours. In Victoria, where these rates
prevail. the net income from the roads is
sufficient TO pay all the federal taxes.
In Hungary, where the roads are state
owned, you can ride six miles for / cent,
and since the roads were bought by the
government the mems wages have doubled.
Belgium tells the same story--fares and
freight rates cut down one-half and wages
doubled. Yet the roads pay a yearly reve-
nue. to the government of S4,0OO.OOO In
Germany you can ride four miles for cent
on the government owned lines. Yet wages
are over 125 per cent. higher than they were
when the corporations owned them, and
during the last ten years the net profits
have increased Al per cent Last year the
roads paid the German government Il net
profit of $25,G)0,0O0. If our government
owned the railroads We could 90 to San
Francisco from Boston for $40. Here is
the proof: The United States pays the
railroads not quite $275 to transport load
ed postal car from Boston to San Fran
cisco. n passenger car will carry fifty
passengers. which, at $40 each would be
$500, or a clear profit of $22j per car, and
this. too, after paying 5ia per cent on the
cost of the roads.
These figures are sufficiently start
ling to warrant examination. In every
country mentioned except Australia 1t
is to be noted that Mayor Pingree COM
pares the lowest rates of fares for third
class travel in localities having double
and treble our population to the square
mile with the first-class rates charged
in the United States for a service more
luxurious many times over than is the
best service afforded on the railway
lines of continental Europe. This
makes a stiff contrast, no doubt, but it
is not quite fair one. Equally unfair
is his comparison of postal with passen-
ger ratees. Whenever parties of fifty
men want to start, two and three times
a day, from Boston to San Francisco,
as do the postal cars, it is probable that
they can negotiate for rates that will
be very little higher than the rates paid
by Uncle Sam. Until then, the fact
must be taken into account that travel
between the coasts is light and irregu-
lar, and that it costs nearly as much to
haul an empty train across the conti-
nent as to haul full one. In regard
to Australia we must confess that we
are in the dark; but if it has been found
possible to give the equivalent of our
American passenger service in Austria
liza at a rate of less than one-third of
cent per mile and return profit on the
capital invested, we should imagine
that the fact would have become more
generally known than it is.
The trouble with Mayor Pingree's ar
gument, however, is that it approaches
the railway problem from the wrong
side. People are not complaining in
this country at excessive passenger
rates. Their complaint is directed
rather against often exorbitant and in
defensible freight charges. When it
takes four or five tons of anthracite
coal Mt the mouth of the nina IN nov
for the transportation of one ton to tide
water, as has been the case more than
Nee in the history of the fuel industry,
:. n there is rooh, to question the
NY of current freight charges. The
.s,nedv for this and similar extortions
!. not ~ be found ir. the doubtful and