The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-03-22
Mr.. FINLEY LAUDS
BIRMINGHAM AND
MAKES FRIENDS
CONTINUED FROM pAGE 81


growth of your city has meant to the
ne.'hborng farming communities:
Birmingham consumes 1,oOC, coo dozen
of eggs in the course Of year; $50 cars
of cabbage; $50 of Irish potatoes; $50 of
sweet potatoes; leo Of onions; so of tur
nips; fifteen of navy beans; ten of lima
BEANS $40 of apples; $50 of watermelons;
twenty-five of peaches; $4,000 crates of
strawberries and 5000 crates of canta-
loupes."
Closely ReIataed.
These figures show what the Industrial
and commercial development Of the south
is doing for the southern farmer, and
they also show how closely the Interests
of the farmer. the merchant the miner.
the manufacturer and the railwa' are
bound up together These Interests are
so interrelated and coincide in so many
ways that the prosperity of ore is to the
advantage of ALL and any injury suffered
by one is sure to react upon the others.
For instance, If the "dilay, on which the
fruit grower must depend for the mar
keting of his products, is by any means
rendered unat.e to give prompt and eff
ficient tre sportation service, the fruit
grower will suffer, and if on the other
hand, here is q failure of the fruit crop
TIE railways will suffer.
Your interests and those of the rail-
ways of this section are so absolutely
identical that you are vitality concerned
in every proposition to impose legisla-
tive restrictions upon them. Your self
interest demands that you should give
your support to No proposition for addi-
tional railway legislation until you have
examined it thoroughly in all its bear
ines and are convinced that it will i'm
pair neither the lity of the roads to
use their present facilities to the hest
advantage nor their ability to improve
those facilities
Let us look, FER a moment. at the
propositions that are mace to reduce
railway charges Nv legislation or other
public action. The present is an era of
higA prices. Everywhere and among all
classes there are complaints of the in
creased cost of living. \ railways cost
of living is its expenditure for operat-
ing expenses. This has gene up more
rapidly than has the individual cost of
| living. The wages of labor and the prices
of practically everything that railway
| must buy have advanced enormously. An
estimate, based on exact statistics for "a
per cent of the railway mileage of the
country shows an increase for the year
ending June 30, 1906. of about SlS5, 1897 =
600. or more than 13 per cent in railway
operating expenses and an increase OF
more than II per cent in taxes as com
pared with the year before. Figures for
the present would show much larger in
crease. for the largest advances in rail-
way wages have been made since June
80 To the general rule that all prices
have advanced and are still tending to
higher levels there is Just one notable
exception Notwithstanding the enormous
increase in the cost of producing trans
portation-the only commodity which a
railway has for sale-its price has not
gone up. 1t has even tended down
ward The average rate per ton per
mile received by the railways Of the
United States for carrying freight in the
year ending June 80. 1906, estimated from
the statistics CT 81 per cent Of the total
mileage, was hut 74e mills. n reduction
Of 2.13 per cent below the average rate
fer the year before and per cent below
that for 1904
Railroad Earnings.
As a result of increased operating ex-
penses, the net earnings of the railways
of the country generally have not in
creased in proportion TO the increase in
gross earnings. Many of the roads, in
all parts of the country and this is es-
pecially true of those in the south, are
passing through the experience of seeing
their net earnings decrease, although their
gross earnings are showing large in
creases. Notwithstanding this situation,
the price of the only commodity Of i'm
portance that has declined instead Of adj
Vancng is the one that is selected to be
still further reduced by legislation.
This process of increasing wages and
paying more for all kinds Of supplies and
for maintenance and betterments cannot
be continued indefinitely. Especially If
the policy OF reducing freight and pas
senser rates by legislation is persisted in.
point must soon he reached beyond
which reductions cannot be made without
curtailing most seriously the ability OF
the roads to maintain their present rate
of expenditure and their present degree Of
efficiency.
Considsr. for instance. the nronasibon tn