The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-03-11
EROlN OTHER PENS
PRESIDENT AND THE RAILROADS

president RooSevelt's letter to the in
terstate commerce commission focuses
attention on the really serious labor sit
uation that Is developing throughout
the country as result Of the dwindling
revenues of the railroad companies. A
number Of railway managers have en-
deavored to obtain the assent Of their
employees to a reduction of wages. but
without success. for the unions, follow
ing the idea enunciated by President
Gompers, of the Federation of Labor.
that economies forced upon employers
by Industrial depression should not be
effected at the expense OF their en-
ployes, have In every case refused the
proposals made for wage reductions.
If the railroads should insist on re-
ducfng wages, or be actually forced by
financial stress to do SO, the inevitable
consequence would be a series Of strikes
with their attendant injury to business
and their possible menace to public Or
der. Mr.. Roosevelt apparently hopes,
by setting in motion such machinery
of investigation and Cancellation as Is
at hand, to apply an anticipatory pro-
phylactfc to a situation already fertile
In elements OF industrial and political
disturbance. The economic situation
into which the president has thrust
federal Intervention, so far as his auth
GRITTY permits him, is one of unusual
character. We are in the midst of a
widespread industrial depression, in
which the wages of large bodies Of la
Dor are controlled by combinations OF
employees and the prices of sundry
products by combinations Of employers.
Neither of these combinations Is willing
to make any concessions, and, in fact,
both of them have been in large meas
ure successful In resisting economic
laws which, under unrestrained COM
petition. would have brought about
falling prices and declining wages. The
railroads, being extensive employers OF
labor and heavy purchasers of manu-
featured products, are profoundly af-
fected by both these combinations. But
In addition TO the fixed conditions I'M
der which they must obtain their sup
ply of labor and material the railroads
are under limitations imposed by reg
uIatiye legislation upon their charges
for service, while they are required by
mandatory legislation to incur various
expenditures regardless OF their mn
ancial ability to meet them Tne PIC
ture here presented is that OF an econo-
mic status somewhat definitely and
rigidly maintained, suggesting the So
cia1istic rather than the individualistic
order.-W ashington Herald
o.
DAILIES TO RAISE PRICE.
Lafayette Young, of the Des Moines
Capital. in moralizing over the rise in
wood-pulp, says: I'm Denver, q daily
newspaper costs from So to SO per year;
in New Orleans the standard price is
$12 per year. On the Pacific coast no
daily paper worthy VI LIS Haiho 40 u
fered for less than 50 per year. The
San Francisco papers have never been
low in price. The same Is true OF. the
Los Angeles papers Newspapers will
never be SO cheap in the future as they
| have been in the past. From time to
| time we have published lists OF papers
| which have increased their subscrip-
| ton price. Unless some new material
shall be discovered from which white
paper can be made, daily newspapers
| will go to at least So a year in any
] and all parts Of the country"