Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-11-12
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hotel bills were as heavy as those at
Vienna or Berlin. A beefsteak, plate
of bacon and eggs or any other simple
dish costs the same in Turkistan or in
the Caucasus or Hungary, or Germany
as one would have to pay in Chicago
or New York.
The same may be said of railroad
fares. While agitators in the United
States are trying to pass laws cutting
them down to cents a mile, the rail
ways of Europe are advancing their
charges almost every year because OF
the advanced cost of fuel for their 10
comotives and the increased wages for
their employees. AS the European rail.
, ways are generally owned and operated
by the government, this advance can.
not be charged to- overcapita1ization,
but Is made absolutely necessary by
the increased expense Of operation
and maintenance. There is no alterna-
tive. Government owned railroads are
compelled to pay maximum wages, and
their coal, lubricating oil, lumber, rails
and other supplies for construction
and maintenance cost Just as much as
is paid by private purchaser. The
for profit, but public policy requires
them to pay expenses and accumulate
sinking fund to redeem the bonds
that were issued to build them. In or.
der to do this, European railways very
generally have been compelled to ad.
vance rates Of fare and freight and
there has been no interstate commerce
commission to hear the complaints and
protests of the public.
Second class railway fares through
out Europe on the principal railways
will now average per mile more than
first class fares in the United States.
First class fares in Europe are about
80 per cent higher than first class
fares in the United States; third class
fares in Europe are about 40 per cent
lower than first class fares in the
arrived immigrants would ride third
class in this country. Sleeping car
fares are from 20 to 80 per cent higher,
and on trains de luxe so per cent
higher than in the United States, and
there will always be controversy as
to the comparative comfort Of the
wagon-1it compartment cars of Eu-
rope and the Pullmans in the United
States. 1t is purely matter Of taste.
1t costs about one-third more for an
American to travel the same distance
in Europe than in the United States,
let him go by the cheapest way he can,
because he has to pay extra for his
baggage, and the fees and tips that
are demanded by porters at the rail-
way stations, the servants at the hotels
and other persons who help him along
in his journey must be counted in.
Carriage hire has advanced every
where and is generally double what it
used to be. The advent of the taxi
cab and the motor car has increased
rather than diminished the expense of
location. You can go farther In the
same time by electricity than by
horses, but you have to pay more for
it. And the cost of pleasure driving in
the cities of Europe is now practically
as great as in the United States.
Taking everything into consideration
it costs the ordinary American more
money to travel in Europe than in the
United States, although it would cost a
European more to travel in the United
States than at home. The difference is
the tax Of ignorance. Nearly all the
principal hotels of Europe have two
rates--one for local patrons and the
other for tourists. The thrifty Ger
man and Austrian will not pay the
rates that are charged American tour
lists at the first class hotels, and the
landlords excuse the excess on the
ground that the Americans require
more comforts and more attention,
which is true.
But, wherever you go in Europe these
days, you hear the same complaint of
the increased cost of living that you
hear in the United States, and it is
first, to the large number
of men who are in the army, and the
flood of emigration that has been GO
ing to the United States, thus caus-.
ing a scarcity of labor and high wages.
It is also attributed to the movement
of the country population to the