The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-12
INCREASED RATES ABROAD.

While there is much agitation in
this country for a reduction of rail-
road freight rates, or against any ad-
vance in them, and also for lower pas
senger rates, or the retention of two
cents a mile fares in states where that
rate has been established by public
authority, it is interesting to learn
that both freight and passenger rates
are being increased in other countries,
especially those of Europe. Nor would
any protests that might be made there
by the public against such increased
rates avail anything because the rail-
roads there are chiefly owned by the
governments, and the increases in
rates are being made by the direction
and authority of these governments.
These facts are told of in a recent
letter from William E. Curtis, a rep
preventative of the Chicago Record
Herald, who has been touring Europe
for many months. After speaking of
the increased charges in European
hotels he writes as follows:
1.-The same may be said of railroad
fares. While agitators in the United
States are trying to pass laws cutting
them down to 2 cents a mile, the rail-
ways of Europe are advancing their
charges almost every year, because of
the advanced cost of fuel for their To-
comotives and the increased wages
for their employees. AS the European
railways are generally owned and OPP
Grated by the government, this adj
vance cannot be charged to overcapi-
talization, but is made absolutely ne
| cessary by the increased expense of
operation and maintenance. There is
| no alternative. Government owned
Rnn1na11a6 n maxi
mum wages, and their coal, lubricat-
| ing oil, lumber, rails and other sup
plies for construction and mainten-
ance cost just as much as is paid by a
private purchaser. The government
railways are not managed for profit,
but public policy requires them to pay
expenses and accumulate a sinking
fund to redeem the bonds that were
| issued to build them. In order to do
| this, European railways very generally
have been compelled to advance 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
throughout Europe on the principal
railways will now average per mile
more than first-class fares in the Unit
ed 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 United States, but no one eX-
cept newly arrived immigrants would
ride third-class in this country. Sleep
! ing 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 a
controversy as to the comparative
comfort of the wagon-lit compartm ent
cars of Europe and the Pullmans in
ter of taste.
1T costs about one-third more for
an American to travel the same dis
lance 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
railway stations, the servants at the
hotels and other persons who help
him along his journey must be count
cd in