The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-04-06
REGULATION OF RAILWAY
 RATES AND WAGES

i the reSulaLlOH or rates by CQe Inter i State Commerce Commission has been i law requires rates to be "just and
 reasonable" and everybody applauds.
 But, addressing the Traffic Club at
 Pittsburg, the Chairman of the Com
 mission said with reference to engin-
 eers' dema1,d:
 "If this increase in wages is un- ! justifiab1e, and. if on that account an l increase in rate is allowed, it results 1 that the general public, including all ] other forms of labor, is required to pay what is unjust and unreasonable. Must the Government not, therefore, be satisfied not only that the added ! wages are paid by the railroads. but
 that they are necessarily and proper l ly paid?"
 1 It had already appeared that the Government regulation of rates had ! abolished the open market for rates. Rates which are regulated cannot be varied, and price competition disap- peared. Now it seems that the regu- l lation of rates includes the regula ton of wages, and it is in the way of ap- bearing that the open market for wa ges has been abolished. This does
 not rest upon the casual expression of ] the Chairman, but is the deliberately formed policy of the Commission, and was officially declared hypothetically at the time that the railways were forbidden to advance their rates. This is a little bewildering. If the Commission assumes to decide regard ing the reasonaheness and business of the price of labor as we'll as of rates | why should it not also decide regard ing the prices of all supplies? And, since railway rates are part of all prices, where is final extension of this theory to stop? This takes the mat ter too far af1eld for general discus I1o iv. s4~ application merely to the engineers and the railways. The theory of collec- tive bargaining of course has substi- tuted duress for law in the fixing of wages. One Government after anoth- CT in several nations, and on both sides of the ocean, has shirked in va rious degrees the protection of labor in earning its livelihood. But the unions now come face to face with body not elective, and powerful enough to curb even the railways. The unions and the Commission are worthy foemen, and the situat tton is such as has not before arisen It will take some time for the various parties to decide how they relish the unforeseen situation
 As regards the railways, it may be thought that a plea of pity is justi- fled, but that is not the view now to be pressed. 1t is true that the rail-
 
 erated 1000 more miles of road with B, ,0O0 fewer employees than in 1910. Ev- identity they were doing their best to make up by efficiency their limita- tions in the operation of their own property. But the fewer employees received $42.000,000 more wages, and the net returns showed almost an equal decrease, as compared with the usual increase of fifty millions, or thereabout. The sum of the loss and the increase is about four-score mill lions of dollars. considerable enough to be appreciable, even in this bill lion-doqlar industry Where is this to end? AS yet the effect has been mere ly to check new construction and ad- dition to equipment. Trade, although in full volume, is not booming, and yet equipment is almost all busy. AL ways there are pessimiSts, but always also there are those who remember one sure thing in American econom- ical conditions
 Sooner or later there will come again the times when there will be an over whelming demand on the railways for transportation not at lower rates, but at any rates. And then the railways once more will be ordering that freight must be moved regardless of cost, and freights will have precedence over or dinary passenger traffic. Now is the time when preparations for such con- ditions should be made The indus trial boom should precede the railway boom, and the accommodations for the railway boom cannot be extempo- rized. It takes time to get and lay rails, and longer yet to get cars to carrying after they are ordered. But the railways have been deprived of the fat which they were accustomed to lay on in good times in prepara- ton for bad times.
 The railways now are in lean con- dition, and their credit is what is in- dicated by the inability to float bonds on accustomed rates of interest. The Commission has said that the rail- ways should not charge rates enabling them both to earn living and to en- large their facilities. Anything earn ed above living should be devoted to reducing rates, and facilities should be enlarged by raising fresh capital. The figures above will show the di- version to the wage fund of resOurceS which might have been devoted to serving the public at large. It would seem that the time is arriving when the general public will be more ap- preciative of the fact that the trou- bles of the railways are also it's trOu bles.
 Consider a little more at large what the troubles of the railways are. The OWI0TSnlp IS pl1VdIC, OuC lAlO AA1dAAcI6O- ment is public, and without financial responsibility for results. The num- ber Of employees and the length of the working day are fixed by law. The number of men to a crew is not left to the discretion of the nominal man. agement. The standard of equipment, the erection of signals, the removal of grade crossings, the provision of safe ty appliances and countless other things which cost money are directed by legal process. The only thing not controlled is the maintenance of cred it, and with that problem the roads are wrestling. No private business could be sustained under such condl- tions, but railways are public utilities. and that theoretically alters every thing. Does it alter anything prac- tically? Is there any form of stat ute known to man which will alter a balance sheet permanently? In Can ada this year an excess of hundred millions will be spent for railway con- struction. In this country a half bll- lion would not be enough on a similar scale. Where is it to be got? The question is not asked in tenderness for the railways, but in regard to the com merce carried by the railways. That is the peoples interest in the railway question.
 FIRST THINGS
 The first Mormon church was estab- liShed eighty-tWO years ago today at