Connecticut western news., 1913-06-19
THROTTLING A GREAT INDUSTRY
Hobbling the Railroads Not Without
 Nonea1nap%ae

Hobbling the Railroads Not Without Its Consequences.
 Were the prices of farm products to be fixed by commission in this country, in the face of steady increase in the cost of farm implements and materials and general advance in the wages demanded by farnlhands, there would undoubtedly be shrinkage Tn farm values which would speedily become a matter of na. tional concern,
 Next to agriculture the railroads form the greatest single industry in this coun. try. They collect and distribute wealth as does no other single agency. They employ 1,691 900 people and pay out in wages every year $1 ,239, .284 This does not include the railway supply in- dustry employing almost as many more,
 But to the plight of the railroad treas uries, to compel them to pay higher wages, to better equipment, to employ more men, to pay more taxes and at the same time make them charge less for what they have to sell has become the most natural thing in the world.
 Let the railroad try to economize by retrenchment measures and it is told it must give better service under state or federal methods of regulation. Nobody has any love for the railroad that isn't spending money; it is reviled and treated with contumely. Legislators are as ready to take a whack at the penu- rious road as at the showing signs of too much prosperity.
 The New York, New Haven and Hart ford Railroad was recently compelled to pay per cent, for money borrowed on short time notes. Money raised through a sale of mortgage bonds by the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul not long ago cost that road nearly 5h per cent, whereas money raised under the same mortgage only few years ago cost per cent. and even less.
 | Plainly this state of affairs cannot con- tinue. Yet demands upon the railroads persist. No sooner is one wage increase granted than another is asked. No soon- CT does legislature enact "full crew" measure, increasing tremendously the expenses of the railroad without any pro- ductive return, than it is asked to pass legislation calculated to prevent a road from hiring outside men in the event of strike. This was the case recently in Pennsylvania. although the bill, known as the "anti. strikebreaker bill and in troduced at the behest of the unions was allowed to die. It would have shaokled every railroad in the State.
 Between 1890 and 1913 railroad taxes increased IFS per cent. per mile although the net capitalization increased but 20 per cent. per mile. Since 1910 there has been an increase in the amount paid to lobor of s103, 3,0O0.0 900 although the mum Der of employees has been reduced by 3,832. Powerless to raise their rates, to charge more for what they give, the railroads have had to see the margin be- tween operating revenue and expenses steadily diminish without seeming to in- terest the public in their plight.
 Once the public did grasp the plight of the railroads. That was when over 30 per cent. of them were in the hands of receivers and it is not so many years ago, either. A cry went up to give them chance. For brief period they were not harassed, were not legis- lated to death and the rebound was mar vicious. But must there be reversion to the dark days of 1896 before the truth is again brought home to the people?