The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1914-10-08

steel mills, the lumber and coal indus
try, the big car and locomotive building
concerns and other sources of railroad
supplies. In taxes they paid out the
enormous sum of $l29, 922 which
helped to maintain the public schools,
public highways, and other revenue ex-
penses Of every state, county and in
corporated town and city in the coun-
try. After paying their operating ex-
penses, the interest on their funded
debt and dividends en- their stock; which
averaged only 4.28 per cent, the rail-
ways had left in 1913a balance of $685.
705, 547 with which to make improve
ments and to use as surplus fund for
emergencies of one kind and another.
In other words, after the railways got
through paying for their labor, steel.
lumber, coal, interest, dividends and
other necessary expenses, the above
$183, 7O5, SAT was all the surplus they
had left for themselves out of an in
come of more than three billion dollars,
and this, too, upon properties worth
the gigantic sum of twenty billions.
Thus it can be seen that on the basis
of the present rates the railroads pay
back to the public in one way and an
other practically every dollar they re-
ceive for service. As was stated in
in the previous article, the operating
income of the railroads for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1914, was $12O, :
900, 600 less than for 1913-while ex-
penses and taxes were SIG, 900, 900 great
err. 1t can therefore be seen at glance
that unless the railroads are given some
increase in the rates in the very near
future the time when many of them
will 60 upon the rocks of financial ruin
is not far off-and vet the slight in
crease necessary to save them is so
small that the average citizen would
not be conscious of it after it had gone
into effect. In a future article this
question will be more fully discussed.
A Barometer Of Prosperity. =
, 1t is an old saying that when the rail
roads are prosperous everybody>is pros
derous-and the manner in which their
income is disbursed. as above explained
tells the reason why. In short, for
years they have been regarded as the
great business barometer of the Ma
ton. No other industry in the coun-
try employs so many men as do the
railroads and furthermore it is high
grade of labor employed upon as lucra-
tive basis as obtains in any other
large industry. When times are good
nearly two million people, first and last,
derive their living from the railroads
and when this vast army is working
full time and is contented the millions
they pay out for merchandise and for
the living necessities produced on the
farm cannot help but have a tremen-
dous effect upon the commerce and Ag-
riculture of the country.
/ But this is only half the story. Aside
from the nearly two million operatives
directly employed upon the railroads in
normal times, the hundreds of thous-
ands of men who work in the great
steel mills, the coal mines, the lumber
industry and in the big car and locomo-
tive shops are equally vitality affected
for when the railroads are making ex-
tensive improvements and buying heav-
lily of these supplies it means that these
great industries are running full blast
while when the railroads are subsisting
only upon absolute necessities it means
that many of them are working half
shift.
Why Hen Are Idle