The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-21
WHY THE COST OF
OPERATING RAILROADS
HAS BEEN INCREASED
STRUGGLING AGAINST INCREASED COST OF LABOR AND
SUPPLIES ON ONE HAND-REDUCED
RATES ON THE OTHER

ting rich at present prices-high as
tney may seem to people In the cities
who do not understand the cost at
tached to present-day farming. To go
back to the old prices he used to re-
ceive would bankrupt, in little
while. every fa~rer in the country
nj tendency of the future will be for
the prices of farm products to go still
higher rather than lower. Agricul-
ture Is the nations greatest funda-
mental industry and society must
liable to justify the man who is on the
farm today and the farmer boys OF
the future to stay by the pillow. Much
has been said recently about the fact
that the farmer does not receive
enough for what he produces-that
there is too big a waste in the chan
nels through which his products pass
before they reach the consumer, and
that he has some cause for complaint
In this respect is undoubtedly true.
However, the railroads can face such
an inquiry with clear conscience-for
an exha ustive investigation conducted
by the Lehigh Valley railroad some
| me ago shows that the farmer gets
son cepts out of the average dollars
worth OF products he sells: the pack
ers. local shippers, distributors and
retailers get AL cents between them =;
while the railroads receive only 5
cents, or One-twentieth Of the dollar,
for the transportation services they
render.
| So. too, there has been a steady ad-
vance in practically the entire realm
of merchandise and manufactured
products, whatever their nature, and
the ever increasing toll in the cost of
labor, steel products, lumber cars, To-
comotives and other supplies has lev
led a frihnfo
railroads. which have not only been
| forbidden to increase their rates, but,
on the contrary, in many instances
| compelled to lower them.
Big Increased Cost OF Labor.
To give the reader an exact idea of
i how the cost of labor has advanced in
the operation Of railroads we quote the
following increases in the daily wage
from 1900 to 1914 q period of only
fourteen years: In the case of en-
gineers it increased from $3.6S per day
to 1916, or an increase Of Sc per cent;
hremen from s2.2l to 1892, or ga per
cent; conductors from 1891 to 1888. or
45 per cent; station agents from 1.98
to $2.16. or per cent; other station
men from 1852 to 81 80, or II per cent;
ordinary trainmen from $1.97 to So. IS,
or 20 per cent; machinists from $2.72
to 1852, or 20 per cent: carpenters from
1921 to $3.50. or IL per cent; other
shopmen from $1.93 to 1920, or II per
cent; section fOremen from $1.51 to
$1,83, or Fl per cent, other trackmen
from s$1.15 to 1852, or 81 per cent;
telegraph operators and dispatchers
This means a general average in
crease in wages of 80 29-1OO per
cent-and all other classes of rail-
road operatives and employees in a
more or less similar degree. While
these advances have proven a great
boon to the nearly two million men
employed in the railway service and
increased their capacity to buy from
merchant and farmer, they have ex-
acted many millions annually from the
railroads themselves-all of which
made the general public richer, but the
roads poorer. I'm 1900 the railroads
paid $1.44 per ton for coal. Now they
pay $1.S1. Then they paid 3Sc for ties
Now they pay 52c.)
Other Increased Costs.
But there are many other items
winch have enormously increased the
cost of railroad operation which we
| cannot go into because Of lack Of
space. The public is constantly de-
manding a more efficient and a safer
service. and hence the railroads have
lad to spend vast sums in installing
block signals. steel passenger cars.
doing away with grade crossings,
Strengthening lines. heavier locomo-
tives, better roadbeds. and supplying
many other precautions protecting
both their operatives and the public
all thing necessary. yet very costly
Now, while labor. farm products,
supplies of all kinds have steadily in
creased in price, the railroads. as stat
ed before, have been compelled to re-
duce their rates in the face of this
avalanche of ever advancing cost of
OperatiOn-and that all but the most
I'm IN, ~
eXLce:'re critical condition is not t.
I've wondered at. The far,ler, III
srt reliant. the manufacturer and the
:*i''r"r justly insist th.;t they would
not be able to get along on the prices
they received ten or fifteen years ago.
How. then, can the railroads. which are
the largest employers of labor and buy
efs of material in the United States. be
expected to exist on less than they re-
ceived ten or fifteen years ago? In
view OF these facts, it is wonder
that President Wilson and other patri-
otto and careful students of the situa-
ton are speaking words of kindly adj
monition to the American public, to the
end that the railroads. through whose
giant arteries flows the very life blood
of the nation may not be wrecked and
destroyed.
The Public and the Manager.
On the one hand. for the last TWEEN
ty years the public has demanded the
best and highest efficiency in service
and lower rates in one and the same
brea. On the other hand stand the
thousands of men and women who
have invested their money in railroad
securities and who, in common with
the farmer, the manufacturer and the
merchant believe they are entitled to
! fair profit. Then come the hun
dreds of thousands Of employees who
are continually clamoring for an in
crease in wages. as we'll as the cost OF
all manner of railroad supplies in con-
stantly advancing-and between them
as arbiters stand the managers OF
roadside big hired men," strug-
Cling with might and main to recon
cile all conflicting interests in the face