Mexico weekly ledger., 1914-10-15
COST OF OPERATING
RAILROADS IS INCREASED
lContinued From pare onel

the National capital in the years to
come. Political parties are intensely
human institutions and the average
cautious citizen will prefer to leave
the railroad expansion of the future
to the economic law Of supply and de-
mand Of communities rather than TO
place such a temptation for power in
the hands of those who rise and fall
in the field of politics. Furthermore.
should the time ever come when the
Government takes over the railroads
it means that the people will have to
forego the millions Of taxes which
they nov pay. Many other things
could be said upon this phase of the
question, but space forbids. For
sometime, the Government through
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion has been engaged in making a
physical valuation Of all our railroads
as a matter Of guidance for future
rate adjustments, Again, we repeat,
since the people absolutely control
and regulate the railroads, is that not
enough? Will it not be better TO let
well enough alone-to cling to that
which is good and eliminate that
which is bad from this time forward?
Increased Cost Of Operation.
We now wish to refer briefly to an
other phase of the problem; For a
number of years the cry of the high
cost of living" has been everywhere
abroad in the land. Time was, not so
many years ago, when the farmer
sold his corr at 25c per bushel. Now it
brings from SOC to Toe. So, too, he
sold hogs at Sc per pound, which now
readily bring from Il to l0c-
while a good steer calf, which used to
bring from $40 to Sl2 now sells for
from $50 to SIS. Nobody who knows
anything about present land values
or the farmers cost of production
will contend that he is not entitled to
these increased prices. As a matter Of
fact, unless he is an exceedingly good
manager and u~tilizes the best of mod
ern Agricultural thought he is by no
NEAR getting rich at present prices
high as they may seem to the peo-
pie in the cities who do not under
stand the cost attached to present
day farming. To go back to the old
prices he used to receive would bank
rupt, in a little while, every farmer
in the Country-and the tendency of
the future will be for the prices of
farm products to go still higher rath-
er than lower. Agriculture is the
Nations greatest fundamental indus
try and society must make the farm
game sufficiently profitable to justi-
fy 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 far
mer does not receive enough for what
he produces-that there is too big q
waste in the channels through which
his products pass before they reach
the and that he has some
cause for complaint in this respect is
undoubtedly true. However, the rail
roads can face such an inquiry with
a clear conscience-for an exhaustive
investigation conducted by the Le-
high Valley Railroad some time ago
shows that the farmer gets so l-2
cents out Of the average dollars
worth Of products he sells, the pack
ers, local shippers, distributors and
retailers "A 1-2 cents between them,
while the railroads receive only &c or
one-twentieth Of the dollar for the
freight services they render.
So, too, there has been a steady adj
vance in practically the entire realm
Of merchandise and manufactured pro
ducts, whatever their nature, and the
ever-increasing toll in the cost of la
Dor, steel products, lumber, cars, To-
comotives and other supplies has lev
led a tribute of untold millions upon
the railroads which have not only
been forbidden to increase their rates
but on the contrary, in many in
stances, compelled to lower them.
Big Increased Cost of Labor.
To give the reader an exact idea of
how the cost of labor has advanced in
the operation of railroads we quote
the following increases in the daily
wage from 1903 to 1913-a period of
only 10 years In the case of engi-
neers it increased from S4.0l per day
in 1908 TO S5.24 in 1913--or an ad-
vance of 80 per cent; firemen from
1928 to 1916, or 3S per cent; conduc-
tors from 1898 to SAB, or 81 per
cent; other trainmen from s2.17 to
$500, or Al per cent; machinists from
$3.50 to s3.2S, or 81 per cent-and
all other classes of railroad operat-
ives and employees in a more or less
similar degree. While these advances
have proven a great boon to the rear
ly two million men employed in the
railway service and increased their ca
pacity to buy from merchant ard far
mer, they have exacted many millions
annually from the railroads them
selves-all of which made the general
public better off, but the roads poor
err