The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-06-09

should be spent annually for the FIVE
years to come
That was more than six years
ago, and the indispensable demands
ON traffic facilities have increased.
On their own showing the private
railroad companies are utterly un-
able to perform the functions that
must be performed II that is not
true then they and their spokesman
must stand convicted OF the grossest
misrepresentation in order TO force
increasing rates TO support new
stock and bond deals.
The railways themselves fear their
own deficiencies and the conse-
auences OF their own wrongdoings.
They fought the Alaska railroad bill
as they fought the Panama canal,
for they do not wish the proof given
Of what the government can do in
the way of railway construction and
railway management, even under
the most unfavorable conditions
Tho railways themselves have
issue to the front In seeking TO head
off that step by persistent cam
paign of Misrepresentation and one
sided discussion OF it.
The experience of other countries
those having government owner
ship has borne out the teachings
Of our opposite experience. The
rapid extension OF industry in Ger
many has called for a parallel de-
yelopment in facilities for transpor-
tation," Consul Norton, writing from
Chemnitz in 1907, reported. In
most respects" he continued, the
growth has been more harmonious
and better adapted to meet the
natural economic needs than has
been the case in the United States
under corresponding conditions
This is due in large measure to the
fact that. most of the railroad lines
are under government control and to
the consequent uniformity in man
agement and avoidance of un-
healthy rivalry
The square-deal effect on railway
labor, and incidentally on all labor
with one central management of the
whole transportation system in gov
eminent hands, would be a prodig-
io., hnn -
ship.
United States statistics show, as
Professor Scott Nearing has set out
in his Wages in the United States,
that twenty-five per cent of the near
ly three-quarts million railway
workers in the United States receive
wage of less than eight dollars a
week. The figures are for 1909, but
they have not changed sufficiently
since more than to make up for the
increase in the cost of living.
Fifty-one per cent of the railway
employees of the entire country re-
ceiye less than six hundred twenty
five dollars year. Only seven per
cent. receive more than a thousand
dollars; and of the few high-priced
railway men Or operatives none re-
ceives more than all in that limited
class would receive under govern
ment ownership, and probably, none
of them receives as much.
1t is a real menace to the country
that more than half of the work
ers in one of the most useful occu-
pations in the world should receive
less than living wage.
Saving on Bond Interest
II it owned the railroads, the
United States government could
guarantee to every railroad worker
wage that would at least support
him and his family up to the stand
ard of the average American home
1t would not get the money for this
by leveling down the wages of the
high-priced, better skilled operat:y-
es. 1t would get it from the savings
represented by the lower rate of in
terest that the railways would have
20 pay on railway bonds, principal
and interest guaranteed by the Unit
ed States, as compared with the sum
total of interest, dividends and sur
plus earnings the railways now pay
to their stock and bondhoIders; and
from the savings of the vast waste
that has been partly enumerated
earlier in this article, resulting
from ineficiency, the duplication of
expenses, the traffic departments,
the virtual rebates to indus trials,