The Butler weekly times., 1914-10-15

WHY THE COST OF OP-
GRATING RAILROADS
HAS BEEN INCREASED

14xAAJ A1281AV AAVNAVA13AsSA3A>
How the 'High Cost of Living" has
Affected the transportation
Companies.
In the previous article the question
of what the railroads do with the money
they take in was briefly analysed.
In this connection, it is opportune to
remind the reader that nine-tenths of
the abuses not only in the railroad
world but in the entire field of industri-
alism were committed in the past and
that American Business stands to-day
on the threshold of new idealism
which should mean much for the future.
In great new country like ours, whose
growth and expansion has been the
marvel of the World. it was but natur-
al that greed and selfishness should fire.
quently show themselves in all lines of
business activity and the railroads, of
course, were no exception. But one
by one these wrongful practices have
yielded to an aroused public conscience
which has not merely affected the bus
mess world but which has likewise
taken hold of the realm of politics.
Time was, not so many years ago, when
large corporations were considered the
legitimate prey of all who pursued
them-and if they sometimes employed
like means to protect themselves it
must at least be admitted that the
provocation was very great. But for
tunately these things are past and gone.
Never before in the history of the Re-
public has its politics and it's buusiness
been conducted 50 much in the open as
to-day and that every honest corpora
tion in the country welcomes the change
goes without saying. It is therefore
needless and futile to cucumber the
splendid era which lies ahead of US by
continually reverting to things that
constituted the mistakes Of other days.
The Government Ownership Idea
During the last few years the advo-
Gates of government ownership of rail-
roads have been somewhat persistent
in the public press and the matter is
referred to here, not with any idea of
combating it but merely that the people
may briefly see both sides of the pic
ture. So long as lot of men welcome
the wrecking of the railroads on the
theory that the government will take
them over and that such state of af-
fairs would be preferable to private
ownership it will be impossible to OBJ
tain from them a fair judgement Of
the latter system which now prevails
in the United States. 1t is impossible
to go into this great question at any
length at this time but here are few
things worth thinking about: much
has been said in recent years about the
''water" contained in American rail-
road securities and in this connection,
the valuation of the government owned
railroads of Europe is very interesting.
In Germany, the state owned railroads
are capitalized at $l14, 1856 per mile, in
Austria at $120, ,692, in Hungary at $685.
210, in Italy at $126, 1856, in Belgium at
$3.50, 914, in Switzerland at $l02, $50, in
Roumania at $50, 113, in Japan at $685.
104, in New South Wales at $71, 391,
while privately owned lines of the
United States, regardless of what
water may have been forced into them
in specific instances, are only capitalize
ed at $63, 944 per mile. Whatever in
flation may therefore have been put
into these properties IN the past, the
fact remains that their present valua-
ton is much lower than that of the state
owned railroads of Europe and what is
still more important, the rates charged
are the lowest and the service rendered
admittedly the best in the World. In
this connection, a statement contained
in the last annual report of the great
Deutche Bank of Berlin which has a
paid up capital and reserve fund of
SIS, 000, 900 is interesting: american
railroads need higher freight rates.
Their present rates are the lowest in
the World-representing, for instance,
but fraction of the English railway
this in the face of the fact
that wages in the United States, on
the average are fully twice as high as
in Europe" Certainly this view of the
privately owned lines of the United
Stu6es, coming from Germany which
has the most successful state owned
system in the World is
worthy of grave consideration.
Letting Well EnouSh Alone.
In view of these facts, the average
citizen may we'll ask himself whether
it is not best to let we'll enough alone
rather than invite other ills we know
not of-whether it is not wiser to cure
such defects as may cucumber the