The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-12-31
WHAT THE RAIL ROADS
DO WITH THEIR INCOME
WHY THEY ARE CONSIDERED THE GREAT
BUSINESS BAROMETER OF
THE NATION

| use every dollar OF their income 10
this end, and hence one of the most
alarming phases of the present rail
road Situation is that this process OF
burning the candle at both ends"
means deterioration Of rolling stock
and roadbeds which will render the
continuance of adequate and kafe
service for the public impossible. In
recent article, james J. Hill, the
great empire Builder of the North"
points out that American railroads
should spend at least $500,00O,O0
annually in improvements and bet
terments-and it is therefore no ex-
aggeration to say that rapidly de-
teriorating equipment is one of the
ghosts which haunts hundreds of
railroad managers throughout the
country at the present hour.
/ AS was stated in last weeks article,
the operating income of the railroads
for the fiscal year ending June 80,
1914, was $11S,554,S75 less than for
1913, while expenses and taxes were
$49,535,653 greater. 1t can there
fore be seen at a glance that unless
the railroads are given some increase
in rates in the very near future the
time when many of them will go upon
the rocks of financial ruin is not far
off-and yet the slight increase nee
essary to save them is so small that
the average citizen would not be con-
scious Of it after it had gone into
effect. In future article this ques-
ton will be more fully discussed.
A Barometer of Prosperity.
1t is an old saying that when the
railroads are prosperous everybody is
prosperous, and the manner in which
their income is disbursed, as above
explained, tells the reason why. In
short, for years they have been re-
garded as the great business barom-
eter of the Nation. No other industry
in the country employs so many men
as do the railroads, and. further
more, it is a high grade of labor en-
ployed upon as lucrative a basis as
obtains in any other large industry.
When times are good nearly two mi,
lion people, first and last, are en-
ployed by the railroads, and when
this vast army is working full time
and is contented the millions they
pay out for merchandise and for t.
living necessities produced on the
farm cannot help but have a tre-
mendous effect upon the commerce
and agriculture of the country.
But this is only half the story.
Aside from the nearly two million
operatives directly employed by the
railroads in, normal times, the hun
dreds of thousands of men who work
in the great steel mills, the coal
mines, the lumber industry and in the
big car and locomotive shops are
equally vitality affected, for when the
railroads are making extensive i'm
provements and buying heavily of
these supplies it means that these
great Industries are running full
shift, while when the railroads are
subsisting only upon absolute neces-
stiles it means that many of them
are only working half shift and this
is the state of affairs which has pre-
vailed for some time and which is
responsible for the thousands of un-
employed who crowd every city in
the land at the present moment.
Farmer vitality Concerned.
That the farmer has very vital
and personal interest in this situation
should be apparent at a glance. When
the millions of laboring men in the
United States are profitably employ
ed and when all our great industrial
enterprises are running full shift it
means that he will have a larger de-
mand and receive higher price for
the things he produces on his farm
for his corn, wheat, pork, beef, NUT
ton, cotton. wocl aid other farm pro-
ducts. In other words, SO interde-
pendent have we become, and so
closely allied are the interests Of the
farmer, laborer end every other great \
national interest, that the prosperity /
of one has become the prosperity OF ,
all. (Paid Adv. To be continued /
next week.