The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1915-01-06
abroad in the land. Time was, not SO

many years ago, when the farmer SOLE
his corn at 25 cents per bushel. Now
it brings from SO cents to Is cents
So, too, he sold hogs at 3 cents pei
pound, which now readily bring from
Z cents to 10 cents-while good steer
calf, which used to bring from $40 to
$12, now sells for from 500 to $25. No
body who knows anything about pres
ent land values or the farmers cost OF
production will contend that he is no,
entitled to these increased prices. AS
a matter of fact, unless he is an ex
ceedingly good manager and utilities
the best of modern agricultural
thought he is by no means getting
rich at present prices-high as they
may seem to people in the cities who
do not understand the cost attached
to present day farming. To go back
to the old prices he used to receive
would bankrupt, in little while, ey.
cry farmer in the country-and the
tendency of the future will be for the
prices of farm products to go still
higher rather than lower. Agriculture
| is the nations greatest fundamental
industry and society must make the
farm game sufficiently profitable to
justify the man who is on the farm
today and the farmer boys of the flu
ture to stay by the pillow. Much has
been said recently about the fact that
the farmer does not receive enough for
what he produces-th there is too
big waste in the channels through
which his products pass before they
on1, tho bn Il
some cause for complaint in this re-
spect is undoubtedly true. However,
the railroads can face such an in
quiry with clear conscience-for an
exhaustive investigation conducted by
the Lehigh Valley railroad some time
ago shows that the farmer gets 501a
cents out of the average dollars worth
of products he sells; the packers, local
shippers, distributors and retailers get
44H cents between them; while the
railroads receive only cents, or one
twentieth of the dollar, for the trans
portation services they render.
So, too, there has been steady ad-
vance in practically the entire realm
OF merchandise and manufactured pro-
ducts, 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 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 1900 to 1914-a period of only
fourteen years: In the case of engi-
neers it increased from $3.6S per day
to $5.76, or an increase OF Sc per cent;
firemen from 1921 to 1858, or GA per
cent; conductors from 1881 to $4.S3,
or As per cent; station agents from
$1.9S to $216, or 8 per cent; other
station men from $1.62 to $1.9O, or II
Per cent; ordinary trainmen from
$1.97 to 1896, or 20 per cent; machin-
lists from $2.72 to 1882. or 20 per cent;
carpenters from $2.31 to $3.50, or IL
per cent; other shopmen from $1.93
to 1920, or II per cent; section fore
men from $1.51 to $1.S3, or 81 per
cent; trackmen from $115 to $1.52, or
80 per cent; telegraph operators and
dispatchers from $2.25 to $2.65, or II
per cent. This means a general aver
age increase in wages of 80 29-1OO per
cent-and all other classes of railroad
operatives and employees in a more
or less similar degree. While these adj
vances have proven 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 exacted many
millions annually from the railroads
themselves-all of which made the
general public richer, but the roads
poorer. In 1900 the railroads paid
$1.44 per ton for coal. Now they pay
$1.S1. Then they paid CSC for ties.
Now they pay SIC.
Other Increased Costs.
But there are many other items
which have enormously increased the
cost of railroad operation which we
cannot go into because of lack OF
space. The public is constantly de-
handing more efficient and safer
service, and hence the railroads have
had to spend vast sums in installing
block signals, steel passenger cars, do
ing away with the grade crossings.
Strengthening lines, heavier locomo-
tives, better roadbeds and supplying
many other precautions protecting
both their operatives and the public
all things very necessary, yet very
costly. So, too. numerous states have
passed Full Crew" laws which, with
out benefiting the public, have COM
PEELED the railroads to pay a toll of
millions to useless employees.
Now, while labor, farm products,
merchandise and manufactures and
supplies of all kinds have steadily in
creased in price, the railroads, as
stated before, have been compelled to
reduce their rates in the face of this
avalanche of ever advancing cost of
operation-and that all but the most
powerful lines find themselves in an
exceedingly critical condition is not to
be wondered at. The farmer, the mer-
chant, the manufacturer and the la
borer justly insist that 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 buyers
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 no wonder