Pioneer press. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1882-19??, 1915-01-09
THE RATE DECISION
AND ITS INFLUENCE
Upon the Country's Business Az Set
Forth BY the Manufacturers
Record
(Ma nufacturers Record.)


Viewed from the standpoint OF the
influence 1t will exert upon the senti.
mont Of the country than from that
OF tho actual amount Of money that
will be received by the railroads by
reason OF this increase The money
will be very helpful, but it DOES not
begin to represent as much as the
railroads need, nor as much as they
must have in order to bring about
q full restoration OF railroad prosper
aty and. thus, Of general business
prosperity.
The country has been shortsighted
10 the extreme in it's antagonism to
railroads and to the advance in rail
road rates. Here and there the in
excusable mistake made by railroads
in the ill-adjustment and the inequity
OF freight rates as between products
Or communities has justified vigor-
GUS appeals for righting Of these
wrongs, but as a whole the freight
rates OF the country have been en-
tirely too low FOR the welfare OF the
country itself. We have become ac-
customed to low freight rates to our
own disadvantage, because low
freight rates mean the destruction Of
that means the destruction Of the
prosperity Of the country.
The statement of President Ben
jamin Harrison many years ago that
"a cheap coat means a cheap man"
can with equal emphasis be applied
to railroads and to all other business
activities.
Cheap freights mean cheap rail
roads
cheap wages mean cheap mon.
Cheap goods, If cheaper than fair
degree OF profit on their coat justi-
ties, mean cheapening Of everything
qaulity, wages and character.
Infinitely better is it for the coun-
try when railroads are prosperous
by reason Of freight rates that yield
4 good return on the capital invested;
when manufacturers are selling their
goods at prices that yield large in
come on their output; when farmers
Sell their products at prices that
leave them large measure Of pros
perity. The converse is strikingly H.
Illustrated in the influence upon the
entire country Of the cheap price
of cotton during the present season
as compared with the benefit to the
ing at a high price. If over night
the price Of cotton could be doubled,
every business interest in the South
would be benefited, and from this
would radiate a. general improvemen emit
Of every line Of business in the oun-
try.
We cannot keep on forcing prices
down through free-trade tendencies
without destroying the very prosper
ity which the advocates Of free trade
have hoped to develop.
The man who wants to buy things
cheap Aust expect to have a cheap
salary, or a cheap income, or to see
the life OF the people around him
eheapened in every respect. 1t is
therefore, Of interest to every branch
OF Industry in the country that some
recognition has been given by the
Interstate Commerce Commission to
the needs and the rights of the rail
roads.
This Increase is not, however, suffi
Gent for the needs of the railroads
especially helpful in causing the
country TO believe that the Interstate
Commerce Commission is not entirely
tofore it's work has largely been de-
structive. It has regulated the rail
roads nearly unto death and throttled
them in all their operations, and
in doing SO it has cost the country
billions of dollars more than it has
saved the country by any adjustment
it has made Of freight rates.
The Manufacturers Record is not
believer in commissions, which
have been the order Of the day during
She last quarter Of a century. 1t be.
lieves that ultimately many of these
commissions will have to be abolish
ed, and it is not at all certain that
the time will not come when the
people OF this country will realize
that the Interstate Commerce Com
mission has cost it SO many billions
of dollars that 1t will be abolished
just as the Commerce Court was
abolished.
There is rising tide throughout
the country on the part Of business
men-and under the term Of bust
ness men we include every man
whether he works with hand or brain
who is seeking to make living by
his Drawn, his brain or his capital