Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1915-01-15
FARMER


country is full of thousands of idle men
at the present moment is q fact well
known to every reader of newspapers
for hardly day passes that the press
is not full of comment about the hum
cry thousands who stand in the dread
line" and patronize the free soup
houses" in every large center of popu'
lation. Nor is this state of affairs due
to the policy of any particular party,
but rather the outgrowth of conditions
which have been slowly but surely cry
stallizing for number of years. In
the first place, the Corn Belt-the
great bread basket of the Nation
has had a series of slim crops in most
sections, and this naturally has had q
depressing effect upon business con-
ditions. Again, we have been passing
a period of industrial readjustment-
of changing from the loose methods
which prevailed a dozen or so years
ago over to a policy of strict govern.
ment control of public service corpora
tons and sharp inquiry into the con-
duct of all other large corporations
and, in trying to stamp out the abuses
of the past, the pendulum has swung
so far in the other direction that 80 far
as the railroads are concerned. at least.
it threatens to precipitate the most OF
them which are not already in the
hands of receivers upon the rocks OF
financial wreck and ruin.
That the depressed financial condition
of the railroads is largely responsible
for the great army of unemployed was
vividly demonstrated by a prominent
St. Louis newspaper recently when it
showed that nine St. Louis manufac-
turing establishments which deal in
railroad supplies employed 1853 men
one year ago. whereas now they employ
only 4,503. with reduction in their
pay rolls amounting to 1888. 700 per
month"; or over seven million dollars .
year. If the effect upon only nine
enterprises is as far reaching Is this.
what would the figures show if they
we're available for similar industries
and the hundreds Of other enterprises
i affected in . greater or less degree
Throughout the country? Nearly oil OF
these concerns have on hand hundreds
of thousands Of dollars worth Of finish
ed equipment which was ordered BY the
railroads year Or % ago. but which
they have not been able to pay for; in
the meantime. not being able 70 pay
for goods already ordered, the railroads
are not placing any new contracts. and
unless they receive speedy assistance
from Nation. wide standpoint the ten
dency will be for labor conditions to
grow worse rather than better.
In last weeks article re referred to
the fact that the railroads are the
largest employers of labor in the
United States and that during the last
fiscal year they paid out over thirteen
hundred million dollars in wages to the
army Of men and women who conduct
their business. We also referred to
the fact that they paid out almost q
thouse nd million dollars for steel. coal,
lumber and other supplies of which
they are the largest consumers in the
country, and therefore the chief SIP.
port of the hundreds of thousands
employed in these great industries.
In view of these facts, 10 it not plain
to any thinking man that it is Of trem.
endous importance to the whole coun.
try that the railroads be permitted to
earn q reasonable income if the millions
of American laboring men are to be
kept proftably employed?
Does not any man know that if the
thousands who are this moment hunt
ing for work in Chicago, St. Louis,
New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and
other large cities were profitably
employed that it would mean higher
price for what the farmer has to sell
and that it would be reflected in the
receipts of every merchant and the out
put of every factory in the Nation?
In view of such q serious state Of
affairs. can the average former or bust.
ness man afford to oppose the email
increase in rates which 10 necessary to
once more put the railroads upon .
sound basis? Is not the amount Il
passenger fare or freight which the
average farmer or other citizen pays
out during the year mere bagatelle
when measured against the lucrative
employ msnt and the buying power of
the millions of American laboring men ?
ANOTHER SERIOUS PHASE.
Important as is the employment of
labor, there is another very serious
phase of this problem which calls for
profound thought at the hands of all
thinking citizens. and especially the