South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-01-02

RAILROADS AND RATES.
Merely because the interstate com
/ merce commission recently granted
the railroads freight rate Of increase
4 OF FIVE per cent. il does not necessarily
mean that the railroads are all bad.
One might believe from what news
| papers say that the railroad system is
! necessarily a public enemy robber
and outlaw. and is entitled 10 nothing
but trial without law. conviction with
out proof and execution without de-
lay.
But this is cheap poppy-cock. The
railroads are the arteries Of commerce.
they are inseparably intertwined with
j the rest of the business Of the coun-
try, their owners are not a class apart
! but are also owners in other lines of
. business, their managers and opera
i tives are in constant and close con-
tact and dealing with men in all other
kinds Of business; and II is reasonable
To assume that the railroad business
is conducted upon just about the same
: ethics as is the rest Of the business
OF the country.
Let's not forget that the railroads,
4 with all their faults. have done more
toward making America than any
) other one thing. We couldn't do with
{ out them. And they can. continue
their service without profit. but when
is the increases for profits to end?
Now they are threatening to ask
the legislature of various states, in
Guiding Indiana, to increase their pas
senger rates from two cents 10 two
/ and-a-half cents as the maximum legal
fare. They told the interstate COM
/ merce commission that they could do
business nicely on the wanted five per
cent increase on freights, but now
they want to boost charges in their
! passenger departments also.
1t is possible now to transport
man mile for two cents by automo-
bile. If railroads devoted more time
TO thinking out ways of hauling peo-
pie and less time TO thinking out ways
of hauling water they would be tack
1 ling the problem of passenger rates
from the right angle.
Improvement in equipment, in
creases in density Of population and
: IN volume of railroad travel and kin
dred developments do not appear to
have benefited the railroads. They
are not able to transport people any
more cheaply now than they were
% years ago. is the only conclusion
that can be drawn.
IF this is true either railroads are
failure or railroad methods are a
failure or the public attitude toward
railroads is a failure. How different
is such a trend as this from the func-
zion the railroad ought TO perform.
Mankind has thought the world
was growing smaller and that ali men
are growing closer together. geo
graphically. The old days when the
man in one county never saw the peo-
pie of another county and did not
even know their language are gone,
men have said. The railroad and the
telegraph. with the travel they make
possible ard with the diffusion of
knowledge through such mediums as
newspapers which they minister to,
are destroying space and provincial
tiles, has been our vision.
But it is true that people do not
use the railroads any more than they
used to, insofar as passenger traffic is
concerned. and the reason they do not
is the fact that travel by rail still
costs too much money
Cheaper rates have made the slower
and less convenient travel by inter-
urban cars more popular.
If railroads are so inefficient that
instead Of gradually reducing trans
portation rates. both freight and pas
senger. they must gradually increase
them and keep them at the level of a
quarter of a century and more ago,
then the railroad men will need a
microscope TO show To the average
= man the harmful effects OF govern
ment ownership and operation of rail-
roads. and the possible social advan-
tages of such ownership and operation
viii be a correspondingly more entic-
ing prospect.