Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1915-01-08

forbids. For some time, the govern
ment, through the Interstate Commerc
Commission, has been engaged il
making physical valuation of all GU
railroads as q matter of guidance TO
future rate adjustments. Again, W
repeat, since the people absolutely con
troll and regulate the railroads, is tina
not enough? Will it not be better t,
let well enough alone-to cling to tina
which is good and eliminate that wbicl
is bad in the present system which
with all that has been said against it
furnishes the best and cheapest trans
portation service in the world? e.
INCREASED COST OF OPERATION.
We now wish to refer briefly t.
another phase of the problem. For q
number of years the cry of the ''higt
cost of living" has been everywhere
abroad in the land. Time was, not sc
many years ago, when the farmer sold
his corn at rs cents per bushel. Now
it brings froml5O cents to rs cents. So,
too, he sold hogs at cents per pound,
which now readily bring from cents
to 10 cents-while a good steer calf.
which used to bring from $40 to $12.
now sells for from $50 to $25. Nobody
who knows anything about present land
values or the farmers cost of produc.
ton will contend that he is not entitled
to these increased prices. As matter
of fact. unless he is an exceedingly
good manager and utiiizes 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 60 back to the old prices he used to
receive would bankrupt, in a little
while, every farmer in the country
and the tendency Of the future will be
for the prices of farm products to 60
still higher rather than lower. Agri.
culture is the nations greatest funda-
mental industry and society must make
the farm game sufficiently profitable to
Justify the man who is on the farm
to-day and the farmers boys of the
future to stay by the plow. Much has
been said recently about the fact that
the farmer does not receive enough for
what he produces that there is too big
waste in the channels through which
his products pass before they reach the
consumer, and that he has some cause
for complaint in this respect is undoubt-
eddy true. However, the railroads can
face such an inquiry with clear
conscience-for an exhaustive investi.
cation conducted by the Lehigh Valley
Railroad some time ago shows that the
farmer gets 500 cents out of the aver
age dollars worth of products he sells;
the packers, local shippers. distributors
and retailers get 44a cents between
them; while the railroads receive only
5 cents, or one twentieth of the dollar,
for the transportation services they
render.
So, too, there has been q steady
advance 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, locomot.
ives, and other supplies has levied a
tribute of untold millions upon the rail.
roads, which have not only been forbid
den to increase their rates, but, on the
contrary, in many instances, 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 l9l4-a period of only
fourteen years In the case of the
engineers it increased from So 68 per
day to $5.76, or an increase of Sc per
cent; firemen from $2.2l to 1892 or "a
per cent; conductors from So. 81 to 81 80.
or as per cent; station agents from
$l.98 to So l6, or 9 per cent; other
station men from 81 62 to $l.90, or II
per cent; ordinary trainmen from 81. 81
to 1886, or 70 per cent; machinists
from $2.72 to So So, or 20 per cent;
carpenters from 1921 to 81 So, or IL
per cent; other shopmen from ST. SO to
$3.50, or Ia per cent; section foremen
from $1.51 to $1.83, or 81 per cent;
trackmen from 81. Is to ST. So, or 90 per
cent; telegraph operators and Dispatch
ers from So Is to So IS, or II per cent.
This means a general average increase
in wages of 80 29-lOO per cent-and all
other classes of railroad operatives and
employees in more or less similar
degree. While these advances have
proven great boon to the nearly two