The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1915-01-13
VITALITY CONCERN
Ed IN RAILROADS

Ed IN RAILROADS
What the European War Means to
the American Farmer.
That every city of any size in the
country is full of thousands of idle
men at the present moment is a fact
we'll known to every reader of news
papers-for hardly day passes that
the press is not full of comment
about the hungry thousands who stand
in the dread line" and patronize the
free soup houses" in every large CEN
ter OF population. Nor is this state Of
affairs due to the policy of any partic-
ular polibical party, but rather the out
growth of conditions which have been
slowly but surely :crystallizing for a
number Of years. In the first place,
the Corn Belt-the great bread bas-
ket of the nation--has had a series Of
slim crops in most sections, and this
naturally has had depressing effect
have been passing through period
of Industrial readjustment--of chang
ing from the loose methods which pre-
vailed dozen or so years ago over
to policy of strict government con-
trOl OF public service corporations and
sharp inquiry into the conduct 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 so far
as the railroads are concerned, at
most of them which are not already
in the hands of receivers upon the
rocks of financial wreck and ruin.
That the depressed financial cOndi-
ton of the railroads is largely re-
sponsible for the great army of unem-
plOyed was wildly demonstrated by a
prominent st. Louis newspaper recent
ly when it showed that nine St. Louis
manufacturing establishments which
deal in railroad supplies employed
14.673 men one year ago, whereas now
they employ on 4,5O3, with a reduc-
ton in their pay rolls amounting to
$588, 700 per month, or over seven
million dollars year. Ii the effect
upon only nine enterprises is as far
reaching as this, what would the fig
llres show ii they were available for
similar industries and the hundreds OF
other enterprises affected in a great.
er or less degree throughout the
cOuntrq? Nearly all of these concerns
have Oh hand hundreds OF thousands
of dollars worth of finished equipment
which was ordered by the railroads a
year or SO ago, but which they have
not been able to pay for; in the mean
time not being able to pay for goods
already ordered, the railroads are not
placing any new contracts, and unless
they receive speedy assistance from a
nationwide standpoint the tendency
will be for labor 0pnditions to grow
worse rather than better.
In last weeks article we 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 .pahl' out over thirteen
hundred million dollars in wages to
the army OF men and~WOmen who con-
duct their business. We also referred
to the fact that they paid out almost
thousand million dollars for steel,
coal, lumber and other supplies of
which they are the largest consumers
in the country, and therefore the chief
support of the hundreds of thousands
employed in these great industries.
In view of these facts, is 1t not plain
Ia onu tL;rkin ,Y,Nan thaf ic nf tr6
mendOus Importance to the whole cOun
try that the railroads be permitted to
earn a reasonable income If the mill
ions of American labOring men are to
be kept prOtitably employed?
Does not any man know that ii the
thousands WHO are this moment hunt.
ing for work in Chicago, St. Louis.
New York. Pittsburgh, Cleveland and
other large cities were ,prOfitably EN-
ployed that it would mean a higher
price for what the farmer has to sell
and that it would be reflected in the
receipts of every merchant and the
output OF every factory in the nation?
In view OF such q serious state OF
affairs, can the average farmer o. bus
mess man afford to oppose the small
increase in rates which is necessary
TO once more put the railroads upon a
sound basis? Is not the amount OF pas
senger fare or freight which the aver
age farmer or other citizen pays out
during the year a mere bagatelle when
measured against the lucrative employ
ment 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
farmer. In last weeks article we
cited the fact that in their desperate
efforts to make both ends meet many
railroads are burning the candle at
both ends"-that in order to bolster
up their securities and keep out of
the hands Of receivers the rolling
stock and roadbeds OF many lines have
heen deteriorating rapidly for a num-
berSOf years and hence are in no po-
sitiOn to handle big seasons ton
mage, should the strain Of heavy crop
year acknowledgements upon them.
That the great foreign war will pro-
.duce the highest prices ever known
for the fOodstuffs produced by the
farmer is admitted on all hands, and
if there ever was time when he will
need adequate and efficient shipping
facilities it will be during the next two
or three years-and yet We are actual
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