Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1915-01-08
they pay 81. 81. Then they paid 3Sc for
ties. Now they pay SIC.
OTHER INCREASED COSTS.

Ties. NOW they pay o2c.
OTHER INCREASED COSTS.
But there are many other items
which have enormously increased the
cost of railroad operation which we
cannot go into because of q lack of
space. The public is constantly
demanding a more efficient and safer
service, and hence the railroads have
had to spend vast sums in installing
block signals, steel passenger cars,
doing away with grade crossings.
Strengthening lines, heavier locomotives,
better roadbeds, and supplying many
other precautions protecting both their
operatives and the public-all things
very necessary. yet very costly. So,
too. numerous states have passed Full
Crew" laws which, without benefitting
the public, have compelled the railroads
to pay q toll of millions to useless
employees.
Now, while labor, farm products,
me, chandise and manufactures a. d
supplies of all kinds have steadily
increased in price, the railroads, as
stated before, have been compelled to
reduce their rates in the face of this
avalanche of ever-advancing cost of
operation-and that all but the most
powerful lines find themselves in an
exceedingly critical condition is not to
be wondered at. The farmer, the mer-
chant, the manufacturer and the labor.
er justly insist that they would not be
able to get along on the prices they
received ten or fifteen years ago.
How, then, can the railroads, which
are the largest employers of labor and
buyers Of material in the United States,
be expected to exist on less than they
received ten or fifteen years ago? In
view of these facts, it is no wonder
that President Wilson and other patriot
ic and careful students of the situation
are speaking words of kindly admon-
ition to the American public, to the
end that the railroads, through whose
giant arteries flows the very life blood
of the nation, may not be wrecked and
destroyed.
THE PUBLIC AND THE MANAGER.
On the one hand, for the last twenty.
five years the public has demanded the
best and highest efficiency in service
and lower rates in one and the same
breath. On the other hand stand the
thousands of men and women who have
invested their money in railroad secur-
tiles and who, in common with the
farmer, the manufacturer and the mer.
chant, believe they are entitled to a
fair profit. Then comes the hundreds
of thousands of employees who are con.
tinually clamoring for an increase in
wages, as well az the cost of all manner
of railroad supplies which is constantly
acknowledgement between them, as arbit-
ers. stand the managers of the roads
the big "hlred men," struggling with
might and main to reconcile all these
conflicting interests in the face of
reduced rates upon every hand. That
they have at last reached point where
they can continue the unequal struggle
no longer should not be matter of
wonderland in the face of the harsh
and unfriendly criticism which has
descended upon their heads from every
quarter they find themselves in the
mental attitude of the fiddler in the
Western mining camp when he yelled
out, "Please don't shoot, boys; l am
doing the best cam
paid ADV. To be continued next
week.