The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-01-07
WHY THE COST OF OP-
GRATING RAILROADS
HAS BEEN INCREASED
STRUGGLING AGAINST INCREASED COST OF LAbOk,
SUPPLIES, ETC, ON ONE HAND-REDUCED
RATES ON THE OTHER

4
government, through the interstate
commerce commission, has been en-
gagged In making physical valuation
OF all our railroads as matter OF
guidance for future rate adjustments.
Again, we repeat, since the people aD-
soluteiy control and regulate the rail-
roads, is that not enough? VIII It not
be better to let well enough alone
to cling to that which is good and
eliminate that which is bad In the
present system which, with all that
has been said against it, furnishes
the best and cheapest transportation
service in the world.
INCREASED COST OF OPERATION.
We now wish to refer briefly to an
other phase Of the problem. For
number Of years the cry of the high
cost of living" has been everywhere
abroad In the land. Time was, not so
many years ago, when the farmer sold
his corn at 20 cents per bushel. Now
it brings from so cents to IS cents.
So. too, he sold hogs at cents per
pound, which now readily bring from
Z cents to 10 cents-while good steer
calf, which used to bring from $40 to
SIP, now sells for from $40 to $25. No
body who knows anything about pres
emit land values or the farmers cost OF
production will contend that he is not
entitled to these increased prices. AS
a matter of fact, unless he is an ex-
ceedingly good manager and utilizes
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 go 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 go still
higher rather than lower. Agriculture
is the nations greatest fundamental
industry and society must make the
farm game sufficiently profitable to
justify the man who is on the farm to-
day and the farmer boys of the future
to stay by the pillow. Much has been
said recently about the fact that the
farmer does not receive enough for
what he produces-that there is too
big a waste in the channels through
which his products pass before they
reach the cons umer, and that he has
some cause for complaint in this re-
spect IS undou btedly true. However,
the railroads can face such an in
iquiry with clear conscience-for an
exhaustive investigation conducted by
the Lehigh Valley railroad some time
ago shows that the farmer gets sou
cents out of the average dollars worth
of products he sells; the packers, local
shippers, distributors and retailers get
44h cents between them; while the
railroads receive only cents, or one
twentieth OF the dollar, for the trans
portation services they render.
SO, too, there has been a steady adj
vance 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, To-
comotives, and other supplies has lev
led a tribute of untold millions upon
the railroads, which have not only
been forbidden to increase their rates.
but, on the contrary. in many in
stances. compelled to lower them.
BIG INCREASED COST OF LABOR.
To give the reader an exact idea Oh
how the cost of labor has advanced in
the operation of railroads we quote the
following increases in the daily wage
fourteen years: In the case of engi.
neers it increased from $3.6S per day
to s5.7G, or an increase of Sc per cent:
firemen from 1921 to 1892, or 81 per
cent; conductors from 1891 to $3.50.
or 40 per cent; station agents from
s1.9S to $2.1G, or 8 per cent; other
station men from Size to $3.50, or II
per cent: ordinary trainnen from 81 81
ito 1886, or 20 per cent; machinists.
from s2.72 to 1882, or % per cent;
carpente-s from 1921 to $3.50, or II
per cent; other shopmen from 81 90
to $3.50, or IA per cent; section fore
men from s1.51 to s1S3, or 81 per
cent; trackmen from s1.15 to $152, or
80 per cent; telegraph operators and
dispatchers from s2-25 to s2.65, or II
Per cent. This means a general aver
age increase in wages Of 80 29-100 per
cent-and all other classes of railroad
operatives and employees in more or
less similar decree. While these adj
! Vances have proven a great boon to
the nearly two million men emf loyed
IN the railway service and increased
their capacity to buy from merchant
and farmer. they have exacted many
millions annually from the railroads
themselves-all Of which made the
general public richer, but the roads
poorer. In 1900 the railroads paid
s1.44 per ton for coal Now they pay
+! s1.sl. Then they paid CSC for ties.
Now they pay SIC.