The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-01-14
VITALITY con-
cERNED 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 fact
we'll known to every reader of news
papers-for hardly a day passes that
the press is not full of comment
about the hungry thousands who
stand in the "bread line" and patron
ize the free "soup houses" in every
large center of population. Nor is
this state of affairs due to the policy
of any particular political party, but
rather the outgrowth of conditions
which have been slowly but surely
crystallizing for number of years.
In the first place, the Corn Belt-the
great bread basket of the Nation
has had a series of slim crops in
most sections, and this naturally has
had a depressing effect upon bust
ness conditions. Again, we have
been passing through period of in
dustrial readjustment-of changing
from the loose methods which pre-
vailed a dozen or so year ago over
to policy of strict government con.
troll 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 least, it threatens to precipitate
the most of them which are not al
ready in the hands of receivers upon
the rocks of financial wreck and
ruin.
That the depressed financial con-
dition of the railroads is largely re-
sponsible for the great army of I'M
employed was wildly demonstrated
by prominent St. Louis newspaper
recently when it showed that nine
St. Louis manufacturing establish
ments which deal in railroad sup
plies employed 1853 men one year
ago, whereas now they employ only
4,503, with reduction in their pay
rolls amounting to $5SS,700 per
month, or over seven million dollars
year. If the effect upon only nine
enterprises is as far reaching as
this, what would the figures show ii
they were available for similar in
dustries and the hundreds of other
enterprises affected in greater OF
less degree throughout the country?
Nearly all of these concerns have on
hand hundreds of thousands of dol
lars worth of finished equipmen,
which was ordered by the railroads
a year or so ago, but which they
have not been able to pay for; in
the meantime, not being able to pay
for goods already ordered, the rail-
roads are not placing any new con-
tracts, and unless they receive speedy
assistance from Nationwide stand
point the tendency will be for labor
conditions 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 paid out over
thirteen hundred million dollars in
wa@es to the army of men and
women who conduct their business.
We also referred to the fact that
they paid out almost a thousand mil
lion dollars for steel, coal, lumber
and other supplies of which they are
the largest consumers in the coun-
try, and therefore the chief support
of the hundreds Of thousands en-
ployed in these great industries.
In view of these facts, is it not
plain to any thinking man that it
is of tremendous importance to the
whole country that the railroads be
permitted to earn a reasonable in
come if the millions of American
laboring men are to be kept profit
ably employed?
Does not any man know that if
the thousands who are this moment
hunting for work in Chicago, St.
Louis, New York, Pittsburg, Cleve-
land and other large cities were
profitably employed 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 serious state OF
affairs, can the average farmer or
business man afford to oppose the
small increase in rates which is nee
essary to once more put the rail-
roads nDOn sound basis? Ia not