Barton County democrat., 1915-01-01

IedutT vi newspapers lldIu-
" a day. passes that the press is
not full of comment about the
hungry thousands who stand in
the bread line" 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 con-
ditiOnS which have been slowly
but surely crystaIizing for a num-
Der 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 Sec
lions, and this naturally has had
a depressing effect upon business
conditions. Again, we have been
passing through a period of indus
trial readjuStment-of changing
from the loose methods which pre-
vailed a dozen or so years ago
over TO a policy of strict govern
ment control of public service
corporations and a sharp inquiry
into the conduct of all other large
c0rporatiOnS-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
already in the hands of receivers
upon the rocks of financial wreck
. and. ruin.
That the depressed financial
condition of the railroads is large
ly responsible for the great army
of unemployed was wildly de-
mOnStrated by a prominent st.
Louis newspaper the other day
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 en-
plOy only 4,5O3, with a reduction
in their payrollS amounting to
$5SS,7OO per month, or over seven
million dollars a year. If the ef-
feet upon only nine enterprises is
as far reaching as this what would
the figures show if they were
available for similar industries
and the other hundreds of enter
pTiSeS affected in a greater or less
degree throughout the country?
Nearly all of these concerns have
on 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 meantime, not
being able to pay for goods al
ready ordered, the railroads are
not placing any new contracts,
and unless they receive speedy
assistance from the Interstate
Commerce Commission and the
rate-maling authorities of the diff
ierent states the tendency will be
for labor conditions to grow grad
ually worse rather than better.
In last weeks article we referr-
ed to. the fact that the railroads
are the largest employers of la
Dor in The United States and that
during the last fiscal year they
paid out over thirteen hundred
million dollars in wages to the
army of men and women who con-
duct their business. We also re-
TERED to the fact that they paid
out almost a thousand million
dollars for steel, coal, lumber and
other supplies, of which they are
the largest consumers in the coun-
try, and therefore the chief SUD-
port of the hundreds of thousands
employed in these great indus
tries.
In view of these facts, is if not
plain to any think man that it is
OF tremendous importance to the
whole country that the railroads
be permitted to earn reasonable
income II the millions of Ameri-
can labOring men are to be kept
profitably employed?
Does not any man know that
IL the thousands who are this mo-
ment hunting for work in Chica-
go, St. Louis, New York, Pitts
burgh, Cleveland and other large
cities G were prOfitabIy employed
that it would mean a higher price
Tor 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 uiax1, Of c,,ol,