Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1915-01-01


granted some days ago by the Inter
State Commerce Commission to certai
eastern railroads has very niue
strengthened the plea Of the wester
lines for an increase in rates is admitte
upon every hand. If the eastern lines
! where there is a greater density of ton
mage naturally are entitled to such a
advance-how much more are the west
ern lines entitled to it?
In contemplating the crisis which con
fronts the railroads at the present time
and which was briefly explained in las
weeks article, it is important for thu
reader to realize that the railroads ant
the public face each other under radio
ally changed conditions to-day from
those which prevailed few years ago.
The abuses and scandals which have
been aired before the Interstate Com.
merce Commission during recent
months were perpetrated for the most
part under the old regime of dozen or
so years ago, and can never be repeated
under the conditions which now prevail.
On the one hand, the Interstate Com
merce Commission and the different
states, either through their Public
Utility Commissions, Legislatures or
Railway Commissions say what rates
the railroads shall charge for service.
In addition to this, a proposal is now
pending in Congress to give the govern
ment the right to investigate all new
interstate securities before they can be
placed upon the market, while similar
authority is already being exercised
within the states by the different public
service commissions. This means that
the last vestige of control over their
finances will have been taken away
from the railroads and that henceforth
their fate will lie absolutely in the
hollow of the peoples hands. In this
connection, We wish to again remind
the reader that the hundreds of honest
railroad officials throughout the country
men who have managed their prop
critics without q breath of scandal or
public criticism-should not be con
demned because Of the misdeeds Of the
few. With an aroused public conscience
on the one hand and scores Of railroad
officials throughout the country sincere
y and actively cooperating with the
different public authorities on the other.
We can safely let by-gones be by.gonss
= wipe the slate. and. with square
deal for the people, the investor and
the railroads alike, start over again.
WHERE RAILROAD RECEIPTS GO.
In order that the reader may realize
what tremendous factor the railroads
are in the every. day business life Of
the nation and what they mean to its
prosperity. we wish to analyze briefly
what become of an average years rail.
road income. Just as the idea has pre-.
vailed in the minds of many that the
railroads are owned by few rich men,
20 the thought has also found deep root
that they collect millions of dollars
from the public which 60 into the
Golfers of q handful of mill,onaires, and
which are permanently withdrawn from
the thrift and industry of the people.
At the close of the fiscal year ending
June 80, 1913, the records at Washing
ton show that the railroads of the
United States had collected q gross
income from all branches of their serv-
ice amounting to $3,11s, 929, 318. OF
this sum, $l,37s. $50, $50 was paid out
for laboi-or, to put it in another way,
almost SO cents out of every dollar they
took in was Immediately paid out to
the hundreds of thousands of men and
women whom they employ in the con.
duct of their business. For nainten.
ance of way. equipment, depots, etc.,
they disbursed 1928. l67, 49l-or almost
another thousand million dollars-and
in this vast item the reader can grasp
what railroad prosperity means to the
great steel mills. tn, lumber and coal
industry, the big car and locomotive
building concerns, and other sources of
railroad supplies. In taxes they paid
ont the enormous sum of $l29, 052, 922,
which helped to maintain the public
schools, public highways and other
expenses of every state, county
and incorporated town and city in the
After paying their operating
the interest on their funded
debt and dividends on their stock, which
averaged only % per cent, the rail-
roads had left in 1913 balance of $685.
7O5, SAT with which to make improve
nents and to use as a surplus fund for
of one kind and another.
In other words, after the railroads got
through paying for their labor, steel,