Arizona republican., 1917-03-11

mentary danger of a complete shut down, with the fuel situation so ser ious that the country shivers from fear as well as from cold and with the high cost of living breeding riots and fam inc, the public is now engaged in the over-popular American sport of hunt ing for the villain of the drama. Let us investigate is the cry, and committees and commissions get to work.
 The war is responsible Ger mans did 1.-the president is guilty the food and fuel spectators are the cause.-the railroads are the criminals all these explanations and charges are advanced. according to the preju- dices and predilections of the indi- vidual
 MT. Jewett, however, comes out flat footedly with a vigorous accusation that the people-the great American people--are to blame. The public is now suffering for it's own sins, its own short -sightedness it's own selfish ness and is stewing in it's own guilt.
 The machinery for the distribution of food, fuel and general freight has undoubtedly broken down. says Mir. Jewett. Tt is woefully inadequate to meet the demands now made on 1t.
 
 and have been for some time-in a ser ious predicament. Millions of dollars worth of cars are now in storage in Detroit because they can't be shiped. The summer drive-away day has be- come a daily winter feature, and deal CTS, to secure deliveries, are coming to ths factory and driving their cars home, in some instances more than five hundred miles away Raw ma terials, parts supplies of all kinds have been held up in transit and therefore production has suffered. That is the automobile situation in brief, but, as every one knows. it represents but fraction of the country wide impasse.
 Now while this condition is due di- rectly to inadequate transportation fa- cilities, I, for one refuse to make the railroads the goat. For a quarter of g century it has been the popular sport in America to damn the railroads and public service corporations-fact in our daily life that are just as neees- sary as the food and fuel We are clam bring for. For a quarter of a century it has been the delight of the public to scorn, abuse, hold-up, hector and ha- raSS these companies in every possible way. They have been taxed to death and every attempt made to increase 
 the freight rates has been fought totth and nail. They can't increase their rates a tenth of a mill without a bat tie before the Interstate Commerce Commission that may last for years. Yet freight rates in this country are the cheapest per ton per mile of any in the world. The railroads are the public's favOrite goat while the public service corporations are the mainstay of municipal politicians. For twenty five years the local political cry has been the Detroit United Railway issue and the result is wretched service and inadequate equipment. but the public permits it. suffers it and suffers for it. It is the same in other cities
 This attitude of hostility on the part of the public toward the railroads and the public service, corporations, and the stupid manner in which the people permit the professional politi- clans to make these companies the football of politics has this result: Railways and public service corpora tions cannot get money to develop their properties, increase their equip ments and thus meet the demands growing out of our enormous industrial expansion. As investments they are more or less discredited because the dlNlQendS are neither generous nor reOular. Why should we invest in rail- road securities when one can get bet ter returns from other stocks and bonds-securities that are not endan gered by tickle and prejudicial public opinion?
 Detroit has not sufficient nor ade- quate terminal facilities to meet the transportation conditions that have de- veloped; and l venture to say that no other American city has. The rail- roads have not had money or encour- agement to meet these conditions. The public has seen to that Consequently the machinery has broken down and we are in a horrible mess, l refuse to make the railroads the goat The pub ro 1I-,, IT ic,, fo