The Coconino sun., 1917-07-06
BEFORE THE INTERSTATE
 COMMERCE COMMISSION

Tn re AppllCaVlOn or Ine hdllWdyS of the United States for a General Advance in Freight Rates of 15Se.
 Brief for American National Live Stock Association and National Wool Growers Association.
 The railroads have capitalized an opportunity and call it an emergency. It is mainly mental hysteria with the carriers and an alteration as to most of their supporters. Railroads are not unlike every other industry, and people in general, in wanting more money for their work; it is universal disease. They have lined up with them the various interests that furnish them supplies; who also want more money. Some industries, by dire threats, have been sandbagged into approving the claim of the rail- roads. Many traffic associations and industrial clubs have been whipped into line and are supporting the ad- vance in the lively hope of extracting from the railroads some future bene- fits to their industries or communities. Financial interests and all holders of railroad securities are solidly back of this demand. United they are making a drive on the pocket-books of the producers and consumers, and the campaign has been conducted upon the most approved modern methods of warfare, under the flag of an em- ergency crisis-preceded by public ity bombardment of extraordinary ad- roitness.
 In our judgment there is no real emergency confronting the carriers. Traffic is large and is increasing. Railroad credit is unimpaired; their surplus is the largest in history. The important lines are in splendid phys ical condition. With reasonable ec- onomies and much-needed co-opera- ton between carriers, our transporta- tion system will adequately take acre of the present and prospective volume of traffic during the war. The carriers do not need any additional revenue for equipment they can not or would not buy, or for betterments or additions which they can safely defer.
 An emergency of different char acter, however, does confront this na- tion; we need more food supplies for domestic consumption and to feed our armies in the field and allies abroad. That is the real crisis facing our country. As President Wilson has we'll said, in his appeal to the nation: "The supreme need of our own nation and of the nations with which we are cooperating is an abundance of sup plies, and especially of food stuffs*'" and that "upon the farmers of this country, therefore, in large measure rests the fate of the war and the fate of the nation" Every incentive should be given to increase our production of food stuffs, and the most potent aid the carriers could render would be to not increase freight charges on any food stuffs or commodities used in their production. Indeed, it is vital question whether the cooperation of the carriers should not extend to a lowering of their charges on food products. Food and more food is the crying need in this crisis--it is the emergency, and the only one. An in- creased production of food stuffs means more traffic and greater rev. enue for the railroads.
 Agriculture and the live stock in dustry have Jagged because of poorer net returns than can be secured in other branches of industry. Their stimulation is imperatively necessary, and the only way to rejuvenate and stimulate these important industries, upon which the prosperity and fate of our nation depend, is to encourage