The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-21
GOVERNMENT TO OWN RAILROADS, SAYS VANDERBILT
It Is Inevitable-Urges Tax
 on Profits, Not Prices.

Chicago. Aug. 21-F. A. vanderlip believes i've are sailing, not drifting, toward government ownership of rail-, ways"
 In the view of the president of the few of the socialistic measures in force and to be adopted will become a permanent part of Americas eco- homie structure.
 ' The country's leading banker also thinks wages should be higher; that profits,s.nct@rrfces,= taxed, and that tremendous expansion is in evitable He believes future govern ment borrowing will find 10,000,0O0 subscribers. as against the 3,000,000 who subscribed to the Liberty Loan. He said:
 You ask. jestingIy, if there is such a thing as a financial situation. There is a financial situation such as the world never experienced. and none of us could have imagined. let alone foreseen. What we had always sup posed to be fundamental. postulates in economics are now ignored, and so- called financial tenets are defied. We are doing epochal things and in doing them we have had to forget the past, with it's rules, votes and restrictions.
 This Is not a. time for conventions. Immense problems are constantly confronting us and we solve every one of them boldly; that is. to say, uncon- ventionally. and whot is equally inn portant, our solutions are proving successful.
 T am not, mind you, socialist. but we must acknowledge that we are borrowing leaves from the text book of socialism. Part of this doc tfine is sure to be abiding and bene- ncial.
 T,.You notice it must be obvious to eferybody-that the tendency to tax wealth Is become pronounced, which is right in a degree. but 1t should not be overdone. I believe in tax Jing profits. but not prices.
 By that mean that the govern naent should not at the same time take most of the profits and for an excessively low price on output.
 'In example. I think every steel plant, however old and dilapidated, should be operating to capacity. If it earn 100 per cent. let the govern nent have most of the profit; but the government should be careful not to limit the profit by fixing the price of steel too low. In other words, let business have free play and make the government the chief beneficiary o1 the net result.
 'The same with wages. Workers should be we'll paid. especially. in a period that will witness an unpre-
 rf very high prices for necessities.
 'sThe infatipne will be furthered, ot course, by our bond issues. I shal not be surprised to find the govern. ment's expenditures mount to a bil. lion dollars monthly. When the gov. ernment announced it's first .issuei concluded imitation must follow. was wrong as to the immediate out. come, but think I was right as te the ultimate result--the imitation will come with k,keoeediRS issiiess
 'aThe niscalculsfi ionr regarding the immediate upshot was due to under estimating the monetary power ant resources of the people. The frs bond offering absorbed merely tho stack cash, as 1t were. With us, it Ii with cash as. 1t is withour genera econoanic situation. Our latent un suspected power is fncalculable-
 'The Liberty Loan, with its 5000. GOO subscribers SMhs,ssimply a patriot icsrespvzzsrsssyf ssy ftsrsvass bushes proposdtion. Future loans will rnak, a4business appeal and will enlist, venture to predict not less than 10, o8o, 900 bond buyers.
 Five are sailing, not drifting, to ward government ownership of rail ways. This is neither a criticism no awarning. It is what I believe t, be an inevitable fact.
 s"The trend of rate firing is boun' to bring this about. That tren' must prove fatal to Independent op efaton of the roads. With no lini to expenses-which are constant. rising-and with decided limit t net earnings (with net receipts run ming in the inverse ratio of operatin cost) government ownership is in tn / perspective.
 Some systems still are makin money. but these are Becoming excep tions to the rule of unprofitable ness.~ &s