Judsonia weekly advance., 1917-04-11
AS PRICES RISE
 HIGH COST OF LIVING
 HITS THE RAILROADS
Service Will Be Crippled Un- less Relief Comes Soon.
EXPENSES UP, RATES DOWN

 Wasteful and Conflicting Regulations
 Hamper Railroad Credit, While Ad-
 vance In Labor and Materials Ous-
 etrips Revenues, Chairman Krutt-
 sehnitt Teis Congress Committee.
 unifiea Federal Control Will Improve
 Conditions.
 Washington, April 2.--The condition In which the railroads find themselves as result of constant increases in wages, prices of material, taxes and other expenses. while their revenues are restricted by legislation, was strik. ingly described by Julius Kruttschnitt Chairman of the Executive Committed of the Southern Pacific Company, ifl his testimony during the past few days before the Joint Congressional Com, mittee on Interstate Commerce, which is making study Of the question o! railroad regulation Mir Kruttschniti urged the committee to recommend plan of regulation which will center responsibility for regulation and it's results in the federal government, SC that conditions affecting both expenses and revenues may be made subject tt uniform policy instead of the waste. ful and often conflicting policies in. volved in the system of combined stata and federal regulation
 Why Roads Need More Money
 Mir. Kruttsehnitt's testimony also ha.i bearing on the reasons for the appl{. cation of the roads to the Interstate Commerce Commission for general advance in freight rates. He showed that while the price of transportation has declined in recent years, the cost of producing transportation, like the cost of almost everything else, has rap. idly advanced. This he illustrated by showing that if freight and passenger rates had increased during the past twenty years in the same proportion as average commodity prices the railroads of the United States would have re-. ceiyed $1,654, ,000000 more for trans portation in 1915 than they did receive
 This saving to the public was effect ed, in spite of an increase of 93 per cent in the cost of operation of trains by reduction in the average passen ger rate per mile from 204 cents ill 1895 to 1.9S cents in 1915 a decrease of 3 per cent, and by reduction in the average freight rate per ton mile from S.39 mills in 1895 to 73 mills in 1915, or 13 per cent. During the same period the cost of operation per train mile rose from 92 cents to SITS, almost doubling. At the same time the aver. age price of 346 commodities enumer. ated in bulletin of the Department of Agriculture increased 115 per cent Transportation is practically the only commodity in general use that has not increased tremendously in price during the past twentyeyears, freight and pas. senger charges being lower than they were twenty years ago.
 Big Saving to Public. If rates had risen proportionately to the increase in the cost of other arti. cles of ordinary use, MT. Kruttschnitt told the committee, the average pas. SchSeI Tule III 1Slo WOULD nave DeeU 2.95 cents a mile or 90 per cent higher than it was, and the average freight rate would have been 1.21 cents, or 60 per cent higher than it was. The say. ing to the public in passenger fares through this difference was $314,0OO,. 1000 and in freight rates $1, 0,O00,000. [ Universal railroad bankruptcy under this reduction in rates and increased cost of operation, he said, was avoided only by heavy expenditures to obtain increased efficiency in train movement, making it possible to haul more tons of freight per locomotive. This had re- duced the average cost of hauling ton of freight, but the decline in the average freight rate had reduced the net revenue of the roads from each ton hauled. If the operating costs of the railroads, including the prices of coal, labor and material, continue to ad- vance at the present rate lot of rail- roads will be in the hands of receivers by 1918 unless some relief is afforded, Mr. Kruttschnitt told the committee.
 Owing to the rise of commodity