New Britain herald., 1917-06-30

than the Adaanson Inv and more un- expected than the threatensd strike. cAme into thes situation. It was the rising cot of fnsceastties.
 Coal prices rose in some cases moro than 100 per cent. Steel rails. steel cars, structural steel, everything of iron and steel that entered into 1 the operation of railroads went up
 in price. Oil, used by some western roads as fuel, went sup, supplies and equipment of all sorts mounted to i new high price levels Unskilled labor threatened to go into other markets where pay was better and the roads claimed they had to advance wages in order to keep men. Operating
 costs continued to go up. The vision of day Of prosperity faded.
 In it's place there soon came . time when the roads. though taking in more money than ever before, said they were not receiving as large a net return as they had received twelve months before. The increase
 in operating costs. they contended grew out of all proportion to the ifi- creased business. Instead of making money. the roads claimed they were
 on the verge of losing millions at 9
 day when they were operating at
 maximum capacity. The, new moneys paid out under the Adamson law were
 but . small percentage the railroads claimed, of the totals paid out in ht8taer operating costs. A general
 movement looking towards relief was begun.
 Within forty-eig1t hours after the supreme court upheld the Adamson law. the machinery for a rate increase was put in motion. Relief. the rail- roads claimed, was tmperatively necessary and as time was of the es. sence of the situation they sought to obtain 1t with all possible speed. Dividing into three territorial groups. the railroads sought the Interstate sCommerce Commissions aid in meet ing their difficulties.
 The eastern roads. hit harder than those Of any other section, they claimed, were the first to act. Their representatives met quietly and in formally with the commission one night and the proceedings of that meeting. made public the next day by Hu0 4CONlt0I0UAUIlts 014OW9O I110I 80UGLA4 increase in rates was discussed. Presi- dent Req of the Pennsylvania and other executives told the commission that the time had come when the raii- roads faced increased rate or heavy financial losses.
 Proceedings of the conference were hardly published before kilograms wore received from western ratlEoad interests saying their emerg1ncy also was great and asking the conn mfssion to meet their representatives.. \ conference was held with the west ern roatt. A conference with tho southern roads followed and out of these and other conferences Grew tho formal proceedings looking to . gen- eral advance.
 Agree on 15 Per Cent
 The percentage of the advance had not been determined upon af the Arst conference. Finally ail three groups decided that . fifteen per cent. ad- vance was needed to enable them to meet new conditions. This. 1t was variously estimated. would yield from $500. .0o0. .000 to e4o0.00o.00o annual revenue.
 Meanwhile the shipping interests of SAS NONhAAy AAASI 0I SAAIS08O 0n0 AAtO0 plans to fight the eyincreAse. When the hearings opened here in May, before the Interstate Commerce Commissior, tho National Shippers conference was represented by number of at torneys. chief among them Clifford Thorne, of Iowa, an expert on rates and transportation.
 The attitude of the shippers was to some extent divided. Some thought, and 90 testified to tho commission. that the railroads should have the \ increase, while others favored some increase. and others contended that if the railroads were entitled to any rate advance at all, 1t was much less than the fifteen per cent. they asked. Tho railroads contended that instead of being a fifteen per cent. advance, what they were asking would really net them . much smaller return. The portion of shippers which opposed the increase most vigorously was headed by MT. Thorne.
 Early in the hearing the shippers made united attacks on the realign- ment of preferential rates that would result from horizontal advance. The railroads met this protect with as- surances that the present rate differ- ences would be restored as soon az possible.
 Shippers declared thousands of car loads of lumber and other oommodi- ties had been held up by the roads by shortage of rolling stock. They in- sisted they would be unable to ship q, great number of orders before July 1. which they had contracted to sell At . price based on freight rates pre- vailing in January and February. The carriers of the South offered as a