The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-09-22

paid to the investors in railway securi-
ties. The following graphic table
shows how the dollar of railway gross
earnings in the United States was
spent during the year 1916:
Percentage of Expenditure on the
Basis Of One Dollar.
Labor .................. 40.6Ogo
Fuel and locomotive supplies. 1850
Material for way and equip
ment supplies, and other ex-
penses So. 1879
Loss and damages. ........... 1870
Taxes .................. 446%
Dividends and surplus. 11.78%o
Betterments, etc 1880
Rent-leased roads. .......... 1860
Interest on funded and un-
funded debt. 12.48%
1t will be seen from this table that
operating expenses and taxes alone
amounted to 69.95%. You will note
that labor received 40,608o, while the
railway owners, in dividends, received
but part of 1178%o, the balance be-
ing undistributed and held as surplus
for future needs.
The railways of the United States
receive the lowest rates for trans
portation of any railways in the
world In the United Kingdom in
1913 the receipts per ton per mile for
freight transportation were 2.23c, in
the United States in 1916, .714c, but
a return to the investor in the securi-
ties of our more prosperous railways
was made possible because of their
lower per mile capitalization.
AS an example of the earnings of
the most prominent classes of our
railway workers it may be of interest
to cite the following facts: In 1916
the road freight engineers of the
United States earned an average of
$1,S24, road passenger engineers
$2,105, road freight conductors s1,6O9,
road passenger conductors $1,S42,
yard brakemen $1,193, road freight
brakemen $1,049, road passenger
brakemen S1,O12 and baggagemen
s1,057, and, as I have already stated,
the rates of pay of these employees
have, during 1917, been materially adj
vanced. It cannot be, therefore,
argued that the railway workers of
the United States are not paid a liv-
ing wage.
Indeed, the railway stockholders,
who are not, as many think, a few
capitalists but in fact an army of
100000 persons, many holding but a
few railway shares, are frequently as
dependent for their daily bread upon
the income from their railway invest
ments as are the railway workers
upon their wages.
The railways of the United States
are powerless to advance their
charges without federal approval as to
Interstate rates and state approval as
to local rates. They have recently
been pleading, with only small
measure of success, the necessity for
increases in order to meet their grow
ing cost of living that they may con-
tinue to pay liberal wages to their
employees and yet earn a return upon
their securities sufficient to continue
the present very moderate disburse-
ments to their stockholders. At the
close of 1916 there were in the hands
of the receivers in the United States
20 railways with an aggregate mileage
of 1882 and an aggregate capitalfza-
ton of 1900 millions, and the stockr
holders of these companies, of course,
received no returns at ALL
To one in my position, the appeal
of the widow and the orphan, whose
income is derived from an invest
ment in railway securities, must not
go unheard, and if the interests of
these investors are not to be entirely
disregarded, there is a limit to the
increases which the railways of the
United States can make to their en-
ployes If our railways are to pro
vide for the transportation needs OF
over 100 million people, their com
pensation must be made commen
surate to the cost of earning suffi
cient to literally pay their labor, to
purchase the fuel, materials and sup
plies required in connection with their
operations, to pay their taxes, rentals
and interest, to provide something fol
| betterments and new equipment, and
| to make a modest return to their
| shareholders. With the lowest rates
of any railways in the world and the
lowest capitalization per mile, the
/ - - ~ 49,
paying higher wages than any rail
ways in the world.
AS Editor of the Catholic Bulletin
4 you must feel the responsibility o.
placing matters of such general inter
est fairly before its readers, and this
is my apology for sending you this
communication
So Respectfully yours.
GEORGE r. SLADE.