The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-02
World of Finance

'~The Council of Defense of Ilhnois has been Investigating the situation with respect to the production or coai in that state. A number or coal opp orators who appeared before the council this week. testified that ln- creased railroad facilities, especial ly addstioRal ncoal cars, would lower , the -1rrce--uf -coaf-fn-F Illinois, Tnls view is doubtless correct" says the Railway Age Gazette. The 1naoe- ouate expansion of, the railroads nus been one of the causes of the increase in the cost of living and, paraooXlcai though it seems, it has also injured many producers by reducing the prices they otherwise would nave re- ceived for their products
 .sro tecognize this fact is not, how ever. to condemn the management or the railroads. It is merely to con demn the policy which has limited railway expansion. If the roads had heen allowed to make reasonaple profits during the last ten years 9-ne prevailing car shortage and conses- tions-of traffic would not exist in the intensity that they do, and the ao- verse effect which they have upon the welfare of the country would not be produced. cat
 .It Is a generally recognized fact that the rates charged for transport ing agricultural products, coal ana other commodities from the points or nrofuction to the points of consump- tion affect both the prices which the .producers receive and those which tthe consumers pay. Another fact, which is even more important, put which is not so generally recognized is that the price which the producer can get and the price which the con { sumer must pay, are largely deter mined also by the adequacy and char , acter of the transportation service 2 rendered in moving commodities from the places where they are pro- duced to the places where they are consumed.
 'Ta.ke coal, for example. For some time we have had, on the one hano' great industrial centers in which the demand for coal for manufacturing and other purposes has suddenly and enormously increased. On the other hand. we have coal mines with pro- ductive capacity far exceeding their maximum past output The connect ing link is the railroad. The rail- roads have moved far more carloads eof coal from the mines to the con surning centers within recent months and years than ever before. But the i demands of the consuming centers have been greater than the railway facilities available have been able to supply. Therefore, the prices at the consuming centers have advanced to unprecedented heights The mines on the other hand, in spite of the fact / 4L-+ haua rrodrced more COal than ever, have not been able to gel l, enough cars to move all the coal they could produce. Therefore, the prices at the mines have not advanced af much as afn Hfhe consuming centers | and relatively the largest profits 1T the voal business have been made not by the operators, Dat by the spe culators in the large industrial cen ters.
 .'The same reasoning applies to az ricultural products. The farmer vii get relatively the best prices for hi products, and the consumer in th' large industrial centers will pay reia lively the least for them, when thu railway facilities are sufficient t mcFedah& tfie cf6pbsn 65f atke countr! i when market conditions are favor able and within reasonable time On the other hand, when transporta ton facilities are inadequate the sup f ply moved to the industrial centers i restricted and prices there go up, ant because a large tonnage is left upol the farms prices received by the far mer are less than they otherwis would be. In these circumstances the speculator, through whose hand the products go from the farmer t the consumer, is the man who make relatively the largest profits.
 "If railway transportation sudden ly should be entirely suspended ther would be a great increase in tn prices of all kinds of commodities i
 the large centers of population an
 industry, and at the same time
 sharp decline in their prices at tn points of production. A deficiency 0 transportation differs only in degre .I from complete Interruption of fl
 and consequently its effects, althoug
 less serious. are similar. Our polio
 of regulation having failed to recos
 nize the fact that the adequacy an
 quality of the service rendered has
 more important effect .,upon tn
 prices which producers receive fo their commodities and which consu [ mers must pay for them than tn rates which the railways are allowe { to charge, the result has been ths
 the railways have had low profit
 and that. the public has low rate | aAan,rufo fa oS1iffea