Denver labor bulletin., 1918-03-02
RAILROADS AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY
By FREDERIC C. HOWE.

Z
mer months people from the interior
are brought to the seacoast for a va
cation.
In all these countries freight rates
are very simple. They can be under
stood by anyone. A very limited classi-
fication of goods suffices. In this coun-
try there are hundreds of thousands
of classifications. They differ in diff
ferent railroads. They are not under
stood even by the agents. The OBJ
ject is to make them intricate. This
makes determinations possible. I'm
der government ownership freight can
be divided into just a few groups.
This will free the whole producing
world from its present ignorance as
to railroad transportation costs.
Government ownership viii divorce
transportation from monopolized in
dustries. The major industries, the
great trusts, along with the transpor-
tation agencies, are interlocked with
the great banking institutions of Wall
street. Railroading in America has
become an ageny of high finance 1t
is scarcely railroading at all. The
policies are determined by directors
unfamiliar with the needs of the coun-
try and interested primarily in financ-
ing, ock-jobbing and speculation. It
is now possible to divorce the trusts
from transportation, to free the small
er industries; to put them on a plane
of equality with monopoly, and, most
important of all, to encourage that
quality of American enterprise and
permit the resourcefulness of our peo-
pie to expand; to utilize its talents
with the assurance that the railroad
1t is impossible to conjecture as to the
wealth which America might pro-
duce were our mills and factories,
our mines and our land, as
sured of a free and open, an
adequate and cheap, means of trans
portation. 1t is probable that the out
put of wealth in this country could be
increased a billion dollars, possibly
many times that amount. by providing
the labor and capital Of America with
adequate and cheap nsportation and
terminal facilities The extent TO
which the productive power Of the
country is held in bondage by made
quate transportation facilities is in
dicated by the fact that tens Of thou
sands Of idle men have been standing
about the mouths of the mines, that
thousands of automobiles have been
driven TO market on their own power
while hundreds Of thousands of loaded
cars have lain at the terminals thru
out the country while the freight
houses nearby were clamoring for
empty cars.
Waste, colossal waste, can now be
stopped. Today, empty trains cross
the country to secure carEoes and pass
empty trains going in the opposite di-
rection on another road Thousands
of trains are run as q result of COM
petition and in order 20 secure their
pro rata traffic. Palatial passenger
trains run out of New York, Chicago.
Cleveland. to the same destination,
each filled to a part # its capacity,
when a single road should carry all
thru traffic Parallel lines from Chi
cago to Milwaukee. st. Paul, Omaha,
Kansas City and St. Louis maintain
exclusive thru-service; freight is sent
around Robin Hoods barn under pool
ing arrangements; motive power and
cars are wasted in this connection for
traffic, just as capital and labor would
be wasted We're there a dozen water
plants in New York City instead of
one.
There is another colossal waste in
private ownership Of the railroads
that will be saved to us. A great
part of the capital value of the rail
roads is land values, not only in the
cities, but in the country districts.
Rights of way were in most instances
given to railroads for little or moth
ing. The government gave them 15O.-
100000 acres Of land. These land val
ues have been increasing rapidly,
Every decade they 20 up nearly one
hundred per cent, # we may judge
by comparison with the increase in
the value of adjoining agricultural
land. These increasing values are
capitalized. Then increased rates are
demanded upon the increased land val
ues. And when the railways are ac-
quired the public VIII be called upon
to pay for the value which it itself
has contributed to the railroads.
Each year, too, immense sums are
taken from the public in excess
charges and used for betterment and
extensions. 1t is said that billions of
dollars of the present capital value
of the railways has been added out
of earnings. In other words, the pro-
ducers and consumers of America
have contributed a great part of the
railway capital TO their present own
ers. This will now be saved to the
public. 1t can be used to build eN-
tensions, to improve service or to re
lieve the burdens Of war taxation.
A reduction in interest rates to 1
per cent would save colossal sums,
while the closing Of expensive passen-
ger offices, the dscharging of tens of
thousands of competing agents, the
ending of the fast freight lines, the
consolidation of warehouses and ter
minals, the reduction in the salaries of
high-priced officials-these economies
alone will run into the tens of mill