Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-01-18

government in this. the first test OF
our willingness to sacrifice for the
winning of the war. But that need
not prevent just and fair criticism
of the wisdom of the order.
Regardless of the results, which
it would appear are bound to be dis
astrous to business and to labor, al
though doubtless a very large guam
tity of coal may be saved for DO
mestic uses, the cause of the pres
ent conditions and responsibility for
them are the essential considerations
at this moment. Placing the blame
}is necessary, so that, IL possible the
remedy may be found. treating
symptoms is no longer the practice
of the wise physician. The seat of
the disease is his constant thought
and so it must be in this case.
Back of all the trouble lies the
starvation of the railroads over
period of years. Wages have gone
constantly up, and very properly SO
to meet advances in living costs;
operating expenses of all klnds nave
been increased and the cost or new
equipment and new construction has
rocketed along with everything else.
The railroads saw their expenses
steadily rising and their net earn
ings slowly decreasing. They were
doing more business than ever De-
fore and making less. But the gov
ernment kept right on their trali'
clamping down the lid more tightly
every year and refusing them ao-
vances of rates. There was put one
end. Rolling stock and motive power
went to pot and the roadbeds de-
Perforated because nobody wanted TO
buy railroad securities or loan the
roads money. Then we went TO war
and at once the added strain on the
roads began to tell.
Priority orders commenced to-
play a part in the general confusion.
Garfield got into a controversy with
Hoover as to the priority of coal over
food. with the result that for hVe
days the railroads moved neither
coal nor food, awaiting the scrap
at Washington to be decided.
These things are back of all the
trouble; these and the selection OF
theorist, instead of an acknowledged
expert, or experts, to handle the fuel
situation. The choice of college
president to solve the fuel problem
was a blunder that a more prac-
tical President would not have
made. There are three factors nee
essary in coal production and dis
tribution. The cooperation OF the
operators, the mine workers and the
railroads are essential. The wise
thing, it would seem, would nave
been to have selected big operator,
a big traffic manager and a man like
John Mitchell, for example, as fuel
administration board. In that way
the frightful blunders from which
we are now suffering would have
been avoided.
But by-gones are by-gones and
all we can do now is 10 Ihdhe
the best of n bad situation and con-
fine our criticisms to constructive
lines. Calling the fuel administra-
tor hard names will do no good, and
n seeming division of the American
public would be but encouragement
to the enemy.
There are several outstanding de-
' elopments that may give comfort to
those who have been fearsome of
the bogey of government ownership,
and one of them is that the Amer
lean people are getting their fill of
rulings from Washington,
which might be repeated at any
time If war provisos should be ex-
tended into days of peace following
the war. Another is that Secretary |
McAdoo, taking over control of the
railroads to relieve the congestion,
has gotten them into a worse mud
die than before he took charge. Gov
ernment ownership has been given a I
body-blow by the developments of
the past week.