The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1918-06-28

eminent. There has been consider
whether it will follow is a question
which time alone will determine.
Recent government Investigations
disclosed that the largest of the
stockyards were under the same
ownership as the packing plants,
which gave to large buyers undue in
fiuence in the market. One fact
which shows how arbitrary their
rule has been is the action of the
commission merchants who declared
in favor of government operation of
the stockyards at their recent con-
vention.
ORNAMENTAL ONES
ARE CUT OFF
Railroad presidents who held their
jobs because they were close to the
large financial groups of the money
centers have been dismissed by Sec
rotary McAdoo, railway administra-
tor. Instead of presidents at $780,
900 a year these men will become
managers at not over $4,000 year,
if they know anything about rail-
reading. If not their places will be
taken by vice-presidents who do un-
derstand the business.
There is grim humor in this re-
moval of the presidents from their
financial thrones. Mr.. McAdoo tells
them that railroads must be run
hereafter by wol.ingmen who under
stand railroading and intimates that
the dollar-a-year idea will appeal to
them, now that the railways are a
part of the government service.
The railroad world is full of good
executives ready to take the jobs at
the salaries offered, men who under
stand the business, and who will be
more concerned in making the gov
eminent operation a success than
they will be in drawing their sal
aries.
One of the apparent stumbling
blocks at the beginning, in the way
of successful government operation
of railroads, was the open hostility
or the half-hearted cooperation of
the railway presidents to the new
policy. In many cases they acqui-
asced in government management,
and accepted it as policy during
the war, with the understanding In
their minds that as soon as the war
was over everything was to go back
to the old standards and that they
were to be handed back-the prop
critics which they had mismanaged
after the government had put them
on a firm financial foundation and
had given them a raise in rates and
renewed equipment.
NOW NEARER
PERMANENT OWNERSHIP
Every move made by the govern
ment for economy and efficiency
makes more certain the permanency
of government management of the
arteries of trade and communica
ton. 1t is certain that the country
will never again submit to the tax
on its transportation by the payment
of salaries to those high-priced or
namental figureheads.
At the present time there is an
advance in freight rates owing to
the unusual conditions which pre-
vail, but after the war business will
be put on systematic basis and
the charges regulated by the cost
system. AS the cost will be mater
tally reduced by the unification of
the lines and the elimination of all
needless expenses, the freight rates
will be lowered accordingly.
But it is on account of the more
efficient service undergovernment OPP
Grafton that the public management
must be retained. Shippers who now
have to deal with but one manage
ment will not consent to go back to
the old system by which a cross
country shipment involved dealing
with half a dozen different lines.
In view Of the fact that progress
is going forward, and that new meth
DDS are being introduced constantly
it is amusing to remember the hys-
terra with which congress debated
the question as to the time which
railroads would be turned back 70