Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1919-01-29
FACTS AND COMMENT


general Of railroads, is considering any
other advance in freight rates to meet
the enormous advances in wages that
have followed each other in rapid sue
ceSsion ever since the government be-
gan to dabble in railway matters by
the passage of the Adamson law in
1916. 1t was expected that a half
billion dollars would cover the in
creases made to employees by Mr..
McAdoo last summer, but the total
of wages pail show that the increase
is nearer $500. 100000, and application
70 ranother 500 100000 is under con-
sheraton. this time for the big four
Of railway labor the engineers, fire.
men, conductors and tra,umen. These
were the original benefclaries under
the Adanson law and therefore were
not included among those whose. pay
YVES raised by Mr.. McAdoo. II the
new demand is granted, and there is
but little doubt but that It will be, the
railways of the country will have been
saddled with a clean billion of wage
increases, necessary perhaps as a war
measure but none the less an obli-
cation on the government until such
time as the railways themselves are
permitted to charge enough to pay
their own expenses.
From, a financial viewpoint govern
ment operation of railroads has not
been a success thus far. Such mis-
1 calculation Of receipts and eXpendi
lures as the United States railway ad-
ministration has been guilty of would
have wrecked any private business.
Not alone have the wage increases to-
tailed twice wiz was calculated, but
the deficit for 1918 at first estimated
at s136, 100000 is now admitted to be
$3.50 coo, 600. The administrator who
could tolerate such errors on the part
of his assistants was easily able to
tropfesy q substantial surplus. AMI
lowered rates in 1919 or soon there
after. Figures show. however, that
instead Of slowly climbing out of the
| hole and proceeding gradually toward
solvency and a surplus, the railways
are sinking deeper and deeper into a
bottomless Guicllsand. The single
strand that has kept them from being
already enguifed was the half billion
revolving fund granted by ccsgress
| to be used here and there as might
be temporarily necessary. The idea
was that one road would make s-here
aontler one lost, and that the fund
would thus be maintained substantial
| ly intact. As a matter OF fact there
| have been no SURPRISES 10 match the
| invariahle deficits, the revolving fund
| is entirely exhausted and Mr.. Hines
| is asking congress for another and a
| larger sum to tide things over until
| permanent relief is found The whole
| distressing situation has teen aggra-
| waited by the loose statements of
| which the administration has been
! guilty, Such indiscreticn- as the
| premature announcement OF the Lib
erty motor. the marvellous lnanufac-
| ture of airplanes. and the economies OF
| government railway control have
/ raised the people to a sta5o of glad eX-
| pectaucy, Whench it is the unpleas-
ant duty of congress to dash then
| down. A si1nilar improved assertion
| that is due TO bear similar fruit Is
| Postmaster BurIeson's STAT cement tina
| the economics due to consolidating the
! telegraph telephone AMI cable line:
under his management VIII produce
| enough to buy up all these facilitie:
within twenty five wears. ]: is a no.
| torious fact that the post office de
parment has. never paid expenses ever
| though it has been i government
monopoly from the beginning. and i
viii require q Particularly Gullibl.
public to swallow Mr.. Burieson's as
scrtion Just now in view of tie i'll.
success that has attende the effort
Of his late colleague to make the
socialists dream and the politician
premise tally with the hard facts 0
business arithmetic.
Bo!shevisn1 is bacoa7:n1 more an
more infections. Trv as sh2 would b
treaty and b. force to quarantine her
, self against this insd' o,.s disease
Germany has been unsuccessful i
her attempts to confine its henedcien
| effects to Russia. The germs of tn
contagion have been planted in Prus
STA as deliberately as the German
themselves planned to spread anthro
in Rumania The Trotzl5y schce
openly avows the intention Of spread
ing bolshevism EVERYWHERE and TO tlla
end agencies have been established
!; foreign countries with money to spen
, and pamphlets to scatter A partic
ularily efficient office was recent
closed by the Swiss government br
the propaganda continue in SWedcr
TrotZl1y's Ambassador Toffre aftt
his expulsion from Berlin ~ the il
} periaI government returned later
! encourage the SDartacus factions WI
Z arms and ammunition urtiI eZne1lf
I for the second time by the .Elbe
government. The bauish@d bolsheE
! boosted that he had PLACED $4,000
: with one Cohen of the independent s.
/ cialist party and had left 5000 nt
l to promote the revolution in German
- at large. His secretarV, Radel5. d,
s clared that the money spent in Be
: lin was as nothing compared with tn
sent to New York for. use in II
: United States. As strikes and ant
; government demonstrations occur {
/. both continents with alarming fir.
I quency, the world will come to reali
= more cleareiy that phosgeue and TTiU
e tard gas are not the most deadly
" Gcrmany's poisons.
The new assembly on which is pla
ed the hope for real constitution
government for Germany is to me
| February 6 at Weimar. far .frcw t
e madness of the 1nobs Of Berlin. N
e that the Prussian capital is as wi
n as was the case a fortnight past. T
violent taking off Of Dr.. I.iebkncc
a and Rosa Lufnexburg, his lieutena
- has shown the attitude Of the ave
age Reriner- toward Russian method
-e The Ebert government, too. finding t
majority of the people IN favor Of Ia
1t and order, has continued to suppre
4 street. demonstrations as soon
d launched. with the result that Berl
seems on the way back to orderly Ii
Yet the great Industrial city. parti
SC ularly when overrun with hordes
l. discharged soldiers is always a like
h spot for an. outbreak, and the go
eminent did wisely in choosing t
&c remote town of Weimar for the co
* vening Of the new assembly.
n The ehoiee of (Nai.... - 4auro