The Connecticut labor press., 1919-09-06

readers; who urged relief for the pub lie service people. But 1t was generally agreed that the public service corpora ton was fair game to attack-that 1t was friend1ess among the mob from which it collected daily or monthly.
 In this atmosphere the political cor poration batter has fourished he has stood sturdi1y for the rights of the people" and he has raised himself in public esteem by declaring his abiding faith in low prices for public service and high prices for 1abor-as though he cared what labor got so that he got the app1ause He was inclined to think that three cent fare was the right thing for street car ride; that five cent fare would provide an opulent in- come for the traction company-and he would give his life blood before he would stand for any further imposition on his friends among the downtrodden and oppressed. He worked more in sidiously when telephone rates were in question-and, by the way, telephone rates have been raised less than any other public service prices i'll the coun- try until the other day when the price fixing was taken away from the local political organizations and the rates for service put on a basis that might make
 
 vive. In this matter the demagogic politician works on a larger scale He hoWls about the rates and he makes good with the peop1e-and he makes a political issue of what is simply mat ter of business economy. He busters and he bluffs the rate making body and he is generally helped cheerfu1ly by the yellow press.
 Everybody knows that it is not pos sible to sell telephone service or rapid transit, or electricity or gas or water, at rates that were adequate before the war-but everybody is hoping that the company serving the commodity will somehow sneak through without going to smash. Anyway everybody is ready to pass the buck to the public service ing body is called. And the rate-naking cal lines and dominated by the power that created 1t, hesitates to fly in the face of thousand or hundred thous- and voters merely for the sake of sav ing a public service corporation from bankruptcy. And If the rate making body is composed of men big enough to ignore demagogic clamor and raise rates, those men are branded-they are corporation tools.
 The telephone and rapid transit sys- te11ls of the country have suffered more from the indifference and antagonism of the people they serve than have most of the other utilities-though all have suffered They come into daily, even hourly, contact with the whole body of the public and the man or woman who is constantly paying for service is natrlr-, ally disposed to be querulous about giv- demagogue with great eonplacency. Instead of being willing to pay just price they demand the price to which they were used in the day of the old price levels. And those two eommo- dities, the telephone and the traction, are the very ones hardest hit by new price levels. In each case the element of labor cost is very highly important the dominant item of cost of produc- ton. It was inevitable that they must pay more for labor and for everything else they had to pay for-and you would think that any man or woman with common sense would know that it is impossible to pay present day prices for labor and materials and sell at a price standard fixed when beefsteak was 20 cents a pound.