Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-31
DON'T MAKE A GRIMACE
WHEN YOU "PAY THE FREIGHT
You Can Keep the Bills Down II You
Do Your Full Duty as
Citizen

! WHEN the provision dealer adds
w cent a pound to the price of coffee
and five cents to the price of meat, and
when the coal dealer adds dollar to the
price of coal. we all want to know the
reason. We are affected in our sensitive
pocket nerve.
When we are told that the prices have
been raised because of en- increase in the
freight rate by the railroads and in the
tax rates by the government we immedi
ately damn the politicians and damn the
corpol, tions. This is easy, but it serves
only to relieve our feelings.
Freight rates have been increased since
the government took over the railroads,
but the increase has not been enough to
cover the increase in wages to the rail
road employees and the increase in the
cost of materials that the railroads use.
The difference is met out of the proceeds
of taxation. The director general of
railroads is objecting now to a further
increase in freight rates, to make the
railroads self supporting, for the reason
| that IAN increase in trans Nortation rates
will Immediately be reflected in an in
increase, he says, will not be merely the
S300,0O0.000 which is needed to cover the
lowest estimate of the deficit, but will be
between billion and billion and half,
as the manufacturer would raise the price
Of his product to cover the extra freight
on raw material, the wholesaler would
make a still greater increase in the price
at which he sells the goods to provide
for his extra profit on the increased cost
at the mill and an extra profit on the
freight he woulu have to pay and the
retailer would make another addition to
the price, handing on the whole burden
to the ultimate consumer.
And, unfortunately. the director gen
eral of railroads is right, for if the re-
taller pays five cents more for an article
he sometimes adds more than the in
crease to the selling price. The per-
centage added by the manufacturer and
the wholesaler is not so great for they
do business on smaller margin of profit.
The logic of the director generals argu-
ment leads to the conclusion that the only
way to prevent the consumer from being
charged for the freight two or three
times, with a profit on each charge, is
for the government to pay all freight
bills and collect the money from the tax
payers. But this arrangement would
be so ridiculous that no one is foolish
enough to propose it.
The man who buys suit of clothes is
going to continue to pay what it has cost
to raise the wool, spin it into yarn, weave
it into cloth, make it into the suit and
deliver it to him ready to wear. And the
farmer and the spinner and the weaver
and the clothing manufacturer and the
retailer will each make his profit and
each profit will include a profit on the
money invested in freight at every ship
ment. This is the way business is done
and it is pretty good way. 1t would
be difficult to improve it.
The man who buys potatoes and meat
and clothing and such things is vitality
interested in the efficient and economical
, conduct of the railroads and in the hon.
est administration of the government
supported by the direct and indirect taxes
which he pays. The railroads have not
been conducted economically by the gov.
ernment, and every passenger and every
purchaser of goods that have beer
shipped by freight is paying for the in.
efficiency. In the ten years before the
government took over the railroads the
| average wage of railroad employees had
been increased so per cent, while there
had been slight increases in freight rates
:. The railroad managers, forced by neces.
' sity to live within their income or PC
\ ! ,,,4o he ha,, lal
in bringing about economies which made
it possible to pay the wages without ma.
: terislly burdening the public.
But the government increased the
: wages of the men by billion dollars ir
single year and has passed the whole
of the cost over to the railroad users o,
: to the taxpayers. The owners of the rail
roads are facing the prospect of having
their property turned back to them with
fixed charges of several hundred millions
greater than the income, charges which
the government met out of government,
revenues. Whether a still further increase
= of railroad rates would increase the cos,
of living or not, there is no doubt thai
without an increase in rates many rail
! road companies would become insolyept
soon a1ter they were turned over to theil
: owners and that the financial disaster tc
the country at large would cost it much
more in the long run than it would hav,
E to pay If the rates were raised.
, The point we wish to impress on the
, reader is that the average citizen make,
; :. mistake when he damns the corpora
tions or damns the government wher
taxes and prices go up. He would be
: damn himself for neglecting his duty .,
/ citizen. Public money is squanderes