Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1920-04-29
RAILROADS LOST
FOR GOVERNMENT
TREMENDOUS SUM OF MONEY
LOST IN HANDLING RAIL
ROADS OF COUNTRY

els 1t true, Uncle Ted" asked Jack
that lot of sheep and cows died
during the railroad strike because
they didn't get any water
WELL" answered uncle Ted, Il
don't know that lot Of them died
because OF the strike but | do know
that many of them that were on de-
layed trains suffered from lack OF
food and water And the sad part
of II was that at that very time ev-
eryone throughout the United States
was asked to remember the slogan
BE kind to animals There was
danger of lots of people being hun
CRY, too. The strike seems to be all
over now but it has shown the coun-
try that it is not impossible for
certain class of people better known
as radicals to hold up the trains in
the hope that it would be the begin
ming OF a union to be used by the
bolshevik elements in this country.
For long time this class of people
has been trying to use the railroad
workers as a means OF furthering
their scheme to make the govern
ment buy the railroads and let the
employees manage them. Under
their plan the government would
borrow about twenty billion dollars
to buy the railroads and then form
a committee to control them. with
the workers in position to control
the committee. Thus they could
practically fix their own wages,
hours of labor and so forth. All the
rest of the people of the country
would be expected, under that plan,
to pay freight and passenger rates
high enough to give the railroad en-
ployees everything they wanted. The
better class of railroad workers do
not favor that plan for they know
il would be bad for the country and
bad for them in the end.
isn't there some way to settle
disputes without strikes?" asked
Ruth
mo very definite and certain way,
at present" replied Uncle Ted.
"There was a plan proposed but it
did not get votes enough in con-
gress to put II into effect. Two or
three months ago when congress was
passing a law for the return OF the
railroads to their owners, Senator
which would forbid strikes and re-
quire the workers and the railroad
managers to submit their differences
to a sort of court to be settled ac-
cording to what seemed to be right
and after all the conditions had been
taken into consideration. believe
it would be better to have disputes
settled that way than to have strikes
that would not only stop the cattle
trains and leave the cattle and sheep
to go hungry and thirsty but also
keep people in cities from getting
food and clothing and fuel"
THE railroads aren't being run
by the government now, are they?"
asked Jack.
"No, Jack You surely remem-
Der me telling you all about that.
They were turned back to their own
ers many weeks ago. But that real
ly brings me back to the story l
wanted to tell you about tonight.
That is, about the great amount of
money that 1t cost the United States
to run the railroads"
How much was To" asked Ruth.
'The total loss to the government
of the United States due to the gov
eminent running the railroads has
been placed at more than $l,129-
100000"
"Gee!" exclaimed Jack, that's an
awful lot of money"
ut certainly is a lot of money,
Jack. This amount has been esti-
mated by the appropriations commit
tee of the house of representatives
and it includes the amount of $685.
100000 which was estimated as the
guarantees to the railroads by the
wording of the transportation law.
The actual loss to the government
during the 26 months Of government
control was placed by the committee
OF 1904, 100000 and the committee
mentioned the fact that since the
government had loaned the roads
1925, 100000, the bigger part OF
which went to the weak lines to keep
them from going bankrupt during
the government control, lot OF this
money will never be recovered.
Now right here is a point which