South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-02-22
Sell South Bend To South Bend and Better Homes
Movements Sequences of Four Year old Campaign

mates they appear 20 anticipate. Government own
ership. with the results during the srgu-
ment IN It's favor. may yet be issue in this
try, Notwithstanding that Just all in
clned to imagine ourselves so strong against st.
Criticisng the railroads you know. is OF
most popular pastmes. and always has been Every
body jumps onto them for poor service; everybody
lanbastes them for inefaciency The blame is heap
ed alike uror the railroad executives. the railroad
employees. and the government" which for two
years has had official control.-thoush just now
ike TO forget II ALL except for that period
The criticism is natural enough for II s the re
suit OF vast Inconvenience to the public in slow
freight movement and inadequate and uncomforta-
BE passenger service But there is another side 10
It. In fairness the railroads. and the government
here some facts which ought be remembered
Edward Hungerford. writing in the Saturday
Evening Post tells Of a diagram chart prepared BY
a big railroad executive in 1916. In order to get 4
line on future freight increases Going back the
year 1900 when the traffic amounted to 40, OOO-
100000 ton miles. and plotting the year by
year up TO 1916, he found the annual growth
was ID percent. Extending the line in conformity
with that 16 years record he found that in the nor
NAL OF American railroads would be
hauling 100000 900 ton miles of freight IN the
year 1925.
But what happened In that very year 1916
3OOO0,OOO,OOO more than they should have
hauled normally. In 1917 traffic jumped TO
1000 900 ton miles, and under government op-
Grafton. in 1918 It had the volume forecast
for 1925. Last year there slight decline due
the coal strike. strike and other factors
STILL the total far ahead anything that might
have been expected three years before The present
volume Of traffic is greater than the ought to
have had thrust them until years hence
And how have they done this huge Iiece Of work?
With an expenditure for necessary traczage and
other permanent betterments of $500 900 900 alto
gether for the last two years whereas the average
for that purpose during the decade before was
s5720OO.00O a year, J. had pro-
claimed that it ought TO be $1,000, 100000 a year
and other experts have insisted it should be So
OOo.OooOoo. Also with outfit Of rolling stock ad
mittedly half a million cars and many thousand
locomotives short OF what it should be.
With the tremendous task imposed on them, and
the insufficient revenues and inadequate equipment
they have had to with. the wonder is that the
railroads have done as we'll they have in the past
three years and doing well as they are today.
For political propaganda, and for the purpose of
discredtng government operation and control. we
have been told almost everything except the truth
about what has really been going on since Uncle
Sam took hold. and lied to quite as consistently
about what happened before. The American peo-
pie are shOrt-memoried and especially when they
want TO BEES for instance when It comes to rid
ing their government, for the time being, when
under the direction OF someone or OF party not
OF their political faith.
Deridng the government is OF the choicest
privileges Of our democracy, and work it "a
frazzle." night and day. even dream it while we
sleep