Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-06-29

bles. which are worse than shortage OF
equipment, will never be settled till
some law Is enacted making strikes
among employees Of public utilities ille-
gal He gave an instance which hap
pened on his road recently:
There are, he explained, FIVE mem
bers to each switching crew--engineer.
fireman, conductor, front man and rear
man. When any one of these is absent
the rule was to draw an extra from a
reserve, but labor is so scarce recently
that there is no reserve, and the union
prevents employing any but those on
the reserve anyhow. One Of these men
was absent, he said, from his crew, and
the union rules compelled the others to
remain idle till the vacancy was filed
In the union way.
On investigating the matter farther
Is was found that one member from
each Of five crews was missing and the
other twenty members remained idle. 1t
would have been possible, he said. to
have made up four complete crews from
those remaining, but that, too, was not
allowed by the union.
Until there Is some way found out by
which all such absurd rules can be
met, the broker remarked, we must
expect our transportation problems to
remain unsolved.
So important Is this subject In the
opinion OF financial men that the month.
| " letter Of the Girard Trust Co. devotes
| It's first three pages to one phase Of It,,
namely: How rate affects the pub.
lic."
It said in part
Railroads of the country need q
/ ILL ..nn
get it they have asked the Interstate
Commerce Commission to increase
freight rates 30 per cent. What would
such an increase mean to the average
person?
For a family Of FIVE. n 30 per cent
advance in freight rates would repre-
sent for all the food eaten in one week
Just the price of a shoe shine. Ten
cents would be the maximum increase
on the cost of food. while the increase
In the cost of clothing for n week IL
now minted by the United States.
Let hundred mean each order good
stenk at q first class hotel and the bill
will be not less than $50 for the din
ner. How much more would those hun
dread steaks cost the Philadelphia mea
dealers were the railroads to get 81
per cent increase for hauling them from
Chicago? Just twenty cents for tn
lot.
The after dinner cigar of one man a
the table would equal the whole extri
cost of the beef for the entire party o
one hundred
A rise in freight rates might be uset
as an excuse by dealers for boosting foo'
and clothing prices to consumers, bu
in reality. 1t would be almost impos
sible to translate such an increase t
individual cases because it would be 81
small.
1t was said in one OF the leadinl
banking and brokerage houses yester
day that. with the exception OF tn
Ford Automobile Co. and the Dodg
Co.. word had been received In Cleve
: land that all other automobile companie
were cancelling their steel orders. Will
J the source OF the information was no
I questioned. IL was said that the of
fcials of the various motor companie
: were giving out that they were neve
e in more prosperous condition, no
a was the outlook for business NOR
cheerful. They maintain that all com
e NAMES are far behind on orders.
4 A customer. when discussing the mat
ter, said, when buying new car las
week, he went shopping" and 1t wa
clear to him. he said. that one coul
o have immediate delivery Of any car h
Il selected.
= A banker said he had heard that tn
e making Of pleasure cars had been over
o done, and the concerns making trucl
: and tractors are in the best position
= to face the future.