The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-08-27
(By Charles NJ. Kellev)

WISDOM ana intelligence manifested
by them during the next year will
depend the future status of transpor-
it shall continue I'M
der private control or be taken over
by the government and maintained
for the people.
Daniel Willard, president of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, is a
typical railroad executive, but he
possesses a vision that is lacking in
some of his colleagues. He plainly
can read the signs of the times.
He knows that the public will not al
ways quiescently accept the condi-
lions that have been established by
a complaisant Congress, controlled
by large business interests. There
will be a sharp reaction against the
transportation of public funds to
pay private dividends and to liquidate
the aims of private management.
Already it is in evidence. There is
widespread approval of the unbusi-
nesslike methods of railway mana
gers, resulting in an almost COM
plete prostration of industry and
commerce, and the recent rate in
crease is certain to increase the dis
affection that everywhere prevails.
Mr.. Willard says that the public
is dubious of railroad securities, but
he is hopeful that the future will
soften this attitude of
hostility and bring to the treasures
Of the railroads the new funds that
must be secured if the railroads are
to be operated efficiently. If the
railway managers do not see and
meet their responsibility, then private
ownership is doomed, and the logi-
cal next step is government owner
ship Of railroads.
What Mr. Willard does not see
clearly is that with rates already so
high that the carriers will soon be
operating on a basis of diminishing
returns, resulting from curtailment
of traffic, the addition of interest
and amortization charges will in
crease instead of reduce railroad
troubles. That dividends and inter-
est may be paid on outstanding rail
road securities, the Interstate Com
merce Commission has recently i'm
posed upon the public a new direct
tax of more than billion and half
of dollars. When this increase runs
the gamut of multiplying increases
that must be borne by commodities,
it will aggregate a tax of more
than $50 per year for every man, wo-
man and child in the country, or
approximately $500 per year for
the average American family.
The railroads are offering their Sc
curities at high interest rates, in
creasing operating charges, and it
will be but a short time until the
executives are again back in Wash
ington asking, and doubtless receiv-
ing, additional increases of traffic
rates.
Industry Is PROSTATE
By what feat of legerdemain do
the railroads expect to relieve the
nations industry from the blight of
transportation With win
ter coming apace and coal bins emp
Iy, with manufacturing plants clos
ing because they cannot secure raw
or the transport of fin
lshed commodities, with last years
crop still in warehouses and this
years crops still in the fields, with
stagnation and paralysis everywhere,
what are the railway executives do
ing to redeem a very serious situa-
ton?
The claim is made that transport
tation has failed because the car
riers cannot secure cars and motive
power from their insufficient reven-
ues. That was the basis of the de-
mand for the recent freight increase.
Cars cannot be built in day or a
week, and if the railroad managers
had an unlimited reserve they could
not possibly add to their equipment
in time to avert disaster.
Hundreds of thousands of workers
are idle while the entire world is
for the necessities of life.
With production everywhere,
factories cannot produce because
they lack transportation. The situa-
ton has become progressively worse,
Notwithstanding the government has
been struggling energetically for
several months to bring order out of
the chaos that followed Immediately
upon the return of the roads to
private control
There are sufficient cars and mo-
tive power to transport the nations
output if they were intelligently
used. That much is admitted. The
under more trying con-
ditions, gave satisfactory service. 1t
responded to the greatest demand
ever made upon the transportation
system of the country. The cause
of the present breakdown, there
fore, must be other than the alibi
offered by private managers.
The truth is that there would be
sufficient cars were they efficiently
utilized. The Federal Trade Com
mission has made a survey that jus
titles it's statement that under uni
fled system and the proper routing
of cars there would be enough for
all demands and a reserve for emer-
gencies of more than Is per cent.
If the nations salvation rests in
the acquisition of additional cars by
the railroads, then we are doomed to
some Misunderstanding experiences dur
ing the next few months. Lack of
income is not a good reason for the
trouble. During the five months
of private control the railroads were
financed by the government. They
had unlimited revenue. They had
free access to the federal treasury,
and took from it more than half a
billion dollars.
Congress May Intervene
The American people are proven
bially good-natured and long suffer
ing. They have endured much at
the hands of railway managers. They
have not seriously protested when it
was patent that we were rushing
headlong to destruction. The railroad