Evening star., 1921-10-23
WASHINGTON SHOULD HAVE ..
ONE STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM
Law on Federal Statutes Against Merger
Ought to Be Quickly Repealed-Bene-
fits to Public-Railroad Situation.

the highest grade Of investment val.
1 ueS.
For years now. and especially dur
CANT government operation, and the
=. enactment Of full crew, plus time and
! overtime and others features of the
Adamson law, the securities OF rail-
roads OF the country. have been de-
| preciating in value enormously.
| Advances in freight and passenger
rates. in some instances greatly re-
tardins travel. have not been sufficient 70
enable the railroads to maintain their
dividends. hxed charges. taxes and
proper depreciation offsets.
The. public. long holding to rails
as the premier investment have
switched their interest into indus.
trial bonds and government Sc
curities. bank stocks and other in
subject to the thousand and one an
| noyances that the railroads have met
from time to time. in their dealings
/ with state commissions. tax asses
sors and rate makers. 70 say nothing
| of their own employees.
| The feeling in financial circles is
that no strike movement at this time
can hope for much success. that with
| the large number Of unemployed and
! the large number of victims of the
| so called outlaw strike" waiting
| to get back to work again, failure Is
! certain with the assurance Of even
| more severe cuts In wages. with In
| tent to lower rates. The argument Is
| that one cannot come down unless
| the other does
January /, 1917. when the govern
| ment took control Of the wages Of
\ railway employees, under the Adam
son act, the total annual wage was
$1,465.000,0e0. When the government
maze the last wage increase In 1920.
| IN ngures were increased to $685.,
| 600, 900 annually
on the railroad situation. makes the
following pertinent remarks:
Thus far II will be seen that the
J to provide adequate transportation
to the public, but TO return reasonable
earnings to the stockholders. This
can be effected only in one OF two
ways-by raising rates or by reduc-
ing expenses. The rate-raising plan
has been tried and proved q failure,
because even as raised. the expenses
OF the roads are SO high that they
cannot make adequate returns 70
their stockholders. and further. the
heavy burden upon industry anl
agriculture by reason of the undue
percentage which transportation
charges bear to prices at which COM
modities can be sold in the market.
This is claimed to have reduced trafic.
!
portionately curtailed.
The other alternative Is to reduce
expenses, and as 60 per cent Of the
expenses Of the railroads are due to
labor. the executives. In the interests
or the public and of their own Sc
curity holders. have undertaken to
get railroad wages down to . level
with other wages, and to get efhciency
Of employment up to a level with
that In effect In other businesses.
L q g.
leaders. has resisted this attempt OF
the roads to bring conditions down
to those normal in other industries,
and in order TO effect Its purpose of
maintaining high wages and inefi-
cient service when nearly all other
labor In the country has lowered its
charges. Eliminates its demands in .
| threat to strike.
What the railroad labor leaders
demand is that railway wages be kept
were forcibly projected by tho gov
! ernment labor board In July, 1890.
| at the height of the wild speculation
| and high prices OF that inflated period
These wages so raised; were much
time to all other industries, except
perhaps those in the building trade.
At about the time that these unwar-
ranted wage increases were ordered.
the imitation balloon had hegun to
lapse which has taken place since.
| with its accompaniment OF heavy
losses and severe industrial depres-
sion, has seen prices and wages in
many directions decline drastically.
The whole country today is suffering
from these iabor-pains OF readjust-
ment, but disregarding this the rail-
road labor leaders insist, no matter
! what may happen to others. that rail-
| road labor shall still be maintained
in the luxury of speculative boom
fiuesn