The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1921-05-25
RAIL CRISIS is
STILL UNSOLvED
Do NOT GET AT
THE ROOT OF THE TROU-
BILE.

Washington, May 25.-The rail-
road crisis has not been brought
nearer to any real solution by the
evidence so far put in before Cum
Minis committee. The case of the
railroad managers as far as they
care to disclose it, has been simple,
and leads nowhere. Frank Walsh
has asked permission to cross exam
inc the managers and has received
a promise that the witnesses can be
recalled and cross examined later.
One ever present difficulty is that
the railroads keep their books in
such way that nobody can tell
what the actual costs are and there
fore nobody can tell whether or not
they are making or losing money.
The roads have put out a statement
purporting to show that they made
money in March. For all that ap-
pears they may actually have lost
money.
Maintenance is from 35 to 40 per
cent of the cost of running the rail-
roads. Within reasonable limits it
is possible to tell ahead how much
this big item comes to. On any gem
uine system of accounting a mainten-
ance charge would appear every
month, based on the yearly total,
whether the money was actually
spent or not.
BY showing on their statement not
the permanent maintenance costs in
it's proper proportion, but only the
money that happens to have been ex-
pended, the roads are using a sys-
tenn of accounting that is meaning
less. BY spending a lot of money
on maintenance in particular
month they can show loss if they
have made gain. By under main
tanning for the month they can show
a gain where they actually had
loss.
OF course, what is true on month
ly statements is true on yearly
statements or quarterly statements.
The roads probably know less about
their own business than any other
of our large enterprises.
When it comes to cross eXamina-
ton, these fundamentals ought to be
brought out. The case of the roads
as presented will be easy to turn in
TO ridicule.
1t amounts to this:
''In order omake money we
request that the government es-
tablish toll gates everywhere
to increase the cost of carry
ing goods by automobile trucks
I'VE request rates be increas-
ed through the Panama canal
to help us to get freight from
the ship. We request that in
terror waterways be abandoned,
or the prices forced up to reach
our level"
That sort of case can hardly be
taken seriously. And when it comes
to the wages there is another chance
to go to the bottom instead of skat-
ing about. Let us look at this.
Whether the roads pay or not de-
pends more than on any other one
thing on the amount of coal they
y.
and their families put out of en-
ployment by the shutting down of
coal mines, it is not only disgrace
to our civilization, incidentally
it makes impossible profitable
running of the railroads.
What is the use of forcing few
more millions out of the United
States treasury, or throwing men
out of employment, or cutting their
wages, if you make no effort to get
at the root of the trouble. The roads
make their maintenance in flush
times. They under maintain in dead
times. Today they are turning thou
sands of men off who ought to be re-
pairing old cars.
There are experts now in the en-
ploy of the government, and other
experts recently in the employ of the
government who could do some high
class examining along these lines.
Senator Cummins might invite
T.