The New York herald., 1921-12-27
How America Can Come Back.


Next week will see very material
tightening of the country's colossal
bulk of transportation burdens. The
Government tax on freight. passen-
ger and express business has been
taking out OF the public's pocket IN
round numbers million dollars
every working day in the year. On
Saturday this tax ends.
This cutting Of the national trans
portation bill by some thre" hundred
millions of dollars year In tho sim
gle tax item does not cover all the
relief which Is almost Immediately
in store for country whose vast dis
tances. myriad products and repeated
rehandlings Of all materials, raw and
finished, make the free and natural
flow of national traffic as vital thing
as the circulation of blood in the
arteries of man. In addition to the
repeal Of the transportation tax there
will be freight rate cuts on farm
products, lumber and other basic
products which figure instantly and
incessantly in the industry, trade and
bread and butter of the American
people.
Estimates vary as to what the vol
untary rate reductions made and
making by tho railroads will amount
to In the early part Of the new year
as compared with the latter part Of
this year now coming to close. But
good railroad Judgment puts IL un-
der anything like normal Industrial
activity and distribution, at not less
than another three hundred millions
Of dollars. Undoubtedly too the In
terstate Commerce Commission will
gradually but steadily lower other
rates which are now shackling both
production and distribution. Be-
yond all that, the railroads ask
for another wage readjustment, the
whole of such saving in operating
expenses to be applied to still further
traff1c rate reductions.
If the railway operating expenses
are thus brought down by something
like another three hundred millions
and the needs Of the country demand
that it shall be rather more than less
than that amount at the earliest pos
sible moment-the transportation
bill of the American people may very
easily stand in 1922 billion dollars
lower than It stood in 1921.
The meaning Of a billion dollars
a year saved In transportation costs
for the American people is not to be
expressed merely in the $40 year
average for every man, woman and
child in the United States and the
$50 a year average for every family.
1t is true that the direct saving for
every family will be equivalent to
presenting to 1t the income Of a
thousand dollar Liberty bond and even
more--and not many American house.
holds would fail to welcome the gift
of perpetual income of 5 per cent.
on a one thousand dollar bond held in
trust for them. But the smallest part
Of the benefit which can come to the
American public from such a re-
duced transportation bill will be
that average of $50 to every family.
The greater gain, the incalculable
gain. can be in the stimulation which
should be given to the economic
heart Of the nation; the now un-
profitable yield Of the soil that can
go to market on fairer terms, the
now silent industrial machinery that
can throb, the now idle workers that
can be put on the payroll--the old
American energy. vigor and am
bition that can get busy again.
This country must face the new
year with the high resolve that all
costs of doing business, like the cost
of transporting 1t, shall get down to
the right basis where America can
come back.