The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1921-10-28
RATE OF RETURN EARNED BY RAIL
ROADS OF THE UNITED STATES
ON THEIR PROPERTY I'M.
VESTMENT

1915 .....s..... .............,... 4209o
1915 Fiscal year, .........!... 5000
| 1915 calendar Year, ........s 6.16N
1917 .......,......... 5.26Ts
| 1918 .......s............. 3.51%
1919 ..................... 2.46go
1920 Observation-Disclosures. 0.32%
1t will thus be noted that during the
years when other Industries were max
Ing very large profits, when the prices
Of farm products and the wages of la
Dor were soaring to unheard Of heights,
the earnings upon railroad investment
In the United States were held within
very narrow limits and that they have
during the past four years progress
sively declined.
Roads Handicapped More Than other
Business
2. The railroads are responsible to
the public for providing adequate
transportation. Their charges are linn
tied by public authority, and they are
In very large respects (notably for la
bor) compelled to spend money on
basis fixed by public authority The
margin Within which they are permit
! ted 70 earn return upon their invest
ment or to offer inducements to attract
new capital for extensions and better
! ments is extremely limited However
much the railroads might desire, there
| fore, to reduce their charges In times
of depression, II will be perceived that
the limitations surrounding their action
do not permit them TO give effect to
broad and elastic policies which might
very properly govern other lines Of
business not thus restricted.
II has been urged upon the railroads
that reduction in rates will stimu-
late traffic and that Increased traffic
4 will protect the carriers from the loss
incident to q reduction In rates. The
railroad arrangements cannot disguise
from themselves that this suggestion
Is merely conjectnral and that an adj
verse result of the experiment would
be disastrous not only to the railroads,
but to the public, whose supreme need
is adequate transportation,
Consequently the railroad manage
ments cannot feel justified in placing
these instrumentalities, so essential to
the public welfare, at the hazard OF
such an experiment based solely upon
such conjecture.
rarnaers Especially Need Lower Rates
~ IN NfldthN, IONENtAs lilul. GAlStluS
transportation charges bear In many
cases disproportionate relationship
10 the prices at which commodities can
be sold in the market and that existing
labor and other costs of transportation
thus imposed upon industry and agrl-
culture generally are burden greater
than they should bear This is especi-
ally true of agriculture. The railroad
arrangements are feeling sensitive to
and sympathetic wirh the distressing
situation and desire TO do everything
to assist in relieving II that Is compat-
ible with their duty to furnish the
transportation which the public must
have.
At the moment railroads ia many
cases are paying 40 cents an hour for
unskllled labor when similar labor is
working alongside the railroads and
can easily be obtained by them at &c
cents an hour. The railroads of the
country paid in 1920 a total of consid.
erahly over 81, 300,000,o00 to unskilleC
labor alone. However desirable 1t may
wages, 1t is obvious that it cannot be
paid out of railroad earnings, unless
the industries Which use the railroads
are capable of meeting such charges.
The railroads, and through them the
people generally, are also hampered in
their efforts to eeonomize by a SEIZED
ule of working rules and conditions
now In force as heritage from the
period of federal control and upheld
: by the railroad labor board. These
conditions are expensive, uneeonomit
and unnecessary from the point OF
view of railroad operation and extreme
; ly burdensome upon the public which
pays the bill This schedule of wage;
and of working conditions prevents the
: railroads from dealing equitably will
: their labor costs in accordance will
rapidly changing conditions and tn,
great variety OF local consideration
which ought to control wages in diff
ferent parts of the country. The rail
roads are seeking to have these rule
!, and working conditions abrogated.
The railroads will seek a reduction
In wages now proposed by first re
> questing the sanction of the railroat
: labor board The railroads win pro
e coed with all possible dispatch, and a
y soon as the railroad labor board shal
0 have given its assent to the reductiol
e Of wages the general reduction in rate
via be put into effect.