The New York herald., 1921-11-18
A Rate Drop in the Bucket.


The announced railroad rate cut
Of 10 per cent. on farm products may
mean to the shipper only few dol
lars a carload saved on his grain,
vegetables or live stock. But it
means to the carriers S55,000,000 a
year less on that business. The
freight reductions already put into
effect by the roads are estimated to
run between $175, 100000 and $780,
100000 year. When the agricul-
tural rate revisions actually are made
the whole reduction may be not far
from S250,00000 a year.
A quarter Of a billion OF dollars
would make towering pile of gold.
1t is $50,000,000 more than the esti-
mated annual savings to the United
States from scrapping capital ships
under the Hughes armament plan.
But a quarter OF billion Of dollars
"a year is only a dent in the stupen-
dous mass of transportation charges
L W AAANAL bctNO bCClA BllSQ upOh tilC
American public. The figures, as
represented by total operating reve-
nues, went up from an average Of
less than three billions of dollars
annually for the three year period
before the war to total in 1920 Of
more than six billions of dollars.
The $55,000,00O reduction on food
products and the possible $250,000,-
600 reduction on all traffic, therefore,
are nothing more than a beginning
of the pairing away which must be
Ydone on the three billions of dollars
added to the public's transportation
bills in half dozen years. To achieve
ianything like the required liquidation
4 of transportation there will have to
come off the freight and passenger
4 charges series Of rate reductions in
blocks OF hundreds of millions Of dol
lars each. Nobody who looks at the
annual statements of the Class 1
roads can have the least doubt that
il they are to get three billions OF
dollars off the traffic charges, or two
billions off, or only single billion
off, the carriers can cut the amount
only out Of the operating expenses.
But if the railroads of the United
Sta tes in 1920 had got such of their
ope -ating expenses as fuel for moth
fling, If they had got their materials
/ and supplies for nothing, If they had
4 not had to pay dollar of insurance
! or loss and damage-if the railroads
| in, 1920 had not had to pay out a
Y solitary red cent for a single thing
bat labor and taxes those two items
/, Dc labor and taxes would have taken
nearly four billions Of dollars. The
iexact expenditures were: Labor,
| l$9,e9S, ,216,351; taxes, S27S,S6S,66
4 total for both, SS,977, ,0S5,019.
There is no cheerful idiocy quite so
fdiotic as to think that, even If the
railroads did not pay dividends to
the stockholders or interest on the
money they have borrowed, they
could get their material and sup
plies for nothing, or their fuel for
nothing, or their insurance for moth
/ ing, &c. But If they cut their coal
I bills in half from S673,000,000 in
1920; if they cut their material and
supplies in half from more than
$1,000, 100000 in 1920: if they cut in
half what they had to pay in 1920
for loss and damage, injuries to per-
sons, insurance, hire of equipment,
joint facility rents, depreciation and
retirements, from some S400,000,-
I OO0-if they could cut all those costs
OF 1920 dozvn from $4,000, 900 in
round numbers to $1,000, 10000, still
this sum With the 1920 taxes Of nearly
/ 5000, ,O00, ,O00,and the 1920 payrolls Of
! $3,7OO, ,O00, ,0d0, less the recent IL per
cent. wage production, would require
| total operating revenues-transporta-
tion charges against the public-of
! more than four and half billions Of
dollars. And this would be more by
at least a billion dollars than the
AM erican public ought to stand or
can stand.
There is no way to make the rail-
roads self-supporting while getting
THO rates down to the level they mus5
hch before the public can generally
aid materially benefit except to cut
the labor costs, along with every
, other operating cost. and let these
sdvings go into freight and passen-
ger reductions.
Sons and Daughters Of Civility.