Hermanner Volksblatt. [volume] (Hermann, Mo.) 1875-1928, 1921-10-28
RATE OF RETURN EARNED
BY RAILROADS OF THE
UNITED STATES ON
THEIR PROPERTY
INVESTMENT,

II Will thus be noted that during
the years when other industries were
making very large profits, when the
prices OF farm products and the wages
OF labor were soaring to unheard ot
heights, the earnings upon railroad
investment in the United States were
hello within very narrow limits and
that they have during the past four
years progressively declined.
Roads Handicapped More Than Other
Business.
2. The railroads are :.
the public for providing adequate
transportation. Their charges arc
limited by public authority, and thew
are in very large respects (notably
for labor compelled TO spend money
on n basis fixed by public authority
The margin within which they ara
permitted TO earn a return upon their
investment or to offer Inducements 10
attract new capital for extensions and
betterments is extremely limited
However much the railroads might
desire, therefore, 70 reduce their
charges in times of depression, It will
he perceived that the limitations SIR.
rounding their action 10 not hermit
them to give effect to broad and
elastic policies which might very
properly govern other lines of bust.
ness not thus restricted.
IT has been urged upon the rail.
roads taht a reduction in rates will
roads that a reduction in rates will
stimulate traffic and that increased
traffic will protect the carriers from
the loss incident to a reduction in
rates. The railroad managements
cannot disguise from themselves that
this suggestion is merely coniectural
and that an adverse result of the ex.
pertinent would be disastrous not
only to the railroads, but to the pub.
lie, 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 a conjecture.
Farmers Especially Need Lower Rates
1t is evident. however, that existing
transportation charges bear in many
cases a disproportionate relationship
to the prices at which commodities
can be sold in the market and that
existing labor and other costs of trans
portation thus imposed upon industry
and agriculture generally a burden
greater than they should bear. This
Is especially true Of agriculture. The
railroad arrangements are feeling
sensitive to and sympathetic with the
distressing situation and desire to do
everything to assist in relieving It that
is compatible with their duty to fur,
nish the transportation which the
public must have.
At the moment railroads in many
cases are paying Acc an hour for un-
skilled labor when similar labor Is
working alongside the railroads and
car easily be obtained by them at zoe
an hour. The railroads of the coun.
try paid in 1920 a total Of consider
ably over 1900, 900 900 to unskilled
labor alone. However desirable it
may be to pay this or that schedule
Of wages, it 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.. ard through them the
people generally, are also hampered in
their efforts t? economic by a schedule
Of working rules and conditions now in
force as a heritage from the period of
Federal control and upheld by the Rail-
read Labor Board. These conditions are.
expensive, uneconomic and unnecessary
from the point of view Of railroad opera-
tion and extremely burdensome upon the
public which pays the bill. This schedule
of wages and OF working conditions pre-
vents the railroads from dealing equItably
with their labor costs In accountance with
rapidly changing conditions and the great
variety of local considerations which
ought to control wages in different parts
of the country. The railroads are seeking
to nave these rules and working condi-
lions abrogated.
The railroads will seek a reduction in
wages now proposed by first requesting
the sanction of the Railroad Labor Board.
The railroads will proceed with all poS-
sible dispatch, and as soon as the Rail-
road Labor Board shall nave given it's
assent to the reduction of wages the gan-
eral reduction in rates will b put Ina