The Washington times., 1921-05-23
RAILROAD CRISIS
Up TO DATE HAS
DEF|ED SOLUTION
Evidence Put In BY Managers Is
Simple But Ineffective, Nor
man Hapgood Finds.
By NORMAN HAPGOOD.

The railroad crisis has not been
brought nearer to any real solution
by the evidence SO far put in before
the Cummins Committee. The case OF
the railroad managers. as far as they
care to disclose II, has been simple,
and leads nowhere.
Frank Walsh has asked cross-ex-
animation of the managers, and has
received a promise that the witnesse
can be recalled and cross examined
later.
One ever-present dificulty is that
the railroads keep their accounts
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 q statement
purporting to show that they made
money in March. For all that ap-
pears they may actually have lost
money.
CAN SEE COST AHEAD.
Maintenance is from SO to 40 per
roads. Within reasonable limits 1t IL
possible to tell ahead how much this
big item comes to. On any genuine
system of accounting a maintenance
Charge would appear every month.
based on the yearly total. whether the
money was actually spent or not.
BY showing in their statement net
the permanent maint enance cost In
its proper proportion, but only the
money that happens to have been *
pended, the roads are using system
of accounting that is meaningless.
By spending lot Of money on main
tenance in a particular month they
can show a loss IL they have MADE
a gain. By undermainta aiming for
month they can show gain where
they actually had loss.
OF course. what is true on monthly
statements is true on yearly state
ments or quarterly statements. Erte
roads probably know less about their
own business than any other OF or
large enterprises.
RIDICULE WILL BE EASY.
When 1t comes to cross-examinattou
these fundamentals ought to Ce
brought out. The case of the roads
as presented will be easy to turn into
ridicule. 1t amounts to this:
'.In order to enable us to make
money we request that the Govern
ment establish toll gates everywhere
W tHc COst VI B"N~S
by automobile trucks.
I'VE request that rates be increased
through the Panama Canal to help
us get freight away from the ships.
We request that interior waterways
be abandoned. or the prices forced up
to reach our level"
That sort OF a case can hardly be
taken seriously. And when IL comes
to the contest over wages there is
another chance to go to the bottom
instead OF skating about disputing
over merely temporary things. Let
US look at this.
Whether the roads pay OF not de-
pends. more than on any other one
thing on the amount OF coal they
carry. II there are $50. 900 men and
their families put out OF employment
by the shutting down of coal mines
II is not only a Disgrace to our civili-
xation. incidentally il makes impos-
sible a profitable running OF the rail-
roads
What is the use OF forcing a few
more millions out Of the United States
Treasury, or throwing men out OF
employment. or cutting their wages,
IL you make no effort to get at the
root of the trouble.
The roads make their maintenance
en0rts IN nush tiTnes' ihey uuoer-
maintain in dead times. which is when
they ought to do this work particular
ly. Today they are turning thousands
of NEE of who ought to be repairing
old cars.
The railroads consume from one
quarter to one-third of the coal used.
Do they and the mine owners sit up
nights arranging that the supply Of
coal shall be made even throughout
the year? They could do 1t II they
took the same interest in production
and rational service that they do in
methods of showing
profts.
There are experts now in the en-
ploy of the Government, and other
experts recently in the employ of the
who could do some high
class cross-examining along these
lines Senator Cummins might invite