The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-02-19
COMPLICATED PROBLEM.

! While government funds are attenu'
ated and lawmakers are searching
| about for forms Of taxation to meet
accruing deficits, it comes with poor
grace from specially favored interests
to offer new and importunate demands
for largcss from the national treasury.
Yet that is exactly what the railroads
are doing. Lobbyists and managers
are in Washington in great force urg-
| ing congress to enact laws requiring
the secretary Of the treasury to pay
to them without further delay more
than four hundred millions Of dollars
! which they claim is due under the
guaranty provisions Of the Cummins-
Esch law.
During the first six months Of private
operation the government was pre-
sented with a. bill Of $657 200, 900 to
| cover losses sustained by the railroads
under private management. It is stated
BY spokesmen for the railroads that
claims aggregating more than 100000.
900 are ready for presentation to tho
government, and that additional claims
will come over a period Of many years.
Nobody will attempt to estimate just
what it is going to cost the nation
meeting the greedy demands of the
railroad interests.
More than $250,o00, 900 has already
been paid to the railroads, and they
want at least $4o0,ooo;Ooo with which
to pay their bills, including dividends.
Thomas Dewitt Cuyler, chairman Of
the Railway Executives Association,
told house committee that the Cum
mins-Esch bill guaranteed returns on
investment, and that unless the govern
ment provides the cash it will be i'm
possible to pay this return. A bill has
been prepared and now ponds before
congress authorizing and directing the
treasurer to pay over this sum without
delay.
The treasury is empty and the gov
eminent is hobbling along by hypothe.
eating it's notes. To meet the exac-
tions of the railroads it will be neces~
sary to negotiate new loans from the
big bankers, at rates Of interest not
less than six per cent. It thus hap
pens that the people not only give
their money, but are compelled to pay
interest on their gift.
This incident gives a fair illustra-
ton of how affairs are managed by
government in the interest of Big
Business.
| First, the government goes to the
bankers and borrows $400000,000 at,
say, 6 per cent. The money is then
turned back to the bankers from whom
it was borrowed, because these bank
ers own the railroads. The bankers
make a bookkeeping entry transferring
the money to the railroads, and an
other bookkeeping transaction turning
it back to themselves, as owners Of
the supply and equipment concerns to
whom the railroads owe money.
This may seem like a lot of bust
ness, but the money really never leaves
the banks vaults. All that happens
in the various manipulations Of the
$400,000,000 fund is that the govern.
ment becomes obligated to pay interest
upon it.
! When railroad presidents and lobby
lists were demanding their pound Of
flesh they were asked if it was not
going a little too far to make the
people furnish money with which to
pay dividends when the farmers are
bankrupt, when millions of workers are
disemployed and thousands Of small
business men are being cleaned out.
A few members Of the committee
thought that under the stress of I'M
usual conditions the railroads should
withhold their demands, that all in
terests might suffer together.
But the railroad people could not
see it that way. They argued thas
congress had assumed moral and legal
obligation when it guaranteed railroad
earnings, and that it would reflect
upon the credit and good faith of the
government if it does not promptly
pay its debts. Congress, Of course, is
quite willing to give tho railroads
everything they demand, and it is 60
ing to approve pending Legislation
without delay. The people will learn
in the next week or two who owns
congress.
| The farmers also have asked for
relief, and millions of workers have
urged that some consideration be given
to their difficulties, but congress
moves with that exasperating deliber-
alton that is characteristic Of it. But
when the railroads tell their hard luck
story and put in a requisition for q
half billion dollars, committees are