The New York herald., 1921-09-28
Rail Rates to Come Down.

Rail Rates to Come Down.
What The New York HERALD has
iterated and reiterated since the
economic readjustment began about
the excessive and oppressive Ameri-
can transportation bills General AT
rERBURY, vice-president OF operation
OF the great Pennsylvania Railway
system, corroborates with emphasis.
He declares that rates must come
down II 1t Is not voluntary 1t will
be forced by legislation"
But he might just as we'll have
stated the inevitable In another way,
as follows: Rates must come down.
IL this is not forced by legislation 1t
will be forced by the laws Of self
preservation"
The rates cannot stay up. where
they are, because they are divcrting
or killing traffic that must flow on
the rails, or the roads themselves can
not live as efficient transportation
machines and even solvent business
institutions.
Ii Congress did not breathe word
about rate reductions and II the In
terstate Commerce Commission did
not suggest as much change in a
transportation tariff as the crossing
Of IT" or the dotting Of an "p the
railroads themselves would not fail
to press for such reductions sooner
or later in an effort to regain the
business which is necessary to their
very existence. They are doing that
very thing now In certain classified.
tions where the traffic is drying up
simply because it cannot stand or
will not pay tax.
But the rates never can be reduced
generally and to the extent they must
be reduced to serve the country's
commerce and preserve the carriers
traffic without corresponding reduc.
tions in the operating costs Of the
railroads.
And the only room for any worth
while saving OF operating costs that
would be reflected in adequately low
cred traffic rates is in the still largely
inflated payrolls. When the payrolls
eat upsthe great bulk of the carriers
gross revenues there is no place else
to go for the relief which is neces-
sary to the business Of the country
and the support OF the roads.
AS a matter of fact the operating
expenses right now are held down
where they are only by what might
be called policy OF suicide. Main
tenance expenses-on repair and re-
newal OF rolling stock. the upkeep Of
roadbeds, bridges, and the like are
cut to the bone. But II the roads do
not keep their cars and locomotives
in fit operating condition the time
will soon come when they cannot
properly handle what traffic there is
and cannot handle 1t at anything but
heavy loss. II they do not ade-
Quately maintain the rails and ties
and ballast--the railway founda-
tions--it will not be long before the
whole transportation machine will
fall to pieces.
General ATTERBuRy's blunt warn.
ing of what is coming deserves re-
peating here. as follows:
"There Is only one solution to the
problem, and that Is liquidation.
How will It affect US? Well the
farmers say, 1--WE have liquidated, and
The Industries say they too have
liquidated. They say steel IS selling
al pre-war prices, for example. But
there are two outstanding features
In liquidation that are not yet ma
ter.ally touched-these are coal and
transportation"
And tho cost OF coal, Of course, is
nearly all labor-Iabor at the mine,
in the transportation and In the
final handling OF the coal. So when
the economic knife goes into the In.
flated wage costs Of the still unllqui-
dated coal it will make for heavily
reduced expenditures by the railroads
which are by mr. the biggest con-
sumers of coal in the country. And
every dollar so saved should come of
the traffic charges to the public.
Architects OF future police stations
will please gee to 1t that the inspec-
tors Office has room for a stock ticker.