The Penn's Grove record., 1921-11-04

l9lS Z.4oHo
1920 0.32%
1t will thus be noted that during the
years when other industries were max
ing very large profits, when the prices
of farm products and the wages Of la
Dor were soaring to unheard-of heights,
the earnings upon railroad investment
In the United States were held within
very narrow limits and that they have
during the past four years progress
sively declined.
Roads Handicapped More Than Other
Business
2. The railroads are responsible to
the public for providing adequate
transportation. Their charges are linn
tied by public authority, and they are
in very large respects (notahly for la
bor) compelled to spend money on a
basis fixed by public authority. The
margin within which they are permit
ted to earn a return upon their invest
ment or to offer inducements to attract
new capital for extensions and better
ments is extremely limited. However
much the railroads might desire, there
fore, to reduce their charges in times
of depression, 1t will be perceived that
the limitations surrounding their &C
lion do not permit them to give effect
to broad and elastic policies which
might very properly govern other ines
of business not thus restricted.
1t has been urged upon the railroads
that a reduction in rates will stimu-
late traffic and that increased traffic
will protect the carriers from the loss
incident to a reduction in rates. The
railroad arrangements cannot disguise
from themselves that this suggestion is
merely cOntectural and that al adverse
result Of the experiment would he dis
astrous not only to the railroads, but
to the public, whose supreme need Is
adequate transportation. Consequently
the railroad arrangements cannot feel
justified in placing these inStrumentali-
ties. so essential to the public welfare,
at the hazard of such an experiment
based solely upon such a conjecture.
Farmers Especially Need Lower Rates
It is evident, however, that existing
transportation charges bear in many
q NAER4CEC-N E''NN
the prices at which commodities can be
sold in the market and that existing labor
and other costs of transportation thus
imposed upon industry and agriculture
generally a burden greater tina they
should bear. This is especially true OF
agriculture. The railroad managements
are feeling sensitive to and sympathetic
with the distressing situation and de-
sire to do everything to assist in reliev-
ing it that is compatible with their duty
to furnish the transportation which the
public must have.
At the moment railroads in many cases
are paying 40c. and hour for unskilled
labor when similar labor Is working along
side the railroads and can easily be OBJ
tanned by them at zoe. an hour. The
railroads of the country paid in 1920 a
total of considerably over 81, 800, 900. 900 to
unskilled labor alone. However desirable
it may be to pay this or that schedule
Of wages, II 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. and through them the
people generally, are also hampered in
their efforts to 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
road Labor Board. These conditions are
expensive, uneconomic and unnecessary
from the point of view Of railroad opera
ton and extremely burdensome upon the
public which pays the bill. This sched-
ule Of wages and of working conditions
prevents the railroads from dealing
equitably with their labor costs In &C
cordance with rapidly changing conditions
and the great variety of local considera-
tons which ought to control wages in
different parts of the country. The rail-
roads are seeking to have these rules and
working conditions ~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 posi-
BILE dispatch. and as soon as the Railroad
Labor Board shall have given It's assent
to the reduction Of wages the general
reduction in rates will be put into effect.