New-York tribune., 1921-06-02
Relief, but No Cure

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The II per cent wage reduction
Is expected to add S400,0oo,000 an
nually to railway net income. An
additional S3o0,00o, 600 is anticipated
from the elimination of the waste Of
the national agreement. A saving of
S700,000,000 should be enough to
keep the railroads going.
But mistake will be made If the
public is drugged into thinking the
railway problem is solved. To pro-
vide the betterments the demand for
which is to grow stronger more is i'm
dispensable. Railway credit must be
restored.
The public, through a long series
of years, has not dealt justly with
the owners Of railway property, and
has suffered the consequences Of its
injustice. For fifty years the rail
ways were petted. Bonuses, land
grants, all sorts Of inducements
were offered to secure their con-
struction. No one dreamed that rail-
road Investment, if made in good
faith, could become unsafe.
In the SOS a change in public
attitude occurred. Spectators gam
bled in railway securities, sometimes
winning and sometimes losing, and
these spectators were reckoned
owners. 1t was said that it was nee
essary to establish public control.
The railway managers used corrupt
methods to avert it. This gave an
other ground for attack. The result
was the Hepburn act. This took
away from the railways control over
rates, and then, under the McAdoo
regime, control over wages was also
taken away. Thus, with practically
nothing to say as to either income or
outgo, the railways were rapidly
swept toward Niagara.
Not only was private initiative de-
stroyed by denying to it due reward,
but what was tantamount to confis-
cation was decreed. Hundreds Of
thousands Of savers of the worthiest
class found themselves possessed of
securities Of shrinking price. The
tragedy of the average railway in
vestor has never been adequately de-
scribed. Other property went up.
His declined. In ten years land,
buildings and plants have doubled in
value. The railway owners possess
sions have been helved. Is it strange
he is averse to sending good money
after bad?
In former days, when railway in
yestment was not penalized, the pub
lie, decade by decade, saw rates
lower and service improve. When
paralyzing hand fell on the business
and there was no profit in doing
specially well came retrogression.
There is the Ole, old lesson that it
does not pay to shackle capacity.
The country may again expect to
be satisfactorily served when the best
managed railway makes the most
money and this is considered cred
liable to its managers. To treat
symptoms is wei. enough, but it is
wiser to strike at the roots of dis
ease. Liberty Of action is the press
ing need of the railways. The great
er part of the regulating legislation
which Congress and forty-eight
legislatures have enacted must be
swept from the statute books. As to
our most vital industry we have been
guilty Of violating natural law.
The chief value Of the Labor
Boards decision is not in the imme-
diate hope it holds out but in it's in
dication of a basic change of opinion
with respect to the railways. 1t does
not turn the railroads loose to work
out their own destiny, but it sug-
gests q weakening in TIE official
habit Of assuming that the railways
are always wrong.