The Press., 1921-10-27

the years when other industries were making very large profits, when the prices of farm products and the wages of labor were soaring to unheard- o1 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 progressively declined.
 Roads Handicapped More Than Other
 Business
 2. The railroads are responsible to the public for providing adequate transportation. Their charges are linn, ited by public authority, and they are in very large respects (notably for la bOr) compelled to spend money on a basis fixed by public authority. The margin within which they are permit ted to earn return upon their invest ment or to offer inducements to at tract new capital for extensions and betterments is extremely limited However much the railroads might desire, therefore, to reduce their charges in times of depression, it will be perceived that the limitations sur rounding their action do not permit them to give effect to broad and elas- tic policies which might very properly govern other lines of business not thus restricted.
 It 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 ic I verse result of the experiment would be- disastrous not only to the rail roads, but to the public, whose su preme need is adequate transports tion. Consequently the railroad man agements cannot feel justified in pluc- ing these instrunientalities, so essen, tial to the public welfare, at the haZ- ard of such an experiment based sole ly upon such a conjecture.
 Farmers Especially Need Lower Rates.
 It is evident, however, that existing transportation charges bear in many cases a disproportiOnate relationship t. the prices at which comm Odities can b" sold in the market and that existing labor and other costs of transportation thus impose upon industry and agricultur generally a burden greater than they should bear. This is especially true Of agriculture. The railroad management are feeling sensitive to and sympatheti, 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 thu public must have.
 At the moment railroads in many case! are paying 4Oc. an hour for unskilIe. la bor when similar labor is working along side the railroads and can easily be ol
 
 railroads of the country paid in 1920 total of considerably over $1 300 900 900 unskilled labor alone. However desira u, it may be to pay this that schedu! of wages, it is obvious that it cannot paid out of railroad earnings unless th industries which use the railroads ar capable of meeting such charges
 The railroads, and through them th people generally, are also hampered their efforts to economize by a schedui of working rules and conditions now T. force as a heritage from the period Federal control and upheld by the H.;;I road Labor Board. These conditions ai expensive, uneconomic and unneces ST from the point of view of railroad opeIa tion and extremely burdensome upon t. public which pays the bill. This sch>d ule of wages and of working cOndit On. prevent the railroads from q ,.ln equitably with their labor costs in tr cordance with rapidly changing COZ! tions and the great variety of To al c;.r which ought to contro va in different parts of the country. The rlil roads are seeking to have these rules al4 working conditions abrogated
 The railroads will seek d reduction wages now proposed by first requeStiT the sanction of the Railroad Labor Rl.s's. The railroads will proceed with all bnsii ble dispatch. and as soon as the R"iiro. Labor Board shall have given it's asset to the reduction of wages the genera Seduction in rates will be put into effe,t