The Cordova daily times., 1921-05-31
REDUCTION OF FREIGHT RATES
 BADLY NEEDED
BY COL. WINFIELD JONES

WAof1lNGlO JUN, May 31.-(SpeCial Correspondence) The people are de- manding that freight rates be reduced. They are voicing their wishes in this respect in no uncertain terms. They have right to do it. The thing to do is to bring them down and there should be no unreasonable delay in doing it, But there can be no sub- stantial reduction in rates until there is substantial reduction in operating expenses, the wages paid to railroad employees must be reduced from the high war level Also prices of coal and steel must come down.
 Substantial reduction in prices of coal and steel have been announced. w. Jett Lauck, economist for railway employees, is quoted as having said re- gently in an exhibit before the rail road labor board that the falling prices on coal and steel would save the rail roads $2O0OOO,OOO in coal bills, and $400, 100000 in steel bills during the coming year. Lauck uses the figures, however, as an argument against re- .duction in the wages of railroad en- ployes. The people are entitled to d
 large reduction in freight rates than
 mere economies in purchase of coal
 and steel. There must be economies
 put into effect all along the line, so that a real substantial reduction in rates will be possible. A mere reduc- tiOn of 5 or 10 per cent would be of very little value. The railroad labor
 board is now hearing both sides of the wage controversy.
 The railroad labor board is a crea- ture of congress and it would be en- tirely proper for congress to call upon it to act, in the event there should
 be any unreasonable delay. The freight rate reduction business is an urgent
 matter, and congress cannot afford to allow it to draw out an unreason- able length of time. Reduction in coal, steel, and wages is not enough. Compensation paid to officers and d- rectors should also come down in pro- portion. Some of the railroads have already announced and put into effect such reductions, and they are to be commended for doing it. Other car riers have not, and they should be compelled to follow. There has been just criticism in the past that the salaries and compensation of the of ficials and directors of some of the railroads were entirely too high. There should be some power to check abuses in that respect. Representa- tive Black of Texas, has introduced a bill requiring any carrier to get the consent of the interstate commerce commission before it can pay a salary in excess of 900 per annum. Black does not contend that there should be rigid limit that no higher salary than $15,000 be paid for no doubt there are railway executives of more than usual ability who are worth a greater sum than $15,O00 per annum. But it is the abuse which must be guarded against and therefore veto power on unreason- able salary expenditure should be lodged in some public body. The inter- state commerce commission is the proper place to put this power.
 It is a notorious fact that many rail- way executives, some drawing salar- ies from $25,oOO to s15O,0OO per year, are overpaid. This money comes out of high freight and passenger rates, paid by the people. During the gov ernment control of the roads during the war the salary abuse was particu- larly noticeable. It is logical to say that the wages of the employees in the mass have to come down. big salaries of the higher paid executives should also be reduced.
 l Freight and passenger rates have to come down before the country can secure the normalcy that MT. Harding talks about. These reductions cannot
 be made until operating expenses are
 reduced, and the first thing to do to reduce operating expenses is to reduce wages and salaries.
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