The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-03
A NEW DOCTOR NEEDED.

ttion heads that the country is sick.
It is. 1t is suffering from hardening
of the arteries. Commerce is the life
blood of the nation and the railroads
are the nations Arteries. The patients
calculation is clogged- UP and the ply
tsicians-the Interstate commerce COM
mission and the railroad labor board
l-saem unable to give relief,
For some time these arteries of our
domestic commerce have been grow
ing increasingly burdensome, and the
inability of shippers to meet the high
rates, required by the CARRIERS has at
least contributed to the shrinkage in
traffic that has sent 100000 freight
ears, empty, to sidings. Even when
business thruout the United States was
good, buying liberal, and prices high,
a year ago. transportation costs abb
sorbed a large part of the country S
business profits; today, with business
curtailed and prices down, transporta-
ton costs have in some instances as
sumed so prohibitive a relationship to
other costs as actually to forbid the
shipment of goods.
Speaking before the American Farm
Bureau federation at Washington re-
the whole railroad rate structure
needed consideration as to its bearing
on our future national life, and con-
tinued:
UNLESS we can look forward to
some drop in rates, we shall rewrite
the whole industrial geography of the
United States. Railroad rates bear an
Intricate relationship to our national
prosperity, and unless they are low
cred quickly there will be a decided
shifting of agricultural industry"
The rate on a bushel of grain is so
cents from Missouri to New York, as
against 10 cents from Argentina to
New York, a condition that would, if
continued, according to Mr.. Hoover.
Change the granary base from the
central states of the west to foreign
shores Illustrations from the man
ufacturing industries as well as from
agriculture might be cited to show the
baneful effect of high rates, and null
tiplied many times. Railroad rates at
their present level constitute not only
a great obstacle to normal business,
but. as Mr.. Hoover has pointed out,
threaten a relocation of the country's
industrial geography.
The situation presents a disturbing
picture, and, unfortunately, relief is
not promised by any warm co-opera-
tive effect between the railroads and
their employees. Both sides apparent
ly agree that drop in railroad rates
is necessary. but both sides differ as
to the means for bringing the drop
about. On the side of the operators it
is held that the first step must be a
reduction in railroad running ex-
penses that involves increasing the eff
ficiency of the individual workman
and cutting the rate of his pay. On
the side of the workmen it is held
that the first step involves a greater
application of operating skill, an elm
ination OF operating waste. and a re-
with capable control.
However justified may be the crit
icisms OF the railroad labor unions
that those in charge of running the
countrys railroads are responsible for
the existing burden of transportation
costs-they have submitted specifica-
tions and explanations for what they
charge to be a rail waste of a billion
dollars year-there is no denying the
bulky contribution that wages have
come to supply to that burden. Rail
road payrolls have been increased two
: billion dollars thru the wage advances
of the last three years; 60 cents of the
railroad dollar. 1t is alleged, now goes
into the pocket of the employe, the
remaining 40 cents going principally
/, for coal, lumber and steel. Wages
t have made such a hole In the earnings
/ of the carriers that the advance in
= transportation rates granted by the
I interstate commerce commission last
= year, simultaneous with the increase
e in wages then allowed by the railroad
= labor board, failed utterly to carry the
r railroads out of the mire of their ex-
. penses.
All thru the country there has been
e a widespread lowering of wages and
= the cost of commodities has fallen In
r various parts of the country. If there
e was justification for advancing wages
y and rates last year, there is the same
1 justification for lowering them now;
. and were railroad costs immediately
e responsive. like other costs, to the law
e of supply and demand, both wages and
e rates would today be below their ex-
+ listing level.
Z But both are subject to arbitrary
S control. The railroad labor board has
e been sitting in Chicago for some time
d considering the question of wages
= and action by that board is declared
n to be Indispensable if the railroads
It are to respond to the call that has
been made upon them to lower theiI
n rates. At the same time the interstate
+ commerce commission sits in Wash.