The Connecticut labor news., 1922-11-17
The Problem That Will Not Down: The Problem That Calls for SolH-
 ton and Will Continue to Call.
By LEVI STEVENS LEWIS.

Passenger income in
 3o5 days --------------------- $I2, ,ooo,ooo, ,ooo Freight income in 365
 days --------- - 3o,24o,ooo ,ooo Mail income --------. -------- z84,8oo, ,ooo Express income .- I,56Q. GOO 900 All other transportation
 income -------------.---------- 2,354,4oo. .ooo Total transportation in
 come for I2 months-$55, ,o48, Soc, 900 Cost of transportation
 5oRo of income 2z,oz4,4oo. .ooo Net profit for I2 months ---------.--------~------- 27,o74,4oo 900 For the present we will leave the prodigious sum of incorporating in come entirely out of the calculation not because 1t IS inconsiderabte Gas matter of fact 1t Is enormeus) but there IS no reliable data that indi- cates even approximately, how much it Is, and further, for present pur- poses 1t IS unnecessary to know.
 As the annual reports of the In- terstate Commerce Commission indi- cates the yearly passenger income of all lines in the United States has as one-tenth of $I2,ooo, ,ooo, ,ooo, on what grounds than can the claim that it Is really not less than $I2,ooo, ,ooo,- oooa year be based? On the indisput- |able ground that official railway re- ports in general are invariably made VIGOROUSLY INCORRECT and therefore that NO RELIANCE WHATEVER" can be placed on such reports for practical purposes. See Senate document Number s, (N. Y.) 1855. A non-partisan, non-of1clal "fact finding commission" such as recommended by the Guaranty Trust Company, of New York some few years ago, will have no difficulty in finding the fact that the passenger in come is not less than $I2,ooo, ,ooo, ,ooo year. !
 On what basis of fact then does the statement that the annual freig ght revenue is not less than $3o, ,24o, ,ooos GOO rest? The freight traffic during the four calendar years (IoI6-IoIo) the latest complete reports accessible to the public, is precisely 327.28 per cent #of the passenger traffic income according to the reports of the Inter state Commerce Commission. Three hundred and twenty-seven per cent of $I2,ooo, 100000 is $3o,24o. .ooo,oee
 And the other sources of revenue
 
 the same rule. The mail income dur ing the four-year period. (IoIo-I91o) is about two per cent of the freight income; the express income about four per cent, and all other trans portatoin income about six per cent. On this basis of computation the Thus the combined income from mail, oH of revenue, including the income from dining car service, sleeping car ser vice, storage of freight, storage of baggage, demurrage, excess baggage, etc, all combined, is about I2 per cent of the freight income.
 Can any other corroborative evil dence be cited indicating such excess sive prohteering? Yes. Equally startling evidence results from other and altogether different methods of test.
 Now, what's the significance, :.
 If the gross income of American railways is $ billion dollars in I2 months, and the net profit half that sum, what's the practical signlhcatlons
 It signifies that it costs the Amerl- can people $500 per capita every year to transport their persons and products; $2,5oo per family every year
 It means that approximately the entire yearly wages of all classes of American wage earners goes as re- lentlessly as house rent to those who think that by owning the great pub lie highways of the United States, that they own also, per force, all the people of the United States.
 It means also, that the aggregate clear net profits realized from the transportation ot the persons ana products of the American people 1s| something. in excess of I5o per cent per annum of all the stocks and bonds outstanding of all the railway cor porations operating i'll all the territory of the United States.
 It also means that thousands and hundr eds of thousands ot stockhoid- CTS are defrauded of thousands ot millions of income that rlghttully be- longs to them according to all legal and customary usages of society.
 And, meaning all this, it also means very obviously,.t that 1t Is idle to hope for peace until this gross intolerable injustice is recognized and remedied-
 But the carriers do not admit any such enormous profits. Certainly not. The carriers do not admit any pro- fit whatever. They always plead pow erty. They continually insist that the railroads are all going i'll the hands of receivers And they are: But beware of the receivers. By consent of and by connivance of 'tthe wealthy criminal classes" the railways of the United States are being forced in the hands of receivers"
 The carriers are even now, on the pretext of saving themselves from bankruptcy, calling for a thousand millions of "new money" Presuming on public ignorance; knowing that official reports att best are neither clear or convincing; Intentionally r,,,da co,,D1ex and couf11Sinp. know