The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-06-23
RAILWAY ISSUE
HARDING'S SUBJECT
SEES CONSOLIDATION AS SOLU-
TION-OTHER METHODS BUT
ADD TO TROUBLES

Kansas City-The text of Presi-
dent Harding's address last night on
the transportation problem was in
part as follows:
Production is the very life blood
of material existence and commerce
is its vitalizing force. Put an end
to commerce and there will be no
cities and farm life will revert to the
mere struggle for subsistence. And
there can be no commerce without
transportation. With all the changes
which make for commercial life,
transportation is as essential as pro-
duction
Farm Prices in the '4O's
Not long ago, while discussing the
distressing slump in agricultural
prices which threatened the very ex-
istence of farm industry, caller
drew from his pocket an old Ohio
publication, a weekly newspaper of
the early forties of the last century,
and turned to the quotations on live
stock, dairy and farm products.
Wheat was 40 cents the bushel, pork
8 cents the pound, butter cents the
pound, potatoes cents the bushel.
Not many automobiles in returns like
those. But that was before the age
of motor cars, that was in the flat
boat era, when a cargo of farm pro-
ducts had to be floated down the
Scioto and Ohio rivers 250 miles to
market. The prices were a reflex of
the crudity of transportation. And
manufactured products were corre-
spondingly high to the consumer, be-
cause there was the same crudity of
transportation in distribution. The
stage coach, the wagon train and the
flat boat were speed wonders of that
day and the canal boat was the last
word in luxury on many waters The
great Missouri valley was then un-
revealed and only unawakening trans
portation was the revealing agency.
In the infinite bounty of the Creator
the measureless riches of the west
were bestowed, but they ayailed lit
tie until the whistle of the steam To-
connective proclaimed it's westward
march with the Star of Empire.
1t is a curious trait of human ma
ture that we acclaimed results in
the building and then turned to
hamper them in the operation. Miss
ouri and Kansas were doubtless like
Ohio. We gave from our purses to
contribute to needed protest because
of our eagerness to acquire, and ac-
claimed the acquisition. Marvellous
development attended, and we omitted
the precaution which would have
avoided many present day difficult
ties.
Use Less Transportation
Everybody knows how necessary
transportation is in this modern
world of specialized industries and
extensive exchanges. Everybody
knows that our very social scheme,
as now organized, is dependent on
the maintenance of adequate trans
portation media. A good many peo-
pie, indeed, have latterly come to
wonder if it might not be possible
even that we have committed our
welfare and prosperity too largely to
the assumption that it would always
be possible to provide all the trans
portation that the community might
desire, at costs which would not be
prohibitive; that we have even staked
our very existence on the daily con-
tinuity of transportation. There is a
new, and l think increasing school
of thought on this subject. It's ad-
herents are beginning to ask whether,
in the long run, it would not be bet
ter to attempt making local COM
munities more nearly self-dependent,
by diversifying their range of pro-
duction, and thus reducing the
amount of transportation and ex-
change of products over long dis
tances. But such course would be
a reversion to the older, which no
modern community willingly would
accept, back to the farm self-con-
tanned, back to the restricted COM
with it's candle burning be-
meath the half bushel measure.
One one thing we may be reasonably
assured, and that is that since rail-
roads first began was a time when
so many people, in so many com
munities, were frankly and intelll-
gently questioning the future as re-
CARDS its instrumentalities of trans
port They are asking very frankly
and pointedly how they can attain
railroads enough in the next few gen
erations to supply them, along with
other agencies, with the transporta.
tion they will require. I doubt if
there is a country in the world in
which railroads have come to be a |
transportation factor
which has not some sort of rail-
road crisis on its hands right now |
There are some countries which |
merely need more railroads, and are
willing to pay almost any price to
get them, just as we would have done !
a generation or two ago. There are
others which have more railroads /
than current traffic and inslstent de-
mand for lower rates makes profit |
able, so that they have been made,
in some fashion or other, burden
on either industry or the public trea-
sury. There are still others which !
have excellent railroad systems but
have found, in the increased cost of |
capital and operation which came
with the World war upheaval, that |
the cost of transportation is threat |
ening to become too heavy for the |
producing industries to bear it. Our
own country, although it possesses
something like 40 per cent of the
worlds railroad mileage, is confronted |