The Connecticut labor news., 1923-05-25
APPARENTLY FIGURES DO LIE
 SOMETIMES
By LEVI STEVENS LEWIS.

By LEVI STEVENS LEWIS.
 The charter of the Pennsylvania Rail road Company was granted April Is, 1846
 As I write these lines booklet per taining to the first 70 years history of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company printed for private circulation by Strong Sturgis X Company, of New York" lies before me.
 Like other literature printed by those in control of the highways of the United States, this booklet is well calculated to deceive. For instance: Speaking of the transportation business in general, 1t de- clares that If private capital shall con tinue to be attracted into railroad enter prise, the railroads must be permitted to earn revenues which will pay satlsfac- tory return. Otherwise capital will go into other forms of investment.
 Considering the indiSputable fact that capital" has been permitted to realize from the business of steam transporta- ton considerably more than 100 per cent. profit per annum. 1t becomes pertinent to enquire what "other forms of invtst ment' promise returns more "satiStac- tory" The booklet referred to IS dated April 13, 1916. Of course it is impossible to learn from 1t exactly how much the profit of the Pennsylvania is at present, or has been in the past, but abundant evidence is at hand that 1t has been SO great, that it should be, at least, quite satisfactory
 Just two quotations from the afore- said remarkable booklet printed for private circulation"
 "Pennsylvania stock is not a specuia- tion-it Is an investment. A story IS told to illustrate this point. A wealthy old man lay dying and he called his sons and divided among them his various stocks and bonds. It was noticed, how ever, that he tucked bundle of Penn svlvania shares under his pillow. and meant to do with these shares. Keep them, my boys he replied, Penn sylva shares are negotiable anywhere
 Speaking of the profits for 1915 the booklet declares that Thus the income for the year (after interest amounting to $41 ,927,713 and $26,604931 in dividends, had been banked by Cthe ownersD was sufficient to pay interest on the founded obligations nearly three times over."
 In the three calendar years 1914 1o16, the Pennsylvania Railroad taking into account every affiliated company. both east and west of Pittsburgh, operated upward of nine million trains carrying both freight and passengers two-ffths of which were passenger trains and three-hfths freight trains, infrequently, 80 to 100 loaded cars to the train; cars that carry 55 tons of coal, 1000 bushels of grain or 80,OOO pounds of merchandise. In this period 553, o0,063 passengers, equal to five and one-half times the population of the United States, were carried a total dis tance of approximately fifteen billion miles of 150 times the distance from the earth to the moon"
 Since 19l6 the increase of traffic over all the lines of the Pennsylvania system has been enormous as usual. Recently the corporation has boasted that now 1t requires 130,000 trains every 30 days to handle its ever increasing passenger traffic which indicates that nearly or quite four million trains year are nec- essary at the present time to handle the tremendous business carried on 1n the twelve states in which the tracks of the Pennsylvania lay and where 50 million people are dom1clled.
 The writer has prepared tor publ1ca- tion a safe and conservative calculation, too much in detail, however for space at command on this occasion, indicating that the profits of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company from only one source of revenue, namely, the freight traffic, ex- ceeds 100 million dollars every 5U days, or more than one billion and two hundred million dollars in twelve months.
 Nevertheless, official reports tell a very different story
 In 1920, the latest year for which com plete reports are accessible to the public, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company reports heavy loss from its rail operations"
 With a net income in 1915 sufficient to pay interest on its funded indebted ness nearly three times over"-scores of millions of profit; with the natural never failing increase in the volume of traffic. the increase accrued i'll five years; with an increase of fifty per cent in passenger rates in 1918 and a very generous advance in freight rates in 1920, which latter year was 'the peak year. of railway revenue up to that time (revenue from rail obligations) regard less of all this, the Pennsylvania reports official that its transportation revenue for the first time in its v years of cor porate existence, was less i'll 1920 than its taxes and expense of operation-and less by the very considerable sum o1 thirty million dollars.
 What can be the explanation?
 Do figures really lie sometimes?