The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-11-21
BY HERBERT QUICK

m HE first great slice out of the
farmers melon is taken by
- the railways. 1t is freight.
1 have an orchard in West Vir-
ginia Before the Esch-C ummins law
was passed, 1 used to be able to sell
apples and peaches-and tomatoes
from my cannery-as far away as
Cincinnati.
Now the freight rates are so high
If I shipped to any point as far off
as that, either I should get nothing
for the products. or the consumer
would be charged prices he would
refuse to pay.
The North Dakota farmer who
shipped a car Of potatoes to st. Paul
and got back, after freight was paid,
the sum of nine cents only illustrates
the same point 1t is the same in all
heavy farm products.
The Esch -Cummins law allowed rail-
ways to charge freights high enough
to pay dividends on a huge assumed
valuation. The rates were advanced
in exactly the manner which would
have been adopted by a man who
wanted to destroy the farmers. The
advances were horizontal. No effort
was made to discover what commodi-
ties could carry the increased load.
This seems incredible. but it is true.
Farm Commodities Heavy
The farmer ships heavy commodi-
ties in the main The only exceptions
of any consequence of which I can
think at present are butter and cheese.
But wheat, cotton, all the grains, live
stock. fruit, vegetables-an these
things are heavy and cheap. They
cannot bear high freight rates. Put
ting high freight rates on them means,
first, ruinously low prices to the farm
ers and, second, high prices tc the
consumers.
On the other hand, the farmers buy
the heavy stuff from the factories
coal, fertilizers, lumber, fencing. farm
machinery. lime. vehicles. All this
comes to him loaded with the hori-
zontally advanced freight rates under
the Esch- Cummins law.
Mere common sense would have die
tated to those advancing the rates. If
they had to be advanced, some ought
to have been made much higher and
some even lowered. A farmer pays
perhaps 25 cents freight on his suit
of clothes. He could afford to pay
five dollars on that. If he could have
had his old rate on fertilizers. It
would pay any wise railway company
to haul fertilizers TO any neighborhOod
needing them free Of freight. rather
than not have them used.
A transportation system ought to
be run for service to the Nation-for
service 10 city and country. 1t ought
to be run to build up the greatest and
happiest Nation the land can support
and no people can be happy and pros
erous unless those who TIL the soil
are in a state Of well-heing and well
doing.
Purely for Money
Our railway system has always been
run purely for money making. When
a country Is new, the only way in
which a railway system can prosper
is the way Of upbuilding the country.
I have seen a generation Of that sort
of railroading in the Mississippi Val
| ley when I was boy. In many ways
the railways were corrupt and unjust
and oppressive: but in the main, in
their ways, often short-sighted. they
strove to build up the country, and
they did It.
There are railways which might
lower their rates to levels which ag-
riculture could stand; but the rates
are fixed alike for all of them by the
| Interstate Commerce Commission.
They are fixed so the overcapitalized
badly built, badly-run, bad1ylocated
roads may have a chance to make
their bad investments good.
What is the way out? The way out
is to look on the railways just as we
do on other businesses. so long as they
are run for profit. Nobody suggests
Congress enact a law to guarantee
any factory. or any bank. or any
store. or any farm. dividends, or even
expenses, on badly invested or over
invested capital-or on an assumed
value. Such businesses have 70 take
their losses.
| worm what They Earn
They are worth exactly what they
can earn dividends upon, and no more
So with many railways In justice
the capitalization Of the poor ones
should be scaled down so as to put
them on an equality with the best
roads, and rates lowered so as to al
low them to earn returns on those
values only.
! The great railway problem is the
deepest almost, in our life. Can a
great life be lived by a great people
on a great continent when that life
is dependent on land transport? No
other civilization Of history has done
| it. We have yet to answer this ques-
! ton
If any thought Of the public service
had been given to the development
of transportation, the railways would
have been built to connect with every
available waterway. For water rates
where there is good depth are profit
able to boats at one-tenth the rail
rates.
Instead Of co-ordinating with the
waterways, the railways, because they
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