Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-12
RAILROAD RELIEF
/. DECLARED VITAL
Economist Points 0ut'NeceS-
sity for. Upward Revision
of Rates.
by EDWARD, c. STONE.

by EDWARD, c. STONE.
IN the. midst Of the timorous whis-
peringS that the railways are declin-
Ing industry, Theodore NJ. Knappen, a
Washington economist and financial
writer. raises a dissenting voice. Any
idea that they are likely to lose any
large proportion OF the country's ire
inendous freight traffic is untenable, he
declares in the current issue OF the
Magazine of Wall Street.
1.-THE railways are up and coming as
10 competition and the full discharge
Of their duties to the public. They are
the transportation life and backbone
Of the country. But they have been
treated like an unloved stepchild. Dur
ing all the years from 1921 to 1891 the
regulating authorities, or they them
selves, in response to competition, have
been whiting away at rates. While
everybody else was grabbing more while
the grabbing was good the railways
were being pushed away from the trough
Of profits" Mr.. Knappen asserts.
Just how far they were crowded into
the cold cannot be determined by n
direct approach through the maze of
rate reductions, but with ton mileage
on an approximate level for many years
the revenue per ton mile has gone down
lars of revenue was lost in nine years.
Ton-mile revenue in 1880 was 1868 less
than in Iceland that about tells the
story of the havoc wrought by rate re-
duction; in spite of the SIS per cent
return wisp of hay in front of the Quiv-
ering railway nose.
so these shivery days Of hard times
find the railways lacking protective gar
ments. To meet the problem of ex-
istence they have had to cut expenses
to the backbone-and sometimes
through 1t. They have cut them while
employees and investors have WINGED
and the whole of national life has felt
the decline Of their purchasing power.
They have cut them until the investing
public has become panic stricken and
hysterical over even the distant future
Of railway securities.
with fading net revenues the out
look is that unless relief comes in time
almost Sc 000, 600, 900 Of the $7,500, 000,-
900 of railroad bonds available in New
York State for savings banks and
trustee investments will become in
eligible for that purpose. That is what
Is the matter with railroad bonds today,
but it is a temporary situation and GER
tainly not indicative of the future, y
says Mr.. Knappen, who then turns to a
discussion of the coming rate ruling by
Convention Committees Named.
The following committees have been
announced for the seventeenth annual
convention CT the American Associa-
ton of Personal Finance Companies to
be held here next week:
Program ommittee-Francis L.
Thompson, chairman: Edgar F. Fow-
Ter, John Merriam, w. Frank Persons
Reception Committee-T. J. Harrison
chairman and the officers and members
of the board of directors. Entertain
ment Committee-HoWard T. Mating
", general chairman: r. r. Lanham
vice chairman. Seeing Washington
w. F. Buck, chairman: Guy C. Harper
and Mclean Taylor. Bridge and Tea
Mrs. T. Y. kaufman. Mrs. Francis L.
Thompson, C. r. Porter and j. Muir
ray Sweeney, chairman. Banquet and
Dance-E. F. Moore, chairman: H. G.
HopSon, Paul A. Hancock, L. e Pope
and S. Lee Tucker.
Financial DiStric. Notes.
George E. Fleming, vice president of
the Union Trust Co., was back at his
desk today after a months vacation,
passed on a motor trip through North
ern New England.
The managers section of the Dis
trict of Columbia Life Underwriters
Association will have a luncheon meet
ing tomorrow noon, at the Hay-Adams
House. The speaker will be John M.
Holcombe, jr.
The District Bankers Association will
hold the regular Fall business meeting
next Monday afternoon at headquarters
in the Becker Building, on F street.
Several routine matters are to be acted
upon.
Directors of the National Dairy Prod
ucts Corporation have declared the reg
ular quarterly dividend of So cents on
the common stock and SITS each on
the class A and class B preferred.
The Interstate Commerce Commits
sion has authorized the Louisville &,
Nashville Railroad to issue $10,000,000
of its 10-year secured per cent gold
bonds. which have been sold at not
less than 95ai per cent.
G.. M P Murphy, head of the bro
kerage firm by that name, which has
a Washington Office, has just returned
from a three-month trip abroad. He
considers the coming British elections
of great Importance in the bearing they
will have on economic European con-
ditions.
Louis H. Windholz. president of D.
Fender & Co., and a director of the
Seaboard Air Line Railway. has been
elected chairman of the board of the
Baltimore Steam Packet Co.