Evening star., 1937-10-22
Total increases ------So9o, io4,o ,ooo
Average Revenues Drop.

Tn the face of these increases. which
are directly and indirectly due to Gov
ernmental policies and planned
economy" the railroads have since
1893 been confronted with decline
in the average revenues for moving
freight and passengers. what the
railroads now are asking for is an
increase in freight rates, and some OF
them think the passenger rates should
90 I'D too. Some of the Southern
railroads are reported to be planning
to increase the rate in the coacneS
from 1ia to cents mile.
If there is an increase in freight
or passenger rates, or both, the public
will pay the bill. The costs will be
passed on to the consumers.
The administration has boasted that
the old days of "laissez-faire
everybody doing as he pleases-are
over and that planned economy now
has taken its place and the more
abundant life for everybody may be
expected to ensue. But what has
resulted in that everybody charges
what he pleases and the Government
itself is a factor in causing prices to
60 up all along the line.
Seek to Pass on Increases.
There can be no doubt that the
sanction by the administration OF
monopolistic power to labor groups
has resulted in surrender by employers
who have accepted labor demands and
endeavored to pass on the costs to
the public Nobody in the administra-
ton has so much as lifted finger to
prevent arbitrary and unreasonable
Increases in cost from being passed
on to the consumer or from being
Imposed in the first place by labor
groups. The right to throw the
Nations economy out of balance has
been granted to the labor group and
If there is to be regulation or price
control, it is safe bet that for political
reasons the administration will seek
to put the blame on the business men
instead of on those who possess the
power to force price increases through
larger labor costs.
The experience of the railroads
which have had to meet virtually
every increase imposed upon them
without getting from the Government
any help in increasing their revenues
Is a conspicuous example of unplanned
economy. But the vast number OF
unorganized workers and persons with
fixed incomes in the lower brackets
have had worse experience. Nobody
has taken care that their pay envelope
should be big enough to meet the
increase in the cost of living. These
are the people who have had under
the New Deal cut In real wages"
AS prices have risen, consumer
resistance has set in. The latest data
from the National Industrial Con-
ference Board, the leading statistical
organization on current economic facts
In America, show that residential
building awards are at the lowest
poin now since May, 1886, na nom
residential awards for building have
materially receded and that steel pro-
duction which Is reflection of what
is happening in the heavy industries,
has been declining steadily for the last
several weeks, being way behind year
ago.
Stock Market Is Reflection.
The stock market decline has been
a reflection of some of these un-
favorable developments in the business
and industrial world, not the least of
which is the arbitrary rise in prices
forced on the economic system by
New Deal laws and unplanned econ
orny. The answer, of course, is to
stimulate the volume of transactions
by developing and financing new
markets out of the abundance of gold
possessed by the country. This, how
ever, necessitates also q policy of
balanced economy as between the
various factors in the system such as
management and labor.
Government instead of being an
economic guide and mediating friend
to both sides has become a partisan,
passing laws that increase the cost
and administering other laws in such
q way as to increase costs without
regard to where the payment is coming
from. On top of all this is an unsound
tax system which imposes burdens
that are reflected in the prices.
The one thing some of the New
Dealers do admit is wrong with the
present situation is that prices are
too high, but mutually there is among
them little inclination to place the
blame on the President or his policies.
Instead we perceive the beginnings
of an inclination to blame the manage
ment of American business, circum-
stance that seems to indicate agitation
for Government price controls at the
next session of Congress. j,
fCanvrirht 1oQTl