The midland journal., 1946-05-10
WORKING ON THE RAILROAD
BY j. r. Jones

WdSH lllS lOl, -. u, way U, A01V
1t can be definitely stated that there
are no workers in our country tnar
have higher sense of respons: )ility
than the employees of American rail-
roads. From train conductors tn Se,.
tion men who keep the tracks in o; :
der, there has been devotion to
their duties, and a responsibility TO
the public, that never failed.
The railroads have had years of
war-generated prosperity, and even
1916 guarantees volume of traffic
far greater than any pre-war year.
And still the railroads are continuing
their age-old cry for help. They COM
plain that "in World of greatly in
creased wages and prices, freight
rates remair on pre-war level"
Cove nor Arnall of Georgia goes
to the heart of greedy railroad man
agement in explaining how the car
riers are exempt from the antitrust
laws. The Georgia Governor contends
that the Senate Interstate Commerce
Committee should summon the rec
OIuS VI tH6 ASSOCldJlOll VI filhSli
Railroads land see what's behind
this lobby" Assistant Attorney GEN
eral Berge, Chief of the Antitrust
Division, has attacked the railroad
companies for discrimination il.
freight rates in the West and the
South He knows that TIE roads are
always asking the Interstate Com
merce Commission to increase thei1
profits.
But Mr. and Mrs. Public and the
masses who pay cash fares and have
been standing up in the aisles for all
the war years, are almost unanimous
in agreeing that railroad trainmen
and all employees have stood pa
tiently and patriotically at the top in
meeting ali the terrific responsible
ties that have fallen upon them.
If there is in all this broad land a
group and a mass of employees that
deserve the best wages that can be
paid out of the earnings of an indus
try those men and women are the rail
road employees. 1t is time that Uncle
Sam paid more attention to them ara
listened less casually to railroad
management. The Governor of Geor-
gia charges that railroads are link
ed together into the fattest and
greediest trust of all, which domin-
ates all the business of the country" :"
Tke railroads have been comparative
ly free from labor troubles-that too
should be taken into consideration III
establishing the rights of railroad
employees to better treatment.
Farm Lands Double-DOuble
An official statement from the I'm,
ted States Department of Agriculture
says that farm real estate values ross,
13 percent in the year ending March
1, 1916. In the last four months
there has been an increase of 7 per
cent, and the average level i'll the
years between 1895 and 1889 was
an increase of II percent. Secretary
Anderson calls attention to the fact
that there is an increasing number
of farms being sold and lie says that
this indicates greater speculative ac-
tivity. Strangely enough more than
half of the current sales are for cash.
This may be due to more private
financing of purchasers than is indi-
Gated by the shortage of mortgages.
Values at the present time are above
1920 levels-the inflationary peak
of fifteen States.
Official reports also show that farm
land values are now more than dou-
BILE their 1935-39 level in North and
South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee
Indiana, Colorado, and Wyoming.
Land values have been most stable
in New England.