The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 23, 1920, Page 7

‘sell.: ‘Now it'is a report of cars being loaded with - ‘sand or gravel or other nonperishable and rela- tively valueless freight, and then sidetracked, ap- parently to give the appearance of their being in - use.. Here is a striking example, given in a letter ~ from a railroad employe at San Antonio, Texas: “Two cars of sand came in here the other day with grass five iriches tall all over the top of them. I pulled up' a hickory tree from the center of one car which, when measured, .showed it to .be: 18 inches tall. - Thege cars had been idle long enough for this grass and tree to grow therein. |, “With the roads howling for cars and appealing %o the interstate.commerce commission for millions - of dollars;with which to buy new rolling stock, this Jooks bad, to say the least. These cars were T. & N. O. No. 20542 and F. E.:C. No. 9130, and they arrived in San Antonio June 15, 1920.” R . It is reported that warchouses are overflowing with wool, hides, coffee; sugar and flour.. A billion ' dollars’ worth of food is impounded in Chicago’s storage houses alone. Though this is'to a consid- *..erable extent due to deliberate profiteering on the -part of the packers and warehouse men, it is also "“due in large measure "to a lack of cars and other transportation facilities for the movement of these ! Meanwhile, instead of proving the superiority of private management the railroad interests continue to demand more money from the government and the people.' Though the government already: holds $354,000,000_ of equipment trust. certificates: and $400,000,000 of additional debt in bonds and notes; - which, with the '$300,000,000 appropriated by the transportation act, will make over a billion dollars which the- federal government has invested in the transportation system . (the ‘entire: value ‘of which probably does not' exceed $9,000,000,000. or $10,- +:000,000,000), and ‘though the governmerns 18 now .. borrowing money at the astounding rate of 6 per ~ cent, the railroads are clamoring ‘for further as- . sistance in.the shape of federal loans,; ! . And “in central Europe there are severgl million ‘persons — ‘mostly” children — slowly starving to death, while flour rots on our docks and at our terminals; and cars:in which to ship the grain are ‘lacking.” A d According:to official investigations there are 300,- 000 underfed children in America. = The ‘annual death rate due to undernutrition exceeds our total :losses in the war, And this is to say nothing of the less: serious shortage that is day by day be- - coming more acute. Have we been saved from de- struction by the militant autocracy of the old world in order that we may be sacrificed to monop- ~ olistic greed and economic plundering in our own country ?, Rate I_nqreaSé_'IéThrce Times More Than Needed to Meet Increased 2 ** ‘Washington Bureau, ¢ . Nonpartisan Leader. AILROAD employes were granted wage increases to meet the high cost of Ly~ .ing amounting in total to $500,000,000: .But the interstate commerce commis- _sion has' just granted the railroads an $1,500,000,000: or ‘more in revenue. The, roads, in other words, have been granted rate increases three times. higher than necessary to meet the increased payrolls authorized by the railway wage board. .. This is the biggest melon ever granted public service corporations:in the United States. The rail- roads were granted ALL they asked. . It means tak- Ang a cool billion dollars a year-out of the pockets of the people of the country, over and above what the people would have to pay in extra rates to grant the railway workmen a fair wage, as awarded by the railroad wage board. As there are 100 million people in the country, averaging five to a family, . this"means taking an additional $50 a year out of the budget of each family, not a cent of which is to ‘meet increased pay to the railroad workers them- This oné billion dollars is to be exacted to pay " dividends to railroad owners amounting to 6 per cent on a railroad valuation which is preposterous. ‘In order to cut.this melon for the railroads the in-- terstate commerce commission had ' to practically accept as true the valuation of the roads submitted by the roads themselves. * Thus; the interstate com- merce commission estimates that the railroads are “worth in round figures 19 billion doi-~ lars, and figures that.the new rates are necessary to earn the railroad owners .6 per cent on this amount. The rail- roads claimed their property was tworth 20: billion dollars, a figure in- “flated beyond all' reason for the pur- “pose of getting a rate raise as great ‘as possible. Yet ' the = commission _grants. as ‘accurate practically THE RAILROAD’S OWN figures, finding “the valuation only slightly less than " ASTOUNDING FACTS 'ABOUT THE AWARD - * Keep in mind the railroads ask- .. - ved for a 20-billion valuation and .. were granted a. 19-billion valua..: % The par wvalue_ of all railroad ....stocks and bonds:outstanding in - i -the hands of the public is less - . than 17 billionsli. « oo j o7 . The value of. theroads, as re- "\ 7 flected in- the ‘market value of all. = - railroad securities outstanding in = i the hands of the publie, is only it~ slightly over. 12 billions? » = = 1. t=:. - Yet the “interstate ..commerce i.-;commission says: the' roads are +iiworth 19t billions cand . yeaches it/ down in the pockets of the Amer- i sui-ican people to take one billion'dol« | - lars'a year, solely to pay railroad: .} __.dividends to'the private ownersof = . b i " increase in rates which will net them- . ~amount, or within a SOMEHOW OR OTHER THAT DON'T SEEM 10 BE A RE =y . Wages—One Billion for Profits the railroads, not a cent of which is to pay railroad wages., SR st ~ Raised railroad wages necessitated an increase of 500 millions in rates, but the commission grants a ~.1,500-million increase in rates. - The ENTIRE boost in rates is to pay profits to PRIVATE railroad owners. Six per cent dividends on the inflated valuation granted by thescommission amounts: to $1,100,000,000. The roads will get this ; sum of it, from the in- crease granted. - In other words, the roads are mak- ing a profit on a reasonable ‘valuation now, but are granted an INFLATED value to make A BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR MORE IN PROFITS. ' Present rates are paying the expenses of the roads and the -grant of the commission will be pure velvet. ¢ To raise the one billion for profits, and meet the ; increased wage scale, the roads, under the decision, - are permitted to increase freight rates on the av- ' e one-third, passenger fares one-fifth and Pull- man fares one-half.”" = MR : ¢ " The 20 per cent increase in passenger fares; ex- cess baggage charges and milk transportation rates and the 50 per cent surcharge on Pullman fares au- thorized by the commission will be general through- out the country, - Nl 4 . Freight rate increases will vary according to ter- .ritory, with 40 per cent'in the East; 25 per cent in the South; 35 per cent in the West—that is from the Mississippi river to the Rocky mountains—and 25 per cent in Mountain-Pacific territory—east of the Rockies to the Pacific coast; not including Alaska, Freight increases requested were 39,75 for the REVIVING THE “PATIENT” e SR MED~Y / PAGE SEVEN WELL AS LONG 'AS HE | GETS THAT 'SIX PERCENT HE'LL BE ALRIGHT!: eastern roads, 82.03 for the western roads and 88.91 for the southern roads: § : e The railroads have thus got practicaily every- thing they asked: The commission has even failed to allow for exaggeration and inflation by the rail- roads—it practically accepts® the railroads’ ‘own valuations' and grants’ them practically the rates they asked, although' the roads maturally boosted .their valuation way above what they thought they “could get and asked for much ‘more than they ex- pected. - & A It is doubtful whether the rosy dreams of railroad owners as to what they could exact from the people would equal what has actually been given them un- der the Cummins-Esch’ railroad- act, enacted by a “ Republican congress ;and. signed by a Democratic president. i NO EFFICIENCY REQUIRED - OF RAILROAD MANAGEMENT - There is still a chance to save to the people some of the extortion that the private railroad owners expect to get. Following the authorized increase in interstate rates, the railroads have applied for an . increase in irftrastate rates, to make them corre- spond with the increase granted in interstate rates. This is up to the railroad commissions in the vari- ous states. The interstate: commerce commission - has: recommended that. the ‘states authorizethe same increases within the states as has been aiithor- ized for rates in interstate traffic. If proper. pres- sure is brought by the general public and shippers, state railroad commissions can yet be stopped from i permitting a further grab into the peo- ‘.ple’s pocketbook by the roads. One of the remarkable aspects of. the interstate commerce commission’s deci- sion is the fact that it accepts at par not only the railroads’ own ‘valuation fig- ures, but at par the railroad denial of the motorious fact that, ever since-the government returned the roads to their owners, there has been . consistent | sabotaging on the part of the railroad <. managements to place the lines in the . worst condition they dared; so that the * commission could be led to believe that - the railroads needed ‘huge increases to ... put them back on their feet. R Defenders 'of the railroads, even if they will deny. any conspiracy of this kind, hardly will argue that it was nat- ural. for. the railroads NOT to exert . themselves to place their properties in Al condition, until:the interstate com- merce commission had acted. It is a human failing, when you want some-: body to help you out of a hole that you make. your condition seem worse than it is, perhaps unconsciously. Yef the -commission in fixing the rates did mnot make.adequate allowance for this fact, - . mor determine. whether, under efficient -management, they ccould not get along ., without demanding that the public. give +them; the 'biggest. raiggad; increases oy = _ =1 . ever kmown in the. history of publio . — —— 2 utilities. The result will be a protest Drawn by Congressman John: M. Baer. Fon G .. that will shake the country. '