Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1915 — RAILROADS' CLAIM FOR HIGHER RATES [ARTICLE]

RAILROADS' CLAIM FOR HIGHER RATES

(Continued from first page.) Institution in the matter of rates and service, but a private enterprise so far as profit and loss is concerned. You gentlemen are engaged in various kinds of mercantile business. Let us suppose your patrons had the right to tell you what service you must render*, what quality of goods you must sell and at what price you must sell them. What would you do? You would either go out of business or go into the hands of the sheriff. That is precisely the position of the railroads, except that they cannot go out of business. Some of them have gone into the hands of the sheriff. Others have had to borrow money with which to operate their properties, and I am telling no secret when I tell you that they have borrowed Up to the limit of their credit. Within the past year we laid our case before the Interstate Commerce Commission, presenting facts and figures, and that body, after an exhausting examination into our affairs, rendered a decision, and if you will bear with me a moment I want to read you one paragraph of that decision: "The reduced earnings on passenger traffic were caused largely by reductions which the carriers were compelled to make in their passenger fares in Ohio, Indiana, .Michigan, Illinois and in other states, under local legislative action. The returns made by ten of the roads, representing only a portion of the mileage in what is kr.own -as central freight association territory, show that during the period from 1906 to 1913, inclusive, there was an estimated loss of nearly $18,000,000 in revenues due to state legislation, under which those carriers were compelled to .iiake substantial reductions in their local pasesnger fares with accompanying reductions in their interstate passenge'r fares. ‘The traveling public is giving expression to its demands for better service, better accommodations, and for the adoption by carriers of all the devices that make for safety. A public that demands such a service cannot reasonably object to the payment of a reasonable compensation therefore.

During the hearing of this case before the commission Mr. Louis D. Brandeis, attorney for the commission, in an oral argument on April 30th and May Ist, said, with respect to passenger service: “The east of operation of passenger train service is so great as to leave nothing whatever for profit. This increased cost has come largely through, increased wages, and with the introduction of steel ears you are carrying 50 per cent more dead weight to every passenger than you carried before. AH of the other expenses are similar. The electric light, the ventilation, sanitation and all of those things which we hiive and which we ought to have, cost money, but there has been nothing to counterbalance 'that increase in the cost of operation which comes from the increased wage and from governmental regulations in tne aid of safety to humanity. It is just what we should have expected. And there -is the expensive Pullman service. Prosperity brings more use for Pullman ears. Prosperity brings not only more use of Pullman cars, but a greater use on the part of each passenger. Every time a mpn t»kes a section instead of a berth and it is necessary to put on another Pullman, and every time you substitute a steel Pullman for a wooden Pullman you are adding, more to the railroad’s expense.” Please bear in mind, gentlemen, that Mr. Brandeis was attorney for the commission, not attorney for the railroads.

After hearing our case and rendering this decision the Interstate Commerce Commission permitted the railroads to raise their interstate rates to basis of two and onehalf cents a mile. Those rates have been placed in effect. The rate from this city to Chicago is two and one-half cents a mile, but under the Indiana law the rate to Hammond is two cents-- a mile. Either the Chicago rate is wrong or the Hammond rate is wrong. They can’t both be right, because the service performed in each case is the same. Either* we are cheating the man who buys a ticket to Chicago, or the man who 'buys a ticket to Hammond is cheating us. the interstate Commerce ‘Commission made a mistake in fixing the rate at two and one-haM cents a.mile, or the Indiana legislature made a mistake in fixing the rate at two cents a mile. I leave it to you gentlemen to judge which pf these bodies is the more apt to be correct, the Interstate Commerce Commission who made a painstaking and comprehensive investigation In|o the matter, or the Indiana legislature, who made no investigation. We are not asking the legislature to give back all they took away. We are only asking them to give half of it back, and we believe you gentlemen should be interested in seeihg that we get it back. We believe that every business man. in Indiana, everyTarmer hri -Indiana and every" man in Indiana, no difference what |

his business, should 'be. interested in seeing that/we get it -back. We believe the two cent passenger fare law is a contributing cause to the present hard times, and we believe to repeal that law will go a long way toward restoring prosperity in this country. We would like to'have you gentlemen adopt a resolution favoring the two and one-half cent rate, and we would like to have you send that resolution to your representatives in the general assembly and request them to vote tor it. It le of the utmost importance that this rate be granted at the present session of the ligislature. It would be a great misfortune to the .railroads it put over to some future session.