Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1917 — ALL CLASSES HIT WHEN RAILROAD PROFITS DECLINE [ARTICLE]

ALL CLASSES HIT WHEN RAILROAD PROFITS DECLINE

Industry Feels Most Keenlj Effect of Railroad Poverty. UNWISE LAWS MAKE TROUBLE ' - Millions of Dollars Lott by Railroads In Meeting Mazo of Legislative Requirement*—Lswa Contradict Each Other. “A man la as old as bls arteries," says a prominent health authority. With equal truth It may be said that a country la as prosperous as its railroads. for Industry Is the life of a country, and the railroads bear the same vital relation to the Industrial system that the big blood carrying tubes bear to the human body There was a time In the history of industry when manufacturing was a one man affair, when every laborer owned his own tools and made goods for his neighbors. That system passed away with the invention of the steam engine, and no sane man today would wish for its return. The modern highly developed industrial organism depends absolutely on the facilities for distribution provided by the railroads.

But how have the railroads been rewarded for making possible tlie evolution of industry ? in recent years they have been made the subject for all sorts of legal vivisection. They have been chloroformed and cut open, and, us usual in such cases, the surgeons have differed as to the nature of the malady and the necessary cure. The prevailing theory, however, was that the railroads were suffering from an abnormal growth of the Income, so their income had to be amputated. From a professional point of view the operation was eminently successful, but in a number of cases the patient died. Recent mortality statistics show a total of 34,652 miles of steam railroad in the hands of receivers, the roads Involved having a total capitalization of $1,790,488,210.

One Roa ' Spend: $19,000,000. The avalanche of adverse laws directed against railroads has been so overwhelming that since 1906 the Pennsylvania railroad on Its lines east of Pittsburgh alone has spent $19,000,000 complying with the legislative enactments. Approximately that sum is equal to 6 per cent income on $300,000,000Interstate railroads are exposed to contradictory laws enacted by the legislatures of the states through which they run. About nineteen states are trying to regulate the Issuance of railroad securities by different methods Twenty-eight states specify headlight requirements without any co-operation with one another. Fourteen states have different safety appliance acta. Sometimes the orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission, so far as they concern intrastate matters, are prac tlcally nullified by the failure of the states to approve them. It is estimated that the railroads of the country are required to make over 2.000,003 reports a year to various state or federal authorities.

Of course the railroads do not bear the burden of this legal yoke alone. It rests as heavily on the shoulders of the 1.500.000 or more owners of American railway securities, many of whom it re women dependent for support upon the Income from these securities. Insurance companies, representing 30.000.000 policy holders, have $1,500,000,000 Invested in railway securities, and savings banks, representing 11,000,000 depositors, have $800,000,000 invested in railroad stocks and bonds. Wealth of Roads Benefits Many. According to the statistics of railways in the United States Issued tn 1914. the railroads then employed 1.710.296 persons. to whom they paid approximately $1,381,117,292 per year tn wages and salaries The expenditure of that sum is certainly a substantial contribution to the income of all mercantile and manufacturing enterprises. But. while the railroad situation claims the atten s tion of all classes of citizens. It must appeal to the industrial worker in bread and butter terms. f&rTie is the first to. feel the effects of railroad Im poverisbment This was evidenced in 1914 and 1915, when the railroad situation was most acute and when thousands of men were out of work and the Industries of the country were in a serious condition. ■___ How can the industrial worker help to put the railroads on a sounder worklug basis? By Joining tn a general pro test against the legislative avalanche, bv voting against the legislator who Is Instrumental in the passage of tbednir densome and taxations laws that re dace railroad profits and the income on railroad securities. It is vitally necessary that these securities should he tmide more attractive to the investing public so that the railroads can increase their credit and obtain enough money to make Improvements and in crease their equipment. Sound Credit Essential. . ••Railroad regulation must encourage sound credit or regulation is a failure.'' says A. J County, vice president of the Pennsylvania railroad. “Sound credit is jnat as essential In the railroad trasineea as in mercantile affairs and a railroad cannot have sound credit without the earning power to produce a credit Induttrial Co*lervation, Fete Ter*.