ROADS OR RAILS?

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4645, 7 January 1924, Page 4

ROADS OR RAILS?

MANY LINES ABANDONED IN AMERICA. (By E. F. Roberts, in Los Angeles Times. While oceans of ink and tons of paper are being used to prove this, that, or the ' other thing about the financial condition of the American railroads, what is happening to the roads themselves, the actual tracks, trains, and engines on which literally depend our existence as a nation ?

One thing at least: Railroad construction in the United States is steadily coming to a full stop. That is the big central fact which stands out of the mass of statistics and offiical reports supplied to me by Julius Kruttschnitt, chairman pf the board of the Southern Pacific Company, when I asked him the above Question. I told Mr Kruttschnitt that I was looking for plain, cold, unadorned facts, and was not interested in arguments. . “ Well,” he said, “if you want the story in a nutshell, this chart will give it to you,” and he handed me a little graph about the size of an ordinary letter sheet- . The chart gave the* bald facts about railroad construction in America from 1840 to 1922. THE PEAK IN 1887.. Starting, with afew hundreds of miles in .1840, the line of construction moved steadily up -into thousands, until the peak was reached in 1887, and then started downward, and kept going until 1922 it was back to the point where it started from eighty years previously. “In 1840,” elucidated Mr Kriltschnitt, “ when we had a population of about 17,000,000, we built about the same number of railroad tracks as we did in 1922, when our population was over 110,000,000. That, however, does not tell .the whole story. Ti e railroad mileage in the United States actually diminished last year to the extent of 352.68 miles. There were 324.09 miles of new tracks built, but there were 676.77 miles abandoned, of which- 221.7 miles were actually torn up.”

• Was that condition,, peculiar to last year ?” I asked.

POLITICAL FOOTBALL.

“It was not. For twenty-five years the railroads have been the football of politics, with the result that railroad construction has fallen year by year, both in mileage and with respects to the needs of the population. The Census Bureau and Interstate Commerce Commission reports .show that in 1910 there were 2.61 miles of railroad for each 1000 population, and that proportion steadily fell year by year until it was only 2.34 miles in 1921.” “ Then in another twenty-five years ?” I began to calculate. “ Oh,” interrupted Mr Kruttschnitt’ “ if the present policy is maintained we are headed straight for Government ownership long before another 25 years elapse.” “What can. the railroads do to help themselves ?” J asked. “ Increase their efficiency,” replied Mr Kruttschnitt promptly. “Labour costs will no.t come down. Il is folly to talk about it. Wages never do come down. The only remedy Is more efficiency in operation.” “ How about the plan for consolidation ?” was the next query.

“ Sounds well, but that is about all. The economies to he effected by consolidation would be far less than the average man thinks or that the administration dreams about. What the public wants is low rates and not fewer transportation facilities, and the only way it can get lower rates is by reduced costs of operation. The rai’roads are doing their best in that direction by striving for higher efficiency, but.they are badly handicapped by the unfair competition of transportation facilities created wholly or in part by the Government, which pays no taxes and makes its own wage rates.” TRUCKS AS FEEDERS.

“ Why do not the railroads go into the trucking business themselves and use it as a feeder for their freight lines?”’

“Because they could not compete witii private concerns in the matter of labour costs. The Railroad Labour Board fixes the wage rates for the railroads, and private concerns could operate at a lower scale and make competition impossible. The South-; cri) Pacific spent millions in building electric feeders which were simply

smothered by carriers operating on roads built with public 'money.” “What about the farmers’ cbmpltrnt that railroad freight rates r foim one of their heaviest burdens ?” I asked.

I will answer that question with another,” replied Mr Kruttschnitt. “ Would tlie farmer be satisfied with an 8 per cent, increase in the present market values of his products)? ’ “Why, no.” “Well, that is all they would get it the entire sum collected by the railroads for transporting agricultural products in 1922 was returned to them. That is not guesswork: it is a fact which can be proved by Government statistics. The Interstate Commerce Commission estimates the total railroad revenue for transportation of agricultural products in 1922 was 715,973 000 dollars. In the same ye?.r the Department of Agriculture gives the total value of farm crops at 8,961.00Q,000 dollars. The rest is a simple sum in arithmetic. Now, I do not suppose that even the most radical farmer would propose to pay no freight rates at all, yet while continued reduction in rates would bankrupt the railroads, it would mean but slight relief to the farmers. UP TO THE PEOPLE. “The whole railroad situation,” Mr Krutschnitt continued, “can be reduced to very simple terms. We must have railroads, whether they are operated by the Government or private companies. If they are privately operated they must be allowed to give a fair return to their owners, for no man is going to run any business that is not profitable. At the present time railroads are not profitable to their owners. That is a simple statement of fact which does not require argument. The Interstate Commerce Commission has set the figures which it considers as a fair return for class 1 roads. The actual revenue of these roads last year was 334,679,000 dcllars less than that sum, pr a return of 4.09 per cent, on the invested property. No business can be permanently run on that basis. I have stated the alternative, and the decision rests with the American people.”