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MR. ACWORTH ON AMERICAN RAILWAYS

Mr. W. M. Acworth, who is the ranking international authority on railway economies, and who from time to time inspects American railways in the interests of English investors, recently returned to England after a two months' inspection of the railways of the United States.

Just before sailing for England, Mr. Acworth in commenting on the present status of railways in the United States, said in part: "I have been somewhat surprised to see the space that has been given in your newspapers to the criticisms of the efficiency of your railways. It has been my opinion that in actual economy of operation the railways of the United States are first in the world. In the number of tons per car, cars per train; in the fullest utilization of locomotives; in the obtaining of the greatest measure of result for each unit of expenditure, they are not equalled by the railways of any other nation. When the Greek commanders after the battle of Salamis voted who should receive the prize for valor each put his own name first, but all put the name of Themistocles second. And Themistocles received the prize. So too, though German, French and English railway men would, I dare say, all put their own railways first in efficiency they would all, I am sure, put yours second, and on the voting of the experts your railways would come out first.

"But further, your nation as a whole is not in other matters pre-eminently efficient. No one would say that your farmers were more efficient than those of France and England or that your government is more efficient than the government of Prussia. Your railways have reached a higher standard in international comparison than your farmers or your government, and under greater difficulties, for in England and on the Continent employment with a railway company is a prize and a man hopes to remain in the service of the same company throughout his life. He is, therefore, obviously more amenable to discipline than the shifting and often even foreign force employed on your railways.

"The investors of Europe and even your own Wall Street seem hardly to grasp the enormous amount of money that must be spent upon railroads to keep pace with your growing traffic. If your traffic doubles every ten years, as it substantially does, you will need not perhaps to double your facilities every ten years, but

to increase them at least by 50 per cent. The eleven hundred millions per year specified by Mr. Hill as necessary for this purpose is none too much. The inhabitants of your Western and Southern States, your people in general, must understand that this capital cannot be obtained in their own communities.

"Texas and Oklahoma have no money to spare for railroad building. They want it all for their own local business. Even the East cannot find all the money required. This money in large measure must for a long time to come be raised abroad; and the investors of other lines will not be willing to subscribe it so long as there is a continuance of the harrassing conditions which tend to impair the revenues of your railways, to hamper their administration and to retard their development. If the railways of the United States could reach a time when State legislators ceased from troubling and State commissions were at rest it would in my thinking be good for the railways and still better for the citizens of the United States."

SAME CAUSE OF HIGH PRICES IN SWITZERLAND.

FROM CONSUL D. I. MURPHY, ST. GALL, SWITZERLAND, April 28, 1911.

In the early nineties, complaints of the high prices of vegetables in St. Gall were so numerous that the police authorities made an investigation to determine the cause, but it was not until 1908 that the cantonal legislature took up the matter. It was found that between producer and consumer there were so many middle men to share profits that prices were greatly advanced-in the case of cabbage, by no less than 369 per cent. Then the Consumverein, a corporation that appears to have regard for the public welfare, undertook to buy vegetables direct from the producers and sell them in their many provision stores throughout this region at a minimum. profit. A general reduction of over 30 per cent quickly followed. As nearly as can be ascertained by comparison with quoted prices in American newspapers, the present prices of vegetables here are a trifle less than in the markets of New York or Philadelphia.

THE FARMER AND THE COST OF LIVING

By B. F. YOAKUM,

Chairman of the Executive Committee of the 'Frisco and
Allied Lines.

IN THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, AUGUST 6, 1910.

Farmers, and not military power, must restore our economic balance. The politicians pour out the Government's money to build fighting machines and starve the agriculturists. The appropriations of this last Congress amount to more than one billion dollars. Thirty dollars of this went for military expenses to every dollar spent for agriculture. .

It is necessary that we aid the farmer in the adoption of better agricultural methods in order to increase production, and that he be helped to a better business system, so as to increase his profits and at the same time assist in reducing the cost of living to the consumers. The promises of politicians in their agitation for radical legislation will not assist in working out this important American problem.

A recent writer in The Saturday Evening Post said that the annual waste in handling the two-hundred-million-dollar Texas cotton crop would make the Standard Oil's mouth water. The cotton planters of Texas do not need more laws, but the application of ordinary business methods in handling their cotton.

The farmers of southern Texas discovered a few years ago that their soil was well adapted for growing Bermuda onions. The onion industry was soon found to be unprofitable on account of poor marketing facilities. They employed a good man and put the selling in his hands, with the result that a losing business was made a profitable one. All the laws which Texas might make could not help these onion farmers. It required the employment of business methods. What applies to the onion crop of Texas applies to every other product of the soil in the United States.

The farmers of the country will eventually work under a strictly business organization for their own protection and to the advantage of the consumers of food. At the growing end the farmers will have, through co-operation with the railroads, shipping agencies. At the consuming end they will have marketing agencies. Under

this method the men who produce, the men who transport and who consume will come into close contact. To the industry of farming will be added the business of marketing.

It is not the amount of potatoes, cabbages, onions, grain, dairy products or other foodstuffs a community of farmers produces that fattens their bank accounts. It is the price for which they can sell them and the waste they can cut out between the farm and the table. It is not the prices that the farmers are getting that make living so expensive. It is the expense of getting them to the railroads and the profits of dealers, wholesalers and retailers.

After a careful investigation, it is estimated that during the past year the farmers received and the consumers of the city of New York paid, for the following articles of food, approximately the amounts respectively shown:

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The freight paid on the above articles was approximately $25,045,000.

On only these articles of food, for which the farmers received $274,289,000, the expenses and profits of the middlemen were $164,813,000 after paying the freight bill of $25,045,000. In other words, in addition to the freight, the expenses of handling and profits were over sixty per cent. Reducing these expenses and profits one-half would make a saving on these articles of $82,406,500 annually. These articles represent approximately five-eighths of the annual food bill of New York. If the same proportions obtained as to the balance of New York's food bill, the expenses and profits paid by consumers would be $265,800,000 annually, or about $728,000 a day.

This is the big business proposition that confronts New York and applies to all consuming centers, and the only way to work it out is to tackle it in detail, cutting out every possible waste, expense and needless profit.

To handle this immense quantity of food will require extensive facilities. The railroads entering New York have hundreds of millions of dollars invested in terminals to handle and distribute the business of this one consuming point. Six hundred and forty million dollars have been expended in streets cars and subways for handling New York's four million people. But nothing is being done to lessen the cost of local expense on this great bulk of food.

There are living on Manhattan Island two and a half million people. Splendid passenger facilities are provided to transport these people, but none to handle their food economically. A tunnel could be built with tracks to be utilized for freight between certain hours, with distributing stations every ten or fifteen, blocks for marketplaces, where all table food could be supplied. Conducted under proper regulations, the six hundred carloads a day of foodstuffs coming to New York could go to these marketplaces with a saving of one hundred and fifty million dollars annually, or four hundred and ten thousand dollars daily, to the people of New York, and allow twenty per cent for handling. There is no common-sense argument against convenient marketing centers in large cities. They are just as practicable as the establishment of passenger stations. While the passengers can take care of themselves, a business system is necessary to handle the consumers' daily supplies.

The railroads are doing more than their share in working for an economical handling of freight in cities. The money required for terminals is something enormous. Money invested in terminals does not add proportionately to the earning power of lines, yet it is necessary for the railroads to provide for proper deliveries of business.

The cost of getting food supplies to the railroad in the country over poor public highways, and of getting these same supplies to the homes in the city, is out of all proportion to the railroad charge for transportation. The Government is largely responsible for one of the biggest expenses, which comes from the fact that the greatest country in the world has the worst public highways.

To help cut down the producers' expense of bad country roads, the Government provides a little over one hundred thousand dollars

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