T

HE World War and its aftermath have presented to the American people new problems and increased the complexity and difficulty of some with which they were wrestling already. No other of their great problems has had its factors changed, its difficulty and complexity enhanced, more than the railroad problem.

It had been the subject of much investigation, discussion, and legislation before the war. A joint Congressional committee of which the late Senator Newlands, of Nevada, was chairman was engaged for some years in getting the views of leaders of all classes of the people regarding the transportation situation and the changes needed in laws regulating the railroads. It seemed a consensus of opinion regarding the way to solve the railroad problem. was being approached.

But the United States entered the war before Senator Newlands's committee made a final report. Our participation in it resulted in government operation of the railways for over two years. This caused or accelerated important changes of opinion, many of which found expression in the Transportation Act of 1920, under which the railways were returned to private operation.

The period of inflation and feverish seeming prosperity in which the Transportation Act was passed suddenly, just after railway rates had been raised to the highest level in thirty years, was brought to a close by a violent business reaction and the most headlong fall of prices ever known. There have followed further changes of opinion regarding railway matters. Numerous members of Congress are now trying to frame and get passed legislation which will give effect to abruptly formed new opinions. Some of the differences between the

legislation which was considered by the Newlands committee before the war and the proposed legislation being considered by committees of Congress now show how certain factors of the railroad problem have changed. Then the railways were trying to get relief from laws held by the Supreme Court to prohibit even "reasonable" consolidations. Now they are trying to avoid legislation which would compel them all to consolidate into a few huge systems. Then those who believed the railways were "overcapitalized" were urging the Interstate Commerce Commission to expedite its valuation of them. Now that the commission actually has made a "tentative" valuation, some of those who formerly advocated a valuation are seeking legislation to get it reduced, while the railways, which originally opposed the valuation legislation, are now opposed to its being changed.

While some factors of the railroad problem have changed, however, it is still fundamentally the same problem. From one point of view it was, and still is, principally the problem of providing the country with sufficient means of transportation. From another point of view it was, and still is, principally the problem of so regulating the railways as to promote an equitable distribution of wealth and incomes. Looming in the background, now as in the past, is the question of government ownership.

The great changes in the railway situation which have been caused by the war and its aftermath may be illustrated by a few statistics. In 1917, before the wartime government operation of the railways, their earnings averaged $11,000,000 a day. In the first eight months of 1923 they were $17,300,000 a day. In 1917 operating expenses were $7,750,000 a day; in the first eight months of 1923, $13,500,ooo-much more than total earnings in 1917. Operating expenses consist chiefly of wages. They, in 1917, were $4,800,000