Central Point herald and Southern Oregon news., June 21, 1917, Image 5

BRITISH EXPERT
LAUDS RAILROADS
OF UNITED STATES
Tells Congress C c w it t e Thai
Tlisy Lead World.
It W o u l d
M e an
Political C ontro l and
Loca of Efficiency— Declares T h a t
C risis C o n fr o n t s C o u n t r y on Accoun t
of T r a n s p o r t a t i o n S itu a t io n — Lowost
F r e i g h t Rates to Be Fo un d In Un ited
Statee.
Washington, TV C.—That the Unit­
ed States is face to face with a seri­
ous crisis in its commercial affairs,
due to the conditions by which its
transportation system is confronted,
was the opinion expressed by W. M.
Acworih, Kngland's leading authority
on railways, before the Newlands joint
committee on interstate commerce at
a special session held here to enable
the committee to hear his views before
his departure for London. Two steps
are necessary, according to Mr. Ac-
worth, to avert this crisis and to solve
the threatening railroad problem con­
fronting the country.
The first is to allow the railroads to
charge fteight rates sufficient to meet
the great advance in operating ex­
penses which is taking place and to
enable them to command the credit
necessary to provide the extensions
and improvements needed to meet the
growing demands of business. The sec­
ond is to do away with the multiple
and conflicting systems of regulation
that now hamper ra’ lvvay operation
and to provide one centralized regula­
tory agency with such local subdivi­
sions as may be necessary.
Higher Rates a Public Necessity.
Mr. Acworth’s views on the transpor­
tation situation in the United States
were expressed in answer to questions
by members of the committee, who
asked him to apply his knowledge of
railway conditions throughout the
world and of the experience of other
countries with government ownership
to the present problem before the
United States.
“ The fundamental factor In the situ­
ation is very simple," said Mr. Ac-
worth. “ It lies in the fact that you
cannot get three-quarters of a cent's
worth of work done for less than three-
quarters of a cent, no matter w hether
the agency performing it is a govern­
ment or private enterprise. Freight
rates must advance when the coot of
performing the service advances as
It is doing at present, just as the price
of bread or meat or any oiher com­
modity increases with increased cost
of production.”
In answer to a question Mr. Ac-
worth said that he thought American
freight rates had been at much too low
a level for several years past, that they
had reached this low point during the
period of cutthroat competition among
the roads and had since been held
there by regulating bodies. Unless re­
lief were afforded to the carriers very
promptly, he said, the result would
be a tremendous loss to .he people of
the whole country through insufficien­
cy of transportation facilities
Weakness of Government Ownership.
On the subject of government owner­
ship of railways .ur. Acworth said:
"It is impossible to obtain satisfac­
tory results on government railways
In a democratic state unless the man­
agement is cut loose from direct polit­
ical control
Neither Australia nor
any other country with a democrat­
ic constitution— perhaps an exception
ought to be made of Switzerland— has
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I Of AL AND PERSONAL
J
Ur. S. A. Mulkey returned from
Portland Sunday night "on the 10:30
•rain that got in at 12:30," as he put
it. He went to the metropolis to at­
tend the convention of the State Den­
tal Society and incidentally to attend
to some tiusiness. While on a business
errand Saturday morning the doctor
met with a very singular experience.
He was on his way to see a fellow den­
tist, Dr. J. Howard Miller, whose office
was in the Morgan building, about a
business matter that might have ¡javed
a man’s life. Upon arriving at the
Morgan building, on Washington St.,
he found a large crowd gathered in
front of the big office building. Dr.
Mulkey inquired of an officer what the
excitement was about.
To his utter
amazement he learned that it was the
suicide of the very man he wanted to
see on this important business errand.
Dr. Miller was a well known dentist
high up in the profession, who had
been somewhat unfortunate in his busi­
ness the last year or two. In a fit of
despondency that morning he had hurl­
ed himself from his office window on
the fourth floor of the building to the
pavement below in full view of the
pedestrians on Washington St. "H is
bndv was horribly mangled,” Dr. Mul­
key said, "and blond had run over a
large space on the sidewalk.
The
unfortunate man died hy the time they
could rush him to v hospital, ten min­
utes after the fatal plunge.
If I hail
known that Dr. Miller was in the state
of mind he was and could only have
arrived at his office ten minutes sooner,
that would not have happened." The
two dentists were acquainted.
T ie
Herald editor knew Dr. Miller quite
well and was shocked to read of his un­
timely end. Dr, Mil'er had a beautiful
homo on the Hast Side arid owned some
valuable city property, which makes it
seem very strange that u man of his
age—only 47 would commit such a
violent deed.
: ur cc' i d in maintaining a permanent
evo-anc«. In Trance, in Belgium, in
Italy, parliamentary Interference never
has been abandoned for a moment
Th- facta show that government hi
lerfcrc ce hr.a meant running tire rail
ways not for tire lenrf.t of the people
at large, but to ratir.y local and s c
tional and even perr a! Interests
Prussia. Mr. Acworth said, was th •
test example of an eff.rii :t gove-n
ment railway syst< :.u ami he pointed
out that miitta-. coin <U it ems were
treated as nf paramount I: i porta ace in
the Prussian railway system. While
American freight rates i ad teen re­
duced nearly 40 per cent in thirty-
years, rates in Prussia were near'y as
high as at the beginning of the period.
While the charge for moving a ton of
freight one mile in the United States
was a trifle over three quarters oi a
cent, the rate In Prussia was 1.41
cents.
As il'ustratirg the difference in rntes
between government and private roads
Mr. Acworth compared the railways
of New South Wales, Australia, with
those of Texas While the amount of
traffic to each mile of line was about
the same In both rases, he pointed out.
flic Texas railways performed for the
public four times as much service as
the government owned roads of New-
South Wales. The charge in Texas
for hauling a ton of freight one mile
was less than 1 cent, w hile in the Aus-
ralian state It was well over 2 cents.
"American railways lead the world,"
said Mr. Acworth
"Nowadays when
men in any other part of the wond
want to know how to run a rai'way
they come to the United States and
study your railways here. The Amer
ican railways are entirely the result
if private enterpr se. and I think they
-o a long way toward proving the case
against govc-iiux-ct ownership.”
Spring time is kodak time, and if
Two lady demonstrators were at the
you have’nt a kodak see Paxson Drug Cranfill & Kobnett store last Saturday
Co. Some nice ones from a dollar to with a new washing compound called
twelve dollars.
"No-Rub.”
It is evidently all that is
Mrs. W. H. Ferguson and her mother, claimed for it and will doubtless be­
Mrs. A. R. Bradney, left for Vernal, come a common necessity in the home
Utah, last Saturday evening. Thoy as well as the laundry. The main fea­
did not get away as soon as they had ture of this new washing compound is
expected they would. In the first place the fact that it will do the work with­
they expected to go to either Florida out rubbing, thereby saving much la­
bor for the housewife.
or Texas, but changed their plans.
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