IN RE EASTERN RAILROADS.

The Eastern Railroads have again come before the Interstate Commerce Commission asking for an increase of rates, as under existing conditions they are rapidly approaching financial exhaustion. Not even the most cynical anti-capitalist can deny that the plight of the railroads is desperate, and that as a direct result of this the market is now in a panic condition, with consequent business demoralization throughout the land. It has been estimated that seventeen billion dollars have been invested in American carriers, and short sighted is the government which for political reasons, is going to prevent such investors from getting a reasonable return on their money. Of all enterprises, the Railroads are the only ones at the present moment which cannot increase their prices proportionally to their expenses. And when by the Adamson law the hours of labor have been cut down, when labor itself is ever scarcer and ever higher paid, and when at the same time coal, steel, and other commodities are soaring in price, a net loss will be inevitable, if the railroads' revenues cannot be increased.

But this year there is another reason for better rates, which excluding all other considerations should determine the commission to grant them. That is the war need of the government. Daniel Willard, the Chairman of Council of National Defense, in sounding the warning against permitting the railroads to approach exhaustion, pointed out the terrible consequences that had happened in France where such a condition had been allowed to take place. If the carriers of the nation decrease in efficiency, the whole industrial system will be tied up and the war work of the government jeopardized. From fairness to the railroads and their stockholders, and as a provision for national defense, the increase in rates should be granted.