THE RAILROAD RATE INCREASE
The Railroad Rate Increase (From "The Woman Citizen.") THE AMERICAN public has not yet fully realized the staggering additional burdens imposed on it by the recent decision of the Interstate...
...In the June 12th issue of the WOMAN CITIZEN (page 49) it was shown that only one cent out of every dollar appropriated for the fiscal year just ended was spent on research, educational and developmental work...
...THE AMERICAN public has not yet fully realized the staggering additional burdens imposed on it by the recent decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission under the Cummins-Esch Bill granting the common carriers rate increases estimated to yield over one and one-half billion dollars...
...Part of this could have been prevented...
...The cost of such work would be insignificant in comparison with the huge economies it would effect...
...Women voters should know that this increase adds a DIRECT annual tax equal to $15 per person of the population, and this means an INDIRECT tax estimated at from two to five times this amount, or $30 to $75 for every man, woman and child in the United States...
...Housekeepers are already driven to desperation to make both ends meet...
...This burden imposed by the Interstate Commerce Commission on the people of the United States if made perpetual exceeds the war indemnity by the victorious allies and associated powers on their vanquished foes as a punishment for their war crimes and war destruction...
...This side of the government's work is now sadly neglected...
...For this reason their main interest is at present centered around developing and expanding just this group of neglected government activities...
...Something must be wrong...
...For a family of four the direct tax amounts to $60 and the ultimate cost to no less than $120 to $200...
...This is equivalent to paying interest on an added war debt amounting to from 25 to 42 billions* estimated as a direct tax, or from 125 to 214 billions on the basis of indirect cost before it reaches the consumer...
...Increased costs, necessitating increased wages, was the occasion of the decision, and the decision itself simply promises still another cycle of increased living costs and demands for increased wages...
...The "cost plus" theory of utility regulation according to which management or mismanagement is equally rewarded and on which the Cummins-Esch law is based has certainly failed...
...M. S. B. *The present war debt is approximately 25 billion dollars...
...whose great object is to reduce the cost of living...
...Women voters represent that body of voters whose experience is mainly an experience of money saving rather than money getting...
...Its failure is clearly traceable to the lack of reliable engineering and technical information relating to all details of railroad management and operation, which it should be the duty of the government to secure, to the end that costs be kept at a minimum consistent with changes in the cost of living...
...What have been our crimes...
Vol. 13 • January 1921 • No. 1
