THE TRANSPORTATION EMBARGO 79 



a week. The same has been true in the anthracite 

 region. This was one of the reasons for the demand 

 for large increases in wages by the miners. Auto- 

 mobiles have been driven from the factories to mar- 

 ket by the tens of thousands on their own power. 



The farmer suffers from the car famine along 

 with the manufacturer. So do food dealers. They 

 were unable to market their produce. The cost of 

 food has been greatly increased as has the price of 

 other commodities. Hundreds of millions of dollars 

 is a conservative estimate of the loss which the 

 country has suffered by reason of the failure of our 

 transportation facilities and the inability of the 

 railroads to utilize what facilities they have. In 

 addition — and this is one of the unseen costs of pri- 

 vate ownership of the railways — the productive ca- 

 pacity of the country is in a state of semiparalysis 

 which costs the nation far more than the unmediate 

 loss on existing shipments or the high freight charges. 



And this has been a continuing condition for 

 many years. Some years ago the farmers of the 

 Northwest saw the result of their year's labor rot- 

 ting on the fields because of the shortage of cars. 

 This is one explanation of the high cost of living, 

 of the prohibitive price of food and of fuel. Food and 

 fuel cannot reach the market, or when they do reach 

 the market the terminals and other agencies are in- 

 adequate to receive them. 



The most recent announcement of the railroads 



