84 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



ties at higher rates. Another operator said that the 

 mines could supply 40 per cent, more coal if they 

 had means of shippuig it, and that one-third of the 

 bituminous coal mined in his district went to the 

 railroads at a price arbitrarily fixed by them. 



And what is tme of coal is true of other indus- 

 tries; it is tme of food, of agricultural produce> and 

 of other commodities which do not yield the highest 

 rate to the roads. And this is true in spite of the 

 efforts of the Interstate Commerce Commission to 

 correct it, after the most direct and explicit orders 

 to the railroads. 



The life of the nation rests in the hands of the 

 railroads. Formerly they gave preferential rates 

 to communities and industries. Now they favor 

 commodities that pay the highest rates and stai^e 

 commodities that pay low rates. The whole pro- 

 ducing power of the nation may be strangled by 

 reason of a discrimination against fuel, while the 

 workers may hunger for food and the farmers lose 

 the product of a year's effort because there is more 

 money to be made by the railroads in transporting 

 luxuries than by transportuig food supplies or fuel. 

 The farmers are patriotically responding to the call 

 to feed America and her allies. Yet their efforts 

 may go for naught and their service be in vain 

 because the transportation agencies cannot or will 

 not socialize theii' efforts and serve the nation's 

 needs. 



