76 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



agencies to take losses along for a time with 

 farmers, industries and other business in gen- 

 eral and that the fixed return offers no perma- 

 nent solution to our railroad problem. 



The fact is that our railroads have developed 

 under the private system with so much exploita- 

 tion that the nation is now obliged to go to the 

 bottom of the railroad problem, get at the facts 

 and work out a new constructive program. This 

 program must involve methods for adjusting 

 rates in accordance with general business con- 

 ditions and price levels so that they are relative- 

 ly in line with values. There must also be 

 developed a sympathetic attitude toward exist- 

 ing organizations and railroad leaders who in 

 many instances are not responsible for the ex- 

 ploitation in the past but have inherited a prob- 

 lem of extreme difficulty. We cannot get along 

 without our railroads because they are too much 

 a part of our daily life for us to permit them 

 to be crippled, and however much we regret the 

 errors of the past, the future calls for develop- 

 ment and expansion and increased efficiency. 



It has been shown by the investigations 

 of the Joint Commission of Agricultural In- 

 quiry that the growth of a large number of 

 systems and short line railroads under the com- 



