WHAT THE FUTURE DEMANDS 160 



ways and waterways in keeping with the growth 

 of the flow of products from centers of produc- 

 tion to centers of consumption. We must under- 

 stand that the preferred rate, if any, must be 

 allowed upon the raw material which is vital to 

 industry and consumers. 



Improvements in transportation through the 

 expansion of our railways, particularly, have 

 been the means of bringing immense new areas 

 under cultivation and in developing entirely 

 new industries in agriculture. But the debacle 

 of the last few years in our transportation sys- 

 tem lays before us the enormous task of revising 

 the haphazard systems into one smoothly work- 

 ing whole which will give the required service. 

 Involved in this transportation question are not 

 merely the problems of freight rates, car dis- 

 tribution and such details, but the bigger prob- 

 lem of the national investment in such services 

 and the regulation of income to be derived there- 

 from both in the form of returns on money in- 

 vested and the intangible returns in the form of 

 service rendered to the people. 



Distribution improvement, or better market- 

 ing, follows in the logical order though at the 

 moment it stands at the top of the list requir- 

 ing immediate attention to secure the proper 



