ipll 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 5p 



For many years our rail- 

 roads and our leading Amer- 

 ican manufacturers have been 

 applying "scientific manage- 

 ment" to -their business, and 

 when new methods have 

 been proven to possess real 

 merit, have been quick to 

 adopt them. "Scientific man- 

 agement," as it is now being 

 discussed in the magazines 

 and newspaper press, would 

 have more weight with rail- 

 road officers and business 

 men if it were something 

 new, and something more 

 than the theory of one who 

 during all his business life 

 has been a lawyer. It would 

 be more valuable as a sug- 

 gestion if it did not consist 

 of ideas which have been 

 discussed many times before 

 by practical men, and from 

 which all that is good has 

 been already well sifted and 

 applied to actual business. 



In the decision which 

 embodied the opinion of the 

 Commerce Commission upon 

 "scientific management" there also occur 

 several illuminating statements about 

 the importance of railroads to busi- 

 ness in this country, which, from such 

 a source, are of great significance. 

 The commission says: "Next to agri- 

 culture, our railroads are our greatest 

 single industry. In their ordinary opera- 

 tion and maintenance great numbers of 

 laborers and vast quantities of supplies 

 are used. Railroad extension would 

 mean the employment of additional labor 

 and the purchase of additional material 

 and equipment. * * * So far as such 

 expenditures are legitimate they ought 

 to be encouraged. Our railroads should 

 be kept in a high state of efficiency, and 

 railroad charges should be sufficient to 

 permit this. Necessary extensions and 

 improvements should be made, and the 

 treatment of the railroads by the public 

 should be such as will inspire that con- 

 fidence on the part of the investing pub- 

 lic necessary to obtain funds for such 

 additions." 



An important phase of the railroad 

 question, that involved in the fact that 

 to meet the demands of the public for 

 the best local facilities, the best trains 

 and the best service, the railroad must 

 frequently make investments which in 

 the nature of things can never become 



Col>yi-iglit igio by R. M. Kellogg Company. Three Rr.'crs. Michigan 



FIELD OF THOROUGHBRED PEDIGREE STRAWBERRY PLANTS GROWN BY MRS. WILL OLIVER 



MONONA, IOWA 



OREGON CHAMPION GOOSEBERRY 

 (REDUCED) 



revenue-producing, is touched upon by 

 the commission in this language: 



"In the development of a railroad it 

 must often invest money in permanent 

 structures like a passenger station, which 

 will not add, for the time being, to its 

 revenues. * * * it is reasonable to say 

 that such rates may be charged as will 

 permit the accumulation of a fund to take 

 care of cases of this sort." Again: "The 

 economies just referred to, like the 

 reduction of grades and use of larger 

 equipment, have necessitated large out- 

 lays of capital, and upon this an addi- 

 tional return must be earned. Taxes 

 have increased, and are increasing more 

 rapidly than the value of the property. 

 All these influences tend strongly toward 

 higher freight rates, for they not only 

 add to the cost of operation, but they 

 increase the cost of the plant, upon which 

 a return must be made. * * * The 

 demands of the public will continue to 

 add to both the expense of operation 

 and the cost of the plant. Greater safety 

 of operation will be insisted upon, and 

 will require the outlay of considerable 

 sums of money upon way and structures, 

 and also extensive changes in equipment, 

 and will still further add to the cost of 

 operation itself by reciuiring the employ- 

 ment of additional men and the use of 

 the men under different conditions. It 

 was said by the railway representatives 

 that this increase in expense can no 

 longer be of¥set by the introduction of 

 further economies in the future, as in the 

 past, and it seems probable that (in the 

 future) the same kind of economies can- 

 not be relied upon to the same extent." 



I infer from this that the commission 

 ]ielie\-es the railroads cannot go much 

 farther in employing more efficient meth- 

 ods to offset increased expense. Yet in 

 spite of increasing taxes, higher wages 

 to employes and , added expense in every 

 other direction, no small item of which 



is the expense of meeting the require- 

 ments of board and commission control, 

 which now amounts to about $20,000,000 

 a year, new laws are constantly being 

 proposed by our state legislatures which 

 impose new restrictions on the railways. 

 These are added to the existing law and 

 continually increase the burden upon the 

 transportation business of the country, 

 while but few enactments are repealed. 



In the seven states in which the North- 

 ern Pacific Railway operates its lines 

 there were submitted to the legislatures 

 which are now adjourning mote than 

 225 bills for laws, most of which are 

 admittedly experimental, or founded 

 upon ideas which have not been proven 

 to be sound. Such legislation cannot 

 conform to the demands of sound, con- 

 servative business judgment, and such 

 judgment is essential in the management 

 or control of as great a business as that 

 of our railroads, which is only exceeded 

 in bulk and in importance in the United 

 States by that of agriculture. Has the 

 time not now come for an impartial and 

 serious consideration by the people at 

 large as to whether it might not be bet- 

 ter for their interests individually and 

 collectively and for all business interests 

 of the country to give the railroads a 

 breathing spell, to eliminate much of the 

 useless and unnecessary restrictive law 

 under which they are compelled to work, 

 and permit them to solve the very serious 

 problem of giving the public what it 

 wants in railroad service and railroad 

 facilities, by encouraging friendly rela- 

 tions and friendly discussion with the 

 public, rather than to have constant fric- 

 tion and bickering? 



Editor Better Fruit: 



1 enclose check for three dollars to pay my sub- 

 scription to 131.3. I value "Better Fruit" more 

 than any other publication I subscribe for. E. H. 

 .Svvanson, Omaha, Nebraska. 



