carriers to-day is that of making both ends meet, and having enough money left over so that bankers will be able to obtain from investors new funds to increase the facilities. It is a matter of common knowledge and evident in the lives of all of us that expenses and the cost of living are greater to-day than a few years ago, and the same causes that affect the individual affect the great transportation companies. The demands of labor, the increased cost of material, ever-growing taxes, many new federal and state laws unnecessarily increasing the payroll, requirements of prosperous people for better service, all tend to increase the railroad expense, but so far with no increase in rates. As a result, the balance left to pay a return upon investments is not the amount that it should be to enable the banker to say to his client, “Lend me your money, that I may furnish it to the railroads so they can go on with their work.”
Figures compiled from the reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission for the fiscal years 1907 and 1911 are given below:—
