"The converging lines of cost and compensation in railroad operation, which for years have been steadily approaching each other, are now separated by so narrow a margin that in order to pay fixed charges, taxes and operating expenses, with even a very moderate return to shareholders, there must be either a moderate increase in freight rates or a very substantial reduction in the wages of railroad employes."
(W. C. Brown, before the Mich. Mfrs. Assn., 6-22-08.)
LESSON XV.
Which Shall It Be?
"Is it not better, Mr. President, that you and I, and tens of thousands of people who buy and use automobiles, should pay a dollar or two more freight on our machines than that the family of the engineer, the conductor, the brakeman, the switchman or the humble section hand shall be deprived of the actual necessities and comforts of life, which we know they must give up if the monthly pay check is reduced?
"No question of greater importance confronts the people of the country today, for upon its righteous solution hangs the momentous issue of an early return of prosperity or a continuance of the depression of the past six months, emphasized and darkened by a struggle with organized labor such as this country has never experienced."
(W. C. Brown, before the Mich. Mfrs. Assn., 6-22-08.)
LESSON XVI.
Moral.
"Our prosperity came with the prosperity of the railroads; it declined when adversity struck the railroads. We do not believe we can have the full measure of prosperity again until the railroads are prosperous."