HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Signal, 1920-10-7, Page 6THE SIGNAL
GODWOH, ONT.
IMF
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Your Railways and the Cost.
of Living.
EFORE the Privy Council at Ottawa protest against the
new railway rates has been made on the ground that the
.,giving of the new rates would raise the cost of living by
a perc:rtage many times higher than the percentage
actually dr *ged by the Canadian railways.
It wao pointed out that the numerous middlemen who act
as the dist 'butors of goods would each add his percentage of
profit to the reight rate, so that, although the railways might
receive, say, ' y 40 cents additional ' fr,ht charge on a
shipment, t! a would be forced by the distributing middle-
men to pay many tjmes that amount. \
The manP5ements of the various Canadian railways desire,
through this, their Association, to draw the attention of news-
paper readers to the highly significant fact that the recent
increase in United States railway rates --an increase similar to
the increase in Canada --HAS ACTUALLY BEEN FOLLOWED
BY A DECREASE IN THE COST OF LIVING IN THAT
COUNTRY.
Furthermor
mill to Toronto, and Toronto to Winnipeg, for one and one-half
cents.
One and ontalf cents as against fifteen cents.
We venture to believe that, whatever the explanation or the
justification may be, the same serious additions to cost by the
distributing trades will be found in relation to almost every
article of common household use.
This is not to attack distributors. They may themselves be
victims of a bad system or of an overcrowded trade. But it is
to point out that if they add whatever percentages they, as a
trade, find convenient, ON TOP of the freight rates, the railways
cannot help either themselves or the public. _ The oppressive
esults of these practices should{aot be charred against the rail-
way managements, nor cited as reasons for holding freight
rates down—merely because railway rates CAN be held down ---
while other prices soar as the various trades find necessary.
RAII.WAY charges always must be a serious item in
mini cast ot.production. But' the management year
railways urge upon your attention this fact: That anti-
quated, overloaded and wasteful systems of distributing goods.
are much more properly a subject for public anxiety.,
-A great Canadian manufacturer recently made public, --
without any solicitation and without the previous knowledge of
the railway managements ---figures which proved that the retail
selling price of a yard of plain white cloth in Winnipeg, after
being hauled from Montreal to Toronto, and Toronto to Winnipeg,
would be incrersed only one-half a cent, EVEN A R THE '
WHOLESALER HAD ADIED 20._EC.. PROFIT -
NE% FREIGHT-ftATE AND THE RETAILER
50 P.C.
aIioti that these distributors, whether rightly or
wrongly, added £5 cents to his mill price of 16 cents per yard.
Y sT iw*ys carried the raw cotton for tl}is yard of
goods from Texas to Montreal, and the finished goods from the
t
Canada cannot prosper
without prosperous rail,,
'ways. Canadian rail-
ways cannot rover
--- --
unless Cansd prospers.
— .
In 'all sincerity let us est that the people of Canada
beware of those who would. restrict and even strangle the
railways S
AND IS NOT
OF COMM
edromrear
LY BECAUSE CONTROL EXISTS THERE-
-CONVENIENT IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS
ACTIVITY.
Railway. �' Association of
r.
nada
t. James Street, Montreaj, P..
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