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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Signal, 1920-10-7, Page 6THE SIGNAL GODWOH, ONT. IMF 1 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.. • -i .� _a r-- �r•r-. 3 , i7.