The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-10-24
Railroad Panics In Great Britain.

The fact is now very generally recog-
nlzed that an exaggerated expansion of
the railway system of the United States,
the construction of thousands of miles
of track leading from a fixed point
to nowhere in particular, and specula-
ton in the worthless ondshypothecated
for such construction, precipitated the
recent panic upon this country. The
additional fact is also very generally ad-
mitted that after this severe lesson,
money will flow into some safer channel
and seek investment in a sounder secu-
rity. Railway panics, however, are not
peculiar to this country. There
is every prospect that Great Britain will
shortly be plunged into financial confu-
sion in the same general manner, but
from different causes. As with us, rail
way Encouragement is the danger
which threatens that country, and it has
at last reached such point that a crisis
is imminent. The particular phases
of mismanagement, however, which
are imperiling railroad and financial in
terests there, differ essentially from
ours. In the first place, the travelling
public is in a panic over the extraor-
binary increase of railway accidents.
past two months without a serious acct
as the English public is much more SEN
sitive upon the subject of railroad acct
dents than the American, it is bringing
a pressure to bear upon the railroads
which will ultimately compel them to
use some degree of carefulness in rum
ming trains and to reduce the rate of
4olr
his chances of being crushed or boiled
with cheerful degree of fanaticism,
but the British traveller has strong
prejudice against any such operation.
But the panic is not confined to the
travelling public. The managers, stock
holders and bondholders are also in
panic. The great increase in the price
of coal, iron and steel, and the rise in
wages of every description of labor, have
forced their expenses up to rulnous
point. The companies have sought to
Offset it in various ways. First they
tried the experiment of raising fares,
only to find that when they passed a GER
tain point it had the immediate effect to
decrease the amount of traffic, and,
even at the safe maximum, that the in
crease in receipts left only very small
margin over the increase in expendi-
lures. Second, the companies inaugu-
rated q destructive system of economy
and retrenchment, by using deficient
rolling stock, neglecting to make re-
pairs in the roadways which were
needed, and charging everything posi-
sible to capital. But this policy has
brought about the crop of accidents
which, as we have already said, has
plunged the whole travelling public into
panic By such shifts as these, how
ever, they have contrived to keep up
dividends.
In Scotland crisis is also imminent
in the management of roads, growing
out of the freight questions, which in
turn are connected with the prevailing
coal and iron troubles. The present
freight rates were made to the iron and
coal masters twenty-five years ago, and
have never been amended since, al
though they were made at a time when
the price of iron and coal was one
third less, when wages were down to a
low point, and the cost of railroad ma
terial was much cheaper than it is
Chicago Tribune.