The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-08-13

! The abuses4of management haze been
almost as great on most of the leading
railroads of the West as those of con-
struction. In Minnesota, the chief COM
plant is against the s'wheat rings" that
are yearly formed by the managers of
the roads on which the farmers depend
to get their wheat to Chicago or Mil
waukee. Under the pretense of en-
couraging business and diverting trade
from rival roads to their own, these
men send out agents to buy the wheat
that is raised along their respective
lines, making for themselves special Sc
cret freight rates lower than those
given to other wheat buyers, whom they
are thus able to drive out Of the trade.
The result is that the farmer loses the
benefit of competition in the sale of his
crop, the price of which is arbitrarily
fixed by the railroad company.
AN HONORABLE EXCEPTION.
From all that say about abuses in
the construction and management of
railroads in this Stated wish to exclude
one company-the St. Paul and Sioux
City. If there are any other roads that
have been built by the companies them
selves with money derived from paid
up subscriptions to their stock, I have
not heard of them. To complete this
road the company was obliged to mort
gage the lands granted by the United
States, and since it has been opened,
owing to the sparse settlement along
It's line and the misfortunes of the road
and the people who contribute to it's
business, it has not earned enough to
pay expenses and the interest on these
bonds. To make up the deficiencies Of
the last two years, the leading stock
holders IN this city. who are also the
managers OF the road, have paid from
their own pockets nearly $250.OOO. If
II can hold on for few years until the
southwestern part of the State becomes
a little more densely settled, it will be-
come one of the most profitable roads in
the State and will be able to give to the
people who patronize it far more rea-
sonable rates than any of the roads
from the building of which fortunes
were made; but if its income were now
very much reduced, it would endanger
the solvency of a road the failure of
which would be misfortune to Mime
sofa.
Editorial in N. Y. Tribune Aug 5.)
The experiment of the regulation of
railway tariffs by State Commissioners
is now to be tried in Minnesota under
specially favorable circumstances. The
first attempt was failure. A single
Commissioner prescribed a cast-iron
schedule OF maximum rates, to which
the railroad companies declared it i'm
possible for them to conform, and the
case was carried to the Supreme Court
OF the State, where the constitutionality
Of the law was affirmed, in decision
upon which we commented fully at the
time. Briefexperiencc, however, show
ed IN Minnesota, as it doubtless will
show in other States, that the high
handed measures insisted upon by The
farmers, though they might be sus-
tanned by the courts could never
be put into practice, and new law was
accordingly passed by the last Legisla-
ture, to go into effect on the first of the
present month. Under this law, the
schedules prepared by board of three
Commissioners are to be taken by the
court as prima facie reasonable. If the
companies find the rates too low, they
are at liberty to go into court and
prove their case if they can and it will
then be the duty of the court to COM
pei the Commissioners to amend the
schedule. On the part of the railroads
VIC are assured that they will try to ac-
commodate themselves to the new rates.
On the part Of the farmers we are told
that they do not wish to reduce tolls be-
low what is fair and reasonable, and are
willing to pay the companies a proper
interest upon the capital they have in
vested. So long as both parties retain
this just temper, the Minnesota expe-
riment will be exceptionally favored.
But at the outset we meet with the
great difficulty that inevitably embar-
raises all these attempts to limit by
law the profits Of business enterprise.
Who shall decide what is proper in
tcrest upon the companies invest
ments! Who can tell what their real
capital is! Here is a land-grant road,
for instance, which has been built with
out any capital at all-paid for by sub
sides from the State or the nation.
Here is another road. whose stockhold-
ers have made enormous fortunes by q
credit mobilier operation. Here is =
third, which has drawn most of it's con-
struction fund from the aid granted by
towns and counties along it's route,
while {. fourth has really been paid for
in hard cash by the owners of it's stock.
obviously these different roads cannot
fairly be subjected to the same rule,
for a ratio of profit which would give
the shareholder in the St. Paul & Sioux
City Railroad seven per cent. on his
investment would give the shareholder
in some credit mobilier road seventy
per cent. The first step therefore to-
ward settlement Of the Transportation
question by the enactment of maximum
schedules must be to discriminate be-
tween real and nominal capital: and
tn S will be found by far the most
serious of the many difficulties with
which the problem is beset.
If you wish to know how MANY
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