New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-08-10
WINDING OTHER PEOPLES BUSINESS.

| A pleasant fOretaste of the good things In
store for us when Senator Morton gets his
great Universal American Railroad Commits
siOners organized at Washington, with au-
thOrity to regulate the charge for freight and
passenger transportation in all the States, may
be had Just now in Minnesota. We have al
ready spoken of the new railway law In that
State as one of the most moderate of all the
statutes framed at the West for the satisfac-
ton of the clamorous Grangers,-a law so free
from the tyrannous spirit characteristic OF
most legislation of that class that the COM
panies have generally agreed to accept it
frankly and give it fair trial. The Commits
soners appointed under this law, in the course
of their systematic reductions. called upon the
President Of the consolidated st. Paul and
Sioux City and Sioux City and st. Paul Rail
road Companies (the two roads are practically
onc) to show cause why their rates should not
be reduced. He did show cause, and it would
appear to the dlsinterested observer pretty
good one. He showed that the net earnings
of the two roads for the first six months of
the present year were less than SjJOOO, while
the interest on their funded debt and rent
charges for the same period were Sl9j,UOO,
leaving an annual deficit of 100000 to be pro-
yided for Nevertheless a reduction of rates
had been made voluntarily on the 1st of July,
with the hope of stimulating an increase of
traffic but as the roads ran through the grass
hopper district it was evident that their busl-
ness this season must be light. In spite of
all this, the Commissioners insisted upon
still further reduction. They seem to have
assumed that they were not appointed for the
purpose of ascertaning what were far ana
reasonable charges they were to take 1t for
granted that all the existing tariffs were too
high, and to cut them down all round in ODE
dience to the demand of the people"
The company which has suffered so much
from their action in this case happens to be
one in which the abuses of stock watering and
fictitious share subscriptions have never been
practiced to any great extent, If at all. The
stockholders have put their own money into
the enterprise and made good out of their pri-
vate fortunes the large deficits in the business.
The funded debt consequently represents a
genuine investment, upon which the Commits
sioners will not allow the Company to earn
either dividends or even interest. If the de-
cision of the Board is to stand, we do not see
how the roads are to avoid bankruptcy. Now
suppose a central commission at Washington,
the creature and servant of the ruling party,
with authority to revise the schedules of every
road in the country. Then we should have
the railway business managed on political
principles rates cut down at election time in
the farming districts rich corporations black
mailed into the support of the Administration /;
the laws of trade entirely disregarded capital
deprived of its guarantees and enterprise of
course brought to a stand. A general collapse
in railroad securities would soon be inevita-
bic for nothing but ruin and havoc can cnsue
when the law compels one man to manage
another mans business.