The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-05-06
The Wisconsin Railroad War.

The Wisconsin Railroad War.
The question of cheap transportation and
how far state and federal legislation is author
lied to control railroads are matters quite as
important to the masses of the country as the
solution of the currency problem. More peo-
pie are deeply interested in the subject of
transportation than the currency, for what
ever of inconvenience and ills they suffer at
the hands of transportation companies, they
feel directly, while the evils of Initiated cur
rency come to them indirectly and appear in
such forms as to be charged to other causes.
just now the attention of intelligent PEG
pie who are looking for new developments in
the transportation question, is turned to
Wisconsin where there is already Fan open
conflict between the state authorities and the
leading railway companies. For years the
hostility Of the people of that and other west
ern states to the leading railway companies
has been increasing. The people have not
looked at the advantages of such companies
to them but only the burdens, real or imagi-
=. nary, that these corporations haye<imposed.
,en.q 10 5sbas this feeling against the railways
40 aoi,nsnrhee state Legislatures have been
ys5seht that feeling and apply a
remedy. Accordingly the last Legislature of
Wisconsin tried its hand at reforming the
abuses of the railroads by enacting law re-
ducing passenger tariffs to three cents mile
and making very mate5ill reduction of the
rates on freights. The presidents OF two
leading railroads. the Chicago Northwest
ern, and Chicago Milwaukee and S.. Paul,
have formerly notified the Governor that the
laws are unconstitutional and they shall pay
no heed to them, and they have made good
their declarations by assuring tariff regulations
wholly ignoring the requirements of the
State law. Gov. Taylor in reply has hurled
proclamation at the offending companies,
= but such official jokes are never needed.
The Chicago and Northwestern managers
say that they operate $50 miles of road in
Wisconsin, constructed at a cost of $2S, 0O0,-
600. Whether this is the real cost or not, or
is extended by the watering of stock, we do
do not know. The cost of operating the
road has been 10 per cent. of the gross earn
ings and the balance is needed to pay the ia
terest on the bonded debt, The State law
that If its tariffs were made to conform to
the statute, the gross earnings would hardly
pay the running expenses. They also con-
tend that the road is run as cheap as it can
be and there is no way of further reducing
the expenses except by cutting down the
wages of the employees Of the road or by re-
ducing the equipment-neither of which are
practicable. The statement further shows
that during the last seven years there has
been steady reduction of the rates of tran
sportaton.
The Milwaukee and st. Paul managers
make out good case for its present policy. The
cash dividends paid on stock for the past ten
years have averaged 2.2S per cent per an
mum. The stock has been watered to a
small amount by issuing stock in lieu of div
idends. The present return on the stock is
six per cent. on the actual cost and seven per
cent. on bonds The law of Wisconsin will
take away three-fourths of the net earnings
of the road, which with the increased rate of
taxation on the same, would amount 10 the
practical confiscation of the property of the
company.
The above statements may be little col
ored, for very good men when representing
railroads will sometimes put their affairs ia
favorable light, but at the same time there is
reason to believe that the representatives of
the farmers Of Wisconsin, smarting under
their real or imaginary wrongs, enacted the
present law without fully considering all the
interests concerned and without taking into
account the possible danger there may be of
Gripping the very means by which their
property has been made valuable and the
products of their farms available
These companies will now resist the laws
of the State and compel the State authorities
to test the question of its right to fix railroad
tariffs, which the Wisconsin charters special
ly vest in the directors of the corporations.
They have also employed the highest legal
talent in the country and it is already an
nounced that such lawyers as Judge Curtis
have decided that the law is unconstitutional
OF course the State authorities are in duty
bound to bring the matter before the courts,
and the result will be of interest to the whole
country as affecting the right of the State to
regulate railroads. 1t is very important that
the question should be settled by the highest
tribunal in the land and settled upon the
broad principles of the right Of the states 10
control corporations which exist by their suf-
france. 1t cannot be denied but that these
corporations in many instances have borne
themselves insolently and have acted on the
assumption that the world and all things
therein were created for the sole use of rail-
road corporations, and it is the exercise Of
their power under this assumption that has
evoked such universal hostility in the West.
When the nature of their rights are deter
mined on ge neral principles which recognize
that the people are greater than any creature
of their making and the corporations appeal
to an intelligent public for fair play, the ques-
tion between the people and the railroads will
be settled
PROF. SWING denies the report that he in
tends to resign, and says he shall stand trial