The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-10-29
The Farmers and tue Roilro.a.

To the Railroads, probably more than
to any other agency, the great West
is indebted for her wonderful growth and
development in wealth and population;
and yet she has followed MANY other
examples since she has grown fat and
prosperous by turning upon and attempt
ing the destruction Of the instrument of
her success.
Appropriate to this subject is the fol
lowing extract from an address made bv
Mr.. j. II. Klipparl Secretary of the
Ohio State Agricultural Society, at the
Northern Ohio fair, at Cleveland, ON the
Both of September:
'tOur salvation consists in the fact that
we are not Frenchmen that we have a
second sober thought and that sober
thought will avert a revolution which I
believe would otherwise be imminent.
That sober thought teaches Us. firstly.
that railroads in and Of themselves are
indispensable, that by and through the
adj OF always the III TERRA resources OF
the country have been developed to q
much greater extent during the past
twenty five years than they would have
been IN hundred years in the entire or
total absense Of these roads. In the
second place this second sober thought
teaches us that railways are exceedingly
expensive Institutions | am speaking
by the book when | state that the cost
of well-constructed railway is between
S34, 900 and $50, 900 per mile; this OF
course includes the full equipment of
road, such as rolling stock, depots, ware
houses, etc. The Cleveland Columbus.
Cincinnati and indianapolis road, 800
miles, cost 314, 500, 600, or upwards of
s37, 900 per mile. Operating such a
road IS very heavy item Of expense,
and the rotd must pay all the ordinary
expenditures of operating and keeping
in repair, and then have surplus Of
$40, 900 besides t equal the acknowl- |
edged three per cent. on the investment
which is everywhere conceded is made by
the farmers. | am not a railway attor- /
ney, nor a railway agentin any sense |
am as much and as earnestly opposed to
railroad mlsmanagementa as any of YOU
possibly can be, but | wish very indiSpcn- |
sable and much abused institution all the |
justice that | can, because | cannot be |
brought to think that it III any sense is a |
necessary evil. On the contrary, | be- |
leve them to be a great civiizer and /
promoter OF the public welfare, notwith- |
that in some instances they are |
some what badly magaged. There is no
business in the Union which absorbs t
more executive talent than the manage
ment Of railways. The earnings of the |
Columbus. Cincinnati and |
indianapolis road for the year ending /
June 30, 1872, were 81. 353 695, the |
operating expenses were SO. 10, 307 tor !
tie same period Of time, leaving the sum
Of 81, 183, $50 with which topay interests,
taxes, saleries, dc.
81 read this statement to a very intel I
llgent farmer, whereupon he remarked |
that the earnings We're by millions, and t
the dividends, Of course, by millions also,
while he, his wife and children toiled /
and economical in every pos
sible manner, and yet from his farm of /
eighty acres he seldom was able to pay
up more than 5000 per annum. | con-
gratulated him and told him that he GER
tainly was an excellent farmer and an
better manager than railroad
officers generally are.
Il then tel him that the Cleveland.
Cincinnati and indianapolis
railroad represented an investment equal
to that of owning county containing
four hundred square miles, or two hun
ired and fitty-six thousand acres, valued
at $50, 81 per acre: and the operative
status OF this road Is just as if the county
Of two hundred and ffty-six thousand
acres was farmed-every acre Of it farm
q, and the p,o.luce sold for Sf7 per acre,
and the crops cost to grow and get TO
market the sum Of S12 38 per acre, I
leaving the sum of 81 So per acre to pay
nterets, taxes, hired help, etc. Ny own
is that farming pays better in
to the capital invested than +
operative ra;lroading does.