National Republican., 1880-12-17

"a fair return on the capital invested,
and liberal operating expenses, be
sides fair margin for fucthation,
in business. This being conceded, ant
his dividends swelling to double what il
"a fair return" we find him doubling the
volume of stock on the company's books
So that what was ten millions yesterday
becomes twenty millions to-day by {
single stroke of the pen, authorized by Q
resolution of the directory. Then, the
same railroad which has just been pay
ing per cent q year on ten millions must
now pay 8 per cent. on twenty mil.
lions. OF course il would not look well
to have the road pay 10 per cent on
the real capital. But per cent. on
capital, half real and half water, is
deemed the right thing.
Ifthe producer can still be made to pay
higher rates than enough to bring in 10
percent. interest without stopping produc-
ton, all criticism is silenced by new ex-
planation of the railroad manager. Hctells
you, speaking through the mouth of Mr..
Albert Fink, the great railroad expert and
general railway pool umpire, that the cost
of transportation and fair return on the
capital are not the only elements which
enter into the fixing Of railway
rates. He tells us that besides these
there comes in The raiue Of hG Serrice 10
The person for whom IL is performed.
He contends that proper measure
by which to aid in adjusting railway
freights is TO ascertain what additional
value is given to- merchandise by trans
porting it. The value of products in the
field being estimated, we need then
only to ascertain the market price,
and the difference between the two
prices is fair rate of freight. AS
products at distance from market
are worth the market price less transpor-
tation, the owner is at the mercy of the
latter unknown quantity. To make a long
story short, the railway manager takes
what he wants out of what the producer
gets in the market as the proceeds of his
sales. He will not Intentionally take so
much that the crops will cease. lie will
not choke transportation. Nor will he
take any more than he considers himself
entitled to. His forbcarance and prudence
are the only restraints under the present
system.
Upon these prctensions of the railway
managers issue is being joined in recent
essays of much power. The questions as
to the power of control by State govern
ments over railroads chartered by them,
and by the National Government as to
interstate commerce by rail, are looming
portentously. The conflict must come.
1t will not be in the form of crude or cx-
travagant mcasurcs-tho offspring of hot
indignation, falsely led by railroad agents
in disguise. 1t will be something
more deliberate. The parties will
be the railway managers on the one side,
and all who must run the roads on the
other. 1t will not be communistic as
sault on property; it will be struggle of
all other kinds of property against the
aggressive absolutism of railroad property.
people will be found able, as we firmly
believe they have the right to do, to con-
troll their own highways, and to impose
just and reasonable restrictions upon the
powerful corporations which now bear
unlimited sway over these arteries of the
Nation.
Either the country will subordinate the
railways to the rank of toll-gatherers by
permission on the public highways, or
the railways will rule the country. In
such contest the Republican party,
born as it was in fight for the people,
and embracing as it does majority of
the people, will do battle for no privileged
class. 1t will follow leaders only as they
go its way, and it will carefully watch the
attitude of those it has trusted upon this
momentous question.