The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-09-20
Press kilograms
How the Railroads are Managed.

NEN L QRK- sept. l(,-AlDerC E1nE,
commissioner Of the trunk lines, be-
fore the senate coiEmittee on labor
and education to-day testified he
Was at the head of the bureau COM
posed Of abeut ferty companies, who
were organized for the ptrposs af es-
tablishing and maintaining a uniform
tariff. The extension of railroad lines
in the United States, and the fierce
competition between them, made or
ganised action necessary to their exis-
tance. 1t woiild not do for each 5e
operate and fix its own rates. In
order to. improve. connections and
better accomifiodate, the. public; Hy ,es-
tablishing uniform system of rates,
a Joint executive committee was
formed. The system of railroad man
agement has been greatly complicated
by the increase in the number of
reads; The, roads, represented in the
association F7ers FIVE. trunk. lines, the
New York Central, New ok, Lake
Erie & Western, Pennsylvania, Balti-
more s. Ohio :, and Grand Trunk
line of Canada; with all their western
connections, the latter ate toads run
ming east and west. The territory in
which these roads are located is in
cluded between the Ohio and Missis-
sippi rivers and the great lakes. Fink
also stated there were two other asso-
CiatioiS &est tf tie Mississippi river,
one of which includes several LARGE
lines running west from Chicago, as
the Chicago & Northwestern, Chicago
& Alton, Chicago & Rock Island, and
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. The
nf
west of the Mississippi. Both associ-
Michelet: The first attempt at the or;
ganization Of any railroads was in
the south, in 1875, when the witness
was manager of the Louisville 81
Nashville. At that time there was a
fierce competition. A system was es-
tablished on the same basis that at
present prevails in the North. The
plan worked so well that 1t was adopt
ed by all later associations; as d reg
ulator of railroad tariffs. The western
routes by the way Of the gfe3t lakes
and the Mississippi river were very
effectual at certain seasons. When
the canal routes were closed to tariff
it was popularly supposed that rail
roads then had it all their own way.
This was not true and the idea that
roads could extort any tariff they
pleased By merely combining was false:
There We're manly other ELEMENTS
which would combine to prevent
such. q result. In regard to .competi-
ton On w,sker routes witness thought
this could be controlled, as il tEe case
of railroads. It was much easier to
put on a steamboat, or q dozen canal
boats on a route than TO build a
new railroad. The principal Of the
association was to arrange ii Rnlform
rate OF tariff tOr transportation on u
competitive plan. 1t had nothing to
do with local business; but only when
there was competition ait SOME great
distributing point for a certain class
of business. This was necessary in
order to protect shippers, that roads
competing for this business should be
known.
Senator Blair inquired whether this
was not opposed to the idea of natural
competition
Fink replied: These associations
don't at all affect natural and legiti-
mate competition. They ttierely Ere=
vented ruinous competition. Combe-
tition between railroads was very diff
erent from that between private indi-
viduals. In the latter case competi-
tion would cease when it reached a
disastrous point.
Fink Thought legislation might be
employed to assist the railroads to
maintain uniform rates, if such an or
ganlzatfon as he managed could be in
corpoarte6 by the general government,
but no legislation could avail. 1t
would be best to let the railroads
manage their own business until the
people came to understand that the
interests of the public and the rail-
roads were identical, Any legisla-
ton or attempt at the present
time would be- regarded with st1s-
picion, Reagan's transportation bill
was utterly impractfcable. Freight
rates in this country were the cheap
est in the world, and the tendency
was to still lower them. The scheme
that the government should purchase
the railroads and own them itself he
pronounced the widest folly, and one
which a sane man would not for a
moment contemplate. The value
of 112,0U0 miles of railroad In the
United States was about ST.GO.O0U.
Last year the gross receipts of all
these different lines was 100000, 600;
net receipts, same time, $500, 1900.
Out of this latter sum SS]fo62 Sf623,0 ,000, 600 has
been paid in dividends on The stock Of
the remainder. A large proportion
was expended in interest on bonds.
about 80 per cent. OF the running ex-
penses OF all railroads went to labor
erS employed as brakenien, condue-
tors, firernen and engineers. He was
asked if shippers and the people were
satisfied with the transportation
charges fixed by the railroads, and re-
piled they never would be satisfied as
long as they had to pay anything at all.