Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-02-22
THE COMMISSIONERS REIoIN.
Points I'm Their Reply 10 vtce-Pres
dent TOuzalfn. OF the Atehis0n, TIC

THE COMMISSIONERS REJON.
Points I'm Their Reply TO vice-Pres,-
dent TOuzaIfn. OF the Atehis0n, To-
Peka & Santa Pc.
The late decision of the Railroad Commits
noners making rates over the Atchison, To
Peka Il Santa Fe Railroad brought out
several letters of Mr.. Touzalin. Vice-Presi-
lent OF the road, seriously criticiZing the &C
ion OF the board and plainly intimating that
the road would appeal to the courts. To these
letters the Commissioners rejoined in
iengthy and pointed reply, the main features of
which are given below. Addressing the Vice
President, the Commissioners say: 1--WE are
In receipt Of your traordinary letters of
January 81, which were evidently intended for
the public eye rather than for the considera-
ton of the board of Railroad Commissioners.
We're it not for the fact that you apparently
seek further information from this quarter
the propriety of our giving them any notice
would not be entirely clear. We shall pass
over certain imputations upon the integrity
If the proceedings of the board, with the sim
pie remark that they possess the sole merit of
being false, and were intended to be insolent
We can well afford to receive aspersions
from you without being melted to unkind
feelings"
After informing the. vice-President that he
possessed the ability to be vague when it
would be dangerous to be explicit, the Com
missioners ask, in regard to the point that their
rates would compel the road to operate auxil-
larry lines at a loss: IF at a loss at whose loss?
And what kind of a loss? The stockholders of
your company have never had to reach their
hands into their pockets to pay one dollar for
any loss IN operating any auxiliary line belong
ing to your system. But, instead of that, over
and above every loss, you have from year to
divided hp 81 hold
OF dollars, out of the surplus earnings and stin
had surplus with which you have bought
hotels, extensive coal fields in Kansas and
COLORADO, built new railroads and bought
great quantities of additional rolling stock
thus adding immensely to the wealth of your
company, without the expenditure of a single
dollar by its stockholders. You report
to us over $2.0O0009 spent in additional
construction and rolling stock the last
year, and every dollar OF this. together with
the accumulated millions which you ave
been able to place to income account on your
books, has been gathered from the industries
OF the people by what you are pleased to call
reasonable rates." The Vicc-Prcsident is re-
minded that these auxiliary lines have not
been built by the money furnished by stock.
holders, but by local aid and by money gath
cred from the people through reasonable
rates and from the sale of bOnds-a debt
which the people will have 10 pay. IL there
was any loss il did not fall on the company
but on those who pay the transportation tax,
and keep up the revenues of the system of
the road. The property of the road is given
at $q3, 6sS3, 81, and the people living along
the lines pay interest and dividends to the
stockholders and bondholders upon that basis
of value The foundation and substructure
of this vast system is chiefly built on bonds,
and the SI.s76,O00 freely contributed
OF the road. Every dollar of these bonds
and every cent of accruing interest will have
dime of dividend from the earnings of the
road and I'VE assert il as our firm opinion, that
not five millions of dollars of the money of
the AtchisOn, Topeka & Santa Fe stockholders
have gone into this vast property. All the
rest represents property which has been con-
tributed by transportation tax by the labor.
ing masses, for the benefit of those who hold
those pieces of paper, which are named stock
and which you construe as carte blanche 70
levy unlimited tribute from the people of
Kansas" After producing the figures to show
that auxiliary lines have not been built by
funds furnished by the stockholders but
by bonds and surplus earnings. against
which stock was issued to the amount of 3d.
10000, the Commissioners remarked: $50 long
as you build auxiliary lines at the expense of
the people you will probably continue to build
them" AS to the distance tariff the Commits
sioners say the rates were so high that they
prevented the industrial development of the
state. For instance, for siNty-SiX mile haul
on wheat your distance tariff rate was fifty
FIVE per cent. higher than the local rate to
Kansas City, and siNty-twO per cent. higher
on a haul of two hundred miles. That the
Kansas miller who bought wheat for his mill
had to paw you lifty-fivc and siXty-two per
cent more than the Kansas City grain tuyeI
had TO pay for the same length OF haul. And
IL so other classes of merchandise. and the sc
are the reasonable rates with which you pro-
pose to build up Kansas industries"
The question OF Interstate traffic and the
power of the State TO fix rates here receives Q
full review, in which the right of the State 10
fix local rates is satisfactorily demonstrated,
and that competition will fix rates &c
through traffic, affected TO Ger
tain extent by local rates. is admitted
even If the road assumed to fix through rates
Wif mt nrfaP hn .fcS II anrs
take issue with Mr.. TouZalin in his statement
that they said that the tariff On the first
seventy miles of the road was as low
as rates in Illinois. On the other hand, such
distance tariff rates were enormously above
any Eastern road they knew of, and for the
other four hundred miles of the road in Kan
sas, they cited the Illinois rates to show that
even the tariff fixed by the Commissioners was
greater than that of Illinois, and as to redres:
there If il desired to do so. But If Mr.. TouZaiT
did so, I'VE uhe Commissioners will proceed
to ascertain what part of your stock is bona
fde and what part ~ Illegal and bogus. We
have no doubt but that you will perform al
unintended public service by inviting such NJ
investigation. The tariff of rates is
rates established are equitable and
that the Nice-Presidcnt was erroneous both il
figures and logic. AS TO the argument thai
| the rates were arbitrary and an infringement
upon commercial freedom, the reply is that
ANY State that permits the exercise of an un
restricted power by "A railroad corporation u
]
! duty of protection to its citizens. You may
call this communism but tue alternative il
the subsection of the rights and property o.
one class to the irresponsible despotism of the
! other. In the ordinary business concerns oi
| life, the two parties to contract posses
| equal freedom, and neither party ha
the power to impose his own terms
! upon the other. But in the cas-
| of railroads commercial freedom mean,
| freedom for one OF the parties to the contrac
| only. The people are compelled 10 employ
| them. and il the power is not limited, to en-
| ploy them upon their own terms. They have
| no power of choice to employ these agencies
/ or not, and no option to accept or reject thcil
| terms Such absolute power on the one hand
and helpless subsection on the other, means
| despotism for the railway corporations anC
slavery for the people. IL Is true that the
common law has put an indefinite limit to thi!
/ power of eXtortion 10y saying that the charges
| corporations make for service shall be reason
able, but this provision has been found TO bC
practically unavailing for public protection
unless enforced by viVilant supervision"
| ut has always been found that human
| greed, coupled with power, will ride rough
shod over every right. The people of thii
State have declared against the continuance
| of that commercial freedom, for which you
sigh, and they will never again de
| liver themselves into your hands. Rail
! roads are in the nature of public
| agencies. The public has given to this elias
Of corporations the power to plant theil
| works in a definite location and to operate
| them there, and this carries with it the powe.
| letter by disclaiming any desire to injur,
! The road, but their action had beer
| forced upon them by the refusal oi
the road to act fairly, and had cxertcd Itself Il
/ create a combination among railroad mon u
| resist what they believe to lie n reasonable de
| mand of the public. They could only inter
| pref the object of the managers of the ROAD
20 be to break down the law.
The Millionaire.
!