Omaha daily bee., 1885-06-24

be off tomorrow sud Jay Gould or some
other man may BIS here In charge Of
your road. When we are told with re.
gard to these roads out here, and what
they have cost compared with railroads
In Iowa and Illinois, i simply answer,
we have nothing to do with that what
ever. 1t doesn't matter how much the
railroads cost when built or how much
the men who built them fraudulently
spent. The question is this, what can a
railway of equal capacity and the best
equipment be laid down for In this state.
1t doesn't seem to me II l was going to
rent a house that it would be the prov
ence of the man who owned the build
Ing to point mt to the fact that
twenty years ago bricks cost
500 q thousand In Omaha, and l must
pay In comparison with the money In
vested. The question would be, what
can q building of equal capacity and
equal accommodations be built for to-dsy7
and his rent should be gagged according
ly. To some extent, but not much, the
Union Pacific und Darlington &c Missouri
are competing lines.
"The case Is this, there are too many
places In this country where too many
railroads have been built, when one road
could do all the business properly and
with proper dispatch. But here three
railroads have been built, and If you
have three times too much capital invest
ed, what are you going to do Are you
going to tax the public enough to let all
three of these roads live on q fair basis of
honest building and honest capitalization
There is the problem, I" said Mr.. Cullom.
In reply, 81 agree with the railroad
people on this point" said Mr.. Rose
water, ''that the day will come when we
must limit the construction OF railroads,
and l believe that bsfore any rail-
road should be chartered by the
state or congress an inquiry should be
made. as the population and production
Of the country through which 1t would
pass and the facilities for trade and traf-
tic. l admit three railroads In q section
of country where only one can make In
terest on the
MONEY INVESTED
would be q serious mistake, but 1t is no
more of a serious problem than where
three newspapers start in a town and only
one can make a living. But they cannot
tax the public-only the pocket of the
owner. On the other hand, though, the
railroad is here and the railroad toll is a
tax. The question is, to what extent
shall the country be subjected to the
power of untsxed railroads"
"Suppose a line was built parallel to
the Union Pacific road to San Francisco,
with an honest invested capital" in.
unired Senator Harris. ttin fyjup rStas
should the government fix rates by which
both roads can live on an honest capital
lzation or ought they to divide between
the two what would be sufficient for one
of them to live on?"
"Well 1t seems to me-" said Mr.. Rose
water, s'that the question should simply
arise: To what extent shall the public be
taxed for the traffic they are obliged to
carry on their public highways? If there
are more public highways than are abso.
lutely needed, the men who invest In
them must take the consequences. They
ought to have brains enough to see that
there will be a loss sooner or later.
Are you going to allow an enormity of
parallel railroads to be constructed, COM
polling the people to keep adding to their
rates or maintain these extortionate
rates, In order to support the new rail
roads? 1t don't seem to me that that
would be a good policy. The general
policy of the people should be to pro-
test the people against these legal en-
croaohments."
The completion of Mr.. Rosewatsr's
testimony will appear in tomorrow
mornings paper.