Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1886-10-29
THE EXPRESS BUSINESS.
Railroad Managers Think of Running
the Express Business Themselves.
Which Indicates Trouble Ahead for
the Old Line Companies.
Chicago HeFali.


ing it out TO other companies. The ex-
press businest is Immensely profitable.
Nobody knows how much money the
Adams, American and United States
make in year, They are the closest of
all big corporations in this country. No
public statements are made of their
earnings, expenses, capital or dividends.
Their stock is not even quoted in the
market, little or none of II being for
sale, There is no rivalry between the
great companies. They do not clash in
rates, or outbid each other for railway
franchises. Once a month the general
suNerintendents of the three big COM
panies meet in New York. They will
permit no one else to be in the room
with Cthem. What transpires
at these meetings cannot, of course be
known, but it is always noticeable that
just after such meetings the orders are
issued which may be necessary to put
stop to any inadvertent clashing between
the companies in rates or otherwise. In
fact, the big companies pull together
a great deal like brothers. The profits
run into millions-how many millions
nobody knows. l do not say that the
rates are too high-they are quite rea-
sonable, considering tbs service rendered
in security and dispatch-but there are
big profits in the traffic, and, as l said, l
am surprised that SO few railroads take
steps to securing the profits for their
own stockholders.
The Baltimore { Ohio has demon
strated that there is money in the single
railway express business. The Baltimore
d Ohio Express earns a handsome profit
every year, notwithstanding the competi-
Of oil - tba +
er drawback to be found in the character
of the country through which the road
passes. Look at the bleak and barren
region traversed by the Baltimore &
Ohio east of the Ohio river, and compare
that country with the states traversed by
the Burlington, the st. Paul, or the North
western. The points at which the Bur
lington & Ohio has no competition are,
with few exceptions, points which pro-
duce very little traffic. Despite these dis
advantages, the express system has re-
turned a profit to the company aggregat-
ing a good deal more than the tolls paid
by the Adams people before the Balti
more Ohio took hold on its own &C
count
with few exceptions the express con
panies' arrangement with the railroads is
| like this:
THE express company contracts to
| ship so many tons of freight year, and
| to pay therefor a fixed rate per hundred
| pounds. If the traffic amounts to agreat
| er weight than the contract calls for the
| excess must be paid for at the same rate.
| The rate agreed upon is usually about 90
| per cent of the rates which the express
companies charge per hundred pounds.
| For carrying hundred pound package
| from Chicago to Kansas City, for in
stance, the express company gets 80
cents and the railroad company S1.60.
That is good enough for the express
company, considering the fact that the
railroad company not only hauls the cars
but buys and takes care of them and re-
pairs them when injured. Remember,
also, that whereas the railroad gets say 60
per cent of the charges on hundred
pound package on a ten or twenty pound
! package it gets only 80 or 40 per cent.
For carrying twenty pound package to
| Kansas City, for instance, the express
company will charge IS cents, of which
the railroad will get about 81 cents, or at
the rate of $l.65 per 100 pounds. On a
parcel weighing ten pounds the express
company's charges are go cents and the
railroad company's share would BE only
16 cents. 1t is in these small parcels that
express companies find their greatest
profits. 1t often happens that there is
more profit TO an express company III
carrying a car load of parcels from New
York to Chicago than the railway com
pany can make out of an entire train load
! of freight.
You ask how the railway officials get
their reports of the weights carried.
! From the employees of the express com
pany. Every messenger III charge of
| a car or a portion of a car has to make
out two reports for every run, one for
the railroad company and the other for
! his superiors, each containing the num-
Der of pounds of freight and number of
miles carried. The Burlington, [ should
| Judge, gets about S6,000,00O year out of
the express company. 1t could take
! charge of the business itself, handle the
! most of it with its own employees and
| easily clear a million year, perhaps
| $1,2O0O,0O0. l would risk my reputation
as practical expressman on my ability
| to so manage an express department of
! the Burlington system as to make 1t earn
| $1,200,OO0, year after the first year.
"The trouble is that our railroads are
not managed by the men who own them.
| If they were. the express companies and
| IUe Il ulllldu COl1 Ddlly HOulu lldNS W SlNS
up a larger share of their profits to the
| company which furnishes the track and
the motive power. The most outrageous
thing of all is the imposition upon the
railway stockholders, compelling them to
maintain locomotives and tracks for
! hauling Pullman's big cars around the
country, even keeping the cars in repair
in ali respects save their arrangements
| for sleeping purposes, getting no com
| pensation therefor while pullman gets
| rich out of it. There is nothing quite so
| bad as this in the express business, but
| the companies have what are called fat
| contracts with certain roads, For in
stance, the life OF the Adams com pany is
its very favorable contracts, covering the
! entire Pennsylvania system, which gives
the railway 40 per cent. of the gross earn
! ings. The contract is worth two or three
millions a year to the Adams people. 1t
is a matter of common gossip IN express
circles that the Adams company has been
enabled to hold this fat contract only by
dealing out blocks of their stock now and
then to the chief officers of the Pennsyl
Company. 1t is said that more than one
PENNSYLVANIA railroad man has made
fortune out of the express business, all
on the quiet. This is mere gossip, how
ever, ana KNOW nOtnlDg OF IL personally
but do know that any express company
in the United States would be glad to
give the Pennsylvania considerable more
than 40 per cent. of the gross and make
plenty of money out of it besides.
''If l am not mistaken the express com
panies will have more trouble the next
five years to hold their places on the big
railroads than they ever had before. In
fact, it was supposed until recently that
a railroad company could not Gust an ex-
press company from its cars, even if it
wished to do so and the contract had ex-
pired. But two or three late decisions
have settled that beyond peradventure.
The express company view of the case
was that railroads are common carriers
and that express companies, as servants
of the PEG pie, have the same rights as
private shippers.
The cases 1 speak of were the Missouri
Kansas and Texas railroad and others,
appellants, VS., William B. Dinsmore presi-
dent of the Adams Express company,
etc. All these suits, representing sub
stantialiy the same question, were brought
before the Supreme court by an appeal
taken from the decisions of the lower
court. The cases IN the lower court were