Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-10-21
OUR RAILWAYS.
Evils of American Railway Methods Conn
pared With European systems.

A recent article in Hdrper'S Maya
zine on English and American Rail
ways" as seen from the standpoint of
the traveller, was u revelation to large
numbers. Our railways have so long
sung their own praises, and a subser-
Went press has so readily re-echoed
these boastful strains, that we have been
deluded into the belief that we possess
ed the fastest trains the finest passen-
ger coaches, the largest supply of con-
veniences, the grandest stations, and
the cheapest ia, to be found IN the
world. Now it ought not TO be neces-
sary to say that the reason why one re-
ioices to see the publication of an arti-
Gle designed to dispel such illusions is
not that one likes to see the institutions
of ones country decried. No; the
reason is the hope that an insight into
the actual condition of things may lead
to an improvement in these institu-
tons.
A residence of several years in Eu-
rope leads me to the belief that the
author of that article has given even
too favorable a view of our railways as
compared with European railways.
The reader will find it an interesting
and profitable pastime to compare the
railway timetables of fifteen or twenty
typical American railways with the
timetables of as many European rail-
WAYS He will then obtain some idea
of the slow average rate of travel with
us.
Other features of our railways do not
fare better in the comparison. Our sta
tons are inconvenient and ugly, some
times even filthy. Our cars are uncom-
Portable, and it is difficult to see how
one who has lived long enough in
Germany TO become accustomed to her
institutions should not prefer second
class travel in that country to tirst-class
in the ordinary American railway, al
though the average charge is thirty,
forty, and occasionally even more than
fifty percentum lower.
A still more important element is the
safety of travel. and it can be said with
out fear of successful contradiction that
She reckless prodigality of human life,
which as part of our railway history
has astonished foreigners, is elsewhere
unknown.
But the chief evils Of American rail
ways appear when we come to treat OF
them as performing economic services
in the transportation of goods, ana
when we view railway property as an
important element in our national re-
sources 1t is then difficult to tell where
to begin or where to end an account OF
abuses, as they are so numerous ana
momentous. Equally difficult IS II to
find language in which to portray the
sober scientific truth in regard to these
abuses, for their enormity is such as
almost to battle description.
This present article VIII treat OF te8
points selected out of the vast nurleei
which present themselves, either be,
cause they have not generally received
satisfactory treatment hitherto, or De-
cause they are specially weighty IN
consideration OF railways from an eco
nomic point of view. These points are
the waste of the national resources ID
the railway world, the evils in the man
ner in which railway shares are bought
and sold for speculative, or perhap,,
more properly. gambling purposes ana