St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-14
RAILWAY MANAGERS.

In all the discussions, both in and out OF
congress. relating to the control OF rail-
WAYS by government authority and the ne
cessity for fixing the rates OF transportation
nv legislative enactment, the whole subject
has been discussed upon the theory that the
management of the railway is simply bus
mess management seeking the success of
the CORPORATION as business enterprise. 1t
seems singular that it has never occurred to
those who are dealing with this question
that there is another view of it, and, when
looked at in that light, the secret OF many
of the most serious abuses OF which the pub
lie complains is revealed. If railway man
ayers were conducting the railway bust
ness of the cOutry with no other object in
view than the success of the corporation as
a business enterprise, the railway problem
would be Invested Of many OF its most
complicated features. But just there lies
the secret of the whole trouble. Railroad
managers do not conduct the railway
business on that basis. They conduct
it more exclusively in the interest of
the managers, which is more or less dis
t;ncJ from the interests of the company
itself. The railway official becomes asSo-
ciated with some private business enter
prise. He then uses his power as railway
official to secure discrimination in his own
favor. and the railway corporation under
his management is made the instrument to
build up firm. an industry or even a city
in which the railway manager or his friends
have pecuniary interest, at the expense.
ard often ruin, of competitors The result
has been. a complete destruction of every
thing like commercial democracy, and the
establishment on its ruins Of the most abso-
lutte form of despotism that has ever been
known in the history of commerce. These
managerial conspiracies do not always con-
fine their operations to destroying rival
business enterprises and plundering COM
munities, but they go so far sometimes as
to wilfully wreck the corporations which
have been entrusted to their management.
The grounds for public complaint are
not found in the railway system so much as
they are discovered in the system of manag
erial conspiracy which has grown up outside
of the railway system proper and which has
misuSed the power of the railway man.
ayers to pervert the railway system into an
instrument of oppression and eXtortien.
In framing legislation relating to the con-
troll of the railway system of the country,
the first step should be to lop off this eX-
creSsence of managerial conspiracy. Ii
railways are public highways. and if rail-
way companies are public corporations sub
ject to legislative control. then the state
ought to have the power to define the
qualifications of railway managers. If it
does possess that power then the first step
should be to disQualify person from hold
ing position in railway company who is
interested. directly or indirectly, in any
commercial, manufacturing or productive
enterprise on the line OF the road with
which he is connected. If this could be
done and the attention of the railway man.
ager be devoted exclusively to securing the
success of his corporation as business
enterprise it would not be long until the
public and the railroads could reach a
mutual understanding that would be per-
fectly satisfactory to both.