The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-01-07

road. Mortgaged at S15,000 a mile, it will amount to $21 500 ,000, and the fixed charges at 3 per cent will be over S1 ,080.000 year. If the same rate of loss on branches and extensions that is shown by the Northern Pacific prevails on the Manitoba, its annual loss on the operating of its new mile age will be over $2,000.000. This would render it necessary for it to re- alize $3,000,000 year in net earnings on its old lines. The St. Paul, with it's increase of 462 miles, shows a marked decrease in its gross earnings, with continually increasing expenses and fixed charges. The Santa Fe, paral- leling much of the best part of Gould's southwest system, has, within the last two years. succeeded in disposing of nearly $60,000,0O0 of stocks and bonds, making total of some $780, 100000 of Autographs and chromos it has unloaded on very confiding pub lie. But why pile up such details? The aggregate length of the new rail- roads built ill this country during the present year would make twelve straight lines from New York to the Mississippi river, at cost of $24O,- 900 900. Nearly all this reckless building has been done west of the Mississippi river in sparsely settled wilderne~ses, where the roads will not be needed for years. They were built for about $8,000 or $1O000 a mile, and turned in on the stock markets at 220,000 to $25,000. Is it any wonder public faith in railroad stocks and management is shaken? The inter- state commerce law should be amended so as to prohibit the officials of rail- roads from building these unneeded and useless extensions and additions to be sold to gullible investors at two or three or four times their cost. We need more rigid government super vision and regulation of railroads, especially in the matter of building.
 Some one having alluded to Jay Gould, Mir. Hatch made rather a start ling statement. He said in substance: am not, and never have been, the con- fidential receiver of MT. Gould's fu- ture plans. But I do not think the public need be surprised to hear that he has lett this country for good or to learn before long, that he has pur- chased q chateau in southern France or castle among the crags of Scot land, and that his bank account in London is the largest cash deposit made by any one individual in that city. If reports are true, more than a fourth of his entire fortune has al- ready been transferred and is deposited in London to-day. Gould can ma nipulate the stock market from Lon don, Paris, or the shores of the Mcdi- terranean just as well as from Irving ton on the Hudson. He may buy a title of nobility, or he may conclude to take the presidency of the French Republic. He was worth titty- i've million dollars when he, Morosini and Washington E. Connor dissolved part nership in January, 1886, and the probabilities are that, with the appre- citation of the securities he then held, and the new Autographs he has issued since that time, he is now worth sev- enty-tive million dollars. A man with that many shekels can easily make himself president of such re- public as France. He has only to be- come citizen of the country, and come down literally enough with the spon- dulles. His seventy five million dollars looks huge when you change it into three hundred and seventy five mill lion francs. All the indications of the stars and the astrologers point to Gould's becoming French citizen at an early day. Then let Europe look out. With three hundred and seventy five million francs as starter, he can do almost any thing he chooses. France certainly needs some extraordinary financial genius to take her affairs in hand. The man, the money and the time seem all to have come.
 Talking of the tendencies of the stock market, Uncle Rufus declares everything to be on the down grade. Overbuilding and mismanagement ot railroads, the passing of dividends by such lines as the Baltimore x Ohio, and short crops in many portions of the country, will all tend to produce decline. The short corn and wheat crop of 1887 will be felt next year by all the grain carrying roads. A failure or shortage in
 the products of the soil, strikes at every other industry. It not only cuts down directly the tonnage of freight shipped, but it reduces the amount of goods and merchandise pur- chased and shipped back in return.
 When he visited Dakota in 1882
 wheat brought seventy-five to ninety
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