Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1888-03-01


uted our share. l am sorry detained Mr..
Jetfery SO long, because l am anxious you
shall hear him. l thank you, gentlemen,
for your attention.
REMARKS OF Il. II. RIPLEY.
GENERAL FREIGHT AGENT c., b. 90.
Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen: Judge
Carey said last night, in introducing this
subject, and in one sense introducing US,
that there were here some of the traffic men
who would state in a plain, unadorned way
some of the facts connected with the case
under consideration. l am under obliga-
tons to the Judge for having made that re-
marx, because it Obviates the necessity of
my apologies for any defects in my oratory,
or for stating what you will doubtless soon
find out for yourselves, namely, that my
facts will be of the most naked kind, UNI
adorned by any flights of imagination or
bursts of Oratory.
We come before you as the representative
of large interest, and we ask you to con-
slider what we may say in the light of justice
and fairness only, who represent the people,
| who, in the main, desire to be just a people
| who in their hearts desire nothing that is
not fair, that is not right, that is not just,
| lut people who have been, think, ter
| ribly misled, deceived and lied to. l do
| not believe there is an instance in modern
| history where any interest has been so per-
| sistently misrepresented so necessarily and
| continuously slandered as is the railroad in
| teIest of this State and some other Western
| States. We are accused daily, in public and
| in private, of all sorts of misdemeanors we
| are accused of extortion, discrimination of
attempts to build up individuals at the
expense of other individuals; of at
tempts to build up cities at the ex-
pense of other cities; of attempts to build up
cities outside the State at the expense of
cities within the State; OF connection with
coal mines; with oil companies; with car
companies with all sorts of outside inter-
ests which are foreign to our own business
and illegitimate, and very seldom is there
any denial made to these statements. The
man or the woman who is persistently slam
dered is very likely to lose his or her charac
| ter, especially if there is no champion TO de-
| fend it, and especially if he or she rests
| quiet under the imputations. l regret 1t as
| especially unfortunate, as most unfOrtu-
| nate condition of affairs that the railroads
| have themselves uniformly remained quiet
under these accusations In the rush and
hurry and scramble of our business very
| few of us have had time to take up and an
swer and disapprove these allegations. They
| are almost without exception false. l do
not mean that there have not been instances
/
indeed, if in business of the magnitude of
that of transportation in the State of Iowa
| there should be no abuses, there should ben0
| men who are not credit to the brother
| hood. But as rule the allegations are
| false and could be easily disproved If the
| time and attention could be given to 1t, and
| If it would be for the interests Of those who
made the allegations to publish the denials.
AS a rule it is not. AS consequence of all
this Misrepresentation there has arisen an
atmosphere of bitterness and of hostility
toward the railroads into which we are pro-
| jected at this time. But believing that the
people are at heart just, that they want moth
ing that is not fair, think we should come
before you as the just representatives of a
| just people asking for justice only, and ask
| you to rise above the prejudices which i'm
pregnate the atmosphere, to rise superior to
| cant and demagogism. and TO judge of this
matter judicially and on its merits. Weask
| nothing that is not consistent with that state
of mind on your part, and we think that as a
portion of the people, we have right to ask
that
1t is proposed to reduce the rates in Iowa
both on passengers and freight. so far as
passenger business is concerned my expert
ence with it is slight, but l know enough of
the passenger business of the State generally,
and of the passenger traflics of our road in
particular, to know that the demand is an
unreasonable and unwarranted one.
know also that we have in Iowa large
number of branch lines upon which the bus
ness, both passenger and freight is absolute
ly Improbable; upon which we run as a
| matter of public accommodation train each
way on which, if we consulted our own in
terests alone, we should run train once in
two days, or once-in three days or perhaps
once week. In travelling over these
branches and talking with the people on the
line, we are urged to put on additional
trains. We are told that the people would
be willing to pay four, five, six, or ten cents
mile-anything to have train. If we say
to them it does not pay to put on train,
they say let us have the train any way; II
they are not remuneratiye, charge enough To
make them remunerative. We don't feel we
could do that; we don't feel that any price
we could charge would make the putting on
of additional trains on some of those branches
remuneratiye. 1t is a fact that the passen-
ger traffic on nearly all of our lines Is I'M
profitable, and many of our branch lines are
Improbable all through
am not armed with figures and statistics,
and propose to discuss only general prln-
ciples this morning. AS was said at the
meeting before the House Committee last
night when you legislate upon passenger
fares in the State of Iowa you legislate moi
for the State of Iowa alone, but for other
States If you reduce the rates across the
State of Iowa you reduce our revenue on
every passenger we haul from Nebraska, Col
orado, Wyoming and all the empire west OF
your western border. You also reduce the
revenue on every one we haul across your
State from the east. So that in reducing
the passenger rate in the State of Iowa you
! will levy upon Iowa railroads tax of which
you receive only one-fourth, one-ffth or one
sixth, perhaps, of the benefit and the remain
der of which inures entirely to the people OF
other States. You are saving possibly to the
people of Iowa one dollar at an expense OF
five dollars to us. Moreover, that is not all.
1t is hardly reasonable to suppose that were
the State of Iowa to pass bill limiting the
fare to two cents a mile, that other States
would rest content with three. Illinois on
the east, Missouri ON the south and Mime
sofa and Dakota on the north would un-
doubtedy ask for the same privilege de-
mand il: perhaps demand II rightfully;
cannot conceive of any reason why the fare