The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-12-26
The Railway Problem.

In recent address in Boston, Charles
Francis Adams, Jr., president of the
Central Pacific Railway, discussed the
railway problem with the candor and
incisiveness that are the characteristics
of this gentleman. Some extracts from
his address will be of of general inter-
est OF certain phases of railway
morals he says:
The dishonest methods of rate-cutting,
the secret systems of rebates, the indirect
and hidden payments made to influence
the course of traffic, resorted to or devised
during the last two years, do not hesitate
to say are unprecedented in the whole bad
record of the past. In this respect Endorse
every word of indignant denunciation
which Judge Cooley of the interstate COM
merce commission is reported to have re-
Gently uttered. Names of members or en-
ployes of firms whose business il was de-
sirable to secure, but to whom it was I'M
lawful openly to allow rebate, have been
put upon the pay-rolls of companies at sal
aries equal to the estimated amount of what
the rebate would have been. Where the in
iiuence OF particular person was thought
necessary to secure certain shipments, he
has been advised that the company wished
to consult him; but, in order that it might
do so more conveniently he must live in a
house in certain quarter-and the rent of
that house has been paid by the company
When it was thought eXpedient to cut the
rate on passenger tickets to given point
without affecting the rates to intermediate
points under the interstate commerce act
tickets to that point have been placed by
the hundred in the hands of 4" scalpers, A"
and they We're allowed commission equal
to half the price of the ticket. This COM
OF oil Il,
not specifically forbid, the scalper " again
shared with the purchasers of the tickets.
1t will be asked why the penalties of the
interstate commerce act are not enforced
against those who thus directly and ind-
rectly evade its provisions. The question
may be asked of me, Why do Won not give
information and institute proceedings I'M
der the law? | merely say, in reply, that
apart from prejudice against being an in
former, while | am morally sure that these
things are done, ! can not furnish legal
proof of them. My information comes indi-
rectly or at secondhand; and, while have
no doubt myself of its accuracy, yet if
We're brought to book as to time and place
and circumstance | could not give them.
The thousand evasions of the interstate
commerce act can not be proved in court.
Yet among us railroad men, the fact that
these things are done is notorious. 1t is all
part and parcel of that sneak-thef and pick
pocket method of doing business which has
become second nature in certain grades of
the railroad service. The community, and
least of all the railroad community, should
not, therefore, either be deceived or deceive
themselves. 1t is this absence of good faith,
this greed of acquisition, this turning over
OF business to subordnates to hack away at
each other, at the expense of the stockhold-
ers, which has brought the railroad system
to its present low condition and threatens
to carry it still lower. To attribute it to the
aat 10 gtn1~.,
III that act We're totally repealed tomorrow
II would produce but temporary and stock
jobbing relief. For few days things might
be apparently better, but they would be
sure to drop heavily back again into their
present bad estate, unless the knife of re-
form went deeper and cut AT the root of the
evils have referred to. The railroad sys-
TEN must heal itself no act of congress, or
repeal of any act of congress- will greatly
help it.
The railroads of this country are moving
| rapidly toward some great system of con-
solidation. | do not know when or how it
! Will come about, nor is il necessary now to
consider this. Neither do ] believe it will
prove an evil when it does come. Never
theless, IL is matter of common notoriety
that such result is viewed with grave pop
ular apprehension. We have seen what the
progress of the last twenty years has been
| in this respect. Capitalization has gone on
during those years, so that while then a
railroad of 200 or 800 miles was considered
large, one of 1900 or 5000 miles is now far
from being the largest. AS have pointed
out, the movement is to-day going forward
more rapidly, much more rapidly, under
She artificial impetus given to it by the inter-
state commerce act than ever before. The
next move will be In the direction of rail-
road systems of 10000 miles each, under
one common management The interstate
commerce act, acting on the tendency of