Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-01-16
THE RAILROAD QUESTION.
Paying the Penalty for 0verbuilding
Roads Government Proprietorship.
Instances Cited of Other Countries that Own
Railroads Standardization Against the
Present Stock Exchange system
Gath in Cincinnati Enqnirer.

| NEW YORK, Jan. 1.-THE holidays
: being over, people have faced what bust
ness there may be. 1t seems to be gem
orally agreed that the country is active,
but that collections are rather hard TO
make. The railroads of the country,
which constitute, it is thought, about
one-twelfth of all our wealth, are i'll an
uncertain condition, and while stock
! buying continues near stock speculation
is almost at an end. Some of the lead
| ing brokers here have become, in a man
ner, bankers and directors in railroad
| properties, making what was formerly
| made in commissions by acquiring rail-
/ roads in combination with other men and
| consolidating them, bonding them, etc.
| In other words, the public, which used
| to surround the brokers offices and buy
| stocks good naturally, has found that
| there ere too many cross fires upon them,
| partly by brokers themselves dealing and
| trading in their customers points, and
| partly from, it is suspected, the inter-
| ference of the railroad managers with
| the stock board.
! We can never believe all that we sus-
| pect, and they are suspicious which fill US
! with distruSt and make the whole country
! look cloudy. Hence I am wondering
! what is the meaning of these articles
| about the Western railroad managers
having combination to put down their
| own stocks and even to sell them short.
| These articles look to me like insinuations
| from the brokers who have been trying to
| get up q strong market here for some
time and are unable to do so 1t is clear
enough on the surface what is the mat
ter with the railroad question. We are
paying the penalty for overbuilding rail-
roads and are trying to correct that over
building by checking what remains of it.
Mr. Bookwalter recently remarked to me
that it would take number of years
to absorb the railroad property we
had created into the current
and healthy business system. This
is q much better way of handling q
problem of this kind than making
charges of managers having speculated
against their own Repatriation. Nearly
all the movements in railroad affairs for
three or four years back have been
toward dividing the business in fair way,
and keeping up good faith as to rates.
On the other hand, the superficial politi-
cal interest represented by Senator Gull
lum and others, has ridden its hobby of
of affirming that all railroad pools and
understandings are Illegal and despotic.
The purely speculative interest which
built railroads to sell them, is responsible
for the present decentralization The
MCKEE Plate and West Shore railroads
were the main offenders in these
respects. They were built to
be sold, and, from what l under
stand the West Shore railroad is not
worth one cent to the New York Central,
which bought it. 1t had to be bought in
order TO prevent its competition, but be-
ing bought, there is no hope of earning
anything upon it beyond a low rate OF in
terest beyond its cost, and it was bank
rupt when it was bought. The same in
terest which built this road paralleled the
principal railroad in Georgia. and has
since acquired the very road they paral-
leled. A curious instance of jumping
into bramble bush to scratch out both
eyes and then jumping into another
bush to scratch them III again
As mere factor for the con-
venience of the public there is no comfort
to be derived from the West Shore rail-
road at present. The concern which it
paralleled limited, and it is among the
possibilities, that some of these days its
tunnels will fall in and not be put up, so
that the traffic viii be thrown over on the
other road. Yet the New York Central
system, which was thus waylaid, had
been the most enterprisiug system toward
the public in al the country. 1t had
built four tracks and revolutionized the
expedition of freight between the far
West and the sea-board by that means
This single act, as l have understood,
Knocked out the competing cities like
Oo1f IN,
other times had their share of Western
buyers, because all freight, from what
ever Eastern city, took in those times
something like ten days to go West. The
methods of doing business have counter
acted all this. The freight now goes so
quickly to the West, through the inter
mediation of four-track railroad, that |
the discounts given to merchants come
into the railroad problem.
In general it is the speculative proper
ties which bring about the public calami- |
ties. Of these the Milwaukee and ST. |
Paul railroad was probably the most |
speculative for years. It's chies promoter |
being right here in New York Keeping his |
hands on the stock exchange, and what |
ever was built of that railroad had refer |
ence TO relative stock changes with other |
sons of William Vanderbilt had some of |
these competitive properties, acquired in
order TO be just to their stock holders and |
their own large interest. The Michigan |
Central and Omaha railroads were added |
TO the general Vanderbilt property. and |
thus it became apparent that men could |
create railroads to sell them and could /
force arrangements by picking up incom- |
plete systems and building bits of rail-
ROAD.
There are three interests at present in
the general railroad system.
First, the responsible men of property I
and control who desire to see justice done |
all around, and the country saved from
dizziness equal TO a crisis by non-pay-
ment Of dividends on the vast railroad |
system. Secondly, the speculative rail-
road interest, which means to make
things lively and keep up the trade in op-
position lines. Thirdly, there is the
brokers interest, which is probably the
source whence emanates these attscks on !