The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-11-29
Another Fraud!
The Return Of one
Of Bobby's Great Railway
Boomerangusses
BEARING AFFLICTlON UNDER ITS
WING.


show that the natural expenses of
railroad are too unutterly unspeaka-
bly, awful for the granger intellect to
comprehend.
We secured an almanac, and box
of fire-crackers, and succeeded in run
ming the thing into the brush, and fl
nally captured the entire outfit.
He declined to give the name of the
source from which it sprang, but it
came straight from the Offices of the
Northern Pacific Railro ad-where it
was "dOctored up" for the occasion!
We have had an expert accountant
the one who sweeps out the GREAT
WEST office and builds fires-lOOk the
document over.
No such account as that could eX-
ist on the books OF railway COM
pany.
1t will readily be seen by what fol-
lows why he would not reveal the To-
cation of the items referred to. 1t
was simply because the expense was
small enough to startle even gran
ger. He even fails to give the num-
her of miles involved in the cut-Offs
and: extensions 1t is startling to
realize that the great Northern Pa
cific would lend itself to such petty
strumpery.
In illustration, take the following
item:
"New railroad as follows $2SS,953. :"
How much railroad does this in
clude? Here are the items:
"Balance cost of extension $31 ,745.
"Ral. cost OF cut off 132,O7S.'
]sBal. cost of railway l25, ,l29.
Now this may be good Greek, but
it is not bookkeeping" A sheep
raiser would call it hog-wash.
What cut off? What Extension?
Has the last item any relation to the
"New railroad as fOllows?" Does it
mean one mile-or more than hum
dred, as we conclude from some other
unintentiOnal pointers?
In the account occurs thefollowing
item:
''31 locomotives, costing $27l ,O2O.
One thousand dollars is wagered
that that item does not appear AS 1T
IS GIVEN on any "balance sheet in
the Northern Pacific books-Our OBJ
iect being to develop the fact that the
thing lis "doctored." Following, is
another item of one thousand, six
hundred and ninety-seven cars OF
various kinds!
Now here is an equipment for
road at least $50 miles in extent. We
take this estimate Q) from railroad
manager, and (2) from the railroad
reports of three roads of PA, $50 and
400 miles in length. But as Mr.. Rob-
inson let's us know nothing about
these things his ''balance sheet" is
nothing more than balderdash.
Another item strikes us impress
sively:
<'ConstructiOn for ac-
count of proprietary
cOmpanieS............ ol,oOO, ,|ol,oo
The cat is bigger than the bag.
S4.211 ,OO6-he charged against the
Northern Pacific construction for in
dependent companies a million and
a half dollars on a total cost OF four
and a quarter million!
But now let us see what he has
..shown up" He gives the balance
sheet-(an enormously long one in
which the cost for electric light inn
provements alone count up $3o,OOO>
Of q road operating $500 miles as:
$4,211, ,OO6,2S,
and this including construction OF
40 miles of road in the shape OF side
track, and apparently one hundred
miles of other new roads, and the
new equipment sufficient for a road
$50 MILES IN LENGTH.
This amounts to only 81 ,2O3 to
the mile for the total expense per
mile, to the company OF constructing
a new road, nearly so miles of side
track IN ONE YEAR, building and
improving over FIFTY station
houses, coal houses, grain ware
houses, water stations, ETC., etc.. and
building or rebuilding TWENTY-SlA
BRIDGES, one of which (No. 144)
alone cost ST., ,457) and an ore dock
costing $21S,OOO!
Why, the publication OF this docu
ment is one of the most stupendous
expositions of the frauds of the rail
ways ever delivered over to the pub
lie! 1t is absolutely astounding