St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-11
RAILRoAD INVESTIGATION.


to the railroad literature of this country
that has yet been obtained is the mass
of testimony now being taken by the
senate committee in session at New
York. 1t is true that up to this time
the testimony has been eX-parte, as only
the managers of the great corporations
have been examined; built is valuable,
in that it gives the country better
insight into railroad management than
has ever before been enjoyed, and it
Furthermore reveals some of the strong,
as we'll as the weak points of the inter-
state law that had not yet been made
observable. Those who have fol-
lowed the testimony closely will
be impressed by the intricacy of the
problem which the interstate act under
took to solve, and will be correspond
ingly amazed to see how successfully
the experiment has operated. Most OF
the experts who have been examined
were gentlemen directly connected with
the management of certain lines OF rail-
road, and however broad and intelli-
gent their views OH other subjects, they
have permitted their opinions in this in
stance to be colored by the interests of
their respective corporations. Hence
there has been good deal of clashing
of opinions and variety of suggestions.
But out of the mass of testimony the
committee ought to select data enough
to form the basis of a report that will
be of material advantage in framing fut-
ure railroad legislation.
AS was to be expected. the bulk of the
testimony is in support of the PROPOSE
ton to repeal that feature of the inter-
state law which prohibits pooling, but
the singular part of it is that the strong
lines ask it as protection against the
weak ones. They ask it upon the
theory that the poorer railroad is the
AS Mr.. FINK states it, ''a road of which
the stock has been wiped out altogether
and the payment of interest on the
bonds is questionable has an evident
advantage over one that is not only re-
quired to pay interest on its bonds out
of its earnings, but dividends on its
stock also" This gives novel aspect
w llC QuSoGiOu, Stlii tiiClS ID 9PPAhSh0
force in it, and doubtless the congress
sionaI committee will give it due con-
Sideration.
But the point of most interest devel-
oped in the investigation. and the one
that merits most consideration by the
railroad managers of this country, is the
point made by President KING, of the
Erie road, that the railroads are giving
too much attention to through COMPETE
tive business a nd not enough to build
ing up their local trade. Mr.. KING has
struck the keynote of the whole railroad
situation. If this fight for through bust
ness were suspended, and each line
creasing its local traffic, the railroad
problem would solve itself. The rich
est roads are those which make their
profits depend upon the productiyeness
of their own exclusive field. This was
very strikingly brought out by Mr.
KING in reference to the operat ions of
his own road when he said: "Our COM
petitiye business is small, after all, in
comparison with other kinds of bust
ness. We make more money out of the
100000 900 tons of coal than we do out
of all our through business"
The road that has local traffic to suS-
tain it can snap its fingers at all through
competitors. And the way to have local
traffic is for each road to devote its time
and energies to building up local indus
tries along its line. If every railroad
company in the country would adopt
this policy, pooling would no longer be
deemed a necessity by the managers.
The abuses of railroad management
made the interstate act necessary, and
the neglected. local interests had be-
come the most serious of all the abuses.