Wichita eagle., 1889-04-25
WESTERN RAILROAD ECONOMIES

| New York Tribune
1t would not be surprising if this
| should prove year of numerous rail-
way strikes. Not few railroad mana
gers are beginning TO consider the matter
seriously, because of the economies and
curtallments they have been making on
account of the regulation of charges.
Since the existing difficulties are by
many attributed entirely to the inter
state act, 1t is proper 70 remember that
IN several OF the states, ana particularly
in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska Minnesota
and Dakota, laws have been passed and
commissions created with large
power, and these commissions
have established rates which the
companies declare onerous They affirm
indeed, that the new rates compel them
to reduce expenses largely in order to
avoid bankruptcy. So trains have been
discontinued that do not pay more than
their cost, the service has been cut down
as far as possible in shops and at stationss
on tracks and trains, ninety men are
said TO have been discharged at Chicago
by the Burlington alone, and the re-
duced shop force is working shorter
hours.
All these measures of curtailment are
bitterly denounced by shippers. business
men and travellers, and the people who
have favored the recent stringent laws
affirm that the companies are doing
all these things for the purpose of max
ing the laws Odious, and wi thout any
real necessity. In some cases it is posi-
bic that this is true, but it is at least
equally possible that in other and per-
haps more numerous cases the new laws
do threaten such curtailment of revenue
that heavy reduction of expenses in
some form is forced upon the companies.
To judge of the situation it is requisite
to consider, not the sanguine accounts of
prosperity which are circulated by spec
ulatorS, but the official returns of actual
earnings and expenditures last year.
These prove that many of the railroads
were not III position to stand any curtail-
ment of rates, and some of them We're
pushed dangerously near bankruptcy be-
fore the latest changes of rates were by
law effected.
The economy now praCticed, whether
in all cases compulsory or not. naturally
gives offence to the employees. If many
men are thrown out of work, all em-
ployes know that it must tend to depress
wages, and regard it as preparation for
& reduction. So far the railroads appear
to have been anxious to avoid any cur
tailment of wages, because strikes would
be likely to follow, but it is a question
whether the financial necessities of some
companies may not render that form
of economy no longer avoidabie. If
some of the companies find the step ne
ceSsary others will be apt to Join In it for
ObviOuS reasons Meanwhile the hitter
feeling which recent legislation has pro-
duced between many companies and the
public operates to encourage the employ
es, while politicians here and there are
seeking favor by proposing still more Sc
we're legislation.
Nor is the situation in this region
pleasing to business men. At a great
many points throughout the northwest
there is bitter complaint that trade has
been driven away, because the COM
panies are no longer permitted
to make the favoring rates they used
to make in order to encourage traffic
The far west farmers begin to feel
that the root idea of the interstate law
that rates should be according to dis
tance-works badly for them, because
it puts them relatively farther, from mar
kets than other farmers who happen 10
live in older states. The latter, In their
turn. are affected in the same way as TO
other products which they used to find
more profitable. In the present stage of
the controversy between the railroads
and those who would regulate their
charges by law, it cannot be said that
the public has secured by Its legislation
OF real value.