Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-11
INVENTIONS OF THE ENEMY.

S0OOOoo~
full in stirring up the Pennsylvania Rail-
road, is amply proved by the cross-fre of
attacks on him. These appear to come
from various sources, but bear the mark of
railroad influence in being mainly in
situations against Mr.. Carnegie's motives.
Such attacks are very evidently foreign to
the vital issue, which is the question
whether Pittsburg's industries are discrim-
mated against, as Mr.. Carnegie asserts, and
as no one vet has disputed.
1t is rather interesting, though. that the
idea which suggested itself to The DIS
PATCH at the opening of the discussion, has
just struck some person in New York whose
elaboration of the thought was telegraphed
to city cotemporary yesterday. The idea
was with reference to the difference between
Mr.. Carnegie's attitude in this fight and the
stories concerning his course in the South
Penn fiasco. At the time The DISPATCH
referred to this point, it had some cogency
as bearing on the sincerity and permanence
of Mr.. Carnegie as fighting factor. Now
Mr. Carnegie has met that point in gen.
eral denial over his own signature, as all
his allegations In this matter are made,
against which anonymous repetitions of the
old story can have no standing with the
public. Beyond that Mr.. Carnegie has
shown that he is in the fight for the public
interest, to stay there till he wins. On that
basis old issues are not pertinent. The
question is whether we shall do what is
possible to secure Pittsburg and Western
Pennsylvania their rights; and the public
answer to it has been practically unani-
nous.
The only reply to the real issue, which
we have seen from the railroad side, is an
editorial in the Philadelphia Telegraph.
That journal being a semi-oficial organ of
the Pennsylvania Railroad, it might be ex-
pected to put the railroad side in its best
form; and with that expectation the actual
reply is amusing. 1t is comprised in the
following extract:
If the great iron and steel master had but
gone to the fountain-head of railroad statistics
in this country, to wit-Poor'S Mdnual-he
would have seen that for the years 1886. 1856
and 1SS7-there being nc official figures since
presented-the tables of earnings expenses and
profits per mile very clearly set forth that the
average rates of the Pennsylvania Company in
stead of being so much greater than its alien
rivals as stated by him, were for all those
years, with the single exception of those of
the Erie for 1856, really less.
Bless your soul, dear Philadelphia CO.
temporary, that is what the industrial inter-
ests are complaining of. The figures for 1888
have been published, by the way-in the
last report of the company-and the
contrast between the low average rate and
the high rates charged the local industries,
and especially the iron industries, is the
very meat of the indictment The average
rate per ton per mile on the Pennsylvania
Railroad, in 1888, was 63-1ooc, on which
there was a profit of 24-100c. The coke,
iron ore and pig iron, which constitute
chief items of Pittsburg freights, are among
the cheapest freights hauled. They are
loaded by shippers and unloaded by re-
ceivers, hauled in the cheapest cars, and
are the least subject to loss. Under all
rules of classification, such traffic counted
by hundreds of millions of ton-miles,
should be rated one-third below the average
rate, and would still be among the most
profitable freight that a railroad can get Is
it strange that shippers should complain at
being ia xed from 5S@11lc per ton-mile on
such freights, in order to enable the rail-
road company to carry through freights at
such figure as to reduce the average to
half the charge on the freights of the
principal supporters of the Pennsylvania
Railroad?
1t is this SOFT of thing that Pittsburg and
the manufacturers, workingmen and far
mers of the State are fighting; and it is this
sort of thing that the railroad managers
will, sooner, or later, have to abandon.