, 1890-11-27
THE CAR WORKS ran EREg


demand can be depended upon to
regulate the worlds business. A
failure 80 to do carries with ii q
strong presumption that some pow.
erful hand has been interfering
with those laws.
Something evidently requires reg.
ulation When the largest car manu-.
factory In the United States, in the
world, in fuct, goes to the wall ut a
time when the railroads declare
their inability to buy, beg or lease
sufficient rolling stock TO conduct
their business. II this shortage
were of recent origin an explaua.
ton might be found. AS n matter
Of fact, however, the North west has
been clanoring for months for ad-
ditional rolling stock. The excuse
of the railroad men, that the short
age Is entirely due TO the enormous
crops produced this year In the Pa
louise and Walla Walla valleys, Is
not sustained by the records. Long
before the farmers were ready to de-
liver a bushel of wheat the traffic Of
the Northwest was seriously re-
strained by lack Of cars. Months
ago Portland and Puget sound cities
were clamoring for more cars for
their lumber trade. The extraordi-
nary crops have no bearing upon
this shortage, for the transportation
companies are not moving frac-
ton of this years harvest, and II
the yield had been ten bushels TO
the acre instead of forty the difll-
Guilty would still confront us.
Somebody is responsible for these
lanIentTblc and inexcusablc condi-
tions. Either tho car trust has re-
fused to permit the railroads TO buy
sufficient cars to earn operating cX-
penses, and are now paying the
penalty of their greed in failure
to obtain their money from COM
phnies to whom they had leased
rolling stock, or the management OF
the great transcontincntal railroads
has been grossly incapable. Under
either of those explanations every
interest Is suffering. Car companies
are going into bankruptcy, the rail-
roads are not earning dividends, and
the people are upon the verge oil
ruin because they can not ship their
products to market. Evidently
something needs regulating
Where is all this rolling stock for
which the transportation companies
can not pay? The earnings OF u
majority of the great systems are
less than they were n year ago, an
indication that the roads are using
less rolling stock now than then,
and the work of manufacturing
new cars has gone steadily forward.
There is possibility that the in.
crease of mileage has more than
kept pace with the increased supply
OF cars and engines
1t is barely possible that Gould
and his associates may have gained
control of the cur trust, and that the
restricted production was n part OF
the cunning scheme by which the
railroads of the country were to DO
wrecked. A favorite trick of ma
nipulators like Gould is to obtain
control of small wheel turning u
number of larger ones. Occasions
often arise when u comparatively
small amount can bc made to con-
troll great transcontinental system.
Willard got control of the Northern
Pacific in this way. The Oregon &
Transcontinental held as Its assets
the majority of the Northern Pa
cific stock. But the liabilities oi
the former company were 50 great
that Its own stock sold for n few
cents. BY buying up the Oregon y
Transcontinental Willard ut the
same time bought the control of thu
Northern Pacific.
1t now seems probable that Presi
dent Adams, of the Union Pacific
may have been unable to obtain tn
rolling stock really needed to oper
ate his. line profitably. Whethe'
the short-sighted greed of the cal
trust is responsible for this, or th'
refusal was part Of cunning
scheme of the men who were CON
spring against the Adams manage
ment, is question-possibly the
latter.