The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-03-13

L uob bAsit uoS INC alteVudllFe Oh an VI
fetal decapitation plainly written be-
tween the lines.
| Mr.. Charles Francis Adams, until re.
| Gently president of the Union Pacific
railway, not long ago made most
sweeping condemnation of the methods
by which freight and passenger agents
| of the American railroads get business.
Mr.. Adams Indignation on account Of
the lies told, agreements broken and
tricks played in the manipulation Of
freight and passenger rates is creditable
enough, perhaps, to his moral sense,
but it is nevertheless amusing.
1t is amusing because the methods
named as haracteristic of railroads
generally in this respect were precisely
the methods of the vast system under
Mr.. Adams control at the time he
| spoke; and such methods were and are
adopted by the employees of the Union
are adopted by the employees Of all
other roads. The requirements made
by Mr.. Adams and his associates. high
in power, were such as to make any
| other course on the part of subordinatcs
absolutely impossible.
A prominent railway official about
three years ago declined, until most
ardently pressed, to receive well
! merited promotion. Being asked why
he did so, he answered that decrease
in earnings was sure to occur In COM
paratively short time and he could not
afford to have the records show that
such decrease came on the heels OF his
increased authority. That there might
be the best reasons for such decrease he
felt would help him little on the day Of
reckoning.
EVEN BANKERS DO WRONG.
While considering the errors Of rail-
! way owners, it is worth while TO sug-
gest that in railway matters the bank
ers of the country often seem to aban-
don the rules they apply to all other
business.
If an Eastern banker is asked to lend
| money to a gas company or water
company or a manufacturing company
he at once calls for balance sheets and
an exhibit of costs, expenses and earn
ings. But with respect to railway loans
it Is too frequently true that no demon
stration of an earning capacity by a
record of business already done is re-
quired.
There Is, therefore, a suspicion abroad
in the land that many bankers have
floated bad railway bonds for the sake
of exorbitant co commissions, and because
they know that when calamity over
takes the holders of the bonds it will
be too late or too difficult to locate the
blame for the negotiation where 1t be.
longs.
TIE MISTAKES OF MANAGERS
AS already intimated, immediate rail-
way managers, when competent and
honest, as is most often the case, make
fewer mistakes than either patrons or
proprietors. Their chief danger Is
their mettlesome desire not to be out
done and to meet force with greater
force.
When there were vast margins of
profit in traffic, a rate war costing the
roads hundreds of thousands of dollars
was a convenient and effective weapon
for forcing n rival into good behavior
or for compelling the Cinderella road
to be given by its sisters some share of
the good things going.
Rate wars are certainly growing I'M
fashionable. though it may be slowly.
The improvement is probably not due
to conscience so much as to circum-
stances such as here suggested
So far as new construction is con-
cerned, it has of course been true that
Western managers have had tempta-
tions not much known to Eastern
managers. In the East railway con-
struction is very closely restricted by
the topography of the country.
1t would now be . matter of great
physical difficulty to build new line of
railway between New York and Chi
cago-more particularly over the east
ern half. In New England, the same
physical conditions exist and there is
besides the added protection of small
States, small Legislatures, many of
them, and consequent ease in prevent
ing the legal existence of new lines.
But in the West there is room for .
railroad, physically, every hundred feet
as implied in the resolution of the Kan
sas statesman above quoted. The man.
ayers have accordingly often advised
construction because of local importu-
nifty and out Of fear of rivals which
perfectly unbiased judgment would
have vetoed.
There have been, of course, instances
where construction not desired or be-
lieved in as an original proposition has
been made necessary by the previous
construction of rival lines.
For example, the Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe Company did not build from
Kansas City to Chicago until its original
lines had been paralleled considering
both through and local business) by the
Canadian Pacific, the Northern Pacific,
the Chicago, burlington &c Quincy, the
Rock Island, the Missouri Pacific, the
Denver, Texas & Fort Worth, the St.
Louis & San Francisco, the Denver &
Rio Grande and other lines-all doing
Chicago and San Francisco business by
their own lines and those of friendly
connections.
Managers hereafter can do no better
than to curb ambition, court economy
and be little less muscular in their
railroad piety.