The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-05
@yUsr AND EEAsosABLE" RATES.

.JUsT AND REASONABLE" RATES.
The people Of Eastern Washington, or
at least a large portion of them, have
joined in the chorus which has been ring
ing loudly throughout Iowa, Nebraska
and Kansas of late years, in favor of state
regulation of railways, and are bringing
heavy pressure to bear upon the Legislature
in that behalf. Thus has been raised the
question whether justice, both to the peo-
pie and to the corporations. can best be
subserved by specific legislative enact
ments, or through the medium of an in
teIIigent and honest railroad commission
To say that railways are useful but
feebIy expresses the fact 1t is no exaggera-
ton to say that they are indispensable
agents of modern progress. To this, more
than to any other single agency, perhaps.
this country is indebted for its phenom-
email development and industrial advance
ment. The people have become so accus-
toned to the use of these agencies, and all
business and enterprise have been so fully
adapted to their existence, that it would
appear quite impossible to get along with
out them. To such an extent is this true
that the people could endure to pay clearly
extortionate rates for the use of the rail-
ways, rather than dispense with them.
But this does not at all imply that un-
der existing conditions extortionate rates
must be submitted to: Their grants of
power and the uses for which they are
created relate exclusively to the public
and imply an obligation to render prompt,
efficient and undiscriminating service at
fair rates of interest on cost of construc-
ton and maintenance. Our courts, from
the lowest to the highest, have by a long
and unvarying chain of decisions held
that this obligation is part of the essence
of their corporate existence, which i'm
plies right of regulation and control in
the interest of the public, to hold them to
that obligation or to punish an infraction
of it.
But these same courts have held, and it
is irreversibly settled, that this exercise of
the right to regulate and control shall
only be exercised within certain limita-
tons. Regulation and control, either by
the legislature or by commission, must
be reasonable and just" Otherwise it
cannot run the gauntlet Of the courts.
Some of the difficulties in the way of
accomplishing this by a specific general
act of the legislature have been ably pre-
scented in the contribution to the February
Arena by C. Wood Davis, thoroughly
trained railroad man, at one time general
freight and passenger agent of leading
corporation. and now one of the most
ardent of contemporary advocates of rail-
way reform, which in his case goes to the
extreme of favoring absolute and exclu-
sive government ownership and control.
Most of the facts and figures presented
by Mr.. Davis are derived from sources that
place their accuracy beyond doubt or ques-
ton. And these demonstrate that rule
which would be 'sjust and reasonable" in
its application to railways that have
been honestly constructed and are
being honestly constructed, would cover
indefensible and monstrous extortion in
its application to some-and their name
is legion-corporations of the other kind
For instance-to cite his EXTREMIST case
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe I'm re-
spect to which he quotes Poor's Manual
for 1889. page 81 ''holds 741, 1291< shares,
of the par value of $74, liz, $50, of stock of
auxiliary lines built wholly from land
grants, municipal aid, and proceeds of
bonds sold, and for this immense number
of shares the only consideration-as
shown by the company's ledger-was
81 ,029, or fraction over half of one cent
share. For 663 ,3061S of these shares, of
the par value of s66, 33o, $50, the only con-
sideration shown is SIS, being at the rate
of a 22-100 shares of the par value of
81, 422 for one cent"
1t requires no keenness of discernment
to perceive that regulation which would
apply on equal terms to this infinitely
watered stock at its par value and to
honest stock at par, would be hideously
unjust and unreasonable to the one or the
other.
Mr.. Davis gives many seemingly strong
grounds for an assumption that the entire
railway mileage of the United States did
not truly cost to exceed an average of $780,
coo per mile. On this basis, and on a char
liable assumption that all railway con-
struction prior to 1874 had been honest, he
presents figures which show that from
1874 TO 1883 inclusive, S1,3ll, HAST
was earned on fictitious capital;
81, Ill ,473,57S was earned on roads
built since 1874 from revenue on fictitious
capital, making total of s., 40, SIS. ASS
earned within the Is years from fictitious
capital, and total Of 80, 752 miles of rail-
way built within that period from tolls on
fictitious capital.
1t is perfectly apparent that no general
legislation can be just and reasonable to
all concerned which will bear equally on
honest stock and that which is thus satu-
rated with fraud and villainy. An honest
commission, invested with ample powers
for investigating and ascertaining the
truth, could intelligently discriminate and