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

conclusions.
TCharles S. Gleed, In Kansas City Star.
There is trouble in Western railway
circles. 1t is of two kinds.
First, the trouble of railway security
holders who have lost heavily by depre.
citation in the value of their holdings,
and
Second, the trouble of railway pa
irons who find rates of transportation
out of harmony with the prices of prod
ucts.
Instances of this unhappiness are as
follows: The reorganization of the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe after
failure to earn its fixed charges, its
stock falling from steady quotation
for many years of near par to the re-
markable figure of about thirty cents
on the dollar. The foreclosure of the
bonds of the Chicago, Kansas & Ne
braska Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific
west of the Missouri river. The re-
ceiverships of the Kansas Pacific. The
long continued non-dividend paying
condition of the Union Pacific. The re.
ceiverships of the Missouri, Kansas &
Texas. The published complaints Of
President Blackstone, of the Chicago &
Alton. The receivership of the Denver
e Rio Grande. The receiverships Of
the Wabash. The prudential purchase
of the Chicago, Burlington & Northern
by the Chicago, Burlington e Quincy.
The stock and bond changes Of the Illi-
nois Central, and the Chicago, Milwau.
kee & ST. Paul. The establishment of
an Interstate Commerce Commission
by Congress, and the State Boards Of
Railway Control by the various State
Legislatures. The frequent demands
for emergency rates and special rates
and reduced rates in the Granger States.
The bitter debates between the rail-
ways and the people, as in Iowa
These are but few Of the many cases
that might be enumerated.
The blame for all this trouble is as.
signed in general way as follows:
First land chiefly, 1t Is with the peo-
ple-individually as communities. and
as represented by State and Federal
Legislatures.
Second, it is with the security holders
of the railways-individually and as
represented by committees, bankers and
boards of directors.
Third, it is with general officers in
immediate charge of railway property
and its operation.
MISTAKES OF THE PEOPLE.
The people have failed to realize the
exact political and economic status of
railways and their relation to them.
They have feemed to think that rail-
ways, like the laws of nature, are too
big and too powerful to be comprehend
ed or regulated, and that with reference
to them, whatever is is right"
Some of the facts that the people
have overlooked or ignored are easily
stated:
Railways in certain respects are as
truly public property as the ordinary
wagon roads, canals or other public
highways.
The proper private ownership in rail-
way property finds its parallel in the
private ownership of vehicles and sys-
tens of locomotion on ordinary high
ways, and in the right of individuals to
have. compensation for labor and ma
terial furnished for making highway
improvements.
There can not be the same miscellane-
Gus use of a railway that there is of a
county road, but there is a meicellane-
Gus use of every railway which differs
from the same use of the county road
only in degree, not in principle. The
cars of all railways, freight lines, sleep
ing car companies, private owners, etc,
are used on any given road, and, within
certain general limits, no one has ever
successfully questioned their right to be
so used.
The analogy of the railway and the
highway should be kept in mind in ex-
amining both the legal and the practic-
al aspects OF this question.
A PLAIN ABSURDITY.
1t is as absurd to have too many rail-
ways as to have too many highways.
a given railway track, up to certain
limit, can carry heavy traffic, for a
certain cost, proportionately cheaper
than it can light traffic.
1t follows, therefore, that having two
tracks 10 10 the business winch one
track can do. is to ask railway patrons,
the people, by their patronage, to furnish
interest money on an unnecessary in
vestment of capital for construction,
maintenance and operation.
There should be general Legislative
supervision of the whole business of
railway construction, and no road should
be permitted until there is public de-
mand which capital is willing to supply
on purely business basis without sub
sidy or local aid-at least of any such
sort as a public promise to pay in the
future.
The exceptions to this rule suggest
themselves and relate to military and
other necessities of common interest,
and to occasional instances of mere
commercial advantage which Legisla-
lures can easily appreciate and pass on.
But the general rule that railways
should be built only as directly de-
manded or warranted by actual bust.
ness conditions is sound one.
A railway is primarily non-pro-
ducer. 1t is producer secondarily by
reason of rendering marketable the
products Of remote localities. But Eal'