The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-05-16
A 6 IN
Fancy Salaries, Dividends on Water and
Unnecessary Lines.

These Are Some of the Things the
Public Pay For Under Private Con-
troll, Which Government Ownership
Would Abolish and GiUe Better Ser
Uice.
American railroad management is
wasteful in the extreme.
The salaries paid by the railroads to
high officials are extravaganza and use
less. MI. Jewett Is president of the
Erie railroad had $4,000 a year and
the salary of four years paid in ad-
vance, while the people paid high rates
of transportation and the Erie stock
holders got nothing. Salaries of presi,
dents, general managers and solicito 2,
of $40, 900, SIS, 600, $50, 900 and $25, 900
ayear, are common. These enormous
salaries are not paid to men for man
aging locomotives, cars and trains.
These enormous salaries are paid to
men because of their ability tohold their
own and outmaneuver other people in
wars, pools and combinations in Wall
street, in the courts, in the legislatures,
in Congress and in managing noun
tains of watered stocks and bonds,
things with which the transportation
of passengers and freight has properly
nothing to do. Railroads operated IN
Nebraska and Texas maintain offices
in New York with liveried servants,
Persian rugs and Turkish carpets.
These expensive accessories are con-
nected not with operations on the rail
road track, but with operations in
Wall street.
The Rock Island railroad hasa ticket
Office in Chicago at the corner of Clark
and Washington streets. The rent of
the Office is $1O,O 600 a year. The sal
aries of the ticket sellers inside are at
least SO, OOO more. All this expense
may now and then cause a passenger
to travel on the Rock Island road who
would otherwise go on some other
road. But all this expense not
one additional person to travel. There
are commissions to brokers and com
missions to scalpeTs, salaries to runners
and travelling men.
If there were no gorgeous railroad
officers, no brokers and no scalpers, no
runners and no travelling agents, the
number Of passengers carried by each
railroad would be about the same.
Without the help of all these useless
men and useless appliances the average
American citizen would find his way
to the station Of the railroad upon
which he proposes to travel.
1t is of course needless to say that
the Rock Island railroad is not singular
in having extensive advertising appen
dages. No; all the railroads have
them.
The wastefulness of the present rail
road management is shown in the par
alleling of lines. Thus the Nickel Plate
and the West Shore, which are both
perfectly useless, parallel the Lake
Shore Michigan Southern and New
York Central railroads between Chi
cage and New York. The indUcement
money on the track. The builders had
no such idea. Their sole idea was to
make money by compelling the old
roads to buy them out. And there they
are, the useless ''streaks Of rust, {" and
and the Vanderbilts, who had to buy
them and now own them, are getting
out of the people interest and divi.
dends on all they cost. While these
useless lines were building, the build
ers were shouting competition" at the
top Of their lungs.
The man who paid the Vanderbilts
more money for carrying a box Of eggs
from Rochester to New York city than
it cost to carry a like box from Kansas
City to New York city very naturally
helped to get the right of way for the
I'VE Shore with the hope of getting
competition, and then when the road
and tRA deal were completed, and he
found that~the Vanderbilts were COM
peting only With themselves, he settled
down quietly Ike a good, p~eaceable
American citizen, oPeped his Bible and
read, ITO him hathathShall begiven,
and from him that hath not,% etc
I know that man He wilknever
help to get the right of way for another
railroad, but he is in favor of having
something done whereby freight rates
shall be based on fairness and equity
and not on what the traffic will
bear"
The present railroad management is
the cause Of strikes and riots. Every
year the militia are called out to pro
tect the property of railroads.
What led to the riots in this country