The herald., 1893-08-07
IN A BAD FIX.

The Union Pacific Railway company
is in a position that may result very
disastrously to that corporation and
compel the government to take hold OF
the road to save itself from the loss of
all the vast millions it loaned that com.
pany in the guarantee OF bonds. Should
the government be compelled to save
itself by foreelosingit will find the road
in very bad condition financially, and
perhaps may find that any attempt to
extricate it from the difficulties reck-
less management has brought upon it
would necesaitate the very questionable
experiment OF sending good money after
bad.
There is to be special session of the
directors held tomorrow in Boston.
This meeting has been called to con-
slider the gravity OF the situation in
which the road finds itself. By the
enormous extension OF its trackage
through vast regions Of sterile and un-
peopled country it has go crippled its
resources that it finds itself in times Of
panic and scarcity of money in a posi-
ton which is calculated to make its di-
rectory feel desperate. Comptroller
Mink has drawn this dismal picture of
the present aspect OF the affairs OF the
great corporation:
The enormous trackage OF the Union
Pacific west of North Platte gives little
hope of yielding satisfactory returns for
80, and possibly for 120 days. The wes'
tern section of this continent is in a
condition that absolutely requires from
ua most aggressive attempts at retrench'
rnent. The movement of commodities
is stopped to our great detriment. Oul
yards are filled with empty freight cars
and our engines are lying idle in round
houses, due to eEagnation in business
Bedrock has been reached. but we will
be compelled to reduce the forces still
further, and may possibly have to cu
. salaries to meet present exlgencles
This last is step which we will discuss
: very conservatively before taking &C
f ton, but it will probably have to b.
> considered.
To the region or country traversed b.
, the Union Pacific it holds the same re
3 lation as that sustained by the Southern
l Pacific in the empire it has ruled g
!, completely for the past 30 years. Adde
8 to its get purpose of arraying all classe
. OF people against it, the Union Pacifi
q policy has been disastrous through lac
r of plain, ordinary business judg ment
# 1t has built long lines of road to ia
g distant points in order to shut out poss
l. BILE competition, traversing hundreds {
: miles of desolate, unproductive countr
e to do this, and neglecting the buildin
If OF branch lines in Eastern Nebraska an
a Kansas from which local trade could. b
o drawn.
o We have no fear that great trun
II road like the Union Pacific, 30 necessa,
to the business of the continent, will b
closed up under any circumstance
n But it's present difficulties may fore
i. congress to anticipate action on the su
" iect of its enormous debt to the govern
d ment. WHAT that action will be it
J. Just now impossible to foreshadow.
>. the Populist doctrine that the owne
n ship of the great trunk roads should
70 in the government, and that they shou
20 be operated in the interes. alone OF ii
|, people should prevail, there could
g no better opportunity OF tentative
IT testing the practical effect OF this theo
y than is presented by the Union Pacifi
a For our part, we have never had al
d faith in the practical application OF tt
20 theory to the complete operation by t
q. government of great lines of railway
,e We have, however. been greatly il
u pressed with the value of the suggesti
that the government should be tt