Morris tribune., 1894-10-10

NN1tf9 NNtt4A 5p1 al bltS new lOduSs dAu g
gigantic system of log-roling would be
built mp to secure to each community
it's grab from the public treasury.
But even il we made up our minds to
bear that, in addition to our other
political ills, we should still be in the
greatest difficulty.
The resources and credit of the coun-
try would be strained to the breaking
point to acquire the new roads now
built
Ia the past we have been adding to
our mileage from 1900 to $4,000 miles
Of new road each year. 1t is lot prob
able that less than 1000 miles per
annum would satisfy the requirements
OF our people and our business for gen.
erations to come.
The most radical Populist does not
place the cost OF construction in a
prairie country, where it can be done
the cheapest, at less than $50, COO per
mile. Even at that riciculously low
figure, the annual expenditure for new
construction would be 0,0o0,0o0
All our experience shows that if this
work were done by the government, it
would be done less econom cllly and
reasonable estimate would place the
cost at not less than $500, 700, 900
year.
To all the other expenses and diff
culties incident to government control
must be added this annual outlay, for
which some new source of income mu
be provided.
10 give us comparatively as large
mileage as Great BIirain- would cost,
at $50. 900 per mile, about $4,000, 0oo,-
600 more.
No means by which this money
should be raised has ever been sug
gested.
Last, but not least among the objec-
tions to state ownership and control, is
the fact that it could not be realized in
the United States until we have entirely
reformed and readjusted our civil SER
vice system, without eminent danger
of overthrowing the republic and de-
stroying the liberties of the people.
1t is a common habit Of the POpuiists to
A1ANASA>'-'t
the NEST obvious obstacles that must tirst
be removed,
IF man were really in earnest about
introducing here the naturalization of
the railroads, his first step, if he were a
rational creature, would be to build up
q system of laws that should forever
divorce the control of the civil service
from party politics.
The countries where government con-
troll prevails to any considerable extent
are mostly monarchies It offers no
objection, under such a government
that the army of its employees should be
mul tiplied; that those in power should
be provided with host of willing and
devoted servants supported at the pub
lie expense.
In a country like ours, such system
would necessarily lead to party despot-
ism
The railway employees in the United
States are said to number altogether, at
the present time, not far from one
million men.
We have seen that the effect of throw
ing into the political arena, to be strug-
gled for by hungry leaders, the one
hundred to one hundred and fifty
thousand Offices now in existence, has
been to encourage corruption, degrade
politics and debase the civil service.
No such system as ours could possibly
stand the addition of million new
Dlaces to be filed at the command eff
party leaders.
No political party, once entrenched
behind such an army as this, whose
daily bread depended upon fidelity to
it, could ever be ousted by anything
short of actual rebellion.
The existence of free Republican gov
er1,1sle11f. one rating the rsliIroaSIs OF
nation, under the spoils principle, is an
imposs,"---.' ss.
tits as reasonable ~ osk an advocate
Of state ownership to first prov.,--
complete reform of the civil service
and the Punishment of the spoils prin'
ciple from politics as it is to ask man
to first provide a vessel, if he insists
that you accompany him on voyage
across the Atlantic.
No doubt there have been and still
are many grave abuses connected with
the administration of the railroads in
the United States. These abuses call
for strict regulation and for remedy,
but it is the most palpable absurdity TO
propose as means of getting rid of
them the adoption of a system which
has nowhere been as beneficial to the
people and which has been distanced in
the competition.
Whether regarded as an investment
of capital or as means of providing
cheap transportation for the people,
state ownership and operation of rail
roads has been demonstrated by the
concurrent experience of the whole
world to be failure.