The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-04
The GOSSIP OF GOTHAM.
Railroad LOOting by Officials Amazing
New York Stockholders.
An Administering Author-Row the
Fourth Of July May Prove a Trap for
CONGRESSMAN Wilson.
LCopvriEhtl

would seem to be the subject of the next
expose for which labor unions are to be-
come responsible. The story, as it crops
out in New York, is as follows:
For some time there has been in prog
ress a quiet movement on the part of
stockholders in at least three great rail-
roads to gather facts purporting to show
why it is that some eminent railroad men
are to-day worth millions in spite of the
fact when they entered the business not
so many years ago they were quite poor.
The money has been made by an ingen-
ious system whereby the railroad officials
in question have organized dummy com
panies to sell to the very railroads which
employed them at eXorbitant rates.
One instance just unearthed Will give
an idea of them all. A very large rail-
road purchases its supplies from a cOrpo-
ration organized to sell to railroads ex-
clusiveIy. This supply company, it seems,
is composed exclusively of officers Of the
very railroad which is the biggest Gus
toner. The auditor OF one railroad com
pany approves bills for goods which are
sold to his corporation at fancy prices,
and the director OF another railroad is
interested in the firm which does the cor
porations printing. Another case in
ically obstructs rival bids for car sup
plies because he is a stOckholder in
concern which does a large car business.
Names and dates have been obtained by
the investigators, and it would appear
that the man who is most involved is de-
clared TO be worth many millions, all
made out of the railroad he osJensibly
serves.
Not only this, but some express com
panies which have been crowded out of
business have collected facts which prove
that a deal entered into by New
Workers has obliged some big roads 10
allow mOnstrous commissions to some ex-
press concerns when others were ready
TO undertake the business at a moiety of
the charges. If only part of the allega-
tions are sustained it will be conclusively
shown that many prominent railroad men
have conDived at a system of jobbery
which would make Tammany seem limo
cent in comparison.
The cause of this quiet investigation
was the pulling fact to some stockhOld-
ers that their dividends never went above
6 per cent, or less, even when the BUSH
ness done reached colossal figures Not
only that, but the sight of men who began
as humble clerks at $50 a month in the
company's service, and who are to-day
worth fortunes, yet never had any oppor-
tunities of making money outside of their
respective roads, has caused comment.
There is also feature of this business
according to which new inventions are
not introduced on the great systems I'M
less the officials are given big slices of the
stock to get them interested. 1t is
charged that one invention relating to
brakes was brought into use by corrupt
"divvies," and the failure of another rail
road to employ patented safety signal is
attributed to The unwillingness of the
pateutee to make over slice of stock to
an olnclal.
But this is all part Of it only. The
price of coal appears to depend upon a
unique sort of corruption, whereby rail
roads refuse to deliver to dealers who are
not in the combine" And one railroad
official has even got control of the bust
ness of retailing coal in a certain town
and through his monopoly reaps a
princely income
The officials have so distributed these
jobs that one man never interferes with
another's good thing. So the dividends
are kept down and the stockholders re-
main in ignorance of the deals.
OF course, the efforts to get at the facts
have been impeded by the officials them
selves, who have received q tip as to
what is being done, and are trying to
throttle Investigators But IL the facts
are duly set forth In detail, as they
promise to be, we shall have one of the
biggest railroad scandals ever sprung in
New York, or in the country, for that
matter.
AS to how the matter should have so
suddenly been inquired into very few
have information. The labor unions are
the active movers, and the tips" given
to several stockholders in New York
came from a la Dor leader eager to be re-
venged for refusal to listen to the de-
mands Of his union. 1t may interest
well-known gentleman in Pennsylvania
to be informed that there are now i'll pos
session of a well-known labor man three
distinct documents bearing the Pennsyl-
vanian's signature, which proclaim him
the champion railroad looter OF his day.
There seems to be only one way to suf-
foCate the movement. II there is made a
large concession to labor's demands by a
well-known railroad, before long it will
mean that the prospects of a scandal are
for the present remote
RICH AND POOR.
So strained have become the relations
of rich and poor in New York that the
police have been obliged to declare to the
pow r. that be that the present attitude
of contempt adopted by certain million
aires must be modified, if trouble is TO be
avoided. Since the passage of resolutions
by labor union, condemninZ some mil
lionaires for having their building done
ab4oad and then brought to this country
piecemeal, and the subsequent refusal on
the part of another plutocrat to listen to
a labor committee sent to visit him, there
have been many surly mutterings
Another grievance of the workingmen
is the invasion of their homes by parties
of the curious rich. 1t seems that the
custom of some residents of Fifth avenue
of visiting the slums in parties, has
proved distasteful TO East Siders. One
worAinemen declared at a labor union
meeting that he would throw O bucket of
wafer on the next batch Of persons who
invaded his rooms against his wishes.
When the Summing craze first began il
was laughed at, and it rather amused the
poor. Latterly they have begun to COM
plain that it is inconvenient to be in
truded upon at all hours by streams of
well dressed people The police are on
the side of New Iork's poor in this mat
ter, ana when a whole tenement com
bined to repel intruders recently the
policeman on the beat refused to inter
fere.
THE ALTRURIAN MASTER.
Authors in New York do not, as a rule.
acquire political influence, bnt William
Dean Howells is the proverbs exception
1t is no exageration 10 say that with the
masses of New \ DIRK citizens he is a sort
of social idol He has adopted a new way
Of attacking what the ltterateurs stVle