Arizona silver belt., 1894-08-18
HOSTILITY TO RAILROADS.

The San Francisco Examiner IS 5ir- eulating petitions asking Congress to foreclose the mortgage of the Central Pacific and take control of the road A petition calculated in Globe received l5l signatures. Everybody knows how easy it is to get signatures to a netiuop Most people will sign peti- ton without giving the question any thought, or even reading it, They will sign it rather than invite argument by . refusal, knowing how little weight attaches to vetition, es''scially when addressed to Congress. It is presented to Congress, and filed and that is the end of it. Itmatters not whether there sre Ave or five hundred names attached they are never read.
 It appears to us that the present is poor time to fight railroads. With out liberal government aid the Pacific railroads would never have been built and the Great West would have ra- mained undeveloped-a terra iroognito.
 Government ownership of railroads is. in our opinion of doubtful expedi- enoy. We don't know of any western railroads that are making any money They are dependent for revenues, al nest entirely, upon through traffic and the business furnished by the mines. Both have fallen Of very greatly. For hundreds and hundreds of miles the trans-continental railroads, traverse a country destitute of resources, save mineral, and since the closing of tue silver mines, there is practically no bus mess for them in these sections, and the cost of maintaining their roadbed, owing to washouts, is enormons. IL is not reasonable to suppose that the Government could run them to any better advantage than the companies pay better wages to employees, offer better service, lower rates or better ac- eommodations to the public. It could only be done by causing big deficit, which before many years might become burden riyaling the pension list. We are trying to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, whereas we should be encouraging her to lay more eggs
 ,Phere are other projects which the Government might undertake with far gre. CT benefit to the West than ope. rating railroads. The reclamation of the arid lands, for instance, would give work to thousands and homes to mil lions of people; it would increase the revenues of the railroads, induce the construction of competing lines, and of feot reduction in the rates of trans portation. Something must bo Gcue, and that soon, to develop th6 Ggrioul- tural resources of the Vest or the rRilroad problem will solve itself by all the transcontinental lines being forced into bankruptcy. The Atchison, To- peka < Santa Fe system is already in the hands of 9 receiver, and has discon- snued operating 3O6 miles of its lines.
 The Examiner is live newspaper Alive to its own interests. It conducts lottery and giyes away thousands of doAnrs, cauga why s"-to increase ita subscription list. t gives prizes Ca trip 10 the Worlds Fair etc to the bright. est school children; "causo ghy2'-- to increase its popularity and get back swo dollars fer one. It makes war on the Pacific railroads; "cause wby?'- 1t sees in it golden opportunity to turn an honest penny" by promoting . popular prejudios. Tn fact the Ex- aminaz supports a cause when there is meney and popularity in it.