Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-11-13
RAILROADS COMBINE.
THE DAY OF RECEIVERSHIPS
PASSING AWAY.
In . Few More Years All the Railroads
of the Country Will Be Owned by .
Half Dozen Great syndicates, Perhaps
Fewer Than That.

"a prominent railroad attorney said
yesterday that the day Of receiverships
for railroads is fast passing. Every
change now lessons the number of
railroads through consolidation and
strengthens them financially. In New
England, the New York, New Haven &
Hartford was securing most Of the
roads in those states: west of New
York the Vanderbilts, the Pennsylva-
MIA company and the reorganized Erie
are taking in all the small roads; in
the Central states the Big Four and
the Brice syndicate are helping the
Pennsylvania to cover all the Central
Traffic association territory; in the
South the Southern Railway company
is gathering in everything in sight; in
the West the Pennsylvania and the
Vanderbilt lines are steadily getting
better hold, as in the case Of Chicago
& Northwestern and the Chicago, Bur-
lington G. Quincy. The Gould syndi-
cate is getting a strong hold on the
Southwestern lines, and Huntington on
the Pacific coast lines. From this it
will be seen that in years to come the
demand for receivers will be limited
to very small mileage Of railways
indianapolis Journal
The above tells tale that is worth
the noting and the prophecy therein
Is eminently sound. In a few more
years all the railroads of the country
will be owned by half dozen great
syndicates, with a tendency to grow
to even a fewer number than that.
These will be called systems. 1t is
only a question of time when all the
smaller roads, and even the single
lines that are rich, will be swallowed
up. They can't hold out against the
gigantic systems. These will be
practically under one presidency, by
virtue of ironclad agreements as tc
rates. A hint OF this is furnished by
what is called "The presidents agree
ment," now in process of formation
in New York. The bosses of the
great systems are engineering this
deal and the object is to compel 6
universal compliance with a fixed tar
iff for passengers and freight. 1t was
to this that Senator Chandler called
the attention of the Interstate com
merce commission in a remarkable let
ter which was reproduced in these
columns. If perfected, and no doubt i
will be, 1t will get around the anti
pooling clause OF the interstate com
merce law, and that in fact is its prime
object. Huntington, of the Southern
Pacafic, said in an interview some year
a. 10
only one president for all the railroad
in the United States. His order woulC
be law for all, and there could be n,
cutting of rates by competing lines
Here you have the spirit Of what tn
populists contend for, only with tn
wrong head to it. There ought indeet
to be only one supreme control for al
the railroads, but that should be tn
people acting through the governmen
at Washington. The railroads them
selves, by processes described above
are gravitating that way, and in time i
will be found absolutely necessary t
take charge Of them or abdicate tn
government in their favor. This is a.
immense question, and 1t can only b
portation plank of the Omaha Platform
Just as trusts are proving the advant
ages, as we'll as the absolute necessity
of cooperating in great enterprise:
and thus foreshadowing the co-opera
tive commonwealth, so the railroads
by forming these systems and reduC
ing the number to the smallest posi-
BILE compass, are showing that tn
mighty transportation interests of thi
country cannot be left to cut throa
competition Of hundreds of lines, bi
and little, but for their own efficienc
as we'll as the public welfare, deman
central control. This we call govern
ment ownership. They call it tn
formation of a trust where a few me
are to have the undisputed control {
all the highways between the ocean
-Nonconformist.