Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-02-21

parts of the German empire at the
rate Of four miles for one cent. The
income from the passengers and bag
gage was ss4, 976, s4O.42. Therefore, the
German Government could have hauled the
1876, O58, $50 passengers in 1890 absolutely
free and still have a net profit Of S34, 1872,
3O7. 90. The profit would have paid the
$40, $50 employees an increase Of 500 pei
year in wages.
The Government paid to private com
panies sum more than double what II
would cost in 1890 to duplicate the roads.
| Thus had the Government built all hei
railway system, saving the profit on profit
| construction, the profit on sale Of roads,
extra interest, etc., she could have re-
duced her freight and express rate nearly
one half, carried passengers free, in
creased the wages Of the employees
over 500 per year and made both ends
' meet. There are employed on the German
| railways, thirteen men per mile, while in
| the United States there are less than five.
In this country one passenger out of every
| 1871 200 carried is killed or injured, while in
Germany only one in | $40, 200 is killed OF
injured. Our roads kill or injure one in
every thirty employees, while in Germany
| it is only one in 1875.
THE AUsTRo- HUNGARY RAILROADS.
The Austro- Hungary Government own
and operate nearly II 200 miles of rail-
road. About eleven men per mile are
employed. The roads cost S93, 6lS.T per
| mile and are one of the very finest systems
of railway construction in the world. The
total income from the operation Of these
roads in 1855 (last report obtainable) was
S107, ia, 02360 Total expenses, S57, 256,
al .60-S7, 1854, l04.S0 Of the expense being
paid into the sick, aid and pension fund,
ETC.. for railway employees. Not reckoning
this as real expense, the total net profit for
1888 was S57, 1921, 9SG so, or 53.6S
per cent of the total income. As the in
come from passengers was less than S24, :
| 900, 600, net profit of more than $50, 900,
! 600 could have been earned il every passen-
ger had been transported free. The cheap
est railway travel in Europe is from Buda-
Pesth to Cronstadt, distance Of ass miles,
for which the fare, third class, is at the
rate of three miles for one cent, and in the
case of agricultural laborers travelling in
thirty or more, the fare is one half, or six
miles for one cent. For several years the
Zone system has been in operation with the
result of greatly reduced fares and great
increase in the number OF passengers car
ried and net income to the Government.
The Zone system is divided into sections
| OF belts of distances from Buda- Pesth, the
center. The first zone extends distance
| Of 49, 70 miles; each succeeding zone 10 to
the twelfth being seven and one half miles
longer than the zone Immediately preceding
it; the twelfth and thirteenth zones being
10. % miles longer than its proceeding one.
All distances from the thirteenth zone are
included in the single and last zone, the
fourteenth. Tickets are not sold at so
much per mile but so much per zone, the
charges being less from Buda- Pesth for
each additional zone, thus being great
help to the sparsely settled districts.
THE PACIFIC RAILWAY ROBBERY.
When the full history of the Pacific Rail-
road shall be written the world will read
the story of the most gigantic system Of
railroad piracy ever concocted in the mind
of man. The six roads: Union Pacific,
Kansas Pacific, Central Branch Sioux City
& Pacific. Central Pacific and Western Pa
cific, embrace 2,495 05 miles. The total
cost was sos, 955, 341. They are capitalized
stock and bonds for $2Gs, 3O2, 469, or S172,
341, 10 Of water
This does not show the real robbery, as
the roads were paid for by the public, and
the Pacific roads, therefore, cost the band
Of pirates barely nothing. In fact, the
stock paid in being only 81, 197, $50. These
six roads received aid from the United
States in bonds, interest, land grants, the
vast sum of SAT, 20, 4,0.54. States, towns,
cities and counties gave other vast sums,
the city of Sacramento giving nearly
So, 900, COO
The reports of these companies show a
profit or net earnings of S27S, 023 351 63,
equal to SIS, 600, 900 q year. Nearly S2G,
600, 900 not reckoned in the above earnings,
were paid out for subsidies, pools, rebates,
overcharges, etc. The Central and Union
Pacific have paid to the Pacific Mail Steam
ship Company over 81, ZOO, 900 to maintain
high rates. Thus these roads have con-
spired to maintain an exorbitant rate on
both freight and passenger traffic, and have
in thirty years robbed the public Of mill
ions upon millions.
According to the report Of exGov. Pat
terson, chad those roads been built and
managed upon honest methods they could
have paid every debt in full, paid dividends
on stock and land sales, and have property
free from.debt to such an amount that each
dollar would have yielded SG.1S, and three
of these roads could have reduced their
charges $40, 600, 200 to shippers Read
ex- Gov Patterson's full report for de-
tailed account Of this gigantic robbery.
The San Francisco Chronicle in an edi-
torial article Feb. o, 1890, says; ''Instead
of letting corporations build the railroads,
and giving land away to induce them to do
this, Victoria has kept its land and built
its own railroads. Seven years ago the