Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-06-12

Inc fences to keep off cattle and the sign
posts to warn people at railway crossings
than the legislative branch of the ma
ional government. Even the newspa-
pers and printers are deeply interested,
tor SS.oOO,OOO was spent in printing and
advertising. The United States Postoffice
Department is considered an important
business, and yet the aggregate expenses
OF that department in 1895 were 500
o44,o22, while for repairs and renewals of
locomotives, passenger and freight cars
our railways expended in the same year
So3, IO1 1883. A moments thought will
make it clear that nearly all of this vast
sum is annually spent for mechanical la
Dor of all kinds, for nearly every branch
of industry enters into locomotive and car
building. In times normally good you
may safely figure on upward of 500, OOO,-
OOO per annum for this purpose a regu-
lar part of keeping the rolling stock of
railways up to date and in good repair, to
say nothing of an additional ten million
for other mechanical work incidental to
keeping the plants of transportation in
good running order. l only refer to these
facts for the purpose of showing how in
timately the successful conduct of these
great properties is interviewer with other
industries of the country, and how i'm
possible it is to injure our railway prop
critics without at the same time seriously
inJuring almost all other occupa tons and
curtailing the prosperity of the entire ma
ton. 1t has been aptly stated that unless
the people are prosperous the railroads
cannot flourish. Is not the converse equal
" true; can the people prosper when so
large an industry languishes, when it's
100000 employees are working only part
time and its forces are reduced to the
lowest possible limit-repairs and replace
ments postponed to better times?
Disturbance of Commerce.
Not only do the continued attacks on
| railways thus fall heavily upon the indus
tries of the country at large, but they
bring about a disturbance of commerce,
and cause men who would otherwise put
their money into cooperative industries
to withhold it, and thus cripple existing
and prevent new enterprises of all sorts.
Instead of benefting the public, much of
the so-called railway legislation has been
decided detriment. 1t creates uncertain
ty where certainty should exist. 1t breeds
many of the Ills (such as discrimination
in rates) which 1t seeks to remedy, and
has done much toward bringing bankrupt
cy and ruin to nearly half the railway
mileage of the country.
Protection te American industries has
ever been a cardinal principle in this coun-
try, They have almost invariably receiv-
ed fair treatment at the hands of the ma
| tional Legislature. Why should an in
dustry employing more labor-and a grea t
| er proportion of American-born labor-ip
which the capital invested is greater
| which expends for supplies in this country
| alone sums far in excess of any other in
| dustry, be debarred from fair and legiti-
mate treatment and become the prey OF
INSCRIPTIONS demagogues and dishonest
politicians, and the target for newspaper
abuse? In a new country, under new
conditions, and with rapidity that has
| astonished the older world, we have built
| up a railway system equal in mileage to
| all the railways of the rest of the world
| combined.
| The men responsible for the work have
used their best judgment, given their best
| thought, and many of them the best years
of their lives, in honest endeavor to make
| the most of the enterprise in which they
| have embarked Are not the purposes
of this industry as necessary and legiti-
| mate are not its owners entitled to fair
| a return upon their investment as other
| industries? Are not its officers and en-
ployes as honest, efficient and patriotic
as those in other avocations? Why not
give them a fair chance? Out of the COM