The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-06-01

The great hindrance TO achieving the
public benefit which is the legal object
for which esecorporations are reated
is
THE RELUCTANCE OF THEIR MANAGERS
to concede reasonable and just rates.
Some of them act as If they believed.
that common carriers were a private
business and that they have the right
to lay upon the public any rates they
think fit to raise money enough to pay
whatever salaries they think proper To-
allow themselves and whatever ex7
penditures they care TO make and in
terest on three or four times the stock
and bonds the property really cost.
Yet nothing is farther from the law.
Railroad, telegraph, telephone and
express companies are quasi public COR
porations, the charges are
IN THE NATURE OF PUBLIC TAXATION,
and the public have the right to look
into the nature Of their expenditures
and to fix the rates at a reasonable net
profit above economical and necessary
disbursements. The public right in
this regard is fully shown by the uni
form and umerou decisions of the
courts I have cited to you. With the
enhanced value Of money and the cor
responding fall in the prices Of farm
produce and of labor, there should be
a corresponding fall in passenger and
freight rates. This would CondUce to
the public Der eft and convenience, and
would at the same time rebound to the
benefit of the corporations, which in
stead of carrying a few cars half full of
passengers or freight, would find it to
their benefit as well as that Of the pub
lie to reduce their rates and carry two
or three times the number ofcars with
full loads. TIE prescct charges are an
embargo on travel and traffic alike.
This has been amply shown by expe-
rience in those States where the public
has succeeded in reducing the rates and
by the experience of a line in own
State whose receipts nearly doubled
during it's reduction Of rates. Another
striking instance is the reduction Of
postage rates, which has always been
followed by enormously increased re
ceipts. Indeed the two cents per mile
passenger rates already prescribed in
60 many States and which
THE PEOPLE OF THIS STATE ARE DEMAND
ING,
is admitted by the corporations here to
be just since their reports show that
their receipts average 81 cents only
per mile to each passenger-the enor-
NOUS addition which makes the charge
of 81 cents to the public is caused by
the immense number Of free passes
issued to oficeholders, large shippers
and other influential people or favor
ites-the very people who need them
least-but the corporations need their
influence to keep the public quiet under
exorbitant exactions. Thus in effect,
roughly speaking every three psssen-
gers who pay 81 cents per mile for
their own travelling are paying also
for the free riding Of another, for the
railroads carry the dead heads at the
expense of the public.
Governor Pingrea, of Michigan, who
has won his fight foT 8 cents street car
fares and Q cents per mile railroad fares
and lower freight rates, in a recent
speech in Boston, truthtully said:
Railroad operators are the only men
in the country who do not understand
that the
REMEDY FOR SHORT RECEIPTS IS TO
LOWER PRICES.
Yet manufacturers, merchants and
every body else understand this" Rail,
road men could understand this, too,
but that they rely OF having a monop
oily. In 1874, when the legislature of
Wisconsin opened the fight for two
cent fares and lower freight rates, their
action was sustained by the Supreme
Court of the State, Chief Justice Ryan
delivering a remarkably able opinion
in the course of which he said (Attor.
ney General VS.. Railroad, 35 Wis. $3.50:
1T may well be that the high rates
charged by the railroads have leseened
their own receipts by crippling the
public interests. The ahdavits of ex-
perts have been read to the contrary,
but they are only opinions, founded in
deed on past statistics. Such opinions,
founded on such statistics, would have
defeated cheap postage and are helping
to day to defeat a moderate tariff. Elk
perience often contrRdicts such theories.
The interest of the public in this regard
seems to be identical with that of the
railroad. We think that there must
be a point where the public interest in