Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-06-10

The fences to keep off cattle and the sign
posts to warn people at railway crossings
cost over $3,5OO,OOO per annum, or more
than the legislative branch of the ma
tional government. Even the newspa-
pers and printers are deeply interested,
for $500, 900 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 $780,
544, 322, while for repairs and renewals of
locomotives, passenger and freight cars
our railways expended in the same year
SOB, 7O7 $3.50. 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 10000
600 per annum for this purpose as 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. / 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 II is to injure our railway prop
critics without at the same time seriously
injuring almost all other occupations and
curtailing the prosperity of the entire ma
ton. 1t has been apty stated that unless
the people are prosperous the railroads
cannot flourish. Is not the converse equal
ly true; can the people prosper when so
large an industry languishes, when its
10000 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 benefiting the public, much of
the so-called railway legislation has been
a decided detriment. 1t creates uncertain
ty where certainty should exist. 1t breeds
many Of the ills (such as discrimination
in rates. which it seeks to remedy, and
has done much toward bringing bankrupt
cy and ruin to nearly half the railway
mileage of the country.
Protection to 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 great
er proportion of American-born labor-in
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 a 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 as 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 fair chance? Out Of The COM