Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1897-12-01
GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP.
Can be Attained by the Right
Of Emminent Domain.
The Same Right by which much rail-
road property was seized from the
individual.
BY Loomis S. Gull:

piece Of the trusts and syndicates o1
the Northwest, in a recent issue in a
long and labored editorial, endeavored
to show the utter impracticabi1ity OF
government ownership of railroads in
these United States. The argumen
of the Tribune is taken up seria tim by
LOOMS 5. Gull, one of the great army
OF the unknown, and its sophis'ry and
stiffness exposed plain enough for the
average free silver slave or go1 bug
goslin TO comprehend. Here it is:
First How shall the general gov
ernment acquire possession of the rail
roads, mines, ETC., now belonging to
private individuals or corporations or
ganized in accordance with existing
laws?''
BY the right of eminent domain, the
same right by which much of the prop
erty now owned by the railroad cor
porations was seized from individual
ownership and turned over to said cor
porations. The rule of eminent do
main is Il harsh governmental func-
tion, but it will not be questioned that
it can be invoked against a railroad
corporation as well as against a pri-
vate individual. Farmer Brown con-
sidered it gre at hardship for the Great
Central railroad TO take strip through
the center of his field and build a
railroad track thereon, but his poor,
unimPortant rights had to yield to the
supposed advantages to insure to the
general public, and the general public
may in turn require the Great Central
railway company to surrender the
same track for the same reason and
upon the same process, however in
convenient and annoying it may be to
the company. Or, to use the la guage
OF Angel and Ames in their work on
private corporations paragraph 1927:
"As all or any of the property of a
citizen may, upon just compensation
made, be taken and applied to the use
of the public, so all property belonging
to corporation must, in like measure,
be held liable to the same eminent
domain or peculiar power of the gov
ernment."
Appraisers would determine the
value of the property and the respec-
tive interests of bondholde RS and stock
holders the same as various interests
in real property are usually determined
uncer the exercise of eminent domain
The actual value would, of course, be
determined, and not the fictitious or
book value at which the present owners
might invoice their property.
Second.-"Where is the money to
come from to pay for these immense
interests, estimated by the Tribune at
$4,000, 900, 900, or four times the ma
tional debt at the close of the warp
Who owns the railroads? The people
who own the railroad bonds. True,
the stockholders of the roads have an
equity in the property which may or
may not be of value, according to the
amount of bonded Indebtedness of the
road, but the real owners of the road
are, as a rule, the owners of the bonds
issued by the railroad company.
What is it that gives value to these
bonds?
Thev are valuable: (a) Because
they are secured by mortgages on real
estate and personal property presumed
TO equal or exceed in value the face
value of the bonds issued; (b) Because
the railroads have an earning capacity
sufficient to pay the agreed rate of
interest on the bonds above running
expenses; (c) Because the bondholders
have confidence in the integrity of the
railroad management, and believe the
bonds and interest will be paid
promptly when due.
These are the essential elements
which give value to the bonds. Now
in case the government should acquire
some great railroad system, say the
Pennsylvania Central, and should
issue bonds to the same amount pei
mile that now stand against that rail
road would the same three elements
exist which are now necessary to give
value to those bonds, and which would
be necessary to give value to the bonds
the government might desire to issue
against its newly acquired property
Let us see.
(a) Because secured by mortgages
The bonds could be issued pledging
the roadbed, rolling stock and equip
ment for payment of principal and in
terest, the same as is now done. The
property is there just the same. Only
the equity, the right to redeem, wil
be in the government instead of tn,
stockholders. Gradually, one by on,
the present railroad systems would b.
absorbed by the government. Bond
based primarily on the railroad prop
erty, and secondly on the good faitl
of 75,0O0,O00 of Americans would b
issued as needed to buy railroads, max
ing use of the endless chain so sue
cessfully manipulated by the broker
during the last administration, wit
this difference, that the governmen
would issue bonds for money, use tn
money to buy railroads, then issu
more bonds, getting back, perhaps