The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-02-19
Daily Eagle
NJ NJ. MURDOCH, Editor.
ONE BROWN OF PRATT.

One Brown Of Pratt has been cutting
wide swath in the haymaking scrap at
Topeka For a hi I'd hand from the
snort grass country he swings his
scythe exceeding high in trying to earn
MS So per diem and possible political
promotion. There are apprehenslons
that in his role of high executioner he
may accidentally slice off his own head.
His great fight is on railroads. What
his experience is as a capitalist, pro-
moter Or operator OF railways is not
stated. He nevertheless poses as an
expert statistician and an all around
practical economist of experience. The
fear is that with him all wisdom may
wink out This performer from Pratt,
in holding the boards browbeats the rest
of the company, including the stage
managers and committees at both ends
of the capitol. He wants blood, real
railroad blood, does this manager from
Pratt Because Pratt has too many
miles of road per capiter'' to pay oper-
ating expenses, and as the men who put
their money in one of them are trying to
get some Of it back by tearing it up for
what they can get out of the rails
and old ties, Mr.. Brown has evidently
concluded that the remaining lines can
carry freight at lower rates, for one
half or the like. If his bill only in
Guided the roads and lines lying and OPP
Grated within the boundaries of Pratt,
there might be less protest from others
who do not want any roads torn up in
their counties, respectively.
The people of Kansas in desiring fair
treatment at the hands Of the railways,
and in holding that their arrangements
shall consider and conserve the inter
ests Of the state, propose TO make them
amenable to just laws, they do not pro-
pose any measures so drastic as TO lead
10 what is happening just now out in
Mr. Browns county of Pratt. We do
not want to lose any of our railways,
but hope to see the varied interests of
the state so built up and developed as
make a sustaining business for every
mile Of road. The people Of Kansas
are as much interested in sustaining
the present mileage as are the railroad
arrangements themselves. Every set
tied county in the state is supplied with
one or more railroads. A good per cent
of the earnings of these lines is turned
over to the state, connties and school
districts in the way of taxes. The inter-
est IS mutual, the results reciprocal.
There is no equitable way Of forcing the
owners of roads to operate them at a
dead loss. The roads in this man
Browns county have been so operated,
and are now kept going at loss, which
must either be made up by other sec
tons of the roads or otherwise they
will be replaced by the stage coach
with its six or teii-ceut fare per mile, |
and a bull train freight rate ut from ten
10 twenty cents per ton per mile.
The legislature is called upon by the
people TO guard against, and so far as
is possible render discriminating freight
rates Improbable, if not impossible.
The people desire to both use and tax
the roads, not TO bankrupt them. The
road which because of too little business
or too low rates is forced to cease oper-
alton becomes total loss so far as the |
community which it serves is concerned, |
net only as a servitor, but as a value |
10 be taxed in sustaining the public in |
tereSts of such community. Railroad /
arrangements should be held with a |
firm statutory hand. but not throttled TO |
the death. They should be soundly |
punished when found either guilty Of |
eXtortion or of violent discrimination; |
should be prevented, If possible, from |
Joining trusts and combines whereby |
they may be forced to give undue ad- |
yantages to some distant terminal 10 the |
disadvantage of the state and its |
growth and development. Notwith- |
standing all this. it never pays to cut |
off the nose to spite the face. No more |
will it pay TO blindly cripple all railways |
Of Kansas in attempting TO cure the |
supposed abuses of some of them. |
While it may he true that the only good |
Indian is the dead Indian, it is not true |
that a dead road is any good at all. |
Mr.. Brown of Pratt is on war dance |
with an impracticable freight rate bill |
which will do more harm than good if |
1t ever becomes n law. but Mr. Brown
will die, ''clean gone dead" if he fails |
Of killing few branch lines of Kansas |
railroads and gripping the entire rail
way system of the state, generally.