Omaha daily bee., 1898-01-20
ACCIDENTS ON RAILROADS
They Furnish No Argument Leading to
d Government Ownership.
FATALITIES NOT UNREASONABLE HIGH
President Ripley of the santa Fc
Makes Comparisons on Railway
Casualties, and Argues Favor
ably to Private Mnnngcmcnt.

| CHICAGO. Jan. 19.-E. z. Ripley, presi-
dent OF the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe
Railroad company, has written letter to the
! Kansas Commoner, populist paper, replying
| to a communication published in that paper
citing the number of people killed by the
railroads OF the United States as a reason
why these railroads should be put under
| government control
Mr.. Ripley says that the latest report OF
| The Interstate Commerce commission, that
of 1896, divides the persons killed by rail-
ways into three classes-passengc en-
ployes and other persons.
Mr.. Ripley deals with these seriatlm. He
| says the report shows that in the year men,
toned Isl passengers ON all the railroads OF
the United States were killed, but he adds
that the fact should be taken into consdera-
| tion that in the year 1896 the railways of
| the country carried nearly 5l2, ,000, 900 pas
| sengers and that the number of passengers
carried distance of one mile was over
1900, 000, 900.
Mr. Ripley points out that the railways
carry the whole population of the state of
Kansas two and a half times over before ono
passenger Is killed. Tie says that taking into
consideration all the contingencies such as
land slides, washouts, floods and human
Weaknesses, which have to be guarded
against, 1t would hardly appear as IL the
railways were negligent in the matter of
caring for the safety of their passengers.
Mr.. Ripley then says that according to the
report of the Interstate Commerce commission
l,S6l employees were killed during 1896, or
one FOR every 100 miles of road operated. He
asks the editor to suppose himself operating
road 100 miles Icing, employing the average
number OF 400 men, and asks him whether
he would feel sure that he could operate the
road the entire year, day and night, rain or
shine, heat or cold through thunder storm
and blizzard and frost, without the loss of
the life of one employe
VIOLATING THE LAW.
Coming to the third division of persons
killed by railroads, Mr.. Ripley finds that they
fall roughly into four classes: Those killed
at stations trying to board or alight from
moving trains, tramps stealing rides those
killed at highway crossings and persons
walking on the tracks 1t is shown that of
tho i,4O6 people of these classes killed, -3Sll
were trespassers; that is to say, out of every
twenty-five persons killed, nineteen were
killed because they were breaking the law
and were in places where the railway people
had no reason to expect to find them
MI. Ripley draws the conclusion that the
plea OF government ownership, because Of
the numbe" of persons whom the railways
kill, is entirely worthless. Coming down to
the question of ownership, he says that to
hlmself and other railway officers it is a
ihe'ltl VI tllllt lHulH1IpnCp. II Ine gov
ernment owned the railways it would need
just as many, and probably more men to
operate them, and he expresses himself as
entirely willing to take his chances on get
ting equally as good a position as that
which he now enjoys.
Coming to another feature Of the question
Mr. Ripley says there is grave doubt
whether the government has the legal right
to obtain ownership of the lines for the
purpose of operating them, and there is
still the fprmilabla IN
whether the government, after it had got
possession of the lines, could operate them
inside the limits of the several states with
out radical changes in our constitution and
In the whole present fabric of the relations
of state and national authority
Aside from that the only way in which the
government could get possession of the rail
ways would be by purchase at q reasonable
price. That price has been varlously esti-
mated to be anywhere from 5000 900 900 to
$4,000, 900 600. Supposing it was the lowest
figure, the amount would be five times the
present national debt The government has
had some embarrassment in floating bonds
for Sl00,000,000 or so. The government could
probably borrow $4,000, 900, 600, but it would
be unpleasant to have to do it. Interest on
that amount at per cent would be $3.50, ,000,-
600 year.
EXPENSES WOULD INCREASE.
1t is easy to talk, he says, of the govern
ment giving better service employing more
men, lowering rates ana Gtll making money.
As a matter of fact government management
of anything never was, never can be- as
economical as private management, and to
earn the interest on its investment the gov
ernment would have to increase the rates
for service, as has been done on the govera-
ment-owned lines of Australia; cheaper the
service, employ fewer men and let things
generally get into disrepair, as done on the
government-owned lines of Italy, or face an
annual deficit and rely on taxation to make
up the deficit, as done on the government
owned lines in India.
The mcst serious considerations are, how
ever, Mr. Ripley says, political ones There
are $4,000 railway employees in the United |
States Under government ownership each of
these would be political appointee. This |
would not only lower the character of the |
service, but would be appalling in the tre- |
mendous political supremacy which those |
$4,000 employees would give to the parry in !
power.
Worse still would be the political results |
of the contracts for the construction of new |
lines, ETC. The scandals ami jobbery OF the !
river and harbor appropriations or OF the |
tariff bill would be nbthQg compared to the |
field which would be open to the spoismen
by the railways The building of new lines
would depend entirely on political pull"
Districts or states OF a political complexion
opposed to that OF the party in power would
havo 10 wall till the crack of doom for any
new lines, an1 in districts where the friends
of the administration came from there would |
be lines as thick as stripes on Il cats back.
RafIroad Bonds Oversubscribcd.
NEW YORK, Jan. 19-The $15 ,O00, 900 3lk
per cent first mortgages Illinois Central,
St Louis division and terminal and Louis
iyfg tnrf ina Ent, ,Iu fc