The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-20
RIPLEY ON THE RAILROADS.
.POPULIsT PLEA FOR GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP ANSWERED..

Claim That Loss of Life Would BE
Greatly Reduced Under Govern
ment Control Declared Not Sup
ported by the Facts-NHanagement
of Railroads by Governments
Never as Economical as by COrpo-
ratiOns-Vast Political Power In
vOlved in Government Ownership
Declared the Most Serious Objec-
tiOn to the Plan.
Chicago, Jan. 19.-President Ripley of the
AtchisOn, Topeka & Santa Fe has written
letter to the editor of Kansas Populist
paper, replying to a communication pub
lished 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 points out that the railways
carry the whole population of the state of
Kansas two and a half times over before
one passenger is killed; that last year the
trains on the railroads in Kansas ran over
100000 miles. yet, only one employees life
was sacrificed for every 431 900 miles. For
every 4,4O6 Others killed in the United
States in 1896, the report shows that S,Sll
were trespassers; that is to say that out of
every twenty that We're killed, nineteen
were killed because they were breaking
the laws and the railway company had
no means to find them.
He replies to the charge against rail-
road companies as to negligence in the eX-
ercise of duty, saying that statistics show
ba nv tranSnOrt1-
ton in proportion to the miles Travelled
is less than by any known method of To-
comotion. He draws the conclusion that
arguments in favor of government own
ership because of the number of persons
whom the railways kill are worthless.
Next he comes to the question as to
whether the owners are opposed to gov
ernmeht ownership, and he points out the
strongest plea made in behalf of the gov5
ernment ownership is that of o. b. Black
stone president of the Chicago and Alton
road, who urged it as a measure OF JUS
| tice to the railway investors. There is
no holder of railway securities he says,
who does not believe that those securities
would be advanced in value If there was
| any prospect of the government buying
| them.
Mr.. Ripley says if he is opposed to gov
| ernment ownership il is not as railway
| man, but as citizen. The argument has
| been made that the government should
| have charge of the railways because pri-
vate administration of them is not salts
factory. AS a matter of fact, however,
| he saws the best managed railroads of
the world are the English. They are all
| owned and operated by private companies.
| Next to them in good management, ne
states, are the privately owned lines n
| Holland and France, while the govern
ment-owned lines in France are very bad.
Tt l. m 10
! ernment giving better service, employing
more men, lowering rates and still make
money. As a matter of matter the man
| agement of railroads by the government
never was and cannot be accomplished as
economically as by private ownership.
But the most serious objections to gov
ernment ownership, Mr.. Ripley says, are
political.
There are $4,000 railway employees in the
United States. Under the government
ownership each of these would be a polit-
cal appointee. This, he said, would not
only lower the character of the service,
but would be appalling in the tremendous
political supremacy which those $4,000 em-
ployes would give to the party in power.
Worse still, he says, would be the politi-
cal results of the contracts for the con-
struction of new lines, etc. The scandal
and iobbery of the river and harbor appro-
priatiOns or the tariff bill would be moth
ing Compared to the field which would be
opened to the spoilsmen by the railways.
The building of new lines would depend
entirely upon political pull" Districts or
states or a political complexion opposed
to that of the party in power would have
to wait until the crack of doom for any
new lines, and in a district where the
friends of the administration came from
there would be lines as thick as stripes on
a cats back.