The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-03-06
A WORD ABOUT RAILROAD RATES.

M, When it is proposed to reduce rates,
the railroads and their able aud in
genious counsel can state many raa-
sons why the corporation revenues should
not to be reduced. They cite tables
of rates elsewhere as high as those we
pay.
The old rates 2a4 and 81 cAnts is an
average of ) cents. The railroads say
fiat under those rates they actually re-
ceiye an average of , 10 cents. Last
year il is estimated that over 100000
persons had free passes over the rail-
roads in North Carolina. If therefore
the law against free passes had been
obeyed and everybody had paid alike the
roads would have received the same
revenue upon rates averaging Is cents.
The new rates of and 2la cents average
2A cents, being higher than the average
now received.
As TO tables of rates there are $4,000
milessof railroad in the United States
and with a little ingenuity any kind OF
tables can be compiled proving any
thing by Il little care in selecting the
roads. But the following can be with
Il E1airness observed:
/. The United States Interstate
Commerce. Commission report that on all
the railroads in the United States the
- ayera &c is less than = cents and nnnicr-
.,asOnss railroad writer's in magazines, when
.<gtrying to demonstrate that rates are not
too high have aytrred the same thing.
> The German government recently
sent n commission to this country 10.
study railroad rates which with plod-
ding fidelity they did and their official
7sreportpnts the average rate in this count
ry a little under cents per mile tie. 1872
3. If rates are higher than 2 cents on
railroads in some other States what
guarantee have we that in those States
rates are not too high, as well as
here!
4. The Massachusetts Railroad Com
mission report for last year, at page e.
now before us, states the average rate
in that State as 1a4 cents. The New
York reports show one road charging
less than one cent and others charging
one to two cents.
5. In many of the States, the tax-col.
lCcted of railroads runs up into the mil
lions, j. e. New York eight millions
taxes annually, Massachusetts and
Illinois five millions each and other
States in proportion. Therefore the rail-
road rate of nomnally to 3 cents there
really nets much less than 2 cents after
paying taxes, as the rate is a method of
collecting taxes. Here in North Caro-
lima, unlike those States, we collect
not cent on railroad earnings and only
little over 100000 for State taxes Oh
railroad property. What is thus sum to
the two Millions three millions, five mi
lions even eight millions taxes collected
on railroad earnings in many States, and
how unfair to compare our 314 cent rate
with no tax on earnings to their ,
TO :; cent rate, out of which such great
sums are returned to the State Treas
urer? While those States have more
people they have more railroads, too.
Few States have more people to the
mile Of railroads than North Carolina
6. But to get down to the rates on
North Carolina railroads, not by the I'M
certain comparison of rates elsewhere,
but on their own merits. In 1891, after
n scuffe in four Legislatures, the people
established the Railroad Commission to
reduce rates. 1t has been in existence
seven years and has cost the State 500
900 but the rates still remain about as
high as in 1891 when cotton was worth
10 to IL cents per pound, though
money has become so valuable that a
pound of cotton will now buy only i
cents in silver, and 20 pounds of cotton
will only buy one of McKinley's 30
cent dollars Yet the railroads are as
much opposed to reducing rates as they
were in 1891, and if rates are reduced
in the future they will be opposed to il
as much as now.
The net earnings Of railroads in North
Carolina by their own reports is severa
hundred thousand dollars more than las