People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1898-03-03
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remarks. showing the aggregate earn
ings from 1885 to 1895 inclusive de
Quoting taxes, deducting every
possible charge, and deducting be.
sides expenditures for new construc.
tion and equipment, amounting to
81, 233, O7S2,) amount to Sl3, 914, 1876 O4;
so that the average net earnings foT
the years from 1885 to 1895, inclusive.
are Sl,255,S35.9l.
Mr.. President, those net earnings
represent per cent on little over
$30,000,0O0 OF course | know the
claim of the company is that that is
not q fair estimate of the earnings,
because, should an attempt be made
to parallel this property, a large part
Of their trade would be diverted. l
am absolutely familiar with every
foot Of ground covered by this line of
road and its branches. 1t runs up the
valley of the Kansas river. and has an
average grade of four feet to the mile
until it reaches BrOokville, where it
strikes the hills and goes IN the divide
for the rest of the way.
1t is a road of easy grade and the
lightest possible curvature. 1t has
one branch running up the valley Of
the Blue, another running up the val
ley of the Republican, then another
brancb running up the valley of the
Saline, and another up the valley of
the Solomon, and going then on the
Denver extension to Denver. On all
that grade the action of gravitation
will take the business and the produce
of those valleys down the Kansas
Pacific.
Mr.. Gear: Will the senator allow
me question?
Mr.. Harris: Certainly.
Mr.. Gear: Does the senator con-
tend that the branches to which he
refers are part and parcel of the Kan
sas Pacific railway?
Mr.. Harris; | would say they are
Operatel in connection with it.
Mr.. Gear: That they are operate d
in connection with the Kansas
Pacific?
Mr.. Harris: Certainly. What am
endeavoring to do is to meet the
claim that the trade of these branches
can be diverted form this subsidized
portion, which is the main line to the
Kansas Valley. What claim is that
the action of gravitatiOn, to say
nothing Of the natural interests of all
those people, takes that business to
Kansas City. Kansas City is the
absolutely natural and Inevitable
market for all the products of that
great country today. The Denver
business follows down the same lire
and reaches Kansas City naturally and
inevitably.
Any effort to parallel that line by
using, as they have claimed, the old
Kansas Central, which was a narrow
gauge road, constructed west from
LeaVenwOrth, which runs across these
divides, would have to overcome an
elevation Of from $50 to 200 feet every
eight or ten miles. Such scheme
as that as paying or dangerous com
petitOr Can not be seriously cOntem-
plated or considered honestly by any
set of praCticalerailrOad men in the
country. 1t is merely intended for
moral effect; it is merely intended to
shake thu administration in its
position to obtain the largest amount
possible from this property. There is
no such thing possible.
They can not haul over the line Of
that road more than about fifteen to
sixteen loaded cars to a train, while
down tie Kansas Valley forty cars are
easily hauled to train. 1t is absO-
lutely Impossible to divert that
business. SO that whatever may be
come Of lie main line, whoever may
own it, Hey will PROFESSIONALLY for
ever receive the traffic and the trade
of those valleys and of those branches
which are tributaries. The condition
of these branches is such as to render
this property of very much greater
value 10 lie Union Pacific Railroad
Company than to anybody else. 1t is
worth to anybody else as an invest
ment, as / said before, about $50, 0OO,-
600, for 1t will pay per cent interest
upon thu amount.
Besides the interest which these
people have in the branches, they also
have, under the government lien, the
mortgage of eleven million seven
hundred thousand and odd dollars.
That covers the entire line from
Denver to Kansas City, and of course
that practically rests upon the 3g4
miles of subsidized line. So that not
alone have we to consider the value
of this property with reference to out
side investors, or with reference to