The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-13

Judged by the Interstate Commerce
Commission is in the practical percep-
tion of all the profits of ownership of the
soil without it's Inconvenience. One
large railroad system in North Carolina
last year paid its stockholders Thy sun
dry devices) 1876 per cent. dividends,
which is ov"r 400 per cent. on the price
at which the syndicate bought out the
States stock in the road Though they
thus got back in one years profits more
than four times their investment, they
obtained from a Federal judge an in
junction against the Railroad Commits
sion reducing their passenger fares to
212 cents per mile or assessing their
property for taxation at one-third of
the market value of their stocks and
bonds.
You gentlemen can say whether there
are any instances approaching this in
justice or unfairness in your respective
States.
While freight rates in the Northern
States will compare favOrably with
those in other countries, in passenger
rates the charges in this country are, as
rule, excessive and unjustifiable and
of course doubly so in the Southern
States.
HIGH PASSENGER TOLLS.
In no particular have the railroad
charges been more extOrtionate nor
more unwise than in passenger rates.
Upon the liberal estimate of 125 dig
Of a tom as the average weight of pas
sengers paying full fare (abOve II years
of age) the average charge for passan-
gers per mile is over 30 times, not infre-
~ hat oh
pound for freight, notwithstanding pas
sengers load and unload themselvps-a
consideration which far more than COM
pensate for the carriage of baggage for
part of the passengers. This is peculiar
ly unfortunate for it not only diminlshes
the revenues Of the roads, which could
fill their cars, or carry additional cars,
without an perceptible addition of eX-
pense, but it prevents that free circula-
ton of the population which is so highly
educational and which induces
new enterprises whereby freight
traffic is increased. Wherever rea-
enable passenger rates have been tried,
the result has been not only accommo-
dation to the public, but increased prof
it's to the railways. In thinly settled
Russia. as far back as 1894, passenger
u
for distances under 106 miles, and lower
for longer distances-the fare for 100
miles being 70 cents and for two thou
sand miles 5000 This paid so well
that since then a further reduction has
been made which our Consular agents re-
port profitable. In Belgium, w0rkmen
living II miles from their working
places buy weekly tickets good to go aud
return six times a. week for 81 cents
week and shorter distances in proper
tion-a good solution of the evils of
crowded tenement houses and high rents.
In India the rates were " cent per mile,
which proved so profitable that recently
there has been reduction to 1-3 cent per
mile In Great Britain, France, Ger
many and Austria, travel equal IN ac-
commodation to our second class, aver
ages "a cent per mile.
Among many examples of what lower
rates will do in this country, in one Of
the rate wars, passenger rates from San
Francisco to Chicago We're REDUCED from
500 to SO, with the result that the
passenger coaches were full, carrying 90
passengers, and bringing in 5000 per car,
when the haul of load of cattle would
have been at usual rates only 1920 per
car.
There are two reasons possibly why
railroad managers prefer higher rates
for it can not be ON account of the prof
it, One is they prefer a smaller volume
of business at approximately the same
prOfit-the convenience to the public be-
ing counted NIL The other is that with
high rates. the free passes have a great
er purchasing power in influence and in
votes, and the same is true of the reduc-
cd rates they give to drummers, preach
ers and others who can influence public
opinion, thus making the passenger busi-
ness leverage of special privileges to
some and not of equal rights to all.
ADVANTAGES OF Low RATES.
Judge Cooley, that eminent states
man and jurist, as long ago as 1892, in
his address before your convention.
pointed out that the railroads in most
unmistakable ways, daily admitted their
passenger rates to be too high. First
he said, by the large number of persons
they CARRY free; then by the number
of those they carry at reduced rates
on mileage tickets, the still further re-
duction to ministers, and the yet furth-
or reduction on all conceivable occasions.
Summer tours, college cOmmencements,
political speakings, excursions, and in
the occasional rate wars. As that emf
nent man pointed out, it will be fairer
for the public if the corporations, in
stead of making so many special rates,
and crowding the people on excursion
and other occasions, would make per-
manent, all the year round low rates,
with exceptional rates to no one and on
no occasion. A permanent rate of this
kind of one cent Il mile first-class, and
less for second-class would pay the roads
better than the present system and
would give them a popularity they do
not now possess, not only by reason of
the moderateness of the charge, but from
the absence of that air of favor and CON
descension which attends the granting of
lower rates for special occasions and the
favoritiSm or worse, which marks the
free pass and reduced rates given to in
dividuals. The greater opportunity
given by the reduced rates to laborers to
live out of congested cities where their
theatre of work lies, and to raise their
families amid better surroundings would
alone justify the reduction, to say moth
ing of the greater Opportunity to seek
at DointS where labor is naeded-a nainst