Omaha daily bee., 1899-10-26
RAILROADS IN GREAT WEST
Traffic in Mississippi Basin Made Clear by
Stsyvesant Fish
TREASURES ONCE MORE SHOW A SURPLUS
Accommodations of Previous Years
Barely SuHiccs to Bridge over
Evil Days that Are Vow
Happily Fast.

CHICAGO. Oct 25.-(Special.) 1.-The fol-
lowing Is the statement, in part, addressed
to the United States Industrial commission
by Stuyvesant Fish, president Of the Illinois
Central and of the Yazoo & Mississippi Val
| ley Railroad company:
Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen Of the Com
mission: Railroads are "of the people and
for the people" They are permanently at
tached TO the soil Capital nves ed in them
Is irrevocably dedicated to public SerNiGe
commission, in investigating questions per
| taiining to immigration, to labor. TO asri,
Sature Sa to mannfaGurng ana TO BUSINESS
However this may be. l take pleasure in
answering your summons, well knowing
any important interest in the United states
without in like manner affecting the rail-
roads
You have heard, and will hear; from
other railroad men representing different
parts of the country. What | have to say
X eS'5S bS the to nj sssspp ssfSs
of the country, its sranary and its work
shop-and New Orleans, the seaport of that
basin.
| The Mississippi river drains the whole of
nine states and territories and parts parts OF OF
a considerable slice of the Dominion of
Canada. Rejecting eight states. of which
but small portion lies within the valley,
twenty-four states and territories may be
! fairly considered as tributary to that river.
! It's valley contains l,2iO.0S9 square miles, or
/ II per cent vi tIt area Ol lUt OHlAtu S'atNS'
! exclusive of Alaska and other outlying pos
sessions. There dwell 35,000,0GO of our peo-
, pie, or nearly one-half of our CltlzenShlp.
| Its soil, besides feeding all of our own peo-
| pie, except those on the Pacinc coast, yields
the whole of our eXportable surplus of live
| stock of every kind and most of the bread.
stuffs. Its mines yield our petroleum oil
and most of our coal, its forests supply our
| lumber and its workshops turn out annually
an increasing share of our manufactures.
mage and of w and constantly falling
rates for TRANSPORTATION by rail. the ques-
| ton of grades Is becoming more and more
| controlling. 1t Is. therefore, in the level
| prairies of the great valley that we must
to conduct transportation ever at or near,
and often below, cost, without so abso-
| lutely bankruptng the carriers as to close
the highways of traffic The accumulated
surplus earned in previous good years and
| the borrowing power based thereon, coupled
| with rigid and distressing economy,
barely kept the western and southern rail
the bad times from 1893 to 1897, on June 80
| 1894 there were in the hands of receivers
4OSlS miles of railroad or nearly one-quar-
| ter of all in the United States QI6.6O9.
| These bankruptS represented an investment
| of over $500 100000.
| The enforced economies of that year re-
duced the number of railroad employees by
manufacturers of railroad supplies in par
| ticular and on immigration, labor, manu-
| featuring and business in general, while
| not specifically reported, is too well re-
| membered to need repetition While we all
! hope that those evil days have passed
never to return, may we not gather wisdom
from that sad experience?