The age-herald., 1900-02-11
BIG SALARIES PAID TO
 RAILROAD OFFICIALS
Several Who Receive More Than the President of the United States.
 A New Order of Things.

looking to cessation of 'hostilities, ',i will
 rtSlrit' in. asreduction. In the working force among the division freight and passenger | agents, especially travelling agents;- but fine | executive officers, or some of them at least. will draw increased pay. The corporations
 "1th @ zthe1r sharp economies. can better af- ford flow than heretofore to increase the
 salaries of presidents, chairman and man aging directors
 s.1 make no comment prinrely salaries.
 It is not in my province to do so And for
 auSht l know every railroad potentate may be worth every dollar he gets But the question Is sometimes asked, where will this fancy salary business end?
 If the advocates of government ownership or telegraph lines and transportati ton lines
 know what they are talking about many persons now old enough to vote will live to
 see the government of the United States owning and operating all the great "utili- ties" Some prophets predict that the l change from corporation control to govern ment ownership will come about in the next ten fifteen years.
 It may be that some bold financier or syndlcates will get>options on all the rail-
 road propertfes-about 10000 nriles-and sell l them to the government. making a big 1 'spec" out of the deal If J. Pierepont Nor gan were little younger he might under
 take the scheme. Should the time for gov ernment ownership come by 1910 John Skel-
 ton Williams would be just in his prime. He is only 5 now. We'll, he is bold enough and able enough today to engineer or finance such a deal as that referred to. { When the government goes into the rail-
 road business the big salaries, well as
 ''unjust determinations" and free passes, will have to go. As ito traffic charges all freight and passenger rates will be the same in all parts of the country. There will be classifcations. as in the mail service, but
 the rates on all business will be as uniform
 as the postage on letters and parcels. But coming back to salaries. The highest paid railroad official under the government ownership would be the secretary of trans portation-a cabinet officer certainly And cabinet officers get $S000 There would be many able railroad men after the job, too. For the sake of being in the cabinet many of the $50 900 presidents would gladly accept. There would be four or five assistant secre- taries of transportation at & 800 a year that is the salary paid assistant secretaries of the treasury. Vice-pres,dents and traf- fic managers of the $25,000 class would put in for these assistant secretaryships Then there would be a general superintendent Of
 transportation at s40O0, and the position
 would not "go begging" Assistant general superintendents would get about s3.OOo There would be many division superinten- dents at 5000.
 ] I do not exject to live to see the thew or !, der" It will be long, long time probably l before the railroads pass out of the hands l of the Vanderbilts the Harrimans, the 1 Wiliamses- and partners across the sea. l More books after the fashion of Looking | Backward will be printed and passed to l the dark corners of libraries perhaps before | the great change comes about.
 And yet the government ownership idea 1 may become so popular as to force the issue
 sooner than conservative persons. think. "Uncle Sam can afford to pay, large sal 1 aries but when it comes to members of the
 cabinet and their assistants, the salaries | are small as salaries go these days. Rail- | rod officials will get, when "Uncee Sam be- | comes master of the traffic situation. just | about the same salaries that ruled twenty l or twentv-fve years ago. In the meantime l look oirt for those hundred thousand dollar
 magnates before the twentieth century gets I under way.