Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1901-11-29
00lindham County Reformer
BRATTLEBoRo, VT. FRIDAY NOV. 80, 100
Conclusive Comparative Statistics.


Having heard ad nauseum in recent
years the socialistic argument with
reference to public service corpora
tions, there is refreshment in such talk
as Robert III. Porter gave the other
day in London. He told the London
ers that their manipulation of these
services had been a great mistake and
that it has resulted in street railways,
telephones, gas and electric light ser
vice inferior to what corporate enter
prise has given Americans. The rea-
son, he pointed out, is plain and ought
to be seen in advance, that change to
control by public authorities means
loss of all incentive to improve. There
are no stockholders to clamor for more
dividends or grow wrathy if dividends
are decreasedby diversion of business to
a rival mo managers realizing that their
places depend on satisfying the stock
holders by attracting the very utmost
of public patronage and that there
must be sleepless vigilance and activ
ity to prevent the manager of the rival
line from getting ahead of them. In
place of this is found spirit of indif
ference. The city or the state has given
to the public a service as good as it
thinks it can afford to extend, and,
if the public is not pleased with it, the
representatives of the government are
sorry, but they cannot help them
selves.
That the practical truth agrees with
the theoretical as expounded by Mr.
Porter has striking demonstration in
the comparative figures regarding
steam railways and their freight traffic
in this country and Europe, which
have recently been published. Every
factor of cost would naturally seem to
be in favor of Europe, except land
damages all the materials and labor
that go into the construction and
equipment of roads are much cheaper
there than here: they run through
thickly settled populations while ours
often, for considerable periods after
their construction at least, pass along
stretches of uninhabited solitude; they
depend on a commerce that is many
centuries old while ours is in its in
fancy and that with equal facilities
and service ought to be equally as
large per capita: and even the factor
of larger land damages is concomi-
tant of an advantage in the shape of
dense population to provide bust
ness. And yet the average cost for
carrying freight 100 miles in this
country is 70 cents, when in Great
Britain it is $3.50; in Italy 81. 30;
Russia g. 40; France 81. %; Germany,
Belgium and Holland 81. CO. In other
words, where the European charge
ought and under equal conditions of |
enterprise would, be less than ours,
it is in fact from two to four times as
large. Volumes could not present the
for individualism against
socialism more conclusively.
These are grave evils indeed in our
practises and our corporate
Jaw; but they are not beyond cure on
individualistic principles, and indeed
hey are usually the result of departure,
more or less disguised, from those prin-
;iples, by the clothing of the corpora
ion, which is only an artificial per
son, with unjust and unnecessary pow
ers. Our railroads for instance must
De deprived of the power, often so
exercised, to discriminate
between persons and places and held I
'igidly to the fundamental idea of
heir franchises that their tolls must
De fixed, uniform and just. They must !
,e deprived of the power, which never |
,ught even to have been presumed, of
capital, which means the
leecing of the public if it succeeds
nd the skinning of investors if it
Ioesn 't-and in either case is but a
misuse of the forms of law, abuse of =
delegated powers of government for '
ocket-picking. With a few such re- +
orms, entirely practicable, our corpora !
ions may become the best of servants .
instead of the most irresponsible OPP a
ressors, in cases, of mankind. 5
The way of reform in other words
5 away from socialism, whose method r
) proved in Europe to be drag upon a
and progress. t
Il