The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-06-15
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RAILWAY DISCRIMINATION AND TRUSTS.
M. M. MURD DOCK, EDITo r.

al
alton. Without the advantage afforded by railway
discrimination no trust become monopoly or
oppressive. This is as true of the proposed great
ship trust as of the COAL the coal oil trusts the
meat trust or whatnot In or through railway rates
and their dock-charges at terminals the ship COM
bine expects to beat individual ownership. Trace
up the operations of the trusts you know most about
and what would become of them subjected in their
raw material and in their products. in either,
to the same schedule of freight rates that the ind
viduaI competing enterprises subjected. If this
proposition is true, true in he main, then govern
nnent ownership and control OF railways would down
the trusts But ownership would be toe vastly ca
pensve Is ownership necessary to control For one
we apprehend not. Congress by laws, through the
Interstate Commerce Commission, and through the
courts can control the railroads of the country
far as abonshing determinations by compelling their
management to treat every class OF shippers equta
bly,. To beat the trust and to insure heathful and
wealth-producing com petition equitable opporun-
fly it is only necessary control the transportation
lines of the country. Railways need not be burth-
ened in all this nor their robbed or wronged
in any degree There is only justice in afording
railways fair chance Of earning reasonable divi-
dend on the money invested in them, where the
tranc and character of the country is equal to such
an earning. OF course where railroad is built
through a region which cannot sustain it, for specu-
lstive purposes, or is constructed in too close
parallel proximity another line either for purpose
OF killing off the older line, built for subsidies
and without the Of probable sufficient traffic
the who put their money in such fool enterprise
should suffer 1t is certain however, in such cases.
innocent parties should not be compelled, by the
courts, to make good resultant deficits through
warranted or extraordinary freight charges Expert
experience has reduced raroadng to something like
an exact or applied science and therefore there is
little danger of the congress, the commission, or
the courts doing an injustice to railways, of
their hampering them in their chances of earning
reasonable dividends.
A writer in the current number of The North
American Review Mr.. Henry Nicholson, urges
tionalization of the railroads the only effective
means of relieving the public from the trust abuses
Mr. Nicholson is vice president of the American For
estry Association and is said to be high authority
on economic questions. After vigorously describing
the operations of the Beef Trust the MiQers' Trust
and other like combinations, he concludes that gov.
eminent ownership and control Of the railroads in
securing equal and open rates" of transportation
the only adequate method of curling the Trusts.
This is the remedy of despair. If it were practi-
cable at all in this country with its vast ramifcation
Of railroads and with the enormous amount of CAPT
tai invested in them, the evils which this plan
would of necessity engender in American political
and social institutions would be far greater than
those which it is designed to suppress. Mr. Michel
speaks complacenty of the naturalization Of tho
railroads by Germany for our encouragement Bnt
what the railroads Of Germany and the capital
in them-or Of all Western Europe for that matter
compared with the great lines of transportation
this continent and west north and south?
Mr. Nicholson presents the objections of the OPP
ponents of this scheme of State Socialism in its
cost; in the accumulation of wealth in a few hands,
and in the creation of a large ofHcehoiding class
dependent the party in power There are other
and greater objections. In regard to the cost he
says at is not proposed that the government shall
pay more than the intrinsic value of the property"
If he by intrinsic value merely what it has
cost to grade and equip the railroads the scheme
would involve vast confsoation of property; and
with honest government that is out of the ques-
ton. II he mean what the stock and bonds are
worth to the holders in the market then the pur-
chase Of the billions of property in railroads would
overwhelm the government with debt and the people
with grievous burdens of taxation AS for the Gre
alton OF large oeeholding class under this scheme
the mischief would not be in making it dependent
on the party in power but in enabling this great
body Of influential officials in all departments of
the railroad service through the agency of party
to absolutely control the government.
The writer admits that rates Of railroad freight
in this country are '1ow compared with those
abroad" and as for rebates they not beyond
the reach of suppressive legislation.