The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-08-20
WILL. ALL RAILWAY
MERGERS PROF|T2
Many Local Officials Claim That
Capitalization Is on Too
Vast a Scale.
OPERATION WILL BE UNWIELDY.
Saving in Salaries Will Be Offset
by Numerous Small Extrav.
agances Which Cannot
Be Prevented.

President Stuyvesant Ffshs recent utter
| anoes In regard to the benefit and general
adVisabflity of railway mergers has occa-
stoned considerable comment among local
railway officials, especially those whose
lies have most recently been concerned in
merger matters.
While the large majority are of the opin-
ior that the consolidation of railway inter-
e5ts. where mutual benefit can be effected,
Is OF benefit to all concerned, but few
mold that beyond certain limit railway
mergers are n disadvantage to the public
and to the roads entering into the CONSOLE
dation.
prominent railway official, who holds
the latter view, and is exceptionally we'll
qualihed to speak upon the subject in an in
terVlew said: Up to certain point the
combination of railway interests is undoubt-
ediy u benefit to the public and the roads,
out when the parent road begins to absorb
right and left. two conditions arise that are
well worth considering.
In the first place, the principle which
governs merger is the cutting down of ex-
penses by Capitalization. the reduction OF
operating force and notwithstanding of
traffic.
In this way the executive official of the
purchasing line. as rule. has far more to
attend to than under ordinary circum-
stances. the result being, that with other
general officers he is unable to get in touch
with the men on his roads. His duties are
SO enormous that ii is impossible for him to
ever meet more than a small majority OF
MS division superintendent and other Of
fcials with whom, under ordinary condi-
tiers, he should be in close tolch
Ih1s results In many small abuses creep
Ing into the service, of the employment of
incompetent men by minor officials and
lack of that close supervision which is pos
:t1bie only to executives of moderately sized
reads.
''The reduction of expenses by cutting
down the force saves considerable in saia-
watch cannot be kept by the executives on
all departments hundreds Of small extrav-
aganees creep IN which, in tie total.
Under the responsibiiit f 81 large mat.
tiers 1t Is impossible for the higher officials
to learn of these leaks. They do not 1--we
the time. and must rely often upon men
whom they have never met. and know little
of. to correct them.
I'm the mutual Interchange of traffic
but at the present time the roads have
about all that they can handle. and several
are crying enough, so any arrangement
for ts for hs seeye at
Will be for some time to come.
These vast systems being formed seem
to me to be unwieldly and will have to be
split UP in small systems to have them gov
erned properly. To do this will cost. as
much II not more to run them than before
they were purchased, especially as some Of
the lines have been bought at top prices.
II believe that before long the railways
in the West will adopt the system now In
vogue on the trunk lines. That is to have
the division superintendent practically gen.
eral manager c. the division. He is entirely
responsible for his division in all of its
matters, and almost every matter concern
ing his division Is decided by him without
reference to higher authorities. In turn he
Is responsible to the executives Of the road.
who look to him only.
This plan relieves the chief executives of
considerable detail work and centralizes
the authority'