The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-30
A MISLEADING CRY
"Get it Out of Politics
and A. & N. C. Road.
Private Ownership of Railroads Can
mt do This Unless Public SEMI
ment Compels" Owners to
Stick TO Business Alone.

e"The oft repeated cry that the A. q
n G r r. should be leased to get 1t
out of politics is an insult to puphc
said a gentleman yester-
day.
And then he continued: "The ques-
tion of leasing or not leasing the road
should be settled upon sound prlncl-
pies and not upon the parrot-cry-
take it out of politics. IL is, OF
course, desirable that all railroads,
whether owned by the State or private
should be run on business
principles, and not by political con-
siderations. But the man who talks
aobut getting railroad out of poll
ties" by selling it or leasing it to pr
vate companies has read current his
tory to very little profit. He should
rather say: Il favor leasing the road
so that it viii mot be controlled by the
Governor and directors and officers
appointed by him because L wish TO
put it into politics in different way.
1.-THE Pacific Railroads. owned by
the government, had less to do With
notifies than when owned by private
corporations. This is no argument FOR
government ownership of railroads
for that is neither desirable nor feas-
ible. Likewise it is no argument
against private ownership, which is
both desirable and feasible, when
they are subject 10 proper regulation
and control.
Private management of railroads
has been prolific of political control.
The A. 81 N. c. Railroad has been
much less in politics than railroads
owned by outside capitalists l notice
that in an interview in Sundays News
and Observer Mr.. George N. Ives gives
expression to sound truths when he
says:
There is not a railroad in the
country out of politics, and the
howl that has been made on this
point is bosh. All railroads are
great political machines.
1t is well for the people that the
road is in politics in "a certain
sense. The administration Of the
road is directly responsible to the
people and the State, and if mis-
managed a howl is at once raised
by the opponents of the admins
tration, abuses are called to the
attention of the people, and such
abuses are at once corrected. IT,
on the other hand, the road is in
the hands of u syndicate, who are
not directly responsible to the
people, the same conditions might
arise that were once made famous
in New York State by the remark
Of VIM. II. Vanderbilt, then
President of a New York railroad
when demonstrated with and
asked: What will the people
say?' His reply was: Dam the
people.
"There isn't a ten year old boy who
does not know, for example, that the
old Richmond and DanVille-noW the
Southern-has been in politics up to
it's neck ever since it began to scheme
| to get the Western road and a removal
of the lease of the North Carolina
| Railroad. A story of its political deals
md newspaper ventures would make
4 story that would startle the state.
And yet its spokesman pirate of tax
ing the A. & N. G. Railroad out of
politics.
No the argument for the lease
must proceed upon other and more
| solid lines than getting the road out
] Of politics. Past experience has shown
! that private ownership of railroads
cannot be warranted to do that un-
| less public sentiment compels them to
stay in the railroad business instead
of going into the governing business.