The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-19
THE PUBLIC HIGHWAY
AND THE COMMON CARRIER

mine whether the track ahead in this
block" is clear or has train on it,
and he regulates himself accordingly
Government control of the railway,
therefore, reduces itself to a question
of the government hiring a man to
raise or lower the block or semaphore
signal.
At present the government hires
astronomers and scientists who deter
mine the exact position of the sun and
stars seven years ahead and they can
also tell the probable hight of the tide
in Savannah Tharbor for any minute for
years ahead, and this is all done for
Interstate commerce carried on by wa
ter. Could they not also determine
whether the railroad track ahead was
clear?
This solves the problem mentioned
in the editorial where it seems to be
feared that many tracks must be built
parallel and trains run wild" All
the problems of the control of trains
which the government will have to as
sumo would be easily solved by the
employment by the government of any
ordinarily good train dispatcher and
let him merely apply the same rules
that he is now daily using.
Ones first thought is that If the rail-
road track is thrown open all the
rush to pass over it, but the harbor
of Savannah is kept open to all the
ships in the world, but all the ships
in the world do not crowd in because
there is not enough business for them.
Neither could trains be sent over the
track in greater numbers than bust
ness warranted.
The separation of the functions of
the highway from that of the COM
mon carrier solves the present rail-
road problem in the only way which
avoids government socialism and pa
ternalism which would be involved in
the government running of trains as
is done in some European countries,
and the state of anarchy which pre-
walls at present, so far as public con-
venience is concerned which now ex-
lists and which is due to the monopoly
OF the highway by private individuals.
whether the railroad roadbed should
be still owned by private parties and
opened by them on a toll basis, or
whether the federal government should
own them outright and give the use
or them free is only n question of a
turnpike as against a free highway
Most states have abandoned the turn
pike for the free highway, but the
turnpike is better than the private
road and is step in the right direc-
ton. When the public is brought to
see the analogy between the railway
and other methods of TRANSPORTATION
they will not demand that we dig
waterway thousands of miles from
home in the deadliest tropical country
in the world, a problem which baff1ed
and sent to the grave the greatest ca
nal builder of modern times If the
Panama canal is ever built and no
sane man of this generation ever ex-
| poets to see its completion, its only
| economic value will be in giving COM
| petition with trans-continental rail-
way monopoly. To fortify and defend
] this will require a large body of
troops who will die with the tropical
or "Chagres" fever and more ships
will be required to defend it from any
| strong naval power than would be re-
quired to keep up a double squadron
on the Atlantic and Pacific.
We look at the magnificent voyage Of
the Oregon around the Horn. But let
us assume that Cerveras' squadron
was at Curacao and the Oregon and
SIMPSONS squadron were at San Juan,
as happened during the Spanish war,
| what would defend the canal and the
| Pacific coast? In that case we would
have needed another squadron to de-
fend the canal and the Pacific.
AS government we could build
| railroad from, say, Galveston, or 9TH
er Texas port, to, say, San Diego, or
other Southern California port; trans
| ship all freight free across the mar
row part of our continent and then
| spend less than the canal would cost.
This shows the futility of trying to
compete with the railways with any
other methods than government rail-
| roads.
1t is to be hoped that the public may
be brought to see the necessity of gov
eminent control of our steel highways
and will govern them as they do all
other highways by holding them open
to the common carrier and not by be-
| coming common carriers in competi-
ton with private parties.
H. o. Chute.