The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-12-31
RAILWAY PRESIDENTS
SHOULD Be ASHAMED
Their Records Discredit Their
Judgment on What is
Good for Reads.
Indictment Against Them as
Opponents of Government
Ownership.

mo more timely editorial than the
following from the Chicago Examiner
has been published, just at the time
when the question of extending the
powers Of the Interstate Commerce
Commission is being considered:
The presidents Of th4(ailroads of the
United States object to Congress Civ
ing the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion power to fix rates because, they
say, the Commission knows nothing of
railroading and would not know what
rates would be just.
"Only the railroad presidents and
their subordinates are competent to
run the railroads of the United States"
said one of the group OF presidents in
New York last week.
Measured by their own record, the
railroad presidents of the United States
are making a2miserablez showing. :, =:
LIN: Il 903z the: neutrality-suspicious. killed
1894 persons and: injured 7s,2S7.
They killed and wounded as many
people in one year as the Russians and
Japanese lost in the first six months
Of the war. Kuropatkin and Oyama
are hired to kill people, but the rail-
road presidents killed and wounded as
many as they, and did other things be-
sides.
The presidents of the United States
roads have made travel ten times more
dangerous than In England, France and
Germany.
Mile for mile our privately owned
roads kill ten times more people than
the aforementioned roads of Eur
ope
There are five accidents on American
roads to one accident on the roads of
England.
In Europe, where the government
owns nearly all the lines, railroad
wreck, involving the loss Of life is an
international catastrophe. Here it is
an incident.
Nor in loss of life alone do the rail-
road presidents show their incompet-
ency.
In 1903 the railroad mileage of the
United States increased 5,201, about 2h
per cent, but the capital stock debt in
creased over 4 per cent and the bond
ed debt nearly per cent.
In 1902 the liabilities Of the rail-
roads-stocks, bonds and all else-were
1854, 107,318. In one year the presi-
dents ran these liabilities up $50, 300, 3d.
60O
OF course the stocks and bonds are
fearfully watered, but the presidents
in 1903 paid only 4.13 per cent on the
bonds of all the railroads and an aver
age of 3.01 per cent on the stock.
And the presidents for twenty years
have been able to pay only about 2
per cent to the railroad stockholders.
The incompetency and short-sighted-
ness of the presidents twenty years ago
have made it necessary to rebuild all
the trunk lines Of railways within the
last ten years. This has cost the
stockholders billions of money, and In
doing this previously spent billions were
lost.
There is a dirty tunnel filled with
smoke through which every passenger
entering or leaving New York via the
Grand Central station must pass. Three
years ago there was a fearful accident
in the tunnel. The passengers were
killed and wounded because the engi-
neer could not see the signals for the
steam and smoke. The steam and
smoke are still there. Now electric
locomotives are being built to haul the
trains through the tunnel. They should
have been built and could have been
built five years ago. !.
But Mr.. Bernard Shaw says: The
truth about private enterprise is that
it is not enterprising enough for mod
ern public needs ~.
The railroad presidents have over
charged the public, but the sharehold-
ers get little Of the overcharge. The
money is wasted In reckless manage
ment, wrecks, and in maintaining q
lobby in every state capital every
county and every village where rail.
road runs. &tz ~ -.
I There is also the expense of main.
taining the lobby in ;Washingto which
is no small 1T en-. .: 81 s.3$: Re. Il,
The railroad presidents have : no.
made az brilliant showing III running
the railrod IS. shareholder woule