Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-22
Railroads and the Common Law

IL cases must go 10 lne DIS
probably they should, the officers APP
pointed to guard the public interests
should be regarded as court commits
sioners to report the facts on which
the judges should form opinions, as
they would have no personal interests
at stake. The men who truly repre-
sent the people would surely do no
wrong to private interests and if they
did they would do violence to the wishes
of the great majority of the American
people. The fear is not of what the
body of the people do but what is done
by small corruptible elment in ma
nipulating pontical management.
| The claim that railroad transporta-
| ton is cheaper in this than in foreign
countries, 50 persistently asserted, is
not true as a matter of fact, even in
countries where the governments own
and operate the railroads. The cost of
| transportation is the feature with
which the masses are most concerned
as it affects them all, other features
of the services by railroads are reason
ably satisfactory.
The pretensions of the railroads that
| the charges In this country for carry
! ing passengers and freights are less
| than no other other countries has not
been investigated to the extent 1t should
have been to arrive at the truth. In
fact men in high public positions have
accepted railroad statements as cor
rect. little effort has been made to
discover whether there has not been
| Juggling with the facts by railroad
statisticians.
In Germany, especially in the King
dom of Prussia, the government owns
and operates nearly all the railroads.
Having observed what our railroads
claim, the Prussian government re-
Gently appointed a commission COM
posed of exceptional men for experience
In and knowledge of railroad business
to visit this country and make an ex-
haustive investigation of railroad mat
ters, especially the feature that relates
| to charges for services to the public,
that the Prussian authorities might
gather light that would enable them to
adopt methods at home which would
lessen the cost of transportation to
their own people.
That commission spent several
months in this country in prosecution
of that investigation, and has reported
that passenger fares here on the aver
age are as 2O2 to 9S per mile, or more
than double that in Prussia; that in
the matter of freights per ton per
mile there is the difference between 144
here and 95 in that country, or nearly
fifty per cent greater in this country
than in that.
Railroad statistics in this country are
deceptive and misleading. The roads
here have their own materials which
enter into the tonnage account and
for which no pay Is received. The
quantities of their own freights is i'm
mense, as fuel is transported often hun
dreds of miles to storage points AL
this being entered in the tonnage ac-
counts makes the average cost OF
transportation of freights for the public
appear less per tonnage mile than Il
j really is.
: Besides this the freights transported
for the express companies are not EN-
, bodied in the freight earnings or dC
not appear in the tonnage statistics
! Payment for that service is generally
: if not always by per centage of th'
sums received by the express com
, panies, which affords the railroads ;
large revenue. The pay is not on thu
basis of tonnage, in fact express mat
! ter is never weighed by classification.
, The railroads also receive large SUM
for carrying the mails neither ar
, these weighed except for few day
at a particular period of the year ant
on such weighing the daily weight o
mail matter is presumed to be the sam
each day throughout the postal yea
D and payment is made on the basis o
mileage of the weights so found.
. These facts We're taken into accoun
by the Prussian commission in reach
ing the results stated. They should b
, regarded as reliable, for no people ar
] more thorough and accurate in the In
) vestigations they undertake than tn
, Prussians.
: One other fact of importance Whic
enters into the comparison is that tn
!, government railroads in Germany carr
parcel post matter in large quantitie
. free of charge by the roads, the gov
!, ernment being paid by the sender
= the same as our government is on ma
: matter.