Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-12-08

1 PUBLIC.
Government ownership of the trans
portation facilities of this country
would be incongruous, impracticahle
and utterly impossible"
This statement was recently made
by Edward Ii. Hartman, president of
| the Union Pacific railroad, on the
Twentieth Century limited, bound for
New York. according to an Elkhart,
Ind, special to the New York Herald.
There is Il popular impression" it
was suggested to Mr. Hartman, that
| government ownership is the bogy
man of Wall street.
! 4 don't know anything about what
| bogy men Wall street may have" re-
! piled Mr.. Hartman. but | can say
! to you that government ownership is
not a bogy man to the railway men of
the country-that is, TO the men who
! control the main arteries of transpor-
| tation-and it never has been regarded
! 10y them rs Il possibility
Il am Il firm believer in the people
owning the railroads. BY this l do not
| mean government ownership. but do
mean that the widest possible distribu-
ton in ownership of railway proper
ties is 4 most desirable thing. ConSol-
idation, however, of railway properties
has become Il necessity under present
conditions. The railways found them
selves in Il position where they had
reached the limit in the reduction of
cost of transportation and We're facing
the necessity of still further reduction.
This could be accomplished only by
an amalgamation of those railway
properties which could naturally be
worked in connection with one anoth-
er. And a step further in this direc-
ton. perhaps. was the acquisition OF
railway properties with u view of re-
moving possibility of ruinous wars. If
it had been possible for the railways
to make legal agreements with one
anOther-I do not mean agreements for
pooling traffic, but working agreements
the necessity for railway consolida-
ton would not have arisen. There
have been instances in this country
where the purchase of Il railway by
other railroads has eliminated as high
as $4,000 or 10000 stockholders. In
cases like this the railway purchased
was purchased with a view to giving
the purchasers an outlet for the prod
ucts of the sections of country served
by them
DO you not Think was asked. that
the present agitation and the present
inquiry into the ownership and opera
ton of railroads are directing the mind
of the public into channels which may
. @.I.-
ship"
Not at ALL said Mr.. Hartman en-
phatically. ION the contrary, the pres
ent agitation is going to have exactly
the opposite effect. The more agitation
there is and the greater the discussion
Of these subjects the more the people
will see the incongruity of govern
ment ownership
'"Will you say" was asked, what
some of the facts are which make you
believe that government ownership is
impracticable:"
There are many reasons" was the
reply, (which must be apparent to Il
man who thinks deeply upon the sub
ject. For example, the business of the
country is just now suffering from a
lack of transportation facilities, de-
spite the fact that the railways have
expended unheard of sums to meet the
growing demands made upon them.
Surprising this condition existed with
government ownership, what opportu-
nifty do you think the public would
have of speedily getting additional IA
cilities of transportation, provided that
it depended upon congressional action,
which is Il method known to be exceed l
ingly slow?
suppose, for example, Chicago, I'M
der government ownership of rail-
ways, should imperatively need addi- |
tional terminal facilities, which would |
cost many thousands of dollars, and |
suppose that the business commerce of |
that city was suffering bitterly from |
4 lack of such facilities, how long do |
you think it would take Chicago to get |
these facilities under government own
ership of railways? Is it not plain that |
in order to get what she needed it |
would be necessary for congress to
agree to spend other large sums for |
other large cities, no matter whether |
those cities were in urgent need or |
not?
Matters of this sort always go with |
political patronage, and If the improve |
ment of the facilities and procuring of |
new transportation facilities should |
ever depend upon political patronage
railroad development in this country |
would be badly retarded, If not stilled |
Retarded developments in transporta- (
ton facilities always result in increas-
ed cost of operation, which in turn
may bring disaster.
Have you realized that more than |
thirty years ago men who had faith |
in the future Of this country spent |
many millions of dollars in laying steel |
rails across a thousand mile desert |
waste of country? Have you realized |
that these millions were spent with
the knowledge that it would be years