The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1906-12-11
Corvallis Times
CORVALLIS, OREGON,
TUESDAY EVENING, DEC. IL, 1906
BY THE WATER ROUTE.

tor Booth insisted that railroads
ought to capitalize at the actual
construction cost, charge rates CON-
mensurate with reasonable profits
and interest on the investment and
do business by the same methods
applied by other lines of enterprise.
The contention is sound to the core.
1t seems true that the ordinary rail-
road system, as now administered,
is a vehicle planned for loot. The
profit that must be earned has no
reference to what the road cost,
but to what it is bonded for. The
figure of its bonds is not question
of cash paid out, but of water pour
ed in. Initiation, fiction and frenzy
are it's plan of finance. Bond the
road for all you can, carry the
stocks to Wall street and turn on
the gas is the watchword.
tits tragedy that so eminent an
enterprise as railroad should be a
scheme of exploitation and inflated
finance. "Get control of its COM
merce and you can rule a land IS
the old saying, and it is true. 1t
is a crime upon our country that
our commerce and therefore our
land is dependent upon the falsity'
deception and imitation that our rail-
r,a7s practice. 1t degrades our
ideals and is a wrong upon our
people,
The Pullman Car Company found
itself with twenty odd million sur
plus, the other day. A hundred
and fifty millions of fictitious cap
ital was added to its capitalization
thereat, and henceforth those who
travel must pay profit on this ad-
ded 50 millions OF imitation. Reg
ularly, in the same way, we are
paying the railroad lords profits
and dividends on initiation loot. It
is the system by which, more than
/, any other wayrailroad enterprises
are burglarized, and the body polite
plundered. It is the dreadful sec
ret of many a woe. OF vast distress,
of many a bitter tear in this fair
land.
A problem fraught with vast
consequences is, however, how to
discover the real value of the coun-
try's railroads. That is the first
and fundamental essential to cor
rect control. With the road accur'
; ately capitalized, it is ready fol
legitimate business. So conducted
and without reference to the need:
of Wall street, its rates would be
halved il not quarteled. A prof
on the accurate capital is what tht
people ought to pay and no more
A reasonable profit on true capital
ization is what the lumberman re
ceives, what the manufacturer, tn
miller, the farmer receives. It i
what the railroad owner ought t.
receive, and all he ought to be al
lowed to require.
When means is found to decal
italize the initiation and make tn
apparent investment real, the mos
momentous problem in railroad
ing will have been solved. Th
very best of all the argument f,r
railroad commission in Oregon. i
that it could be made to affor'
avenue for determining what on
Oregon railroads cost, what is tn
legitimate rate, and what the actua
value upon which the traffic shoul'
be made to pay dividends. Twenty
four millions is declared 10 be th
o. R. & Ms profit in eight year
on less than I 200 miles of goad
1t is declared to have been more
than six millions last year. Hot
much of it was legitimate, hot
much frenzy? The hardships, th
distress that had to be inflicted OF
those from whom the sum wa
wrung wouli, could the aggregat
be known, be unanswerable al
gument for railroad falsity and fe
ton to,be abolished, and for legi.
imacy to be substituted