Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1907-09-18
TOM M'NEAL TALKS BACK.

In reply to the criticism OF his
railroad article in the Medicine
Lodge Cresset of a few weeks ago,
t. A. McNeal, through the Maitland
Breeze, makes the following reply:
"Our old love, the Medicine Lodge
Cresset, takes us to task for saying
a word favorable to government
ownership of railroads.
at may be aud probably is true
that the people are not ready for
that step, but in our opinion it is
certain to come. The time is not
so very far distant, if the present
hotchpotch of government and
state control continues, when rail-
road men will be the leading ad-
vocates of government ownership.
With 40 different boards of com
missioners attempting to dictate as
to how the railroad business shall
be managed, with no unity of &C.
ton amongst the different control
ling powers; with politicians play.
ing for position and demagogues
trying to win popular applause by
denouncing the railroads; with no
certainty as to what policy will be
pursued or what will be done to
them next, the RAILROAD men will
begin to look on government own
ership as a sort of surcease to sor-
row.
Possibly they may not alto
gether like the prospect of giving
the entire control over to govern
ment officials but they will select
that as the lesser of the two evils
that confronts them. Of course
the man who argues, that there are
no objections to government own
ership is talking through his head
covering. There are most serious
objections. There is the objection
of the vast increase OF the public
debt that Secretary Taft speaks of,
though that does not seem to us to
be very serious difficulty after all.
Presumably the government would
get the railroads for what they are
actually worth if it bought them
from the present holders. If they
can under present management pay
the interest on their tremendous
bonded indebtedness, often more
than the full cost of building and
equipping the roads and in addi-
ton to that pay handsome divi-
dends to the owners of the prefer
red and common stock, it does not
look as if there ought to be much
trouble in making the roads take
care of themselves under govern
ment ownership.
"The real serious objection to
government ownership in our
opinion is the tremendous power
il would place in the hands of the
men who might happen to be at
the head of the government. This
is serious objection and before
the government owns the roads
there ought to be some plan devils
ed that will reduce that danger
to minimum. We know that it
has been urged that the govern
ment would not give as good SER
vice as the roads give under private
ownership. There is nothing in
the history of railroad management
to sustain that argument. The
railroad managers have proven
themselves unable to handle the
business of the country satisfactor-
lily. There has been long con-
tinued congestion of traffic that
has been bitterly complained of by
the public. The record of the
American railroads so far as loss OF
life and destruction of property is
concerned is worse than the record
of any government owned railroad
in the world so far as we have read.
ut is our opinion that under gov
eminent ownership there would be
fewer accidents, less loss of life,
fewer manned employees and pas
sengers, less destruction of property
and a Prompter movement OF
freight than at present and that it
would be done in a way that would
be fairer to the whole people. But
assuming that the people are not
ready yet to try the experiment of
government ownership then the
thing to consider is the best meth
cd of control"