The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-11-13

report shows net earnings Of nearly
Sc. 600. 900 for the year ending June
"a 1907 mr. more than 10 per cent on
the total cost of the road and equip
ment and 12h per cent on the capital
stock of the company. Despite these
heavy earnings, the only dividends de-
clared was one of 4 per cent on the
preferred stock, all of the remainder
of the vast earnings going to SVEN the
surplus earnings of previous years,
which now aggregate nearly $29,00o,-
O0O This vast reserve OF surplus
earnings" has all been sent out of the
state for use in purchasing or improv-
ing roads in which Oregon has no in
terest whatever; andeyet the o. r. &
n. is exclusively an Oregon road, be-
ginning at Portland and terminating at
Huntington.
All of the rights conferred on tnis
road by charter were given it by the
State of Oregon, and neither the state
government, which gave the charter,
nor the people. who have paid the ex-
cessive tolls that result in $4,000
900 surplus, ever desired or intended
that the road should be the tail end of
a system controlled by aliens whose
only interest in Oregon is to drain it to
the last dollar. The old Oregon Steam
Navigation company, forerunner of
the Oregon Railroad & Navigation
company, paid heavier dividends on
the investment and exacted much
higher rates than those of which the
people are now complaining. But the
o. S. N. was first last and all the time
an Oregon transportation line, and it's
great profits were Immediately invest
ed in improving and extending the
service of the line, and, after that had
been looked after to the limit Of the
demands, the officers and the individ-
ual stockholders invested their money
in banking, milling and manufacture
ing enterprises for the development of
all Oregon.
This was the policy that made the
o. S. N. Co. the most popular as well
as the most powerful monopoly thai
the west has ever known. While Ore
gon producers have been held UP for
excessive freight rates to accumulate
this enormous surplus, comparatively
nothing has been expended to hasten
development in the state. One-half of
the $29,00O,000 surplus that has been
rolled up by excessive charges would
have built all the railroads that Ore
gon has asked for in the past 10 years.
and the building of these roads would
have created enough additional pro-
fits to- have kept the surplus re-
serve up to its present enormous pro-
portions. None of the producers of
Oregon and Washington who contrib
uted to this enormous surplus would
favor the dumping of $4,000, 900 of
@. r. & n. money into Puget Sound
tidelands. nor would any of them ia
Vor the stOppage of work on the TilIa-
the Snake River line, or the abandon
ment of the Central Oregon line. in
order that work could continue on the
line between Portland and Puget
Sound.
The line TO Central Oregon and
other localities in this state would
open up vast stretches of country
where the richest soil and the great
est timber roSourooc ~, oo,+l go -
almost Valueless for lact of transport
tation facilities. On all of these prof.
ects work has been stopped for al
legged lack of funds The line to Pu-
get Sound will not tap single mile of
country that is not already served with
four daily passenger trains each way
and an admirable freight service. On
that line orders have been given to
portion of that $29,OOO,OOO which has
been wrung from the Oregon produc-
ers will be used to foot the bill.
Ihls, IN brief, is a statement of con-
ditions which have goaded Oregonians
10 a point where they will rise and de-
mand that rates be reduced to a figure
that Will not admit of the piling up of
such abnormal surplus earnings to be
used IN speculation and in building
roads in which Oregon has no interest,
We might sit longer in silence and in
action over such an injustice if only
small portion of the money had been
spent for improvinp tho facilities 30
the state in which it was earned.-Ore-
gonian.
MARIE CAHtLl.