Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1907-04-25
DUTY OF RAILROADS
THEY HANDLE TRAFFIC BUT DO
NOT CREATE 1T.
Their Sole Function Is to Transport
the Products of Prosperity, and
When Prosperity Wanes the Rail-
roads Suffer in Proportion.

That greatest of railroad absorb
ers, Mr.. Il. II. Hartman, is quoted in
a recent interview as saying that he
favors tariff revision, including the
removal of duties on works of art;
that steel rails are not works of art,
but he wishes they were. From
which it is plainly to be inferred that
Mr.. Hartman would like to see steel
rails placed on the free list so that he
could buy them cheaper.
Mr.. Hartman is among the fore
most opponents of federal and state
interference with railroads. He OBJ
jects to governmental regulation of
rates, to laws prohibiting the pay
ment of rebates to favored shippers,
to statutory restrictions such as
would forbid the buying of railroad
and the immediate initiation of its
securities by the issue of stock and
bonds three times the amount of the
purchase price. To hinder or forbid
transactions of this character is, in
the opinion of Mr.. Hartman, harsh,
revolutionary and destructive policy.
But he would welcome government
al Interference when it took the shape
of free trade in steel rails. If con
gress would step in and help the rail
roads to beat down the price of Amer
lean labor products, and also the
price of American labor, Mr.. Harri-
man would be greatly pleased.
We do not know the length of Mr..
Harriman's nose, but should suppose
it to be not very long one. The end
of his nose seems to be the limit of
his vision regarding economic ques-
tions, and the shortness of his vision
implies an exceedingly short nose. 1t
is evident that genius for mergers Is
his long suit, and that the ability to
perceive the real source of prosperity
and profit making in practical rail
roading is not among his accomplish
ments. Obviously he does not under
stand that the sole function of a rail
road is to transport the products of
prosperity, and that when these prod
ucts shrink there must be an equiva-
lent shrinkage in railroad earnings.
Free trade in steel rails would
carry with 1t free trade in a very
large number of other articles. For
eign prices, plus cost of transporta-
tion (about one per cent. as a general
average), would determine prices in
this country Either we should have
the great bulk of our wants supplied
by foreigners, or we should be COM
PEELED to reduce wages so as to hold
the American market against the
competition of cheap foreign pay
rolls. One or the other of the two
horns of the dilemma must impale us.
There is no escape.
With foreigners supplying the bulk
of our requirements American wage
paying, wage earning and wage spend
ing must largely disappear Would
that be good for Mr.. Harriman's rail
roads? Would they then carry as
much freight and as many passengers
as they now carry? If Mr.. Hartman
thinks they would, he had best look
back to the low tariff period of 1893
1897 and count the railroad properties
that went into the hands of receivers
IT, as the other alternative, Ameri-
can wages should be reduced 80, 40
or so per cent. from their present
high level in order that Americans
might continue to do the work of
Americans, would the American
freight bill be as large and the Amer
lean passenger traffic as great? Un-
questionably not. Railroads do not
create traffic. They only carry it
when industrialism has created goods
to be carried, when wage earning
and wage spending have created a
market for those goods. Any reduc-
tion in the purchasing power of
| American wage earners would be in
stantly felt by American railroads.
| Take away any part of the tre-
mendous volume of business fur
nishcd through meeting the consum-
ing demands of American wage earn
ers and there would be weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth among
| the high finance apostles of our great
| railroad systems. James J. Hill would
not then be saying that $5,000,000, 900
| is needed right now with which to
| provide additional trackage and other
! facilities for handling the enormous
| traffic that overwhelms the roads.
The present pressure would quickly
abate, and present facilities would be
more than ample.
Mr.. Hartman would then be merg-
| ing bankrupt railroads, If he merged
anything at all. This gentleman and
the general body of manipulating
magnates will do well to devote at
tention to their favorite pastime of
finding market for inflated securi-
ties so long as the law will let them
They shine in this branch of the bus
mess. But they should let customs
tariffs alone. Least of all should they
banker for free trade in stee, rails or
| any other product of American labor
and industry. That way bankruptcy
| lies. If the governing brains of
| American railroads could grasp to
| = f.-rI