The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1907-05-01
The Railroads Side.
Shreveport Times.

Newspapers all over the country are
printed from the London Statist, .be-
ing a discussion of ''The American
Railway Situation" AS the article
appeared in an English publication it
has the apparent recommendation of
being written from a disintereSted
standpoint. This, however, we have
for our purposes that the article pre-
sents the railroads side of some of
the questions o prominently be-
fore the American people. Ordinarily
The Times pays no attention to the
output of press bureaus maintained
for the purpose of influencing public
sentiment on important questions. In
this matter of the railroads and the
relations that shall exist between them
and the people through the govern
ment, however, it is just that the
whole subject be thoroughly and fully
presented. The Richmond Times-Dis-
patch has synopsized the article from
the Statist and publishes it with a re-
view of its main features, as follows:
THE Statist's interest in this sub
iect is due to three facts: First, be-
cause a serious check to the trade of
the United States would impair inter-
national trade and international pros
perity: second, it would injure Eng
lish investments here, and third, it
would check immigration, and thus
increase the pressure for existence
which is SO keenly felt in many parts
of Europe. For these reasons it eX-
presses the hope that 40 unnecessary
and violent check to trade will occur
in the United States, and it believes
measures are taken to maintain public
confidence in American enterprises.
Coming then to speak of railroads.
upon which the prosperity of the
country largely depends, it points out
that railroad building was brought to
a sudden check by the passage of the
Sherman silver purchase bill. This
act it says, shook the foundations of
credit and prevented the roads from
obtaining necessary capital. 1T
should be clearly recognized, =" it adds,
''that the long period of depression
which prevailed in the United States
from 1893 to 1898 was the work of
well-intentioned persons, whose ignOr-
ance of some elementary principles of
economies brought immense suffering
upon the whole of the American peO-
pie and checked the progress of the
country for a decade"
Is any man in the United States SO
bold as to deny that statement?
Confidence was finally restored. it
goes on, by the passage of the gold
standard act, and a new era of pros
perity set in. 'And there is no
doubt" says u contemporary,
'sthat the railway industry has con-
tributed more than any other to the
great increase in the prosperity in the
United States that has occurred IN the
last eight years."
Contrasting the situation in Eng
land with that in this country, it says
that in England about even per cent
of the growing wealth is devoted to
railway construction and equipment.
whereas in the United States it is nee
essary to expend something like twenty
per cent of the growing wealth to pro-
vide additional railway transporta-
ton. In other words, to provide for
an average growth of ten per cent per |
annum in railway traffic, there must
be under normal conditions an in
crease of about five per cent in the
capital expended for providing addi-
tional tracks. terminals and equip
ment. This means that had the United
States no leeway to make up in pro-
viding icy railway facilities, it would
at the present time need to spend $780,
600, 900 per annum providing new rail
way tracks and equipment sufficient to
take care of a growth of ten per cent
per annum in its traffic.
Much is said in these days about
watered stock in our railroad corpor-
atiOns. The Statist asserts that had
American railways expended their fair
proportion of the growing wealth of
the country upon providing addition
al facilities. they would during the
INST ton wears have exnended ovar