The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-01-18
pAII ROAD TRAcKAoE NEEDED.

RAILROAD TRAcKAeE NEEDED.
President ]. H. Hin, Of the Great
Northern Railroad, writing to Gov.
Johnston of Minnesota. gives a very
interesting dissertation upon the raii-
road situation in this country, and
why the farmers Of the great West
have been made to lose millions OF
dollars for want of facilities to trans
p~rt their products to the markets.
Mr.. Hill sums the situation up by
saving that the railroads are doing
their level best (of course) but they
have not trackage enough to enable
them to handle the fabulous and rap
idly increasing business of the coun-
try. Mr.. Hill says, in order to keep
up with the increasing business OF the
country, fifteen thousand miles OF rail-
road trackage should be built every
year, for the next five years at least;
that that would require staggering
sum of money, which individuals are
not willing to invest in business I'M
der "the ban of public opinion, and
threatened by political parties with
confiscation. That this feeling must
be removed and greater confidence es-
tablfshed before any considerable por-
ton of this vast sum necessary is to
be available for the work"
IF Tho Great
Northern Railroad, we surmise, wrote,
or had his hired man to write for him,
his review of the situation, adroitly
and graphically as it was, for the
shrewd purpose of suggesting his rem
edy for all these ills; which is, let
us alone; let us fix the rates; stop
calling attention to our manner OF
holding up the producer and filching
from him his hard earned profits; have
confidence in us, and we will build
more trackage and move things.
That is precisely the thing to do
from the railroad point of view; but
the suggestion suggests also another
thought or two.
First, Mr.. Hills message to the peo-
ple. doubtless, has been Matching for
quite a while He has had 1t In his
mind all these months; and he has
doubtless whispered 1t to many 9TH
ers Of his ilk. And is it treason to.
suggest, that In their secret sessions
they have conceived the idea, that be-
fore bringing forth Mr.. Hills brilliant
suggestion it ,were better to give the
country an object leauon? You see, as
long as the crops were all being ship
ned. <and freight was moving along
smooth and nice, and cars were being
furnished to all shippers as needed,
they would regard Mr.. Hills tale as
fishy, and give not second thought
to it. But if we tie up business, they
said: If we leave the wheat and corn
in the fields of the great West to rot:
II we refuse cars to the coal miners
and phosphate dealers, and delay the
shipment of freight generally and then
70 before the country with our tale
Of woe, they will gulp 1t all down.
That is one thought Mr.. Hills letter
suggests.
Another thought is this If what
he says is true; II the country is In
dire need of more trackage and pri-
yate capital will not build It, why
should not the government step in and
invest a few millions in this much
needed enterprise, "for the common
good?" Let the railroaders keep the
roads. they have, but since they are
overburdened with business and are
not willing to increase their capacity
to do business, why not relieve them
to some extent of their overburden,
and at the same time give shipping
facilities to a people who need 1t? II
the railroads have more than they can
do: and II private capital does not
want any more railroad stock, we can
not see that 1t would be interfering
with anybody for the government to
go into the business, just to relieve
the situation, don't you know.
Mr.. Hills remedy is no cure at all;
It would simply pile up trouble for an
evil day in the future. But Mr.. Hilps
suggestion admits situation and sug-.
gests other ways out Of the difficulty
which Congress could use to the adj
vantage Of the people.
To use an expression we learned
once upon a time a long while ago,
congress ought to call Mr.. HITS
hand" by doing what he says is need
ed to be done, but not doing as he
says 1t should be done.
Representative Lanes proposed law
against Migrants is good in many re-
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