The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-09-12
Is AN EXTRA SESSION COMING?

test between Taft and Bryan
Is AN EXTRA SESSION COMING?
1t is to be regretted that the rail-
roads have apparently made necessary
! the calling of a special session of the
Kansas legislature. The State journal
has argued against the necessity of a
special session to reduce passenger
fares, believing that the railroads
would obey an order of the railroad
board, especially when that order only
extended to Kansas what has already
been given to other states and does not
bind the roads to keep the two-eenr
fare in force in this state a moment
after it is abrogated in adjoining states.
But since the railroads refuse to obey
the order of the board, it seems that
the only way to keep Kansas from be-
ing Disseminated against is to call d
special session of the legislature.
1t is to be regretted, too. that the
railroad magnates appear to have 50
little regard for public sentiment. The
public is demanding a two-cent fare,
and it will not be satisfied until it gets
it, or until it is demonstrated to its
satisfaction that a two-cent fare is IN
just. And it will never be satisfied
until the railroads give the two-cent
fare fair trial and then produce COLI
elusive figures to show that it is a
losing proposition for them. In fighting
against public sentiment the railroads
are bound to lose in the long run, and
for their own good it is to be regret
ted that they have adopted the policy
of opposing what the public asks
This request of Kansas was no more
than fair. Kansas, at the request or
the railroads, did not pass two-ceEt
fare law last winter, and three reasons
entered into the failure of the legtsla-
ture to do so: First, the statement
that the roads would Immediately cor
test in the courts the two-cent fare
laws of other states, and bring about
a speedy conclusion as to the validity
of those laws; second, the understand
ing that the railroad commissioners
would investigate the passenger fare
question as the legislature had not
time to do. and take such action as
the interests of the state demanded;
third. the agreement of the railroads
to give Kansas in the interim a cheap
mileage book.
In other words, Kansas treated the
railroads very fairly, and it naturally
expected to receive from the railroads
as fair treatment, at least, as was ac-
corded other states that had passed
two-cent laws. Instead Kansas is be-
ing Disseminated against. 1t has the
cheap mileage book, but other states
have been given a fat two-cent rate
while the business of the rate Is being
Iitigated, which may take two or three
wears. with the possibility that the
railroads will not press the litigation
to the end Meanwhile Kansas people
who make only occasional short trips
are comnelled to pay three cents mile.
One paragraph in the dispatches tell
Ing whv the railroads are opposing the
+v-o-cent-fare order in Kansas, indi-
oates that they are finding the cheap
rate fairly remunerative elsewhere. The
railroads admit that passenger earn
ings are large" but they attribute II 10
1.-THE phenomenal prosperity now pre-
vai,ine in the west" and say that if
hard times should come two cents a
mile would not meet the cost OF pas
senger service.
That sounds very much as though
"the phenomenal prosperity now pre-
in the west or something else
is making two cents mile a paying
And II such hard times
come as the railroads are looking for
ward to. it will then be time enough
to raise the rates. The public should
not be required to pay excessive rail-
road fare for the next ten or twenty !
years while waiting for some indefinite
hard times to come.
1t will not be fair nor satisfactory |
for the railroads to argue that because
two cents a mile will not pay for good
service on some branch line. the state
as a whole should not have it, No doubt |
there are branch lines in Kansas where |
three cents mile will not pay for good |
service, nor would five cents, nor ten |
cents-for the higher the rate the fewer
would be the passengers. To argue that |
two cents a mile does not pay the |
railroad company on a small branch |
line, would not satisfy the public that
it would not pay in the state as a |
whole.
Passenger rates are entixely DIFF |
ferent from wheat rates. There |
is a certain amount of wheat to be |
anyway, and raising or lower |
ing the freight rate makes no differ
ence with the amount of traffic, except |
as it encourages or diseourages the !
production of the cereal by affecting the |
profits. This year, for instance, the |
state may have 100000 bushels Of |
wheat to ship-either as wheat or flour |
and whether the freight rate is high |
or low will not affect the amount of
the traffic a single carload. But with |
passenger traffic it is different. People |
travel in proportion as they are able to
bear the expense. If it cost ten cents |
a mile to ride on the railroad, instead |
Of getting over three times as much |
revenue as the roads do now they would |
probably get much less. If it cost a
hundred dollars for a round trip to the
not one person would go |