The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-02-18
WHY RAILROADS HAVE TROUBLE

We hear a good deal these days
about the assaults on the railroads
and the war on corporations as
dangerous to business prosperity. We
|! are told that railroad credit is be-
ing ruined and that while the presi-
dent and congress and the state leg
islatures and states attorneys who
question the issue of stock are gun
ming for the railroads" it will be i'm
possible to get money to make needed
improvements Efforts to reduce
rates are resisted on the ground that
it will destroy the power of earning
dividends and that therefore, capital
cannot be induced to invest in railroad
securities.
There is some ground for this alarm
There is danger that legislation relat-
ing to the railroads will be too radical
and that the service will be crippled
by it. In that event the public will
suffer as well as the owners of the
railroads. 1t is a time for careful and
well considered action. Bankrupting
the railroads will not promote general
prosperity Probably nobody wants to
do anything of that kind. Certainly
what most people want is simply
square deal" All they desire is that
the railroads shall recognize as their
first duty the rendering of fair AMI
entitled to receive a fair return, and
this the public is willing to give. 1t
is only because the people have found
out that the railroads, to which they
have given extraordinary powers, and
to which they have in some cases Civ
en- very generous gifts, have used
their power in perpetrating or foster
ing great wrongs against the people
that they have got mad and felt like
doing things that may be unfair and
calculated to react with serious conse-
quences to themselves How the rail-
roads themselves are to blame for
existing sentiment and the menace of
shattered credit is well set out in the
following editorial from the new York
Evening Post, a paper which is nat
urally in sympathy with the country
and is recognized as conservatives.
THE MODERN ISHMAEL*"
wv. c. Brown, senior vice-president
of the New York Central lines, is un-
happy because people do not love our
railways 4 don't think Mr.. Brown
writes. in a letter just made public.
you or any other man of ordinary pru-
dence would for moment think of in
vesting money in a business against
which every mans hand, from the
president down, seems to be raised,
and in the defense of which few men
hoping for political premerment, dare
raise their voices Mr.. Brown further
believes that the attacks on nearly
every class of great corporate inter-
ests in this country are commencing
to bear their legitimate and inevitable
fruit and that we can begin to see
the slowing down of the wheels of
prosperity In order to allay this irri-
tation Mr.. Brown would have Presl.
dent Roosevelt-who is our ever pres
ent help in time of trouble-make
AN appeal for fair and reasonable
treatment for the railways. Such an
appeal" Mr.. Brown assures us, would
clear the atmosphere and restore con-
fidence as nothing else can do
without undertaking. in the least
the potency of our presidents words.
we suggest another remedy which we
cannot but regard as more effective:
that our railway managers so con-
duct their enterprises as to win pub
lie sympathy and support. Such a
change may seem to Mr.. Brown too
revolutionary. but we are none the less
confident of the blessed results. Mr..
Brown speaks of "a business against
which every mans hand seems to be
raised He is thinking of Ishmael,
of whom it was prophesied His hand
will be against every man, and every
mans hand against him. Mr.. Brown
recalls. doubtless, that the original
| faule appears to have been Ishmaers
| it was he Who provoked the general
ators. clergymen. journalists and even
Chancellor James r. Day himself, can
accomplish nothing permanent unless
the railways themselves go to the root
of the trouble by removing what Burke
calls the very ground of the differ.
ence.' There is no hope of peace for
our railways until their managers
grasp the notion that public service
| corporation is not a mere private UNI
] dertaking, but is a great public insti.
tuition. -..-.
| Mr.. Brown is not merely grieved. he
is surprised at the extent of hostility
He admits on the part of the railways
offences which have been local and
occasional but he complains that the
! condemnation has been universal and