Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-22
IMPROVEMENTS ABANDONED
Erie Orders Those on Its Line Amount
ing to 100000 Discontinued.
FEAR OF STATE LEGISLATION
Retrenchments Reported Also From
Western States - Outlook for
This Year Very Blue.

The agitation over the railroads continues
undated and RACES from the White House
to Wall street and back again. Railroad
| magnates are talking freely for publication
and appealing for surcease Of public hos
tflity engendered by recent crusades against
the railroads. Paul Morton, former presi-
dent of the Santa Fe, some time member of
President Roosevelts cabinet, Is out in an
interview today recommending complete
federal control of interstate railways.
Hartman, Rockefeller, Gould, Mellen, Sc
ligman and Stuyvesant Fish have talked
during the week.
In the meantimes comes a practical de-
velopment. The Erie railroad yesterday
gave orders for abandoning improvements
on the line amounting to 5000, 600. Con-
tractors were ordered to get their imple-
ments away in thirty days and lay the
hands off. It is reported that one of the
large southern systems has also thrown
over all improvements not actually nearing
completion. Similar contemplated retrench-
ments are reported from western states.
Pending New York Legislation.
The Erie's action was said to be due to
! the pending legislation before the New York
I legislature, known the public utilities
bill, which It was claimed will prevent the
road from raising money to carry on the
work. The work was to be given out to
subsidiary companies, organized under the
laws of New York and New Jersey, and
the impending bill made it impossible to
realize on the securities of those companies
The provision Of the pending bill in the
New York legislature which caused the
plans of the Erie to be abandoned stipulated
that no railroad corporation may acquire
any part Of the capital stock Of any other
railroad corporation created by the ball. 1t
also provides that no railroad shall acquire
unde: any circumstances more than 10 per
cent of tine cepitli stock Of any other rail-
road corpol alton. although it may hold SUCH
stock acquired before enactment. The Erie
acting under existing law, had organized
subsidiary corpo; atoms, and it was pro-
posed to issue bonds, the Erie guaranteeing
the bonds. The New York bankers refused
to take the be nos while the bill was pend
ing, and the work stopped.
According to the current issue of the Rail-
way Age, which Is out today, the outlook
for railway improvements this year Is very
blue. The article says:
THE country Is as prosperous as 1t was
twelve months ego, and the demand for the
construction CO roads into new territory and
for increased railway facilities is as great
but the campaign which has been so mer-
cilessly waged against the railways has
caused many Of the large systems to adopt
policies of retrenchment, and the result Is
that much important work which had been
planned for the present year has been In
definitely postrthed."
Short-Time Railroad Notes.
1 One of the New York financial journals
reported yesterday. that the demand for the
short-time railroad notes. under which
recent improvements have been made, Ia
falling of. Such notes to the amount of
about 5000, 100000 have been issued and
have been the main dependence of the rail-
roads for ready money for improvements.
They were snapped up by the public dur
~ per cent to 61z per cent, for an assured
length of time. They were preferred to the
stock of the same roads. which at the time
yielded only from 31s to 5 per cent
Since the recent panic, however, the sit.