New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1907-04-03

THE mismanagement OF insurance
companies has been q mere passing
trifie compared with the mismanage-
ment of American railroad interests, =
says the editor Of the Review OF Re
views.
He predicts that unless there is soon
change for the better in railroad
homogeneous there will be a breaking
down of efficiency in the actual bust
ness of transportation, and that the
advocates of government ownership.
will be justified in their claims that
the government could not possibly do
things so badly and would be likely
to do them better than they are now
done.
He contends that bad management,
which overworks train crews, dis
patchers and men On duty in the sig,
nal towers. has brought upon Ameri-
can railroading the charge OF being
the most badly conducted of all our
business organizations. It is high
time, he says, for the railroad mana
gers to get out OF Wall street and
operate their roads in the interest OF
the public.
The time when the veil of ystery
can be thrown over railroad manage
ments has now passed; the public
understands this matter and is assert
ing that railroads exist for its con-
venience, and not for the further
enrichment and convenience OF the
small clique of plutocrats who con-
troll them.
The Review editor complains that
at least 100, 900 miles of our railroads
have become unfit for the needs of cur
rent traffic. This is due to rotten cross
ties, light rails, wooden trestle instead
of permanent bridges, sharp curves
and bad grades, shabby and miserable
stations and general incompetency
| IN 0QulpuSIlG duO - pol 0uIOAA'
The demoralized condition of the
railroad services of this country is
chiefly responsible for the great mum.
Der of appalling railroad accidents,
which have grown SO frequent that the
public has become almost callous
in regard to them. During the first
two months of the present year about
ITS people were killed and 425 injured
in railroad travel. In seven disasters
on five roads this year 123 persons
were killed and 3l3 injured.
To reduce this frightful and needless
mortality is the paramount duty O.
railroad experts and owners.
A Washington correspondent has
been delving into the Congressional
Record and unearthed the fact that the
maiden effort of Senator Spooner, de-
livered in 1887, was dissertation
upon the overproduction and over
capitalization of railroads, and a par
of his speech sounds actually prophe
tic. He said:
The rapid growth of the country
the stimulus of war, the flush times
following the resumption OF specie
payments and the wild spirit of spec
ulation which flush times Away.
bring, led to the too rapid censtruc
ton of railways.
They have been built where the.
were not needed and for purely spec
ulative purposes. The strife between
the competing companies has grow
wild and senseless, and out OF thi
strife have come the rebate, free trans
portation, special rates, commissions
pools and all manner of favoritisn
and discrimination. These method
have been in vogue SO long that tn
companies seem to have grown to re
gard them as part of their prescrip
tive rights. The states have aided il
this contamination somewhat b.
the unrestrained generosity wit
which they have granted corporal
franchises.
The man who has never been asian