The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1908-01-16
The Seaboard Air Lines Troubles.
Inmbefton Robesonian.

Lumbefton Robesonian.
The finAncial troubles of the Sea-
board Air Lire, which have resulted
in appointment of receivers for the
road. will OCCASION, as the Charlotte
Observer remarks, greater regret
from the standpoint of sentiment
than Il similar misfortune to any
other road would occasion. 1t is re-
yHr.led as more or less II family affair
! in he sections through Which it OPP
era tes. and this feeling towards it is
dueto the fact that it has done fewer
things to arouse resentment than
any other 70 a. We earnestly hope
its affairs may be sppe,iily adjusted
and placed on II satisfactory basis.
AS to the causes OF it's misfort une
we quote from the Observer:
The causes? Highly unfavorabie finan-
cial conditions for railroads have pre-
vailed during a long time past-the
country was busy financing more profit
able enterprises-and while the general
reaction has brought relief within sight,
roads already hard pressed are in the
meantime worse off than before. Posi-
bly, the Seaboard could not by any per-
Missile device tide itself along a single
week further. With its revenues falling
off as business contracted, and still I'M
able to borrow money on remotely rea-
sonable terms, it may have had no re-
course left. AS an enormously aggrava-
ting factor in the trouble there was. Of
course, the reckless passenger fare reduc-
ton encountered at the hands of Virginia,
North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama
| al n TN Ia or int IN do fca 20
| to face with persecution at home-a per-
secution advertised everywhere by the
exciting court developments which en-
| sued-were placed under hopeless disad-
vantage in money market very difficult
| at the best. We believe that had Speaker
Justice and other radicals of the better
sort in the last Legislature foreseen what
no one could then fully foresee the ~ cent
fare law in this State would never have
been born; indeed, natural desire to avoid
a political blunder would have inter
| vened. The poor Seaboard has certainly
had to contend with great deal"
IAN enormously aggravating fac
tor certainly, was the radical reduc-
ton OF passenger fares i'll several
Southern States last winter Those
who are responsible, for such legisla-
ton see their mistake now, but the
wonder is that they were SO much
longer in seeing it than the dear peo-
pie who dressed them in IL little brief
authority. In We Ol.len time the ap-
proved method OF reforming people
| who advanced strange doctrines or
wandered after strange gods in any
| way was to xii! them, but this meth
oI ceased to be popular some time
ago. Some legislators seem to have
thought last winter that this method
ought TO be revived in dealing with
Railroads., so they did their possible
to cripple the roads by enacting laws
about passenger rates, which nobody
cared three StrawS about 1t seems
To be Il hard matter for the ma Orty
OF the politicians, who fondly mag
ill" that they keep their hands upon
the pulse of the people, to place the
proper estimate upon the popular in
tel!igence. Ninety-nine times out OF
the hundred they place that estimate
too low, and do not give the people
credit for having sense enough to
come in out of the rain If the legis-
lators who mOnkeyed so recklessly
with passenger rates had given the
people credit for having sense enough
to know what is good for them there
| would never have been such radical
legislation and the evils that have
resulted. When the average little
politician, complacently smoking his
after-diuner cigar and patting his
| paunch, matches I'D some fool bill
which he thinks will tickle the red
necks and hill billies at home, it is a
hundred to one shot that he has
placed the intelligence OF the voter he
wants to please on the plane of in
telligence Of the voter that is pleased
with Only gaudy trinkets and sound
ing brass and tinkling cymbals
And it was ust about this way
with this passenger rate legislation.
We do not mean to say that it is re-
sponsible for all the troubles the raif=
roads have been laboring under, but
it was responsible for many of them,
certainly.