The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-18
Another Hopeful Railway Off
cial Has Been Found.
A. C. Ridgeway Of ID. & r. G.
Sees Bright Future.
MUST SATISFY LABOR.
West Will Feel Conservatism
More Than the East.
Other Items Of Interest in
Railway Circles.

Denver, Col, January 1S.-A c.
Ridgeway, general manager of the
Denver & Rio Grande. is quoted in
an interview here yesterday fol-
lows:
"WhiIe the storm is over and the
country is well out of the way of any
immediate disaster of a financial ma
ture, the biggest problem is yet to be
solved. In my opinion the coming
year will be one of conservative ac-
! tivity on the part of every big indus
| trial and commercial institution and
interest in the country The entire
situation must reyolve about the en-
ployment or the unemployment of
labor. skilled and unskilled. I be-
lieve that labor will be more plentiful
than it has ever been. It is starting
In now. Last week I found that /
could employ 500 Jap workmen for
s1.25 a day, when three months ago
I would have had to pay proba bly,
5000 a day. We are going to have
very few demands made on us by la
Dor unions. I do not look for a repeti-
ton of any of the serious situations
which developed this year as a result
of the demands of the union forces.
am confident that in certain indus
trial quarters a lower scale of wages
for both skilled and unskilled labor
will obtain than is now prevalent.
With production curtailed as it is and
has been the past few months, this
cannot help but be the case.
1.-THE west and intermountain
country will feel this conservatism
more than the east. for this reason:
We depend on the east for money for
our Improvements and construction
projects. The east will need more of
its money than ever during the year
| and this means that less of it will
come west. 1t will be this inability
to get the money we are accustomed
to for development purposes that will
make the situation here more serious
than in the east.
1--WE do not expect the freight
tonnage we have had in the past two
years. I do not except freight rates
to be lowered for these change very
slowly with changes in the economic
conditions of a country or section of
a country. Railroads will not run as
many trains as they have been accus-
toned to. Hill, Hartman. Gould and
other big railroad men have repeated
ly declared that If labor continues to
increase in cost and the general main
tenance expense Of a railroad in
creases, the rates must go higher, for
the margin of profit has become dan
Fgerous1y small. I do not believe that
hard times particularly are coming. It
will simply be a case Of long, slow
recovery.
Take, for instance, coal. Last year
men were stopping trains by force at
this time and taking the fuel. With
in the last ten days / have found that
number of mines along our road
have suspended shipments, because
they have no orders and the ship
ments Of the larger properties have
decreased materially. This is not be-
cause this has been an open winter,
but because of the curtailment in all
sorts of Industrial operations.
1.-THE Denver & Rio Grande has no
.. bank in New York to support he
continued. President Jeffrey will
not allow our money to be used for
road. During the scare just passed
not one of our agents in small places
was directed to remit to the general
offices instead Of depositing in the To-
cal banks, as has been customary. We
have felt safe and have had no
trouble.'