The Greeley tribune., 1908-01-02
REFORM WAVE
HOW IT STRUCK KANSAS
AND ITS RESULTS
The Two-Cent Fare on Railroads
Seems to Be a Mixed Bless
ing in that State-Does
Colorado Want 1t?

Kansas has secured a two-cent a.
mile rate on the railroads by legisla-
ton. Why cannot Colorado have the
same? Well, we suppose it can, but
the question is, do we want it? The
rate has been in effect in Kansas only
a few months, but unless present con-
ditions are bettered a great deal, it
will be no surprise if the legislature
will at the very next session be asked
to go back to the old schedule of
rates, and the request will not come
from the railroads, but from the trav
cling public A law as radical and
sweeping in it's effect as the cutting
down of the earning capacity of the
passenger department of big rail-
road one-third, is not one that should
be passed by the average legislature
without more investigation than there
is time to give it at one session.
1t is something that should be
handled by the national government.
with its unlimited resources, and not
by the rank and file of the people of
which the average legislature is COM
posed. There is no doubt that some
reform in railroad matters would be
for the benefit of the public and would
work no harm on anybody, but ignor-
ance run riot is not the element to do
the reforming unless we are counting
disaster.
Here is the way the feeling is al
ready showing itself in Kansas, as
expressed by the. Atchison, Kan, Globe
| in an editorial December II, 1907:
"If you have been a two-cent-amiler
and a railroad reformer, possibly you
are satisfied with the results of the
people, of the same idea, have ac-
complished. There is no denying that
there has been lot of vicious, anti
road agitation indulged in during the
past two years. Fool reformers have
howled for lower freight rates, with
the result that unfair laws, formed by
men who know as much about the
workings of railroad as the ordinary
man does about the Heavenly Home,
have been passed Then some other
man got it into his head that We, the
People, demanded twofentamile
passenger rate. In order to save a
lot of trouble the railroads have peac-
ably submitted You see the results:
men are losing their positions and
communities are being furnished
poorer train service.
"How much does this sort Of reform
mean to you? Are you benefited
any? Are any of your friends better
off Have you travelled more as
result of the 2-cent rate than on the
3-cent rate? Wasn't it better service
rather than cheaper rates that the
people wanted? Isn't it fact that
all this agitation has resulted in
harm, rather than good? With every
state whacking at the railroads wasn't
it natural for people to get unduly
careful about loaning money, and
when the railroads could not get
money to carry on their extensions
and improvements wasn't it natural
for the general money market to be-
come unbalanced, and people to be-
come suspicious? Didn't all these
things have a very great influence on
turning the best times the country
ever saw into panicky, uncertain and
Improbable times? When you un-
dertake to readjust matters that are
pretty good, be sure that your sight
is far-reaching enough to see what
the final results are to be.
"And how badly did people want a
two-cent rate? The Missouri Pacific
put a passenger train on the Central
Branch from Seneca to Atchison. Soon
after it started, the two-cent rate went
into effect. Did it make more bust
ness for that train? Not on your
life. For the sake of that train
alone Atchison merchants would have
much preferred the old 3cent rate.
The train, at two cents \ mile, has
not done the business the Greenleaf
train did last fall at three cents a
mile" ....