The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-04

Great Northern were inspected The
part of the Denver & Rio Grande view
ed was that between Denver and Grand
Junction On the Wabash the track
from Buffalo to Detroit, jointly operat-
ed with the Grand Trunk, and the line
from Detroit to st. Louis and from st.
Louis to Kansas City were inspected.
For purposes Of comparison generous
parts of the Southern Pacific, Atchison'
| Union Pacific, Missouri Kansas &
Texas, Alton, Burlington, and Pennsyl-
vania We're traversed over. In a less
careful way sections Of the Kansas City
Southern, Rock Island, Frisco and Col
orado Southern were studied.
1.-The conspicuous fact about the
Gould railroad situation is that credit,
sufficient to complete the large projects
under way and to raise the different
lines to their maximum of efficiency,
has been lacking for a year or more.
All systems have experienced the same
misfortune, but the Gould lines proba-
bly, more acutely than any others. The
inquiry naturally is made why such a
condition of affairs exists. Out of 1T has
grown the effort to show that it was
due to the poor physical condition of
the half dozen prominent members of
the Gould railroad family, and to the
fact that these lines were contributing,
from their treasures. to the cost of
constructing the Western Pacific, which
gives the Goulds an outlet at Salt Lake
City to the Pacific coast territory. The
latter is. as absurd an argument as
could be imagined and scarcely de-
serves serious consideration. The act
ual facts in the case will be dealt with
later
THE Gould management has I'M
doubtedly been guilty Of some financial
blunders. There have been radical and
pecially on the Missouri Pacific and
Wabash lines, which have tended to a
certain amount Of disorganization and
contraction in the valuable asset Of
esprit de corps. Probably too much
has been attempted simultaneously
and coincident with great general
scarcity of funds for corporate invest
mentS.
"A close study Of the situation makes
it plain that none of these mistakes
has been of permanently serious
character. Similarly there are several
rent influence of a more or less dam
aging strength, but which are not like
ly to prevail long. The effect of them
is already wearing off.
"Chief among these latter is the
Misrepresentation made of the condi-
ton Of the Gould lines. mainly in Mis-
souri, and Kansas, by members of rail-
road labor organizations in retaliation
for the defeat Of the striking operators
of the Western Union-a Gould cor
poration. Then there was the cam
paign Of coercion which the trackmen's
union waged against the Missouri Pa
cific, and out of which grew the order
of the railroad commissions Of Mis-
souri, and of Kansas limiting the speed
Of passenger trains to 25 miles an hour
on account of alleged bad condition Of
track. This order was effective but a
short time. 1t caused a split in the
Missouri commission. Governor Folk,
after going over the condemned tracks,
said of the commissions recommended
ton that 1t was absurd.
THE writer passed over in comfort
some of those portions between St.
Louis and Kansas City, and on the
main line of the Iron Mountain system,
that had been subject to slow down
orders, at a speed of 90 to 70 miles an
hour. President George w. Stevens of
the Chesapeake & Ohio, who went south
over the Iron Mountain road last week,
wrote to Vice President c. S. Clarke
commencing the condition Of the track
THE publicity campaign of the
trackmens union brought forward
several hundred photographs taken by
| the promoter a lawyer named Shepard
| of Fort Scott, Kan. These were obvi-
ously selected illustrations Of bad track
Standing alone they looked very dam
aging. But good portion represented
| conditions on branch lines, some of
them on sfdetracks One might easily
have formed the opinion from a super
| fetal study of them that the Missouri
| Pacific was rapidly going to decay.
"A photograph Of some of the of the