The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-04-01
RAILROAD ] NEWS.
Hartman Sees Cures for Ills in
Tariff Revision.
Had 1t Come Sooner Would Have
FOrestailed Prosecution.
HE is FOR REGULATION
But Wants Protection Guaran-
teed to Rail Interests.
Other Items of Interest in
Railway Circles.
lie is FOR REGULATION

NHicdSo, April I-EQWard Hartman
arrived here last night and while wait
ing to start for New York submitted to
his interviewers concerning the tariff.
Mr.. Hartman said:
If the government had revised the
tariff we would not have had the
Lands decision, and we would not
have had all this wasteful prosecution
of corporations nor all of this hostile
legislation against railroads, and the
country would be going along swim
mingly.
II have been quoted as criticising
the government and our ex-president
for having prosecuted me and the in
terests which I represent. I have never
spoken bitterly regarding either and
have no criticism to make. The prose-
cutions were all right, for there is
nothing about the railroads which L
represent that 1 desire to conceal.
In Favor of Federal Supervision.
Il am in favor of government super
vision and regulation if combined with
protection, but we have been getting
regulation without protection, and that
is bad for the railroads and bad for the
people,
Would you have regulation by gov
eminent extend to the issuance of rail-
road securities?' Mr.. Hartman was
asked.
by no MEANS" he replied, for it is
none of the peoples business, to put it
bluntly how much securities and in
what form they are issued so long as
the railroad is run in the interest of
the people and so long as it gives the
greatest possible unit of service that
lies within it.
you asked that question, that little AL
ton affair about which so much fuss
was made. They said the Alton was
grossly overcapitaiized and yet the AL
ton is today one of the best railroad
properties in the state of Illinois. 1t
has been made $50 per cent better for
two-thirds of it's original cost and is
not bankrupt even now. 1t is still SOL
vent, all the states attorney generals
and all of the inebriated state senators
to the contrary Notwithstanding"
In what respects would you have
the national laws affecting railroads
amended?''
Would Amend Sherman Act
ct would begin with the Sherman
antitrust act, which always will be a
menace to corporate prosperity. The
ideas of the people have changed in
many respects and the, laws should be
changed to correspond with these
changed views. After all, it is the peo-
pie who own our railroads.
This question of regulation will be
worked out all right for every one
concerned. What the newspapers
ought to do now is to stop talking
about the regulation Of railroads and
insist upon it that the people begin
should insist that the chief aim of a |
new administration should not be to
wiring more money QUIT of the people |
before it has learned how to expend it'll
wisely.
eff the wasteful extravaganza of |
governmental methods should be ap-
piled to any other business it would
speedily bankrupt it. The administra-
ton should be SO regulated by the peo-
pie that it will learn to conserve its
revenue by cutting down expenses
Hartman Believes in Protection.
81 am a protectionist in theory and
in practice where protection is needed.
But the tariff ought to be revised, for
as the law now stands it is out of date.
There are many things which are en-
which should not be enjoying them.
The point 1 wish to make is that every
new administration eagerly and imme-
diately begin to devise new ways OF
f1lching money from the people with
out knowing the first rudiments Of
econmoy as applied to the expenditures
of money
How would you affect reduction
in the expenses of the government?"'
by applying the cost per ton per
mile rule. so to speak, by which the
railroads effect their economics. Il
mean by that that the railroad man
agements know what it costs them to
transport a ton of freight one mile and
are governed accordingly and further
more they are constantly striving to
reduce that unit of cost If this prin-
ciple We're to be applied to the finan-
cial problems of the government you
would see a marvellous change within
a few years"
DO you think the present admins
tration will be inclined to make
change in this direction?
Il do not. but this administration
and all administrations to come should
be forced by the people to make econ
omy it's first aim or suffer political
oblivion"
Mr.. Hartman said he viewed the
general business situation in hopeful
light.
Mr.. Hartman characterized as silly
the story of his appointing board to
take some of the work off his Shout
ders He admitted that he had been
seriously i'll and declared the original
trouble was ptomaine poisoning, which
brow on an old rheumatic trouble.
He said he never felt better than at
present.