The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-25

derstand 1 have not suggested all
the improvements contemplated by
railroad managers, because as I have
never been a practical operating rail-
road man or a member Of the Kansas
legislature or a candidate for office,
I am not fully posted on railroad
operation. If proper and necessary
improvements are to be made in the
future the earnings must be sufficient
to pay for them. Therefore in con-
sidering the question of railroad
rates, look beyond the immediate
needs of the company for wages and
other operating expenses and remem-
Der that tomorrow or next year steel
coaches may be demanded for greater
security of travellers, double tracks
may be required for greater safety
of passengers and new and improved
block signals may become necessary
burdensome legislation as one of the
things that retard railroad develop
mnet. The average man does not
give much thought to such things and
such burdens. Let US take the Kan
sas legislature of 1909 as an ex-
ample and that will give you a very
fair idea of the evil of which I COM
plain. 1t was made up of 125 mem
bers of the house and 40 senators,
49, in all One hundred and ninety
three bills aimed at railroads were
introduced during the session. more
bills If you please than there were
members. Each bill was supposed to
add to the authors prestige at home
and incidentally If passed. to make
the railroads perform better service
at lower rates-a case Of eating your
cake and having it too.
MANY of those bills provided for
the appointment of inspectors,
commissioners or regulators of one
sort or another at high salaries
Some of them provided that the
fees and costs of administration
should be paid by the railroad COM
panies, their authors overlooking the
fact that the only way the railroads
could get the necessary money would
be from the tolls collected from their
patrons. I have known bills to be
that required railroad
to fence their right of way
with a certain patent woven wire
fence and if they had passed the
owner of that patent would have had
q monopoly that would have proven
a bonanza I have also known bills |
to be introduced that required all en-
gines to be equipped with electric |
headlights of not less than 1900
candle power, measured without the
aid Of reflector. I knew the Union |
engines equipped with headlights that |
could be seen for ten miles in the
level country of western Kansas, and |
[ was much surprised to learn that |
they were OF less Indn HAIL Tic
power prescribed by the bills and as
BUR people thought ten miles was as
TAR as the curvature OF the earth |
would allow a headlight to show we
we're much in the dark about the
origin and purpose of the bills until
we found there was but one concern |
that even pretended to manufacture
l light of that power and then the
niger in the wood pile stood out as
plainly as If a Union Pacific head |
light had been shining full upor him.
"Those are only samples of the
yexations and senseless laws with |
which railroads are threatened.
Has Had Stormy Career.
'"The Topeka and Northwestern has
already had a stormy career. 1t was /
he intention to push it to ar early /
but in october, 1907, at a
line when bank vaults were full of
money, cribs and granaries bulging,
everybody who wanted work busy.
prices of wages and commodities
a little financial furry.