The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-06-04
The PerpetuaI railroad Problem

Cy Warman an old railroad engin-
eer and lately a writer on railroad
subjects calls attention in a recent
issue of the Railway Record, to the
constant pressure placed upon rail
road management from two directly
opposite sources the stocknolder,
who demands dividends, and the
shipper, who demands low rates. He
says:
The railway has two critics, con
slant, persistent and irrepressible-
the shipper and the shareholder
and each sees the thing at differ
ent angle. And each judges tne thing
as it is now. Neither yesterday nor
tomorrow means anything-the
shareholder wants to know what the
earnings are today; the shipper
wants to know the rate. The general
managers stock" goes up in the
estimation of the owner as the earn
ings rise, and, by tne shippers meas
urement as the rate goes down.
Neither of these critics ever take the
trouble TO look at the proposition
from the others viewpoint. In fact,
neither will recognize the others
right to criticise at all. But the man
on tne job-the general manager
must see the thing in the large. He
is asked TO do the impossible as
though it were a~simple sum in math-
ematics: to keep the earnings going
upand the rates going down"
A great deal of harm has been done
and much undeserved prejudice Great
ed against railroads by ignorant. NAL
ioiOus and demagogic utterances,
coming, still more unfortunately,
from source that gave them an I'M
deserved importance. 1t is no won
der that the railroads have been driv
Ell TO a contraction of their business
and to an unusual conservatism. The
wonder is that receiverships passed
dividends and wage-cutting have not
been more frequent.
Seldom, If ever, is the public fair
to the railroad. Here is an enterprise
involving heavy investments, the fin
est executive and technical ability,
bristlng with problems, the least of
which involves thousands of dollars,
and yet the average man makes no
more allowance for the intricacy of
the problem than he does for an err
ror in the solar system. The normal
public attitude toward the railroad
is one of condensed hostility Here
is an example familiar TO every rail
road attorney:
John Smith finds himself in a car,
whicn. through a switchman's neg
lect, is derailed and tumbled down
a bank. Thinking first of his family,
he telegraphs his wife; Delayed by
accident, home at ten. escaped with
out scratch" No chance for a suit
for personal damages there, one
would say. and yet that same John
Smith with the telegram fully prov
en-, goes to a jury of his peers and
is awarded $4,000 damages within a
year from that time. All a part of
the usual public attitude toward this
most necessary and indispensable util-
ity. the railroad.
The daily strain of operating a
hugs plant. when errors may mean
human lives, is sufficiently severe
but. taken in conjunction with the
rigid pressure that comes oppositely
from Skipper and shareholder, the
wonder is not that railroad men
break down i'm the prime of life, but
rather that Senatorial retreats and
psychopathic wards are not crowded
with them continually.
The public constantly clamors for
lower rates and the constant ten
dency of rates has been downward.
The shareholder constantly clamors
for dividends and the constant ten
dency of dividends cannot, in tae ma
ture of things he inward II costc
more and more each year to operate
railroad. Restrictions, regulations
and governmental restraint are year
~ becoming more severe. Railroads
are spending more and more each
year for safety appliances and yet
the demand for lowed rates and high.
er dividends constantly oppose each
other, and the Harrimans, Hills and
Browns wear themselves out in the
everlasting problem.
II is high time the public gave the
| railroads fair snow with other en-
terprises and governments began to
think about something else but re-
straining, taxing and embarrassing
| them.
In the last survey, the railroad is
a semi-public institution, indispens-
able to public and private business.
and undue embarrassment or obstruc-
tion hurts the shipper and the pas
senger just as much as 1t hurts the
shareholder.
No man can soak" a railroad with
out starting a force in motion that,
sooner or later. arrives at his own
back door.-Rutland Herald.