Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-06-08

threshed out. But it should be set
lied Understandings and without pre-
JUDGE. The railroads must prosper
If other interests of the country, are
to prosper. Railroads are big buyers
lof goods-the heaviest in the entire
country. They are big employers o.
labor-the heaviest in the entire coun
try. They cannot buy goods and
pay for labor unless they make 8
profit on their business. The bank
rupt merchant is not a good asset
to a community. Neither is the lame
or crippled railroad the best devel
oper of a country.
Better than cheap service is good
service. 1t is well if service can be
both cheap and good. But it is bet
ter to have it good than to have II
cheap and poor. This western coun
try especially needs railroad develop
ment. We can all afford to pay q
little more for service if in the end
we add to the population and the de-
velopment of the state. 1t is purely
economic proposition and there ought
to be no politics or prejudice in it at
all.
In the weekly report of Henry
Clews we find timely comment:
A severe blow has been admins,
tered by the unexpected injunction
against an advance in railroad rates.
It's first effect was to startle Wall
street and force demoralized selling
OF stocks. What the final outcome
will be cannot now be foreseea. 1t
means at any rate a period of pro.
longed discussion at Washington, to-
gether with a general reopening of
agitation against the railroads. Out
tated there should come rational and
permanent solution of the railroad
problem; but unfortunately during
the interval period of more or less
unsettlement in values must be ex-
pected. The present status of the
railroads is unbearable, and some
judicial power is necessary to settle
the differences between them and the
people. Railroads are a natural mon
opoly, and as such exercise arbitrary
powers which inevitably invite the
distrust of shippers and should be re-
strained. Railroad managers are hu-
man, and, however broad-minded and
liberal they may be, are likely in the
matter of rates to put on all the traf.
fic will bear. Shippers desire stable
rates, good service and equality of
treatment. These advantages they
generally receive, yet find themselves
at the mercy of the railroads in the
question of rates. The freight rate
from the nature of the case is not a
subject for bargai1ing-the usual
method of settling business transac-
tions-hence the alarm of shippers
at the recent movement of the roads
to advance rates. Shippers believe
the advance to be unnecessary, and
express serious alarm at thish exer-
else of arbitrary power free Of re-
straint. On the other hand, the rail
roads find themselves face to" face
with the problem of securing .csufi-
cient revenue to meet the increased
demands of labor and rapidly growing
expenses. There seems to be but on
true solution of this antagonism in
the relations between the railroads
and the people; that is the estab-
lishment of some court or tribunal
designed to arbitrate and settle all
such differences. If such a court
could be devised, securing fair treat
ment to the railroads and just and
reasonable rates to shippers, long
step would be taken in removing one
OF the most acute sources of finan-
cial and political disquiet.
The Commercial and Financial
Chronicle in recent article sets
forth the side of the railroads clearly
when it says:
We admit that anything that tends
to add to the already high level of
prices is to be deprecated, but again
we ask, how can an advance in trans
portation rates be avoided? It is we'll
enough to note, too, that the addition
from that cause would be relatively
slight.
We wonder how many people ap-
preciate how slight the addition
would really be. Take for illustra-
ton the proposed advance in trunk
line rates between the eastern sea-
board and Chicago and other west
ern points. On sixth-class freight
the advance is to be only 2 cents a
hundred pounds, or from rs cents to