The Holbrook news., 1910-12-23
Thinks the Railway Aids the
 State
President Ripley of the SantaFe Gives His
 Views

Permit me to say that 1 ap. preciate very much the opppor. tunity to again meet the people of Tapeka. and especially oul employees, large majority of whom 1 cannot know personally. Let me assure them, however, that they are constantly in our thoughts; that the Directors and Officers of this giant corpcr- ation have higher aims than the mere getting of work out ot the employees and money out of the public; that they are fully sensible of the the duties owed by the corporation both to the public and to it's employees and that they are striving to fulfill those duties to the best of their ability. Practically it is fifteen years since the present company was organized many of you were here then and know what we (and when say we 1 mean all of us employes) have done, Doubled the mileage, trebled the earnings and rebuilt the road. Any citizen of Topeka can obtain a realizsS on of the change by con- trasting the shop and yards of that period with those of today. We have no reason to be ashamed of our work; we believe our duty to the public has been well per formed. How has the duty of the public to the railroad been per formed. and does the public owe any) duties to the railroad? The answer to this queestion Will vary with the views of him who is asked, but all would probably agree as a general principle that the public owes the railroad:
 1st-Protection for it's pro- perty;
 2nd-Freedom from inter ference with its business meth ods so long as they are clean and honest.
 This is all we ask-we do not seek to evade legitimate respon- sibilities-we want to contribute our full share of the cost of the of maintaining the laws under which we live. like all all other good citizens.
 h the forty-one years that have elapsed since the original line was projected from Atchison to Topeka the road has paid it's owners less than three per cent on it's capitalization are told t ere is water mt 1 don't think so but suppose even that it is one third water the earnings would still show less than five per cent on the actual cash invested-is that an excessive return for those who have risked their money in the enterprise? Even now the property is earning a very mod crate return on its value anc yet you are being told that you are paying the railroad too much and the state officers ase spend- ling the taxes (both your money and ours) to reduce ours rate.
 But the cry of watered stock" is today untrue as to most of the railroads of this country and particularly untrue as to the Santa Fe. I have no hesitation in saying that if a irregular debit and credit account had been kept, charging up on the one side the actval cash outlay with regular savings bank interest, and cred iting all earnings on the other the State of Kansas would be some. millions of dollars in debt to the Santa Fe.
 We do not want to be above the law and we accept reasonable regulation of rates as settled policy of the government, but by what authority do your state of ticials proclaim that the railroads are earning too much and that rates must be reduced what ex- perience have they that justifies them in assuming without inves- tigation and without knowledge that rates are too high By what