The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1910-06-04
alton came from sources usually rec


alton came from sources usually rec
oganized as authoritative.
II must be true: we can scarcely
believe that the great railroad mag
mates OF the country would add to
the blunder of raising rates while
the attention of the country ds
focused on rate regulation, the fur
Their blunder of threatening the pub
lie in such a crisis.
We cannot get away from the fact
that the cost Of material, the cost of
labor and every expense of operating,
not only in the railroad business but
every other business, has increased
steadily for several years; and the
great transportation lines are among
the enterprises, which feel directly
the effect OF every advance in cost.
That on a fiat question of costs of
operating they may be justified in
making the raise, We are not in
position to question; but railroads,
as we'll as other concerns, are amen
able to the law, regardless Of the
material question involved
Sometimes we suspect that rail-
road management will have to ad-
just itself to the new order of things
We love the spectacular On every
thing, and the men we esteemed as
great railroad kings, are not railroad
men at all, but spectators. The
good that Edward Hartman and his
school have accomplished in linking
|smaM systems into great transconti-
mental lines, has been incidental.
Equal disregard has been shown the
interests OF stakeholder and shipping
public. In time OF great prosperity
they were unable TO handle the traf-
fic, and in the hour of financial de-
preston they were a burden on the
market.
Had the money "milked" from
stock jobbing transactions been used
in double tracking the lines and abol-
ishing grade crossings. so that the
same equipment could do three
times the work hauling freight and
the same crews twice the service,
and the lines be saved hundreds OF
thousands of dollars in damages and
costs in personal injury cases, the
country would have been benefited
and the railroads able to cut eN-
penses and rates, instead of increas-
ing them: thus making their own
earnings greater and adding TO the
buying capacity OF their respective
territories.
The real railroad men are in sub
ordinate positions: the railroad
kings, are real kings. unfortu-
nately still ruling by divine right"
gratifying personal ambition for the
extensions OF their realms. and trad
ing lines with the same simplicity of
belief ia personal ownership and re-
sponsibility to no one else, that a
horse trader exhibits.
We say still-but the time il
passed in fact. The senate without
a dissenting Republican vote and
with all but twelve Democrats vot-
ing with the majority. has adopted
President Taft's railroad rate bill.
which gives the interstate commerce
commission authority to investigate
conditions on its own Initiative;
compels railroads to first submit new
rates to the commission before put
ting them in force; provides a spe-
cial court TO handle appeals from the
commissions rulings; prevents the
Issuance OF stock without the sane
ton OF the commission, so that no
more watering goes; and stops the
merger OF competing lines.
Railroad men, who persist in
fighting the change. will talk panic
and ruin; but the wise ones will ad-
just their management and ways to
the new order OF things. 1t may work
hardship for a time, but the rail-
roads will receive justice sooner. II
they will 30 conduct themselves as to
win the confidence Of the public.
The public will be fair. II given a
chance, but the railroads must be
to the public good
and become instruments of service
to society, and the sooner this lesson
Is learned, the sooner will all be at
peace in this country. and the less
drastic the means adopted to secure