The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-28

mentS that have been prepared AFTER
| hours of labor by the railroad men.
Last night President Ripley told the
whole story to the big crowd OF 2'5oo
people when he said;
81 am not going to argue the case
| of the railroads. 1 merely want you
as citizens of Topeka and employees of
the Santa Fe to consider whether your
interests will be best served by a
sound, solvent and progressive pohcy
! on the part of the railroad or by re-
pressive measures which will result in
our being obliged to employ the small
| est number of men and stop our I'M
provement work..
! There was not a person in the audi
ence last night who did not grasp the
| railroad side at once. From the many
| explanations following they knew that
unless the Santa Fe could earn enough
! money to put back into the road for
| improvements and still declare small
dividend, the usual big slice of the
budget for Topeka would dWlndle into
mere maintenance donation
President Ripley was much inn
| pressed with the ovation he received
| last evening. The entire ground floor
! Of the Auditorium was fiIed-filled
with business men and financial men,
| as well as employees of the Santa Re
shops and offices. 1t was one or the
most representative crowds that mas
ever heard speaker in Topeka-anS9
| a good. sound appreciative crowd.
The knights and Ladies, band Iur,
nished music for the meeting. ]. Will
| Kelley presided.
| Permit me to say that L appreciate
| very much the opportunity to again
meet the people of Topeka, and espe-
| cially our employees, large majority
! of whom 1 cannot know personally,
| said the president. Let me assure
| them, however, that they are constant
! ly in our thoughts; that the directors
| and officers of this giant corporation
! have higher aims than the mere get
! ting of work out of the employees ana
money out of the public; that they are
! fully sensible of the duties owed by the
| CORPORATION both to the public and TO
| its employees and that they are striv-
! ing to fulfill those duties to the pest
| of their ability. Practically it is fiji
| teen years since the present company
| was organized-many of you were mere
/ then and know what We (and when L
| say We 1 mean all of US employees),
/ have done. Doubled the mileage,
! trebled the earnings and rebuilt the
road. Any citizen of Topeka can OBJ
tain a realization of the change by
| contrasting 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 performed.
| Il assure you that it is pleasure to
me and to my associates to come to To-
| peka and Kansas, the birthplace of the
| Santa Fe. We feel that you have pride
| in our railroad and that you take a
| friendly interest in our welfare. The
| Santa F'e has aided materially in the
| wonderful growth and development Of
| Kansas, and Kansas has helped ma
terially to build up our great railroad
| system. Our aim is to bring about a
| better understanding between the COM
| pany and the people with whom it does
| business. We know we can help you
| and we know you can help the Santa
| Fe. We want to dwell with you in
peace, harmony and prosperity.
| I'VE ask no man to change his po-
litical beliefs-we ask nobody for his
vote on political questions-but in this
city of Topeka the prosperity of which
is so closely interviewer with and de-
pendent on the Santa Fe, we may if
| anywhere ask that you as citizens eX-
ert your influence in behalf of the
right.
in the forty-one years that have
elapsed since the original line was pro-
jected from Atchison to Topeka the
road has paid its owners less than
3 per cent on its capitalization-we
are told there is water in it, don't
think so-but suppose even that it is
one-third water the earnings would
still show less than per cent on the
actual cash invested-is that an excess
sive return for those who have risked
their money in the enterprise? Even
! now the property is earning a very
you are being told that you are paying
the railroad too much and the state
officers are spending the taxes (both
your money and ours) in the effort 10
reduce our rates.
| One of the clearest and most straight
forward statements of the railroad sit
uation was given by w. D. Hines last
night. w. D. Hines is general coun-
selor of the Santa Fe-also chairman
of the executive board. It will be re-
| membered that he testified before the
interstate commerce commission and
that he answered all the puzzling ques-
tions put to him, in a simple and plain
manner-the disinterested reader could
understand them.
Last night Mr.. Hines repeated his ar
guments on a smaller scale and he got
away from technical expressions and
mysterious figures. He said this, for
instance:
1.-The Santa Fe must spend about sc
million dollars year on improvements
How are we going to raise this money?
That is the question. We have got
to have money to insure our investors
who put funds into our property, we
must pay dividends of some kind-and
in addition to all we have to have that
80 million dollars to put back into the
property. The public is interested in
the prosperity of the railroads because
the railroads are a great factor in the
prosperity of the public.
We are not talking glittering gen.
eralities-we are telling you people
plain every day business facts. We ask
that you encourage the election of pub
lie officers who want to be fair anc
square with the railroads as we'll as
with the people. Those are the officials
who will serve you right"
c. S. Gleed followed Mr.. Hines will
4 a short concise talk on the fiexibilitI
of all business-why not allow fieXi
bility in railroad rates, he asked. Hi!
talk was greeted with cheers.
Captain Jack Crawford of nationa
fame recited poems and gave a shor
speech.
1t was a mighty good meeting, from
every standpOint-a good sound bust
ness meeting between the men of To
peka and the officials of the Santa Fe