Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-23
PROPERTY

of the counry, and secondly to the re-
lated provision giving the interstate
commerce commission authority to pass
upon all future issues of railroad
stocks and bonds,
Should the government through the
proper means ascertain the present
physical value of railroad properties
and announce it's findings, it would GER
tainly be accepted by the investing
public as the best obtainable evidence
of the value of the security upon
which railroad stocks and bonds are
based.
And if, after the value of this prop
erty is ascertained, authority should
he placed with the interstate commerce
commission to see that the property
was never again burdened by any ad-
ditional security that did not represent
its value in money paid into the treas
uries of the railroads, the greatest pos
sible stability would be given to all
outstanding and future issues of both
railroad bonds and stocks.
1t is a fact, however, known to all
students of the railroad situation in
this country as it exists today and has
existed since the time of Fisk and
Gould, that the men who by manipula-
tion and the use of the huge accumu-
lations of money which have been made
in the city of New York, have con-
trived to place themselves at the head
of the great railroad organizations of
the country, do not want stability to
be given t. railroad stocks. 1t is by
speculation in the stock issues of the
railroad companies of this country that
these men have accumulated their
stability given to railroad stocks the
speculation which means depressing the
value of these stocks during one pc
riod and boosting their value during
another, would practically cease. 1t
would, for instance, under such condi-
tions be impossible for Union Pacific
| to sell at 200 at one period and six
months thereafter at 130 and then go to
! 180 again within another few months.
| The truth is, as every careful OBJ
server of railroad management in this
country knows, that the great railroad
kings make more money out of man
| ipulating the stock of their corpora
tions than they do out of operating
the railroads. Overwhelming evidence
of this is found in the fact that when
the late E. H. Hartman entered upon
his meteOric career as master of Amer
lean railroad lines by undertaking the
reorganization of the Union Pacific
about eleven years before he died, he
was worth probably at the very most
ten millions of dollars. When he died
his fortune was estimated at $3.50, O00 900,
so that he must have accumulated
| $3.50, 100000 in eleven years, or at the
rate of nearly 100000 a year. This
vast accumulation within little more
! than a decade was not made by the
| business operation of railroads. 1t was
made by manipulating railroad prop
/ critics by the issue of watered stock, or
stock which he and his friends Sc
cured without any adequate consider
alton therefor being placed in the
treasures of the companies issuing it.
1t was made, also, by manipulating
on the Wall street market the stock
of the railroads in which he was in
terested, as witness the instance when
the long anticipated dividend of the
Southern Pacific company was passed
over at the regular meeting of the
| board Of directors, when it was ex-
pected and should have been declared,
and directly after this when Mr., Har
liman and his friends had had an op-
portunity of accommodating large blocks
of stock of this company at a low
price, the dividend was declared and
the stock by such declaration boosted
up.
The men who are known as the rail-
road kings of the country do not want
too much stability given to the value of
railroad stocks. The moment a stock
or bond becomes Of absolutely ascer-
tanned and settled value, so that it
takes its place among the stable in
vestments of the country that moment
! its speculative character ends and It
loses it's value in the game played by
the railroad kings on Wall street.
When the government undertak kes to
exercise the control Of these great in
terests, and some legislation to that
end is pending in congress, the mas
ters of American railroads besiege con-
gressional c-mmittees and congressman
with wild appeals in the name of the
widows and orphans whose money is
invested in railroad stocks, which they
claim will be injured by the proposed
legislation. When, however these Same
men desire to make a haul in Wall
street, they have no bowels Of COM
passion for the widows and orphans
the value of whose stock they depress
until its market price sometimes almost
reaches the vanishing point, in order
| that they may accumulate huge masses
of it, which, after such accumulation,
| is increased enormously in value by
the same stock being boosted by the