Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-01
PEssIMIsTIc Mr.. RIpLEY

7 7 is surprising how easily the heads
of the great corporations of the
Il country are made pessimists about
our business conditions by a threat of
any investigation or action by gov
ernment commission. This reflection
is suggested by the very pessimistic
views of Mr.. Ripley. the head of the
Santa Fe Railway company. expressed
in his testimony yesterday before Spe-
cial Examiner Brown of the Interstate
commerce commission in Chicago.
Because there is a possibility that
Mr.. Ripleys company may be denied
the right to charge the shippers of the
country the rates that the companys
officials fixed. Mr.. Ripley at once be-
comes profoundly suspicious of the
stability of business conditions. In
fact, he is worse than suspicious. He
believes that next year the earnings
of his company are going to be seri-
ously reduced, because he thinks busi
ness next year is going to be con the
bum" And all this Notwithstanding
the fact that for the past calendar year
the earnings of Mr.. Ripley's road were
the greatest in its history, as he ad-
mits.
All this will recall the forebodings of
coming misfortune in which Mr.. James
]. Hill Of the Great Northern indulged
himself some time ago when the efforts
of the railroads to cinch the public to
the extent of several hundred million
dollars by raise in rates was inter-
fered with by the attorney general.
Later on, however, Mr. Hill had a
ago he was quoted in the newspapers
as saying that prosperity was beaming
on the whole land with its broadcast
smile, and he could see nothing but
good in the future.
The truth is that between the period
his last optimistic utterance Mr.. Hill
had had time to take a sober second
thought and had found that the busi-
ness Of the country was not as bad as
it appeared when his company was
halted in it's effort to increase by many
million dollars per annum an income
which for years has permitted it to pay,
in the form of dividends AN income upon
it's stock much larger than any person
could earn lending money upon good
security in the financial markets of
the country.
The same will no doubt be the case
with Mr.. Ripley. When he gets over
the "grouch" from which he was evil
IDENTIFY suffering on account of the in
terstate commerce commission daring
to investigate certain increases in
freight rates which his company and
others proposed to place upon the busi-
ness of the country, he will probably
find that protecting the business of the
country from these rates is in nowise
hurting it.
The truth is that while business in
various parts of the country has been
in many instances suffering from ex-
tortionate railroad rates, there is no
case on record where business has ever
been hurt by the reduction of rates, or
by a refusal to permit rates to be ad-
| vanced.
While we may extend our sympathies
to Mr.. Ripley, the business world will
hardly attach much Importance to his
evidently very biased views upon the
business conditions of the future. And,
after all, probably Mr.. Ripley's un-
favorable representations were given
out more with the hope that they
would protect his company from an
unfavorable decision by the interstate
commerce commission than from any
fear that such conditions as he pre-
dicted would materialize.
Throughout the whole country there
appears to be absolutely no reason for
fear of the business situation for the
next eighteen months at least
Crops, the very foundation of busi-
ness prosperity in this country, which
is so largely agricultural. are in excel
lent shape, and the prices of all farm
products are being maintained at un-
usually good figures.
The banks of New York have more
than the average supply of money on
hand, and this supply IS being in
creased. A spirit Of speculation which
showed its head some months ago,
principally in what threatened to be an
unwarranted advance Of stocks on Wall
street, produced by the usual manipu-
lation of the kings Of finance who de-
sired to unload upon the confding pub
lie certain stocks which they would
again purchase in the low market,
which comes with every summer, has
apparently been checked, so that now,
while there is no wild spirit of specula-
ton anywhere, there is over the whole
country q marked and steady progress
| in every legitimate line of business.