Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-03-23
Mr.. Hilburn.

by certain writer's that the rail-
road companies are preparing to
unload their holdings on your
Uncle Samuel, and of course the
water will be retained if the COM
papies can dictate the terms of
sale. While we are in favor of
public ownership of the trans
portation of the country, we are
also favorable to the purchase of
the same, but we would first
squeeze out the water.
A gentleman from Texas lec-
tured here the 1st of March, and in
the course of his remarks he said
the railroads of Texas cost for
construction and equipment was
$4,000 per mile, and that they
paid taxes at the rate of So, 900 and
were capitalized at $4,000, and
that they paid six per cent. divid-
end on this 1000, which would
mean a little over twenty-seven
per cent. on the original cost of
construction and equipment.
BY these figures it may be east
ly seen that the people of Texas
are paying for their roads approx
imately, every four years. The
writer has often heard the state
ment made that to purchase the
railroads would entail such great
burden that it would "bust" your
Uncle Sam. Now, | don't suppose
the Texas railroads are any excep-
ton to the rule for American rail-
roads.
The people have built many of
the roads and then turned them
over to private corporations. The
great Mobllier scandal is still
fresh in the memory of many of
our old citizens where the govern
ment gave SIC, 200 and $4,000 per
mile for prairie and mountain
lands respectively, over which the
Union and Central Pacific rail-
roads ran, and then allowed the
corporations to issue an equal
amount of bonds. And there we're
hundreds of small communities
that were beaten to the tune of
many thousand dollars for roads
that were never >built, or, if they
were built, were owned by private
corporations.
I have in mind now, case in
Posey county, Indiana, where the
citizens of Mount Vernon entered
into contract to pay certain So
called railroad company $4,000
when they had fifteen miles of
track laid. l helped lay a track
over the same route, or part OF it,
many years after and lots OF fresh
grading had to be done. The
original track had been laid almost
on the surface of the ground, and
when the FIVE miles were laid and
the bonus collected the company
defaulted on the wages of their
laborors, and the people, who had
furnished the one engine used in
construction, camc and took it
away and the company that fur
nished the rails took them up and
hauled them away. The people of
Mount Vernon, Indiana, had a lot
of good hard experience for their
S25,OOO and they had something
more; they had good joke on
Old Uncle Joe Wilburn. The con-
struction engine was named after
him. He was a former member OF
the legislature of indiana and it
was freely circulated that if you
wanted to hear scientific swearing
all you had to do was mention the
Joe Wilburn in Uuce Joe's pres
ence.
There are four ways by which
the public might acquire the own
ership Of the railroads: First, by
purchase; second, by taxation /;
third, by competition-that is by
building competing'lines; fourth,
by confscation. And the laws Of
eminent domain give Uncle Sam
sufficient power without any ad-
ditional legislation.
f. p. HILBURN,