Arizona republican., 1912-04-28
LaFoIlette and the Railroads

In his speech in Los Angeles Friday night Senator LaFollette boasted that he is the only presidential candidate who has declared for the government ownership of railroads in Alaska. And Le seemed to take vast degree of pride in making that boast
 It has come about in certain sec lions and among people Of certain lines of thought that the man who advocates the greatest extension of the power Of government and the minifying of the activities of the in- dividuaI, is regarded as the best in formed and the most patriotic citizen. We seem to have forgotten the maxim of Thomas Jefferson-a <man who is quoted more extensively than any other by the so-called progressives- that that government is best which governs least. We seem to think that all ills can be cured. all abuses cor legislative enactment. We have for gotten that there is such thing as individual effort and responsibility. We have gradually but certainly ap- preached the socialistic notion that the man should be nothing and the government everything And this tentative idea of government owner- ship is one of the manifestations of that line of thought
 Aside from any other consideration; aside from the fact that government ownership means the destruction of initiative and the relegation of all in dividuals to the dead level of medi- ocrity; and considering the question only in it's commercial sense. it is pertinent to ask if. from what we know of it. is the government owner ship of railroads good thing?
 Fortunately, the question is not a difficult one to answer It happens we know little about the prOposi- tion An examination of the report of the government-owned Panama railroad will furnish some facts that are quite Illuminating.
 The Panama railroad now handles a little more freight per mile than do the railroads of the United States on the average Also, it has a much heavier passenger traffic per mile. Therefore, we might expect to find its operating expenses d little higher. But We should hardly expect to find them seven times as high as the op- erating expenses of privately owned roads Yet that is precisely what the record shows.
 That is one of the good things" Of which Senator LaFollette boasts when he boasts of his advocacy of government owned roads.
 If government ownership is a good thing one should expect to find rail- roads operated under that plan under fairly economical management. But again. what are the facts?
 The operating expenses of the Pan- anna railroad average more than $49,- 900 per mile, which seems to be a pretty sizable sum. And especially does it seem large when compared with S27.000 per mile for the Penn sylvania railroad, which handled three -fourths as many passengers per mile and five times as much freight
 From that standpoint, which seems the better plan?
 And of course, you would expect the shipper to get all the best of it where a railroad is owned by the government. But does he?
 The average rate per ton mile on the government owned Panama road is 4.14 cents.
 The rate on commercial freight crossing the Isthmus is seven cents per ton mile; but the rate charged the Isthmian Canal commission is about two cents per ton per mile.
 In this country we have very stringent laws against discrimination between shippers Yet this govern ment owned road charges for com