Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-12-04
A Railroad Opportunity

This is a time Of trial for a number Of capably
and honestly managed railway lines. Heavy increases
in operating expenses through wage advances under
arbitration are not Offset by increased revenues, even
In cases where there is an increase in the volume of
traffic. Lower rates, larger train crews, drawing
larger wages, heavier damage and accident liabii
ties and increasing difficulty in negotiating loans, are
elements in a problem OF serious meaning not only
to the lines but to the public. A railroad receiver
ship is always a disaster, the effect of which is felt,
not only by the insolvent corporation and its cred
itors but more, perhaps, by the business %interess of
the territory covered by its trackage. LiQuidations or
bankruptcies of once.aourishing industries can some
times be traced to a partial paralysis of the trans
portation facilities which had contributed to their
development
1t can be plausibly urged that a reasonable ad-
vance in railway rates, widely distributed over an
immense tonnage could, without appreciably increas-
ing ultimate cost to consumers, enable the lines to
meet their increasing financial obligations without
any impairment of equipment. Some of the recent
financial statements show, in fact, that a small in
crease of rate on the tonnage handled would enable
some lines to greatly increase their present equip.
ments for moving traffic, a very necessary thing, but
one which, under existing conditions, cannot be done
without further borrowing and its increase of the bur-
den OF interest and sinking fund debts. The inireased
tax upon the consumer would be an indirect tax,
and one which, SO widely distributed and falling so
lightly upon the individual payer as hardly to be
felt, more than ~justifes itself through the continuing
remunerative employment it affords to labor, and the
greater facilities it affords for the profitable invest
rnent Of capital in industrial enterprises. 1t is i'm
possible for us consistently to deny the force of an
economic principle we have defended in the admin
~dstraton Of the governments fiscal affairs. The
weakness. of the railroad plea is not in the argument,
which is in itself sound, but in new evidences of old
conditions under which the gross revenues of railway
lines were manipulated, not for public service, not
for the profit of stockholders, or even the payment
Of honest debts, but for the enrichment of ciiques
entrenched in control of the properties.
The conservative Springfield (Mass.) Republican
recalls to public memory the fact that when the
Frisco system was thrown into a receivership there
were solemn declarations that the railroads were not
setting . square deal from the government and the
public and that the receivership was pointed to as
an illustration Of the dire results Of too much govern
ment regulation and too much marrying Of corpora
tons In view Of recent disclosures OF inside Frisco
management, the Republican naturally attributes the
receivership to other causes, and urges legislation at
washington on the lines already suggested by the in
terstate commerce commission for making such
fneglIng with the financial resources Of railway cor
- EA 30