Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1914-12-31
'A GRAVE CRISES con-
FRONTS THE RAILROADS
WAR HAS CLOSED THE MONEY MARKETS OF
EUROPE TO THEM INDEFINITELY.

terments into consideration. These
are obligations which were incurred
in the past and which must be met
as they fall due If the transportation
companies are to be preserved from
wholesale receiverships and ruin.
Manifestly, therefore, American in
vestors, big and little. will have to
come to the rescue-and before they
will consent to do this American rail-
road securities will have to be re-
established as a sound, respected and
paying investment-and this on the
basis for present railroad earnings is
impossible!
For this reason the railroads of
Iowa believe the impending crisis de-
mands that they lay this whole prob
lem before the people of the entire
state-that they have heart to heart
talk with the farmer, the merchant
the manufacturer, the banker, the la
boring man, and all other citizens up
on this great question which so vital
ly affects the future welfare of the
commonwealth and the nation.
WHY RAILROADS ARE HELPLESS
In times of acute financial stress
private industries are in position to
very largely adjust their affairs to
meet the emergency. They can adj
vance the price of their commodities,
cut their payroll in half, or shut down
altogether, and thus permit the storm
to blow over without actual ship
wreck. The railroads as quasi-public
enterprises, however, are in an en-
tirely different position. Their rates
are regulated by law and cannot be
advanced without the consent of the
people through their law making bod
les. In order to please the conven-
fence of the public and not to break
down the commerce of the country
they must operate their freight and
passenger trains whether they carry
full load or only quarter of load
and in view of these facts it is man
ifestly unfair to put the railroads in
the same class with private indus
tries in the present crisis and ask
them shift for themselves as best
they can. When the people took over
the complete making and regulation
of railroad rates they at the same
time assumed the solemn implied OBJ
legation to see that the railroads get
square deal--for the people are the
only power that stands between them
and ruin.
We believe every intelligent citizen
will agree that agriculture, commerce
and industry cannot get along without
the railroads. On the other hand, the
railroads cannot get along without
the patronage and, what is equally
essential, the good will of the people.
That some of those that have been
entrusted with railroad MANAGEMENT
in the past are Somewhat responsible
for the apparent gulf between the
public and the transportation COM
panies is perhaps true. Busy and
harassed by the herculean tasks en-
trusted to their care, there has been
too little contact between them and
the people. Again, it is undoubtedly
true that the world of railroad finance
as we'll as other lines of industrial
activity has had it's share of mex
cusable abuses--but just as the pub
lie does not hold the banking world
or the ministry responsible as awhole
for the shortcomings of an occasional
black sheep, so the hundreds of hon
est railroad officials throughout the
country should not be condemned be-
cause of the misdeeds of the few.
WHO OWNS THE RAILROADS?
In this connection it may be said
that the railroad world is incumbered
with lot of phantoms which exist
only in the popular fancy. For in
stance, because there have been some
half dozen so-called railroad mag
mates whose names have figured
prominently in Wall Street, many
people have come to belive that the
railroads of the country are largely
owned by few rich men AS a mat
ter of fact, nothing could be farther
from the truth. Out of the colossal
sum of twenty billion dollars invest
ed in American railroad securities
less than 5 per cent is now, or ever
has been, in the hands of these men
who have figured prominently in the
newspaper headlines while the
other 95 per cent is in the hands of
nearly two million investors, large
and small who in many instances
have put the modest savings of life
time into these securities in order
that they might lay away a COM
potency for old age.
When, therefore the value of these
securities is depressed, or perchance
destroyed, the hardship is ten-fold
greater upon thousands of everyday
citizens-upon the frugal mechanic
in New England factory, the widow
with her life insurance funds and the
counties other citizens in every avo-
cation and walk of life than upon the
handful of millionaires, good or bad
who have figurad nrominantlv in
railroad circles. Thus, for instance,
the great Pennsylvania System has
over $4,000 stockholders, while the
Santa Fe has over 10000, and the
same ratio holds good in nearly all
the other lines.
OTHER INTERESTS AFFECTED
But that isn't all For many years
railroad bonds were considered the
safest and soundest investment in the
country, and hence hundreds of mil
lions of assets of our great life in
surance companies, banks bencvo-
lent associations and colleges were
invested in them, and the moment,
therefore that the soundness of these
securities is affected the financial
solidity of these myriad institutions
is greatly menanced at the same
time.
Carrying it 8 step further IL meals
that every holder of an old line life
insurance policy and millions of de-
positors in saving and other banks,
and those interested in many fiduci-
airy, benevolent and educational in
situations are directly concerned in
| q L. II.