Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1914-12-12

I! TOaOS
alton for an increase in passenger
rates before the State Public Utilities
Commission, it is their desire to utll-
iZe this occasion for an intimate and
frank discussion of the whole railroad
question with the people OF this state
To this end, the careful attention OF
the reader is invited to series of
articles which will appear in this
newspaper during the next few weeks.
All that is asked is that the public
of Kansas, whose broadmindedness is
by-word throughout the country,
do the railroads the justice to listen
to their side of the story-and then
form such conclusions as they think
| the facts warrant.
That the railroads of the United
States are today confronted by the
gravest crisis in their history there
is not the slightest question. For
some years they have been desperate
ly struggling with an ever increasing
cost of operation in the face of re-
duced freight and passenger rates
but serious as this situation was be-
fore, the European war, which has in
defiinately closed to them the foreign
money markets, has suddenly brought
! them face to face with a situation
which threatens not merely many
new receiverships, but the actual par
falySis of the entire transportation in
dustry of the nation. 1t was this
state of affairs which compelled the
closing of the New York Stock Ex
change some months ago. What will
happen when it opens only the fut-
ure can tell. American railroads are
valued in round figures at twenty
billion dollars, and of this vast sum
nearly five billion dollars worth of
securities are held abroad. Should
Europe, in its frantic struggle for
funds, seek to convert these securit-
les into ready gold when the Stock
Exchange opens, as it did before it
closed, where are the railroads to get
the money with which to buy them?
And if they haven't the money, what
Generalization will follow not merely
in railroad securities, but in all other
great American industrial values as
well?
President Wilson's Views
That the situation is profoundly
serious is manifested by the recent
utterance of President Wilson to a
group of Eastern railroad executives.
In his letter to Mr.. Trumbull of the
Chesapeake & Ohio he said:
you ask me to call the attention
of the country to the imperative need
that railway credits be sustained and
the railroads helped in every possible
way, whether by private cooperative
effort or by the action wherever feas-
IDLE of governmental agencies, and
am glad to do so, because / think the
need is very real.
They are indispensable TO our
whole economic life, and railway sec
uritles are at the very heart of most
investments, large and small, public
and private, by individuals and instit-
utions.
Il am confident there will be earn
est and active cooperation in
this matter, perhaps the one common
interest of our whole industrial life.
Undoubtedly men, both in and
out of official position, will appreciate
what is involved and lend their aid
heartily wherever it is possible for
them to lend il. But the emergency
is in fact extraordinary and where
there is manifest common interest we
ought all of US TO speak out in its be-
half, and i am glad to join you in
calling attention to it. This is the
time for all TO stand together in unit
ed effort to- comprehend every inter
est and serve and sustain it in every
legitimate way"
Railroads. Lost Millions
The net operating income of the
railroads of the United States for the
year ending June 80, 1914 was $780,
900, 600 less than for the previous
year. The gross earnings for the
year were 81. 000, 600 less than for
l913-while expenses and taxes were
SIC, 900, 900 more. But heavy as this
burden was before the great struggle
across the seas, carrying in its wake
the destruction of untold hundreds
. of millions of dollars worth of all
kinds of property, renders the situa-
T ton a thousandfold more serious. 1t
means, in short that for a number OF
| years to come Europe will have nc
! surplus money for investment in the
!, United States or elsewhere, and that
: | American railroads will have TO fin