The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-06-09
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF
RAILROADS, WATERWAYS
AND WATER POWER
CONTINUED from Yesterday
Railroads Under Receivership

In spite of these enormous public
subsidies. in spite of high rates, in
spite OF the frequent control by rail-
way politicians in Congress and leg
islatures and courts, 135 railway
companies, operating 136,165 miles
of road and involving nearly eight
billion dollars OF stock and bonds,
have gone IN 20 the hands OF receiv-
ers. In other words, until agencies
of the government took hold of
more than half OF the roads,
squeezed the water out OF them and
compelled them to be temporarily
honest, they could not run success
fully. The operation of railways
under government receivership has
ben surprisingly successful and fur
nishes an argument of no small val
ue for government ownership. The
actual general manager of some of
these railways under receiverships
has been federal Judge, not a
trained railroad man.
Efficiency? Has not Mr.. Louis
Brandeis. in his brief to the inter
state commerce commission, pointed
out the leaks Of many million dollars
not to mention the assertion of ex-
perts he examined, who declared
that three hundred million dollars a
year could be saved to the railways
by more efficient management?
Efficiency? Is it efficient man
agement to kill or injure every year
one trainman for every nine train
men employed? Think of it. In
nine years every trainman employed
in the operation of the railway trains
in the United States would be injur-
ed or killed if there were no new
men to fill the gaps and share the
burden of killings and injuries. And
inefficiency is only one Indictment
of the American people against the
railways
Waste goes along as one factor of
|inefficiency Waste is inherent in the
system itself, waste that would be
almost entirely eliminated by the
mere fact of changing from private
ownership to the unity of national
departments alone the railways ex-
pended last year about twelve bill
lion dollars; and that sum did not
include the salaries of many highly
ors. A large share of this expense
would be unnecessary if a bureau of
the government, with its corps OF
assistants from the department of
justice had the management of the
rail highways of the country
The Cost of Getting Business
The Interstate Commerce Commits
sion asserted recently that the rail-
ways lost annually fifteen million
dollars by giving free service to in
dustriaI companies This is not
only waste, it is also a fraud or the
shippers who are competing with
such industriars
Simply getting the. business by
their traffic departments, the rail-
ways are spending fifty-six million
dollars annually The soliciting that
mekes up the bulk of this expsnse
simply enables one railway to take
business away from another. For the
most part it is pure waste. For the
Eyear ending June 80, 1911, the peo-
pie thru the United States govern
ment paid the railways fifty million
dollars for transporting the mails.
In the same year, the people, thru
the express companies, paid the rail-
ways seventy million dollars for
transporting packages. The railways
middlemen profits in these transac-
lions amounted to many million dol
lars.
/ The enormous profits made by the
Pullman Car Company, enabling it
to swell its capitalization from one
million dollars in 1867 to one hun
dred and twenty million dollars in
1910, are waste, chargeable to pri-
vate ownership of railways. In this
country the railways pay the Pull
man Car Company for routing sleep
ing cars over their tracks. In some
European countries the sleeping car
owners pay the railways. So, also
are the great profits taken by private
refrigerator companies and express
companies chargeable to waste. 1t
the railway had owned and operated
the Pullman, express and refrigera-
tor car companies, the enormous
profits of these companies have alb
sorbed could have been used to low