The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-06-09

eral property rights and more crimi-
nal in their intent than most of the
acts for which common criminals
fill our jails and penitentiaries?
Reliable authorities have stat
ed, said Secretary Lane in his letter
to a congressman, already referred
too, that the actual cost of con-
struction Of the Union Pacific Rail-
road was approximately fifty million
dollars. The cost to the railroad
company of this construction was
n:nety-three and a half million dol
lars. nearly forty-three million dol
lars being taken in profit by the con-
tractors and the Credit Mobiler." A
long time ago that some one may
say. Yes, it was; and railway high
finance has not improved since then.
Instead of the Union Pacific's beg
carly plumber and swag of forty
three million dollars, the swag and
plumber wrecked the New Haven
road in this present period has been
dollars. The Frisco's wreckage was
brought about in the same by the
grating of still unenumerated but
certainly many millions. If such
things be not larceny they are as
fiat burglary as was ever committed.
Thru all the railroad years the
way is marked by such deals as
these and by sucfr so-called legiti-
of the Erie to half million dollars
a mile; by E. H, Harriman's water
ing of the Chicago and Alton, and by
his use of the credit of the Oregon
Short Line to traffic in stocks and
bonds of other lines, and pile new
million or millions of fictitously Gre
ated wealth, on which the public
pays interest. The space of a mag
azine article can scarcely enumerate,
the deals by which the railways of
the country have been used to pile
UP ill-gOtten fortunes instead of to
develop the land for the people
Even waving every other advan-
tage and need of governmnt owner
snip and operation, l believe firmly
that private ownership and opera
ton cannot much longer perform
the necessary function. l mean that
tf'e present system will break down
if it has not already broken down.
i mean that the government itself is
the only organization strong enough
to perform the transportation ser
vice adequately-as adequately as it
VIII have to be performed to meet
the demands OF our commerce.
Mr.: HfH's Prediction
Consider the statement made by
Mr.. James J. Hill, of the Great Nor
thern and Northern Pacific and Bur-
lington Railroads. 1t was made in
an open letter to the late Governor
Johnson OF Minnesota in 1906, the
year of the nemcra6ly disastrous
car shortage. 1t was repeated in
November, 1897, in an address by
Mr. Hill to- the Commercial Club Of
Kansas City In that speech he said:
4 year ago / said II would require
five and half billion dollars, or one
billion one hundred million dolrars
a year for five years, to make sur
railroad facilities equal to the de-
mands on them. The figures are
staggering, but twelve months have
confirmed them and enhanced the
difficulty of securing such invest
ment. In the last year the railroads
| have raised in one way and another
in the neighborhood OF one billion
dollars. Much of this has been OBJ
tanned on short-time notes at high
rate of interest. Most of 1t has
gone into terminals, renewal of old
equipment and purchase OF new,
and other necessary Improvements.
1t was a forced investment, the
funds for which were raised not to
make our railroads adequate to
their task but simply to keep them
at their present working level.
at has peen USED TO keep the
wheels of industry from slipping
backward, but there has been very
| little new construction The needs
| of the moment were too severe for
| that: and, though substantially the
amount of money suggested by me
as indispensable has been collected
and spent, the railroads have barely
held their own and the future re-