The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1914-10-08
WHAT RAILROADS DO
WITH THEIR INCOME

The Largest Employers Of Labor.
Buyers of Steel. Coal. Taxpayers
in the Country.
In the beginning of the present ar
ticle on the railroad situation it is per.
tinent to remind the reader that the
transportation companies and the pub
lie face each other under radically
changed conditions to-day from those
which prevailed few years ago. Or
the one hand, the Interstate Com.
merce Commission and the different
states, either through their Public Ser
vice Commissions or Legislatures say
what rates the railroads shall charge
for service. On the other hand, the
proposal made in the present Congress
that the Interstate Commerce Com.
mission be empowered to pass upon al
new railroad securities before they can
be placed upon the market and like
powers having already been conferred
within the states upon the different
Public Service Commissions, means
that the last vestige of control over
their finances will have been taken
away from the railroads, and that
henceforth their fate lies absolutely
in the hollow of the peoples hands.
Furthermore, it must be said for the
stockholders and the managers of the
roads that they have no protest to Of
fer against this stringent governmental
regulation. The only plea they make
is that the value Of their securities be
not destroyed and that they be permit
ted to receive living rates so they may
continue to render efficient and ade-
quate service to the people. The pro.
posal to submit all new securities to
Official investigation before they are
placed upon the market, if fairly inter-
preted and exercised, will have the ap-
proval of nine out of ten railroad Off
Gals throughout the country. In view
of these changed conditions therefore
and the fact that the people have TAX
en- over the entire control and regula-
ton of the railroads, why should they
not be as fair to them as they are to
all other great National industries?
That they will be, once they come to
understand the true situation, is the
confident belief of those entrusted with
the responsibility Of railroad manage
ment and those who have put their
money into these huge properties. The
attempt upon the part of certain polit-
ical opportun,sts to create the impress
sion in the public mind that the rail-
roads represent some great sinister in
fuence in the Nation is utterly absurd.
With several million investors, large
and small, owning the transportation
companies, with nearly two million en-
ployees working for them and with
scores of millions travelling and ship
ping freight over them, the railroads
constitute the most Democratic as well
as gigantic institution in the country
to-day-an industry owned by the peo-
pie, operated by the people. and con-
trolled and regulated by the people and
intensely essential to the comfort, con-
venience and prosperity of our entire
population.
In last weeks article the grave crisis
which confronts the railroads because
of the European war which has indefi-
nitely closed the foreign money mark
cts to them was briefly explained. The
fact was also cited that American rail-
roads are not owned by few rich men
as many have thoughtlessly come to
believe-that on the contrary, IS per
cent Of their ownership is in the hands
of hundreds of thousands of stockhold-
ers large and small; Furthermore, that
all the old line life insurance compan-
les, hundreds of savings and other
banks, benevolent institutions, etc.,
have many millions of their assets in
vested in railroad bonds, and that there
fore millions of holders of life insur-
ance policies aud bank depositors are
vitality concerned in preserving the full
value of these securities which have al
ways been regarded as the greatest
and soundest basic investment in the
Nation.
Where Railroad Receipts Go.
We now wish to briefly analyze what
the railroads do with the money which
they collect for carrying freight and
in order that the reader
may realize what tremendous factor
they are in the every day business life
and prosperity of the country. Just as
the idea has prevailed in the minds of
many that the railroads are owned by
handful of rich men, so the thought has
also found deep root that they collect
millions of dollars from. the public
which goes into the Golfers of the few