Abilene weekly reflector., 1914-12-03
GRAVEST CRISIS IN
HISTORY CONFRONTS
AMERICAN RAILWAYS
WAR HAS CLOSED FINANCIAL MARKETS OF
EUROPE TO THEM INDEFINITELY

the bond and note obligations which
will mature between now and the
end of next year and which the rail-
roads will have to meet In some way
amount to more than $66S, 100000
and this doesn't take q dollars
worth of new improvements or bet
terments into consideration. These
are obligations which were incurred
in the past and which must be met
as they fall due II the transportation
companies are to be preserved from
wholesale receiverships and ruin.
Manifestly. therefore. American
investors, big and little, will have
to come to the rescue-and before
they will consent to do this Ameri-
can railroad securities will have to
be re-established as q sound, re-
spected and paying investment-and
this, on the basis Of present railroad
earnings, is impossible.
For this reason the railroads OF
Kansas believe the impending crisis
demands that they lay this whole
problem before the people of the en-
tire state-that they have q heart
to-heart talk with the farmer, the
merchant, the manufacturer, the
banker, the laboring man, and all
other citizens upon this great Ques-
tion which so vitality affects the fu-
ture welfare of the commonwealth.
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 ad-
vance the price Of their commodities,
cut their pay roll in half, or shut
down altogether and thus permit the
storm to blow over without actual
shipwreck. The railroads as quasi
public enterprises, however, are in
an entirely different position. Their
rates are regulated by law and can
not be advanced without the consent
of the people through their law max
ing bodies. In order to please the
convenience of the public and not to
break down the commerce OF the
country they must operate their
freight and passenger trains whether
they carry a full load or only quar-
ter of a load-and in view OF these
facts, it is manifestly unfair to pat
the railroads in the same class with
private industries in the present cri-
sis and ask them to shift for them
selves as best they can. When the
people took over the complete MAX
ing and regulation Of railroad rates.
they at the same time assumed the
solemn implied obligation to see
that the railroads get square deal
for this is the only power which
stands between them and ruin.
We believe every intelligent citi-
zen will agree that agriculture, COM
merce 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 who
have been entrusted with railroad
management in the past are some
what responsible for the apparent
gulf between the public and the
transportation companies is perhaps
true. Busy and harassed by the
Herculean tasks entrusted 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
its share of inexcusable abuses-bnt
lust as the public does not hold the
banking world or the ministry re-
sponsible as a whole for the short
comings of an occasional black
sheep, so the hundreds Of honest
railroad officials throughout the
country should not be condemned
because of the misdeeds OF the few
Who Owns the Railroads?
In this connection 1t may be said
that the railroad world is cucumber
ed with q lot of phantoms which ex'
ist only in the popular fancy. Fol
instance, because there have bean
some half dozen so-called railroad
magnates whose names have figured
prominently in Wall street, many
people have come to believe that tho
railroads of the country are largely
owned by a few rich men. AS
matter Of fact, nothing could be far
ther from the truth. Out Of the colos
sal sum of twenty billion dollars in
vested in American railroad securj