The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1914-12-05

have no surplus money for investment
in the United States or elsewhere, and
that american railroads viii have tC
i finance their future needs at home.
How Herculean this task viii be, say
ing nothing about protecting themselves
+ against the dumping Of foreign securi-
ties, may be judged from the fact that
the bond and note obligations which viii
mature. between now and the end of
I next year and which the railroads viii
have to meet in some way amount to
more than 1858, 600, OOO-and this doesn' t
: take a dollars worth of new improve
ments or betterments into considera-
ton. These are obligations which were
incurred in the past and which must be
met as they fall due if the transpor-
tatien companies are to be preserved
from wholesale receiverships and ruin
Manifestly, therefore, American In
vestors, big and little, viii have to
come to the rescue-and before they
viii consent to do this American rail
road securities viii have to be re-estab-
iishsd as q sound. respected and paying
Investment this, on the basis of
present railroad earnings, is impossible.
For thls reason the railroads of Kan
s8s believe the impending crisis de-
MAIDS that they lay this whole problem
before the people Of the edtire state
+ hat they have heart-to-heart talk
With the farmer, the merchant, the
manufacture. the banker, the laboring
man, ana al other citizens upon this
great QUESTION which so vitality affects
{ the future welfare of the common
wealth.
WHY RAILROADS ARE HELPLESS.
/ II tines Of acute financial stress,
private industries are in position to
very largely adjust their affairs to meet
the emergency, They can advance the
I price of their commodities, cut their pay
roll n. half, or shut down altogether
and thus permit the storm to blow over
without actual shipwreck. The rail-
roads as quasipublic enterprises, how
ever. are in an entirely different posi-
ton. Their rates are regulated by law
/ and cannot be advanced without the
: consent of the people through their law
making 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 quarter OF
/ load-and in view of these facts. it IS
manifestly unfair to put the railroads
in the same class with private industries
in the present crisis and ask them to
shift for themselves as best they can.
| When the people took over the COM
plete making 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 be
tween them and ruin.
We believe Every intelligent citizen
viii agree that agriculture, commerce,
and industry cannot get along without
the railroads. On the other hand, the
railroads cannot get along without the
patronage and, what is equally essen
tai, the good viii, of the people. That
some Of those who have been entrusted
With railroad management in the past
are somewhat responsible for the APP
parent gulf between the public and the
transportation companies is prehaps
true. Busy and harassed by the Her
culean tasks entrusted to their care,
there has been too little contact be-
tween them and the people. Again, 1t
IS undoubtedly true that the world OF
railroad finance as well as other lines Of
Industrial activity has had its share OF
inexcusable abuses-but just as the
public does not hold the banking world
or the ministry responsible as whole
for the shortcomings of an occasional
black sheep, so the hundreds of honest
railroad officials throughout the
country should not be condemned be-
cause of the misdeeds of the few.
WHO OWNS THE RAILROADS?
In this connection it may be said
that the railroad world is encountered
with a lot of phantoms which exist
only in the popular fancy. For in
stance, because there have been some
half dozen so-called railroad magnates
whose names have figured prominently
in Wall street, many people have come
to believe that the railroads of the
country are largely owned by few
rich men. As matter of fact, nothing
could be farther from the truth. Out
Of the colossal sum of twenty billion
dollars invested in American railroad
securities less than 5 per cent is now,
or ever has been, in the hands OF these
men who have figured prominently IN
the newspaper headlines-while the
other 95 per cent is in the hands OF
nearly two million investors, large and
small, who in many instances have put
the modest savings of a lifetime into
i4J,ogc -c,,,,.;+.e,s u, O1-1oT that thew