The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-19

 ned railroads
 thirds majority This revolt against railroad naturalization comes just at the time when some Americans and English men have begun to see in naturalization an easy, infallible way out of all rail- road troubles What aggravates the in dictment is that 1t is mainly directed against the Prussian state system, which, of all railroad systems in Germany, is the most flourishing ana efficient.
 Every charge that is customarly lev eled against corporation railroad owner ship is now being leveled against the Prussian state system. The main charge
 Is that the Prdssian system makes for monopoly and restraint of trade. In committing, say critics, all the offences wfich private corporations commit, the state knows no fear. for against it the publis is doubly helpless, and there are no competing roads which can be used to bring the extortiolate state to req son. Prof Walter Lotz, one of the best authorities on railroa- management, has just published book on German Com muncations Since 1S00" in which he at taclls the popular notion that state own ership prevents monopoly. German ex- perience shows the contrary.
 ''NationaliZation," writes Lotz, lis not by any means a solution of the monopoly trouble. Monopoly remains monopoly even if it is managed by officials True, the state is claimed by standardization enthusiasts to be a higher and unerring ertity. But in reality the state is only the national organ of erring men, who are influenced by their virtues, their ia ults, their interests. and their passions. And these influences are all brought to bear on railroad management quite as much when the state does the managing as when private persons do it. Indeed in countries governed on party princi- ples, privately owned railroads are of ten more bearabe than state owned rail- reads as state owned railroads are ex- ploited much as possible for their own advantage by changing parties." And referring to plans of railroad nationaliza- ton in foreign countries Prof. Lotz adds: This is reason against nationalizing the railroads in the United States
 What Is just now being said against German railroads mostly applies to Prus- sla. German" railroads, owned by the federal government, on the lines discussed in the United States, do not exist, ex- cept in Alsace-Lorraine. The system is railroads owned by individual states. The Prussian state, or strictly, the organiza- ton known as the ''Prussia-H Hessian rail- road community is the biggest owner, for it possesses 3S0O0 kilometres out of the 62,000 in the whole empire. Bismarck aimed at nationalizing railroads on fed eral lines, but his bill enacting this was deefated owing to opposition by the mid dle German and south German states. At present the only bond between the diff ferent state owned systems is article 42 or the constitution which obliges the states to manage their roads In the gen. eral interest of the empire.
 Many think that this splitting up is the cause of the defects of German rail- road standardization. Instead of being controlled by the democratic imperial leg islature in the general interest, the roads are controlled by the state governments and state legislatures which nearly every where are on a reactionary and class basis.
 This is particularly the case with the 'PrCssian- Ressian railroad community The Prussian government is narrowly conservative and agrarian The Prussian Diet, eelcted on narrow property fran chise, Is the same. Prussian government and Diet policy is agrarian. It aims at sparing the landowners in matters of tax ation, at encouraging the export of grain which is practically bounty fed, and also at encouraging export by the "schwer- industrie," and ally of the agrarians which controls. on trust principles, the production of coal and iron The inter- ests of the small trader and consumer are neglected.
 Prussia's railroads are governed in ac- cord with this policy. She has low rates to favor the grain producer and the iron exporter, and high rates which hit the consumer on imported products.
 A greater objection to Prussia's rail- road system is that it uses its monopoly to acculate vast funds for the state finances. This is considered a breach of sound railroad management and is a vio- lation of a promise. Thirty years ago, during the era of railroad nationaliza- tion, Prussia's minister of public works promised the Diet that the railroads would be run entirely in the interest of those using them, and not in order to make profits.
 "State railroads he said, "are not a milch COW; they are not intended to be a source of state revenue.'
 He later promised that the railroad rates imposed would be only high enough to cover transport and maintenance and to pay a moderate percentage on the purchase debt incurred by the state. A similar promise was made in England in regard to the postal services, which were also not intended to help the states s finances. Experience shows that govern ments are never able to keep such prom less. The moment state finances run dry the state trading departments are re- sorted to as milch cows. Just as the Eng fish postal services are bringing in s25- 900 year to help the state finances, so the Prussian railroads are bringing in over 0,000,000 clear profit This vast profit is 33 per cent of the gross takings, proportion probably reached by no other railroad system in the world
 Germans. who resent this system of ex- plotting railroads for gain. are not con- soled by the fact that the s200, ,0OoO 900 goes into state, not into private. pockets They object that the s2Oo,000,ooo is not equa- bly, imposed as tax on all classes ac- cording to wealth. It is taken mainly from the nonprivileged classes, on whose traffic the railroad administration im- poses heavy transport rates. while the