New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-07-17
Automobiles and Picture
Plays and Fool Legis-
latiOn the Trouble.
SEES BIG PAY IN
GOVERNMENT ROADS
Erie Head Says Railway Men
Would Rule Country Under
Federal Ownership.
fBy Telegraph to The Tribun. ]


Milwaukee, July Is. Automobile,
moving picture shows and fool legiss.
ton are the causes of our present peri.
cd of industrial depression mainly
the fool legislation" said Frederick G.
Underwood. president of the Erie Rail.
road, or his arrival here for vacs.
tion at his country home, where he
lived as boy.
I'm long interview Mr.. Underwood
genially threatened the country with
continued depression and said he
thought probably the railroads would
be owned by the government some
time, and hoped il would be before he
died Municipal and federal owner.
ship, he added. was a thing that would
not work out the way its agitators ex.
pected, and he thought the peopl.
would find they were playing with fire
when they got il.
Asked why he hoped railroads would
be federally owned before he died, Mr.
Underwood replied: Because the rail.
road men would get their dues
As far as he was concerned Mr..
Underwood went on, he expected he
would draw a much greater salary s.
president under those conditions be-
cause he could get il. All the rail.
road men would get just about what
they wanted when the roads were gov
crnment lines.
There are 1900. 500 railway en-.
ployes in the United States" said the
Erie president. Government owner.
ship will soldify this body and make j;
a unit that can demand and get every.
Q L.
single unit of any kind in any coun.
try that equalled il. No army of a
million ever went into the field. There
would he no force TO oppose its de-
mands. II the militia were ordered
against il the situation would be Ell.
tirely in its power. IL would refuse 70
move the militia, and do you think the
militia would walk up 10 Milwaukee
from Fort Sheridan or some equally
distant place."
When asked why fool legislation
affected conditions so much, Mr.. Under.
wood said the interference with ia.
street railroads had caused them n
stop all extensions. That, he declared,
was one of the great causes Of sloE.
ly wrcckinG the work of the mines AMI
reducing the incomes OF every doetoi
lawyer, tradesman or industrial work'
that the miner, the railroad worker o,
any one dependent on them for thei|
incomes, patronizes.
High railroad freight rates har,
had absolutely no appreciate eFee,
III increasing the cost of living Of I'll
dividuals." Mr.. Underwood remarked
Are you aware that the freight on Al
pound OF meat from Kansas City III
New York is Al mills-less than hall
cent? Yet the butcher who puts 81
fancy price on the meat say the fre,t
charge made it necessary.
The trouble is that the railroads d:
not take the pains to explain the At
surdities of the charges when the hg
and cry against them was first Stsrte!
and now the hullabalo is so great TIA
they cannot shout loud enough 10 resc'
the ear of the people and tell them ID, |
truth"
But in the case of the New Have,
road, weren't they fragrant offenders
was asked
They paid their men more sni
worked them shorter hours than ts,[
other roads did said Mr.. Underwood
But the Investigators into its attain
did not want to get the truth. The
wanted 10 make political capitsl ie
themselves. Every one close to rsllss!
atfairs knew why the New Haven peo-I
pie had wrecks, but | will say no,hinsy
about that