The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-01-09

RAILROADS OF KANSAS
LOSING THOUSANDS
PAY MILLIONS TO PEOPLE IN WAGES,
TAXES AND FOR SUPPLIES
EVERY YEAR

volume of its business during tho last |
few years without coming to grief.
Four years ago. az governor of New
York. Justice Hughes Of the United
States supreme court vetoed. . two
cent passenger law enacted by the leg
islaturo ON the ground that it was an
arbitrary procedure which did not
take into consideration q fair return
upon the railroad properties of that
state-and few men stand higher in
the esteem of the American people
than this great jurist who did perhaps
as much as any other man in the
country to break up illegal and unfair
practices ON the part OF large corpor-
atoms.
So, too. the supreme court of Penn
sylvania held that a two-cent passen-
ger fare was unconstitutional in that
state because it was essentially confis-
catory. This high court took the posi-
ton that capital invested in railroads.
as well as in other lines of private
property, il entitled to earn per cent
on fair capitalization and that the
arbitrary enactment Of q two-cent fare
rendered such q return upon the lines
In Pennsylvania impossible. It also
took the position that railroads not
only have the right to insist upon q
fair return upon both freight and pas
senger business, but that it is their
duty to do SO in order that one class of
patrons may not be compelled to pay
an inequitable rate to make up the
losses sustained in another depart
ment.
If the arbitrary enactment of a two
cent passenger rate Is unfair to the
railroads of New, York and Pennsyl-
vania, where there are large centers
OF population and where the nations
greatest density Of freight tonnage
naturally exists, how much more UNI
fair Is such rate in a purely agri-
cultural state like Kansas, which has
a total population Of only a million
and a half with no large manufactur-
ing centers?
The reader is familiar with the re-
cent per cent increase in freight
rates granted by the interstate COM
merce commission to eastern lines
and again. as the commission wisely
says, II the precarious financial con-
dition created by the European war
renders this increase necessary, how
much more are the weaker western
lines-which are compelled to exist
almost altogether upon an agricul-
tural patronage-entitled to some
substantial relief?
Facing Grave Problems.
Unquestionably we are facing some
of the gravest problems that ever con-
fronted us as a nation-and these
problems grow largely out OF a war
which il without precedent in history.
True with B. rapidly increasing cost
of operation on the one hand and re-
duced rates on the other. it was mere
| ly q matter Of time until the railroad
question was bound to become press
ing-but the great tragedy across the
seas has suddenly resolved into an
~ .{~1-
otherwise have been solved gradually
and without any far-reaching indus
] trial disturbance.
The United States is a heavy debtor
nation. During the average year our
balance of trade against the rest of
the world amounts to approximately
$780, 900, 000-but on top of this we
always owe approximately another
$500. 100000 which heretofore we
have been able to stand or by selling
Europe industrial securities to that
amount. Now, however, the great
warning countries have erved notice
that they not only expect us to pay
our debts above our trade balances in
| gold-but that in addition they look
to us to buy back from them hundreds
| OF millions of dollars worth of Ameri-
can securities which now held
abroad. 1t was to deliver this grim
| message that Sir George Paish of the
English exchequer paid ais recent Wis
it to the United States, and when he
got through making his statement to
q group of big New York bankers an
FOLD veteran financier who has sur
| vived many q financial storm re-
marked to his profoundly silent audi
tors-'The sheriff. with a writ, is on
the doorstep"
year will give us the largest trade bal
ance we have ever known IL undoubt-
edly true-and yet, with having to
finance all our monetary needs al
home from this time on and buying
} back millions of foreign owned Securi.
; ties, the future at best il precarious
However. the heaviest strain of all will
come when the war ceases and wher
; Europe begins to rebuild the hundred,
Of millions Of dollars worth of proper.
ty which has been destroyed-for thii
: period il certain to force the hfghes
} interest rates the world has evel
J known, and IL at that time American
J railroad securities are not earning 9
fair return upon the investment, moth
ing can prevent them from going int
the financial scrap heap-and 1t 10 t.
prepare for this emergency-to keeI
railroad securities from becoming I
point. of national weakness which
will bring the whole temple Of Ameri
can Investments tumbling down ovel
our heads to, protect the hundreds. O.
! banks, life and fire insurance com
panies. ETC., whose assets are Target,
invested in railroad bonds as well a
the railroads themselves-this il tn
fear which il gripping hundreds o
ftnanciers. and students of economic
conditions in tho present hour-men
many of whom heretofore have neve
seriously concerned themselves owe
the troubles of American railroads. II
! the present instance, therefore. thu
railroad crisis 10 Of tremendous i'm
i. portance because Ia it = involved thu