Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1915-01-13

worth OF all xmas or property, rend-
ers the situation a thousand-fold
more serious. 1t means, in short,
that for a number of years to come
Europe will have no surplus money
for investment in the United States
or elsewhere and that American
railroads will have to finance their
future needs at home. How hercu-
lean this task will be, saying moth
Ing about protecting themselves
against the dumping of foreign Sc
curities, may be judged from the fact
that the bond and note obligations
which will mature between now and
the end of next year, and which the
railroads will have to meet in some
way, amount to more than $563,O0O,-
OOO-and this doesn't take a dollar S
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 if the transporta-
ton 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 American
railroad securities will have to be
reestablished as a sound, respected
and Eaying investment-and this, Oh
the basis of present railroad earn
lngs. is impossible!
For this reason the railroads of
hn1inUn hn frici is
demands that they lay this whole
problem before the people of the
entire state-that they have a heart
to-heart talk with the farmer, the
merchant, the manufacturer, the
banker, the laboring man, and all
other citizens upon this great ques-
ton which so vitality affects the flu
ture welfare of the commonwealth
and the nation.
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 payroll in half, or shut
down altogether, and thus permit
the storm to blow over without ac-
tual shipwreck. The railroads, IS
ouasi-public enterprises, however,
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 pub
lie and not to break down the COM
merce of the country they must OPP
crate their freight and passenger
trains whether they carry a full load
or only quarter of a 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 rail-
road rates they at the same time as
sumed the solemn implied obligation
to see that the railroads get square
deal-for the people are the only
power that 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 her.
culean tasks entrusted to their care,
there has been too little contact be-
tween them and the people. Again.
it is undoubtedly true that the world
of railroad finance as well as other
lines of industrial activity has had
it's share of inexcusable abuses
but just as the public does not hold
the banking world or the ministry
responsible 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 it may be said
that the railroad world is incumber-
ed with lot of phantoms which ex-
lists only in the popular fancy. For
instance, because there have been
some half dozen so-called railroad
magnates whose names have figured
nrominpptly in Wall Street MANY
people have come to believe that the
railroads of the country are largely
owned by a few rich men. AS a mat
ter of fact, nothing could be farther
from the truth. Out of the colossal
sum of twenty billion dollars invest
ed 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
small, who in many instances have
put the modest savings Of lifetime
into these securities in order that
they might lay away competency
for old age.
When, therefore, the value OF
these securities is depressed, or per.
chance destroyed, the hardship il
ten-fold greater upon thousands OF
everyday citizens-upon the frugal
mechanic in a New England factory
the widow with her life insurance
funds, and the countless other citi.
zens In every avocation and walk OF