The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-01-05
Officials Plan to Put Question
Before the People.
But Others Think National
Vote Would Be Decision.
Other Items of General Interest
in the traffic World.
(By B. C. Forbes.)

New York, Jan. 81 am aple ~
make this important. exclusive an
nouncement:
The most powerful railroads in the
United States are seriously considering
the advisability of making the govern
ment ownership OF railroads Ieaolhs
issue in the next presidential electioh'
Certain financiers whose counsel car
ries weight are inclined to think that
the question must be faced sooner or
later and in view of this circumstance
a test might be made now more ao-
vantageously than at some future time.
The reasoning applied is TINS: Inc
public wherever they have had oppor-
tunity to record their sentiments. have
latterly demonstrated unmiStakapiy
their preference for fair treatment OF
the railroads to rabid anti-railroad leg
islation and action.
Asked to judge between the justice OF
>thc railroads position and the proposals
of corporation baiters, the public have
returned a verdict in favor of construc-
tive and against revolutionary. de-
structive action, certain extremely in
fluential railroad interests contend.
Believe in People.
If called upon now to take up con-
sideratiOn of the arguments Tor anu
against government ownership the ma
tion's voters. it is argued, would uphold
the present order rather than embark
upon so gigantic an experiment.
No decision has yet been reached, as
many practical railroad managers are
opposed to having the railroads thrown
into the storms Of a wild political sea
to be tossed-who could tell where?
The matter of fact is that railroad
men believe the public is now wiling
to give the railroads a chance to nve,
and that by consistently playing fair
with the people in al respects, TINS at
titude cannot only be preserved. but
~
agitation for an upheaval of the ex-
listing system of regulation will subside
and government ownership become
dead issue.
Under the policy now coming to be
adopted by the interstate commerce
commission, by the courts, by the
principal state legislatures, by some
state commissions and by municipalities.
railway heads declare they will be able
to operate their roads in a w"y that
will win public approval and at the
same time earn a reasonable wage Tor
the capital employed.
Plan Impracticable.
NY own view is that once the mat
ter hass been more freely discussed, at
directors meetings and elsewhere. it
will be decided not to plunge the rail-
roads into the election maelstrom, but
to strive in every possible way to pro-
vide a service that will leave little
ground for popular discomfort.
OF course, the final decision may
not rest with the railroads. The
'other side' may bring forward a gov
it a dominant issue, although the rail-
roads hardly look for such a course.
Candor compels the admission that
business in general has not been good
and that no overnight transformation
should be counted upon.
The immediate outlook, in other
words, is not very cheerful.
Let the statement be added at once,
however, that the trend is toward i'm
provement and that the worst is,
doubtless, over. This applies to solid
securiti. as well as to trade.
Money More Plentiful.
Bankers are sure tina. money will
be plentiful and cheap for all legiti-
mate commercial Purposes, particu-
1arly II, as is anticipated, the federal
reserve act be amended to enable ma
tional banks to accept" domestic
commercial paper.
With the removal of the barriers
against the free shipment of merchan-
disc from American orts our foreign
trade will receive distinct boost.
Gross exaggeration of the volume of
war orders has been INDUCED in all
along. The amount purchased by
Great Britain and France has been
grotesquely Overstated but Russia
about which little has been said-has
placed quite extern contracts for
nearby delivery.
From now on the demands for sup
plies from the belligerents cannot but
multiply. and as our imports are like
ly to be kept down to the minimum,
despite the unsatisfactory tariff, our
trade balance should reach unprece-
dented figures.