Evening star., 1916-01-01
James J. Hill Says Situation
Has Not Changed
for Ten Years.
BILLIONS LONG NEEDED
FOR SUITABLE FACILITIES
Declares Restraints That Have Pro-
hibited Earnings Must Be Re-
laxed to Permit Remedy.
BY JAMES j. HILL.


transportation agencies OF the coun-
try today differs only in intensity and
not at all in kind f.-n that which
they have tried to solve for the past
ten years 1t has been stated so many
times and so fully that it seems use
less to repeat facts now familiar to all
who are willing to hear facts: to all
except those whose theories and acts
are based upon blind and unreason-
ing hostility to the railroads.
Nearly nine years ago l set forth
publicly the urgent need of an expen-
diture of s5.o00.O00.000 to bring the
railroad facilities of the United States
up to the level of then existing bust
ness. Many times since then l have
shown the iradequacy of our termi-
nails. These deficiencies could be sup
piled only by corresponding inve St
ment of new capital. Not only were
the railroads prohibited from earning
that money themselves. but they were
forbidden to take such reasonable
profits as would bring in new capital
for these Indispensable improvements.
Fetters Must Be Loosened.
With large portion of the railroads
of the country in the hands of re-
ceivers, the difficulty of obtaining the
still larger sums now required to
remedy conditions that have become
each year less adequate to the COM
mercial needs of the country has in
creased. Either the fetters with which
the railroads have been bound must be
SO relaxed that they will be able to
deal with the situation, or that Sltua-
tion will grow worse, to the great and
permanent injury of every business IN
terest in the United States. However
tresome it may be to repeat this
fundamental fact, there is nothing else
to be said. just al there is no other
way to make poor land produce good
crops except to fertilize It,
There is great interest in the sub
tect of military preparedness. and hun
for that purpose. But the war in Eu-
rope has demonstrated the value and
the necessity of a complete railroad
machinery for the transfer of troops
and munitions from point to point with
speed and efficiency. Not even the
number and discipline of soldiers have
decided the fate of SO many military
movements as has the ability to use the
railroads for strategic purposes
Railways Future in Peoples Hands.
To ask what the railroads of the
United States could no in a similar
emergency is to provoke a laugh. The
" uHS VI
troops in any number from place to
place does not exist, and any demand
for such use made upon railroads
would not only find them unprepared,
but would put the finishing stroke to
the congested daily traffic with whose
demands they are struggling.
In the enthusiasm with which plans
for the enlisting of men. the building
of ships. and raising of huge sums of
money for national defense are re-
ceived there ought to be some recol-
lection of and some intelligent provi-
sion for a branch of the service with
out which an entire army would be as
badly off as a man who should be Or
dered to share in a cavalry charge on
horse barely able to drag one foot
after another.
The future of the American railway
interests depends entirely on the atti-
tude toward IL of the American people
At the close of this year. as of SO many
others. the future of the railroad in
terest is in the hands Of the people, who
have assumed the direction and con-
troll of II SO far it's finances are con-
cerned. All that it asks of them is JUS
tice and fair play as these are defined
and dictated by the facts of the sit
uation now actually existing.