The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-24
WHO OWNS THE STOCK
 OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS:

The railroads Of the United States nave organized executive committees and bureaus with the avowed object of creating a public sentiment in op- position to the eight hour work day movement of the freight train em- p1oyes.
 In their campaign of publicity. these committees and bureaus are consci- ously striving to create the impress sion in the public mind that this movement of the railway employees in aLtagoniStic to the welfare of the public and the interest of the 1rail- way stockho1der. To this end they are making use of public addresses Of railway officials, of magazines, of newspaper articles and interviews and like means of reaching the public. And in all of these and other ways they are endeavoring to create in the public mind the impression that the American public and the railway stock holders are one and the same And to drive home these efforts to .al- lign the public and the stockholders against the denands of the train em- ployes these publicity agents are en- deavoring to show that a shorter work day means an additional bur den to 1.-the public in increased rates and aTdeprivation to the stockholders 3n "a loss of dividendsA It is this sec- ond point that we intend to discuss in this article.
 In connection with it a statement to the public issued by s'.The executive committee of the Association of Wes- tern Railways and published in the Railway Review of February 26 will serve as an introduction to the discus sicn- In this statement appears the following:
 gro total net dividends paid by the railways of the United States consid- cred system, in 1914 amounted to $S39, 900, 900, according to the In- terstate Commerce Commissi on. Th1r- ty-five per cent of the railway stock (paid no dividends. A wage increase of s$332 900 oOO would wipe out over 97p cent of all that 500, 0e0 stock holders received return on their investment"
 Ignoring as a piece of extravagant exaggeration by partisan the imag- mary increase in wages which the above statement says would result to the railroads of the entire United States by the establishment of the eight hour work <day in freight train service, it is of prime importance that we first understand clearly who these soc, 0,0OOs stockh elders really are.
 Tn the first place there are not tEese many stockholders in American railways, the number of 622, ,2S4s re- ADorted as the total in the entire United States in 1914 by the statistics of the Interstate Commerce Commission in Gluding many thousand Qup1fcduOnS. One individual corporation may, and in cases does own stock in scores and hundreds of different railway companies and in consequence he, she, or it is counted each of them scores and hundreds of times as a separate stockholder. Let us illustrate in the case of one corporate stockholder- the PennsyIyania Railroad.
 This company on June 30, 1913, was a stoclxho1der in at least 72 other transportation companies. Thus this one corporation is counted in the sta tjstfcg as 72 different stockholders. Of these 72 companies in which the Pennsylvania. Railroad is stock holder, as many as Is are in turn stockholders in 174 railway corpora lions; 23 of these TIA are, in turn stockholders. in 54 other companies; 3 of the 54 are in turn stockholders in 15 other companies; and of the IS are in turn stockholders in other companies
 This complex scheme of intercor- rorate railway stockholding is com mon throughout the entire transpor- xation system of the country.
 What -a mystic -Moorish- maze of in