The Washington herald., 1917-10-07
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP.
Telh How Attempts Heretofore Have
Always Been Tn Failures.

AiWays Rccu A4I| u auufc>.
Editor The Wo6.lnston Herald:
This 10 . condeaoe1 story of gov-
ernmental attempts to operate rail-
roads. and It II intended for the ben
efit Of those who believe that per
fection In railway operation In this
country win never be achieved until
uLcIs Sam tackles the job.
The United States government pur-
chased and now owns and operates
the Panama Railroad. which 10 forty
that the operating expenses Of the
road under this governments manage
menf are more than $4,000 per mile
annually, as compared with the sv-
erage operating expenses of rail-
roads In the United States Of y7,7oo.
The road 10 badly managed, and IN
order TO avoid showing a huge deficit
from its operation the government
charges q freight rate six times
greater than the average freight rate
In this country.
II the government can not properly
run . road that is only forty-seven
miles long, how can any one think
that IL could successfully run the
mere than 2oo.too miles of railways In
the United States?
Our States also have made expert
ments in this line. The State Of
Pennsylvania built and operate an
eighty-mile road from Philadelphia TO
Columbia. This road became SO COM
pletely involved in political crooked
ness and stupid mismana cement that
In 1851. after the loss Of more than
t2o. 10000. the State sold the line TO
the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Missouri owned and operated four
railroads-the Hannibal & st. Joseph;
the St Louis. Iron Mountain and
Southern; the Cairo and Fulton; and
the Pacific Railroad. Missouri lost
81, 900 900 In q farcical attempt to run
these roats and finally had 10 sell
them to private companies.
Moth Carolina owned and operated
the North Carolina Railroad Com
pany, the Western North Carolina
Railroad, and the Atlantic and North
Carolina Rsilroed-nearly 600 miles of
line in all. Twelve years ago. after a
long term OF mismanasemsnt and in
efficiency, and after $500, 900 had been
lost, the State went out of the rail-
way business-very wisely. selling the
roads to private companies.
Georgia and Massachusetts at dif-
ferent times tried to operate railway
companies, and the history OF their
roads is like that Of the other States:
politics, graft. plunder. and general
misnanagemsnt put the roads out OF
commission.
In Canada, France. Belgium, Aus
tria- Hungary. Italy. Russia switzer-
land and England the operation OF
railroads by the government has IN
each case proved a monumental fail
ure and has caused great suffering
to the public. The result of every
attempt at naturalization of rail-
ways has been the same.
Our present American privately
owned railway system Is the finest in
the world. In only one country in the
world do the railways haul freight 80
cheap as in the United States, and
the wages Of railway employees in the
United States are higher than IN any
country except one. The country that
has lower freight rates than ours is
India, where the cost Of labor is so
little as to be almost negligible; the
only country in which railway wages
are higher than ours is Western Aus
tralia, where the average freight rate
is almost twice as high as in the
United States.
Let's put . ban on this government
ownership talk.