Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-11-20
OBSERVATIONS
(By a Cornf1eld Philosopher.)
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..

RANSPORTATION.
This is probably the biggest prob
lem in government and the one ap-
the least understood. The
people are led to believe 1t
is a very complicated matter and
even law makers when they attempt
to legislate upon the subject are con-
fronted with mass Of figures prepar-
ed by experts which tend to show that |
the masters of transportation are en- |
gagged in a purely benevolent enter
prise. Many books have been writ
ten on the cost of transporting freight
and passengers. If some wise, far
seeing statesmen in the early days Of
this Republic had only hit upon the
idea and made it the basis of his poll
tical creed that the people should
own and operate all public utilities
many of the fortunes of the few, "swol-
len to an unhealthy size,' as Roose-
welt says, that now menace the peace
and happiness of the people could
never have been created. At one time
Congress could have purchased the
while Telegraph system for the insig-
nificant sum of $3O,O0O but it de-
clined the offer and hundreds of mil
|
vention and at the cost Of the public
by private individuals.
A Hundred Years Ago.
A hundred years ago railroads.&c.
| not exist and the steamboat was just
coming into use. have searched in
| vain through the speeches and address
ses of the public men of the time to
| find some expression in favor of the
governments building and operating
railways. Fear and jealousy of con-
centrated power lodged in the central
| government seemed to be the pre-
dominating feature in politics. Pri-
vate enterprise with free competition
was depended on largely to provide
means of communication among the
people. Even the public highways in
some sections were turned over to
private capitalists to be improved and
toll gates in the middle West were
not uncommon. Besides the high
ways the people saved the public
schools and the postOt6ce, the latter
partly by accident and partly through
the foresight of Benjamin Franklin.
Golden Age of Railroad Promoters.
, The golden age of the railways may
: be said to extend through period O.
|: fifty years-from 1880 to 1880-durint
which time more fortunes we're &C
cumulated, or the foundation Of more
laid through or in connection will
transportation than all other sources
combined. 1t was the usual custom
to elect railway promoters and attor
) neys to State Legislatures and to Con
gress Everybody seemed crazy t.
get a railroad through their door
yards or near by so they could hea
the whistle of the engine which t.
them spelled prosperity. They there
fore built the railroads or Furnished
them means of doing the work AM
then generously donated them to
few thrifty promoters and permitte'
them to charge "all the traffic woul'
bear" for transportation. To illus
trate: For the building and equiv
ping of the Pacific railway STRETCHING
+. from Council Bluffs in Iowa to Sal
Francisco, distance of about 200
miles, the government supplied il
cash and cOllaterals more than 10
r millions while the cost of building tn
8 entire line was less than fifty mi
lions Five shrew yankees hypnotic
j. ed CD the government into buildin
them magnificent railway and dona
q ing them princely fortune as sol
of dowry! Just what the Hill intel
e ests got for building some railroad
: in Minnesota will be disclosed in al
other chapter, and should make might
interesting reading. The average frs
i cost of building and equipping all tn
: railroads between Pennsylvania an
q the Rocky Mountains has been compu
e ed by experts at about $1,000 per mile
s But the thrifty railway promoters an
managers capitalized both their carr
j. ings and betterments and issued stoc
q printed might be a better term-t
t cover the same so that a railway tina
t originally cost $16,000-stock bein
J. taken at par-Was capitalized as hlg
t as $4,000 per mile or even higher
So that per cent interest on its pa
value means 40 per cent on the origin
q al investment Of the promoters. Ho'
:, do you fellows who have hard strut
l. gle to pay banks even 10 per cent, Xix
s the idea of basing your freight shil
r ments on 40 per cent net railway d
}, vidends-
= The Farmer Pays the Freight.
Under the business system that pr
! walls the farmer pays the freight bot
on what he sells and on what he use
. or consumes. l cannot take the spac
- here to prove this statement but it
y true 1t is therefore of the creates
y Importance to him that freight rate
should be low. Transportation a
cost" should be the war cry of ever
= tiller of the SOIL This can only com
y through government ownership and OF
? Grafton. Uncle Sam is operating tn
- roads now but he is also paying a
y interest charge Of about billion {
y dollars annually, or nearly one thir
. of the entire receipts from transports
y ton. And unless other action is tai
n en- the Administration will be force
to turn the railways back to their owl
= ers after the signing of the Treaty G
. Peace Government owned railroad
. including the terminals would put tn
producers on the same basis as mic
dlemen in handling their products s
they could have their own packin
plants, cold storage, warehouses, eli
s vators and Touring mills and the LIKE
Today the farmer gets about IS cent
Il of the dollars worth of wealth he crt
i ates and manages to live. The middl
men get the balance and are natural
a opposed to any system or change tina
i would increase the farmers share be
e cause it would necessarily reduce thei
1 II