Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-02-18
STARVING RAILROADS.
RC ". nanva.
rnNnaeaphlA Prior Currcns.

rHnaAssphiA Prscs Currsnt.
Wnshinston has bcen engaged for yoazs
n hroklinR and starving the rAiIroadS
and thc;r crcdit, and now tha4 tho m
dictsncnt returns upon tho bad of wash
ington. there is An outcry frusn ehe Inter
state Commerce CommAnon that the
railruads should have bscn forchandcd
and bought more cars and locomotives.
The Washington railroad regulators
.rm 70 bc quite obvious to the fact that
mon, cars and more locomotives need
morr tracks, more terminals, mose turn
tables and morc sidings upon which 20
piasc and operate them. These cannot
lie obtained without credit and the Inter
state Commerce Commission and every
state railroad commission has been for
wears assaulting railroad credit. Out
adc Of preventing rate wars not one thing
has been done by the public authorities
10 help railroad credit and thus secure
cheap money for the continuance of
cheap transportation.
To the Interstate Commerce Com
mission has not been given reprcsen-
tafivr ot finance, or even one OF practical
railroad operation, nor yet an engineer
familiar with railroad costs OF construc-
ton; not even a practical railroad me-
chan,c To its mcmbcrship-just lawyers
and theorists, and one cx-labor leader.
HILLS WARNING.
When Hill bought the Burlington he
figured that the Northern Pacific and
the Grcat Northern would be able later
10 refund the 4 per cent bonds which they
issicd 10 pay for it with 3 per cent or
So pcr cent bonds Of long term
Later Mr.. IIill discovered that the
proht had gone out of railroads, that
then, was no profit in borrowing for
transportation, hut that the profit side
was IN the lending Therefore, Mr.. Hill
turned his activities 10 banking and
money lending.
From 1906 10 1909 he sounded the
alarm, which wss UNDECIDED at Wash
IngtNn and ever State capital. He
declared that the railroads needed a bill
hon year spent upon them, for at least
hvc wears
l, is just the absence of this five bill
hon that il telling today in our railroad
forccs our first line Of national defence
and Of support for the mon who an 10
60 10 the trenches
If a railroad contractor or builder made
10 pcr cent in Texas or got construction
profits that appeared 10 hc unwarrantcd.
tho commission sounded condemnation
10 ,he whole railroad system hy adver
tiscment throughout the United States
II a State railroad commission could
find "A branch line that had not made
good ON its purchase price. i set up howl
that the public was being robbed by the
railroads because II was asked to pay
interest upon an Improbable line.
FALSE PRINCIPLES.
Tho declaration was and is today in
legislative halls that the railroad share
holders shall be limited 70 the lowest
interest return and must stand the losses
from any unprohtablc construction or
purchases, all of which mean ruin to
railroad credit, destruction TO railroad
enterprise, and false business and eco
nomic principles injected into the politi-
cal sltusfion.
Every industry and every art must stand
the cost OF experimentation and the cost
ol ohsolescenoc rs one invention super
srdes another.
We can point to trolley system where
the first power station still stands, with
three dynamos of 80 horsepower now
superseded bv later construction, of
70 600 horsepower IN one mechanical unit
That tirst construction, built hy one of
the ahlest engineers in the world, has
not today power enough IN its three
dynamos u move one modern rapid
transit trolley car The cost Of this
urinary construction must, of course,
he tied up with the later construction.
IL Is the cost OF development and OF prog
rcxs.
The users OF the trolley line must pay
for 1; either IN operating charges or in
terest charges, and when the trolley riding
public refuses 10 pay the cost OF progress
II refuses development 10 its own interest
ERRONEOUS CONDEMNATION.
Another business principle lost sight
OF IN public discussions is that corpora
ton direction and management must be
Judged not by results IN profits, but by
the intention and the Judgment exer-
oised under the circumstances and facts |
known ST the tune the business venture |
was undertaken
The New York, Westchester & Boston |
should not damn the Judgment of the
New Haven directors because crcum-
stances today make il Improbable.
Morgan's judgment that this would |
eventually be the best part of the New
Haven system was based upon the then
prices for labor, copper and steel and the
ability OF similar tirst-claSs construction
TO operate at so per cent OF gross receipts
When the subway in New ork was first
otened It's operating expenses were under
40 per cent OF the gross receipts.
All transportation costs have steadily
risen. and the advance permitted an fares
has been trifing. Judgment cannot
rightly be rendered from the circumstances
today, which are 50 vastly different from
the circumstances when an enterprise
Was planned.
No intelligent man has vet risen to
charge the New Haven directors with de !
sires Of personal profit, or corporation |