The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1919-08-30
RAILROAD RHETORIC AND TRUTH

RAILROAD RHETORIC AND TRUTH
The attorney of Chicago who ten days ago leaped into the
newspapers by proposing the astounding railroad proposition
which the world has since been discussing, the other day
ripped off the usual screamer about the 1niqulties OF wall
street. That's the old stuff with which they used to scare
many and terrify others. He said, in this instance, that Wall
street is the railroad robber that keeps shippers paying high
rates and workers receiving low wages.
OF course that attorney did not take the pains to get The
facts. That would not do, for they would upset his rhetoric.
What are the facts? Here are some: The railroads last year
took in five billion dollars, for freight and passenger services
rendered. OF that five billions, over four billions. or more
than so per cent, was paid out to labor, from the top to the
bottom, and for such materials as are Immediately the product
of labor. Get this fxed-five billions received, four billions
paid out to labor and for the products of labor.
That left nine hundred million for the stockholders, note
and mortgage holders and the wicked b%ondholders of the rail
roads. With nearly twenty billions invested, they got on the
whole sum considerable less than 5 per cent-and that is on
their bonds, their stock and mortgage and other notes, and
evidences of Indebtedness. On millions, yes, on billions Of
paid. Ona few stocks, those of the best located and best man
aged roads, 6 and 7 per cent We're paid and on a few as high
as 10, but those represented investments above par.
And of course, Wall street did not get this money. but it
went all over the country, wherever a man or a woman lived
who had a bit Of railroad stock-as a in matter of fact, the Wall
street men do not own railroad stocks for they are not big
dividend payers, nor sure ones. All that Wall street does
with railroad stocks is to buy and sell them on commission for
ether folks.
He cites, the attorney does, some of the scandalous rail
road manipulations. and somewhat recent wrecking OF the
Rock Island, the New Haven, and he might have gone back
to that great railroad brigand of the past, Jay Gould. But he
should have explained that all crooks are not in the railroad
world, that some are in other departments of life, not excepting
the legal profession, and not excepting the mining industry.
The Rock Island was plucked and so was the New Haven, and
the name of Jay Gould is still anathema in the financial world.
Frank and Jesse James at one time did a banking business,
but we do not now condemn banking on that account They
were thieves and there have been thieves in the railroad world.
We have made laws against their operations and they have
proved fairly satisfactory.
We have had our George Graham Rices and our John
Grant Lymans and others of their ilk in the mining world,
but are we going to condemn the mining industry on their
account and ask the government to take it over and place its
management in the hands of politicians?
This is old stuff, but it can always be rewarmed in each
period of hysteria. The truth is that the men and the, women
who own the railroads have received less on their moneys
invested than almost any other class OF investors. Most OF
them would be glad to sell to any one at par, and to the gov
eminent most of all, for it is surest pay. Year after year they
hope for a dividend next year, but each year there was an
assault on the railroads, most of the time by the politicians
who were getting ready to run for office the next year, and
The result was no dividends. And yet their money was in
there, and the public was using it, and they were entitled to
something on it-as much so as another is entitled to his
interest or his wages.
But bear in mind that labor has been getting, in one form
or another, more than four dollars out of every five that have
been paid to the railroads-fourd dollars out of every five. We
are glad of it, for labor is the biggest thing about railroads and
labor is the energy of the country.
But let's be just and fair enough to remember that engines
and cars and steel rails cost something too and that the men
and women who were induced to lend their savings to the
companies to buy those things are entitled to some considera-
ton. They received last year less than 5 per cent on their
investments, bonds, stocks and so on. And many of them