Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1919-05-21
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP
BY Hugh Reid
OF the Department ! Of Labor

OF = the Department Of Labor. -
The most important fact to have in
mind in considering the railroad prob
lem is that we have neither govern
ment ownership nor government oper-
alton at present. What we have is
private ownership with guaranteed
dividends, plus private operation tine.
tured by 4 large degree of public fegu:
latf0n. - ~.
There are two advantages to be
gained by government ownership. One
has to do with ownership and the
other with operation. We know no.
thing of the advantages to be gained
by the first, and have only smatter.
ing of the blessings of the second.
We know in a general way that the
expenses of the various law depart
ments have been reduced by 81, 500 900
annually. We know that consolida-
ton of offices is saving $23;566, 633
year, that competing. and unnecessary
trains have been eliminated, and that
other large savings are being made
by the shortening of routes and the
consolidation of repair facilities. We
the real savings that can be effected,
IlOI Coll VIC AdhO CAO0O odSAA6S uACA
the present anomalous status of the
roads is ended.
The magic in government owner.
ship, financially at least, is bound up
in unification. There is current
idea that we have already unified the
roads. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. Mr.. McAdOo worked wond-
ers: considering the material he had
to deal with, but We have barely be
gun the process of unification.
AS offering but glimpse of the
possibilities, let us take the car situa-
tion If we were under public owner
ship, any freight car in the country
would be at home anywhere in Amer.
lea. AS it is, we still maintain the
same costly army of tracers checking
and locating the property Of each indi
vidual company. Swarms of clerical
officials are used to keep books not
only between the different systems,
but within each individual system.
For there is no diminutiOn in the
amount of corporate bookkeeping.
Consider, for instance, the Pennsyl-
vania lines, one of the most efficient
of American railway systems. We
think of it as a single company. It
is not The commercial manuals show
| fifty-one subsidiary companies con-
stituting the system, and each of these
| companies checks, audits, and reports
| for itself. Yet the Pennsylvania sys-
tenn is one of the most profitable roads
| in the country, because it's compet1.
tors are similarly loaded down with
| armies of clerks to maintain the bal
ance between the minute subdivisions
of each road.
Unification would do away with
such useless service. David J. Lewis
aptly compares the potential saving
with that of the Post Office. An ex-
! press parcel undergoes no less than
| twelve separate clerical processes, all
of which were superseded in the Post
| Office by the simple affixing of a
postage stamp.
Such unification, however, must be
real. It can take place only when
every mile of track in the country is
in one single undivided ownership.
There must be not a federation of
roads, but one road. The best that a
| private consolidation can effect is a
corporate federation of many owner
ships. Such a union is no more unfl.
| cation than a dozen pieces of wood
are plank.
This multiplicity of companies
makes for costliness and completely
| everywhere. Ratemaking in Great
Britain and America is complicated
process. Tariffs that require count
less volumes are in other countries
compressed to books of $50 pages.
An American railroad expert who once
proposed the condensation of our
rates to 900 pages was considered
a hopeless optimist! Yet the Prus.
sian table of rates occupies exactly
100 pages
Great savings can be effected by a
proper coordination of rail and water
facilities. The commercial greatness
of Germany was built not on the
Wanted efficiency of her manufacture
ers but on cheap transportation Rail
and water were one, and the inland
manufacturer had access to the sea.
America has barely touched her wat
er facilities. Private ownership of
railroads in America has meant the
sitting of such water ways as existed.
II we are to use our 8,465 miles of
navigable coast line on the oceans
and Great Lakes and our 26,400 miles
of navigable rivers it must be by
wiping out the great interests which
will lose financially if we use our
water ways. Under private ownership
either rail or water must be primary
Only the Government can make both
the servants of commerce:
Much is made of an increase in
rates under Federal control. That
question is neither here nor there, for
no private company has so far offered
to reduce the rates. The chief objec.
ton to government retention of the
roads is the heavy financial deficit
which must be met by taxation. For
the information of those who are wOr-
ried about the billion-dollar deficit pre-
dicted for the coming year certain ex-
after all, easily explained. For many
years the railroads have been paying
dividends that were not dividends at
ly road in the country had as many
cars at the outbreak of the war as it
had in 1913. Rolling stock and equip
ment alike were deteriorating and
were not being replaced. Returns to
railroad investors of late years have
been analogous to the returns receiv.
ed by the careless farmer who with.
draws the fertility of his soil year by
year and puts none of it back. James
j. Hill said some years ago that the
railroads of the country would have
to spend more than $500 ,OOO, 900 for
betterment before they would become
:. efficient The railroad Administration
is spending it, Less than 5000, 600, OOO
of the deficit is due to operation The
ho1onoo to addition
to railroad values. s = n :
Il Not oil NJ tho dof7oit houounr T.