Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-01
R. R. INVESTORS LEAGUE
By FRANK CRANE.
Copyright. 1912

What shall be done about the rail-
roads?
This is the question asked by the
Railway Investors League in a pam
phlet of date April Is, and no class
has a better right to speak.
The railway officials have presented
their plan.
The shippers. the users of the rail-
ways. have presented their plan.
The wage-earners. the employees, the
laborers on railways have told what
they want.
The bankers who finance railways.
the economists who theoriZe about
railways and the politicians and leg
islators who make laws for railways
have had their say.
Also the national government, which
is supreme above us all. has laid its
hand upon the railways, using them.
as it used all our lives and property.
for it's own purposes, of defense and
victory, against which action, as an
exigency of national necessity, no
good citizen of course has any objec-
ton.
But the war is over. The problem
of forming permanent policy is be-
fore us.
| And in the determination of that
program no group of people have a
better right to be heard than those
who actually own the railways
/. These persons are they who own the
stocks and bonds of the railways.
And their name is legion. AS Mr..
James Speyer. head of the banking
house of Speyer & Co.. which for more
than half century has been ldenti-
fed with railroad financing. says:
There is unique opportunity for
settling the railroad problem in a
comprehensive way while railroads
are still in the hands of the govern
ment and before they are returned to
the owners. 1t would be great pity
if this opportunity should be missed.
because another may not occur Tor
many a long year.
There is a mistaken notion that
the railroads are owned by few
rich men. There are over a million
shareholders and many millions of
bondholders. 1t is time that the own
ers of railroad securities, many of
moderate means, stand up and insist
on their rights.
TT is not only fair toward these in
vestors but also necessary for the
country that railroad credit should
be restored, otherwise no new CAPT
Idl CAN De ODldiHcu
THE owners have right to ask
Congress to pass real comprehensive
legislation to settle the railroad
problem permanently. just as the cur
rency question was settled through
the reserve bank act. viz. in way
fair to all interests and for the bene-
fit. of the country as whole
The organization known as the
Railway Investors League has been
formed to ascertain the will of them
that really own the roads and to
make this will felt in legislation.
So far this league has expressed it
self in three demands:
l. That the railways be returned
to private ownership as soon as pos
sible. The reason of this is because
our government is tied up with the
system of party politics.
2. That the railways be under con-
troll and regulation by the national
government, which. should guarantee
to the owners a fixed return on the
amount of their investment
3. That the relation between the
government and the railways should
be cooperative and not antagonistic;
the roads being handled by an admin
judicial body at Washington
and subsidiary regional boards, some
what along the lines of the federal
reserve system"
Whether this is the way out we
cannot say until we hear from our
greatgrandchildren But certainly.
in. the meantime, the vast army of
folks who have invested their saw
ings in railway securities have
right to be heard.