The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1922-11-23
The Economic Grab Game
IN RIcHARn LIoYn Ions

TOMPARE tne finest Oregon apple with a wild
crab and YOU have a simple parallel of the I'M
folding reinementS Of political and economic
institutions.
We found the apple wild and We tanned it. We
took he seed Of the best fruit and planted again.
BY replan'ing only the best, protecting the trees
from the insect foes, giving battle to the wrecking
worm, we have through a generation of trees pro-
duced marvellous fruit
This is not an illogical picture to present in the
conSide- alton Of railroads. A lot of people think
that We are going to the dogs. Ex-senator Petit
grew Of South Dakota, one Of our brightest but
most peSsimisnc public men, has recently written
a book TO tell us how topSy-tuNy everything is and
that We are headed for the bow-wowS.
We are not going to the bow-wowS. The good
Senator is wrong. He points to the danger of COM
binations in business. The very danger that he
fears is bringing into life the perfected fruit of gov
eminent control with ultimate government owner
ship Of the mno carriers Of the country. When
We reach that good goal We are going to create out
OF those common carriers a revenue which will
greatly reduce our tax burden.
1t is a pruning process, a program of selection
and development of that which brings promise of
the better until We get the best.
We used to be afraid Of railroad mergers. We
used to pass laws to prevent them. We thought it
a terrible system for small railroads to get together
and organize one large system, Now We think it
fine. We're encouraging it. The trouble is, a lot
of fellows who were progreSSiveS in 1889 haven't
yet got the progressive view of 1922.
Four big railroads, the Northern Pacific, Great
Northern, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and Chi
cago, Milwaukee and St. Paul are today talking
merger. This is not a terrible contemplation. We
should hope for its contamination. Ii is Just max
ing one fine, big apple out of four smaller ones. Its
improving the fruit on our national economic and
industrial tree.
If you want to see a line of old railroad crabs
just look at any passing freight train. It's a kaleid-
oscopic picture of a monumental mix-up, a moving
panorama of the ineficiency and waste of a lot of
little crab roads.
On that passing freight train you will see cars
marked New York Central, Southern Pacific, Bos-
ton and Maine, Denver & Rio Grande, Southern,
Great Northern, Lackawana, Illinois Central, Wa
bash, Florida East Coast, 500 Line, Texas and Pa
Gifts and so on to the cabooSe.
Every one of those cars has TO be distributed back
to the four corners of the continent until they get
on their own little siding. Petty, little sour crabs,
belonging to an ancient transportation tree.
The United States mail pouch is a mail pouch
anywhere from Maine to Arizona. Any railroad
car should be the same.
The more they merge the better and when we get
one big merger of all railroads, the next step will
be for the government to take them over, run them,
acquire the profit and spend it in running the bust
ness of the government, thereby reducing the tax
burden upon the tax payer.
Railroads, like apples, get better as they get big
ger. It's a great and grand grating game just like
pruning up the trees for the finer product. We are
going ahead, each day nearer to a more perfect
product.