The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1923-03-15
Sank Centre. Stearns County, Minnesota,
Business Men IndOrSe the
IIPlan to Rebuild the Sank
Icentre Civic Organization

R. E. Lands, superintendent of the
Fergus Falls Division of the Great
Northern railroad, discussed the rail-
road situation in general way before
an interested audience at the Com
mercial Club rooms Monday evening.
Mr.. Lands is not an orator but his
long experience in the department of
the Great Northern, operating divl-
sion as brakeman and then conduc- |
tor, and for the past several years as
superintendent of several divisions of |
the system has made him familiar
with the conditions under which the
railroads are working, because the
conditions on the Great Northern are
not vastly different from those of any
other railroad in the country.
Mr.. Lands devoted quite little
of his time to the proposed leglsla-
ton now before the Minnesota Legls-
lature inaugurated by organized la
Dor, particularly the Full Grew Bill
on which the Herald commented edi-
torially last week.
Mr.. Lands stated that he did not
have any attack to make against or
ganized labor, neither did he have any
objections to the public exercise of
jurisdiction over rates of pay, condl-
lions of employment by employees, or
] to dictate the rates the railroads
should charge the public, provided the
regulations are such as to enable the
railroad to pay nominal dividends and
maintain the property.
Mr.. Lands proved by figures that
government ownership advocated by
radical and socialistic political classes
was impractical and would prove to
be a very expensive luxury for the
people of this nation. A constructive
policy that will build up the systems
| instead of enacting laws to destroy
1 them should be followed. The people
should not be anti-railroad, any more
than they should be anti-labor, anti
agriculture, or anti-business.
According to Mr.. Lands, the shop
mems strike, July /, 1922, cost the
railroad $250,000,OO0 in money and
the strikers $150,O00,000 in loss of
earnings. Four hundred thousand
men were inactive. In the cause,
their leaders would not recognize a
wage compromise handed down by the
legalized constitutional arm of the
4 American Government.
In discussing the rates of condpeh-
!, sation paid railroad employees, Mr.
Lands showed where freight conduc-
tors on 100 mile runs, where IA hours
were consumed, would receive $500
receive S15.45, the fireman $11.65, ano
, conductor would receive $4.20 for the
same service, or $500 less than is paic
; at the present time.
t.. EN,,1
j now pending before the Minnesota
: Legislature, Mr.. Lands stated that i
: would cost the railroads of the State
$ $1,512,000 year. He said that it wa.
t for the best interest of the railroad
: to put enough men on the train tt
!. handle them economically and will
safety. He charged that the only OBJ
ject of the Full Crew Bill was to Civ,
more men employment, and that i
was highly illogical at this time whel
people were clamoring for lowe
freight rates that this additional bur
do must eventually come out of tn,
public.
in the year 1922 the Great North
ern paid 100000 in taxes. A goo'
part of this was the five per cen
: gross earnings paid into the Mime
g sofa State Treasurer under>the Gros
e Income Tax law. In 1911 the averag
h taxes of the railroads of the Unite
r States for the year, were S444 pc
f mile and for the year 1921 they wer
e S1,142 per mile, or total of 1886,
h 1851.
O. The Great Northern system con
f sists of S,255 miles of main trac
!, which is capitalized at $249, 100000 o
:. about $4,000 per mile. The averag
!. capitalization of the railroads of tn
o United States is $4,000 per mile
!. One hundred one million dollars of tn
f Great Northern capitalization
q bonded Indebtedness. The Grea
n Northern has $4,000 stockholders, 4
y 500 of which are widows and orphans
: For twelve months ending in Angus
). 1922, the American railroads paid EN-
4 ployees 81, 100, 100000 more in wage
: than in 1917; an increase of NOR
= than 65 per cent, although there wer
fewer men employed and less bus
+. ness handled. For the handling {
. this business the railroads received /
- per cent less revenue than was re
j ceived for handling the business {
!. 1917.
IS Theer are mere than 1000 laws o
). the statutes of the nation and var
d GUS states, regulating and controlin
N the railroads, which have been er
= acted so rapidly that the legal sta
= of the railroads have been unable t
keep up in reading and interpreter
them. AS a result of too much die
tation from the years of 1916 to 1872
more than 5000 miles of railroad wa
J. abandoned, 1870 miles torn up. /
a 1921 alone, TOP miles of track wa
# abandoned, 1,750 miles torn up. |
Ne ton was suspended on LAOS miles an
5 only Ats miles built.
e, In his criticism of the Full Gre
S. bill, Superintendent Lands spok
without bitterness. He said that h
4. was formerly actively identified wit
% one of the railroad organizations; ths
is re believed they were necessary, an
= had been very beneficial to the labor
!. ing man. He said that they were Ell