'Cbc Conservative.
from , and cannot bo charged to give
help to , another. To understand the
full meaning of this assertion it will bo
worth while to see what a free demo
cracy is.
The impetuous
' * patriots , thought-
OKT OUT. f
less young men ,
who knew not the real meaning of the
word Midler , and nothing whatever of
his trials in cam ] ) , on the march , and in
the crucial hour of battle , tumbled over
each other to enlist in the army for the
work of killing Spaniards in Cuba.
They seem now , unless all signs deceive ,
to bo tumbling over each other to got
out.
If it should so
PKKHAP.S.
eventuate that
complications in the Philippines shull re
quire the raising of another 100,000 vol
unteers , perhaps it might not bo so easy ,
after one trial in the tropics , to produce
them. Perhaps.
HOW THIS T.OAr IS mVIDEI ) .
The J'rolits of Capital arc th < > Leavings of
The careful student of political prob
lems hazards no opinion concerning a
matter in the first stage of its evolution
save with much caution , for he knows
that an opinion not based upon a correct
and complete understanding of all perti
nent facts is worthless. The railroad
question in its entirety is a now one.
Those who have studied it most as yet
see but little more than its complications.
Only those who have studied it not at
all are ready with a remedy for every
apparent wrong. What we shall do with
our railroads , or ratheis , what we shall
permit their owners to do with their
own is for this generation to say. So
fur the public has concerned itself with
the rights of those who use only , and
has given but little heed to the rights of
those who own or the rights of those
who work for the owners. A sop now
and then has been thrown to the latter ,
but they ore too wise not to know that
persistent attacks upon the employer's
income is but a reduction in the size of
the loaf which the employer and em
ploye divide. While years of conten
tion that the protection of the employer
by a tariff duty is necessary for the wel
fare of the employe may have failed to
satisfy many as to the soundness of that
theory , its discussion has certainly re
sulted in the universal belief that unfair
treatment of the employer or the denial
to him of equal protection under the
laws is most injurious to labor. The
appeals of the stocldiolder in the past ,
and more particularly in the Western
states , have been like the cry of an alien
in a foreign land , for prejudice has
dulled the public sense of honor ; but
the men who have made possible a new
calling , paying higher average wages
than any other and numbering more
than a million among its contented
toilers , are sure of a now and powerful
ally. Railroad statistics are being stud
ied by the employe , and the result is
startling to those now receiving their
iirst impressions in this direction. This
study should bo encouraged by every
interest and in every possible way ; by
the farmer us well as by the stockholder ,
but most of all by the laborer and by
the men who would intelligentlj' and
fuirl } ' represent him in legislative bodies ;
for these statistics disclose that if the
loaf bo but little reduced in size , the
whole portion remaining will bo less
than the part now falling to the share of
labor.
The annual report of the Atchison ,
Topeka & Santa Fe railway company ,
the principal com-
OF IOTB11EOT TO
.
fal Afc.
EMPLOYEES.
USOU , Topeka &
Santa Fe railway system , which has
just appeared , contains much food for
thought by its employes ; and as the con
dition of affairs with that company is
much the same as conditions elsewhere ,
the report must be of interest to rail
road employes everywhere. That com
pany's entire income for the year end
ing June 80 , 1898 , was $26,075,000. Of
this sum $17,524,000 , or sixty-seven per
cent , was expended in maintaining , re
pairing and operating the road-bed ,
structures and equipment.
It took every dollar of the income of
this company earned from any source
during the first
VOUAC1TYOF dht mojlths Qf
UATEKIALS.
its Baofd yar to
pay for the labor and materials required
to maintain and operate the property.
And it should be borne in mind that the
above sum contains no portion of the
amount expended for permanent im
provements , on which account $1,044-
000 was paid out during the year , all of
winch was from cash contributed as a
new investment by capitalists , who
have thus shown their renewed faith in
the integrity of the people of the South
west.
The net earnings remaining after the
payment of operating expenses for the
first two months
CAPITAL EATS AT
were $87a , 000 ,
THE SECOND TABLE , . . . , . _ .
VV JJUU LUC
OH GOES HUKflllY.
the yeap
$1,1550,000. Tims it will be seen not
a dollar of the net earnings during July
and August , 1897 , and only a portion of
such earnings during September of that
year , were available for the payment of
interest on the bonded debt ; for taxes
must be paid as well as labor. The
claims of the latter come first and taxes
second ; the bondholders third and the
stockholders last of nil. It is easy to
see that , out of the entire earnings , the
first and largest dividend , being sixty-
nine per cent of the whole , went to
labor , either directly to the employes of
the railroad company or indirectly to
the men at work in quarries , mines and
mills , engaged in producing supplies
needed and used by the railroad com
pany. Of the amount then left , and
before the payment of interest on the
bonded debt , $10 out of each $70 re
maining was contributed to the various
states , counties , school districts and
municipalities upon the line , in the way
of tuxes. And when the interest on the
bonded debt of the company hud been
satisfied , there remained but $1,700,000
for the stockholders , which was but one-
tenth of the amount expended for oper
ating expenses. In brief , labor received
out of the amount disbursed more than
ten times as much as did the stock
holders , whose share but slightly ex
ceeded that which went to the states ,
counties , school district , cities and
towns.
It is uppurent that labor's interest in
this immense industrial plnnt far ex
ceeds that of capital. Dividends may
be passed , as in the case of this property
they have been for more than ton years ,
but there is no escape from taxes and
interest. A reduction of ten per cent in
the income of the Atchison company for
the year mentioned would have left
nothing for the stocldiolders and less
thun enough for taxes , labor and inter
est. The taxes and interest are fixed
and therefore must have been and would
have been paid in case of such a reduc
tion. The deficit , therefore , must have
been suffered by labor. The company
would probably have used less materiul
and employed less labor , and there
would have been less work , not only on
the line of the railroad itself , btit in the
industries now busy supplying the enor
mous demands of this prosperous com
pany. A reduction in railroad earnings ,
like a falling house of cards , moves ir
resistibly until it reaches the last depen
dent structure.
The lesson from all this is plain :
periods of depression can be tided over
by conservative
UESUSCITATION
monftgemontB if
OR DEATH.
to make good in the prosperous years
the losses suffered in the poorer ones ,
but if the permanent earning capacity
of these companies is injured , if there is
to be no recovery from the blow once
struck by adversity or by prejudice , the
injury falls first , it is true , upon the
stocldiolder , but his margin is so narrow
that any blow intended for him must
inevitably strike the employe. That
rates are sometimes too high and that
persons and places are sometimes unreasonably - '
reasonably favored or wrongfully dis
criminated against is undoubtedly true.
That railroads should be so regulated as
to compel the equal treatment of all
similarly situated and to prevent them
from levying extortion , no fair-minded
person will deny. But those who strike
blindly at this class of capital , ignorant
of the facts and indifferent to the con
sequences , call them demagogues , radi-
