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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1901)
8 'Cbe Conservative * THE RAILROADS AND THE PEOPLE. Paul Morton , In Now York Independent , December 20,1000. [ Mr. Morton is second vice-president of the Atohison , Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. This system is the third largest in the world , as it has nearly 8,000 miles of track and employs over thirty thousand men. Mr. Morton is a son of J. Sterling Morton , secretary of agriculture in President Cleveland's cabinet. He is now 42 years of age , and commenced his railroad career as a clerk in the land office of the Burlington when he was 16. He was chosen vice-presi dent of the Santa Fe in 1896 and now has charge of all the traffic affairs of this immense system , both freight and passenger. He is regarded as one of the leading practical railroad men of the day , and owing to his pronounced advo cacy of a consolidation of railroad properties , in what he believes to be the best interest of the shippers as well as the railroads , he is looked upon as a strong factor in the general movement toward such consolidation which is now taking place. Editor of the Indepen dent. ] One of three things is bound to come in the transportation business of the country : legalizad pooling , concentra tion of ownership , or government con trol. Of these three , the people , if they are wise , will accept the first , and it is to their very best interests to advocate it earnestly. One-fifth of the wealth of this country is invested in railroad securities , and people owning them should be protected. Unrestrained com petition would in time destroy the value of these securities , and disaster in all other lines of industry would certainly follow. Pooling. I favor legalized pooling because I be lieve the public can be better served by stability in freight rates than by unre strained competition , which is naturally destructive. Pooling , if legalized , should be under the supervision of the Inter state Commerce Commission , or some other competent body , which should have the power to decide whether pool rates ore unreasonably high or unreason ably low. Rates should always be reasonable ; they are sometimes too high , and at other times too low. There are a great many people in this country who are violently opposed to trusts or monop olies of any kind , and yet they favor unrestricted competition without realiz ing that the natural result of such com petition is concentration. If the railroads of the country are to fight each other to a finish the natural outcome will be one ownership by a few people. Personally I do not believe this would be a great calamity , but fully seventy-five per cent of the people o ; this country would protest most vigor ously against anything of the kind ; and yet , by opposing an arrangement whereby an apportionment of traffic or earnings can be made which will enable the railroads to live , they are expediting last such a condition of affairs. Unre stricted competition means that the big shipper , the colossal industrial enter prise , the institution with the greatest onnage , will continue to secure prefer ential rates , and it also means that if there are any discriminations to be made in rates that the larger cities as well as the larger shippers will get the inside. Legalized pooling would protect the small shipper and the small town , and these are the bulwark of our national prosperity , hence their interests should 36 looked after. Govern ment. Government control or ownership of railroads will probably not be attempted or advocated extensively until the public realizes that unrestricted competition has forced the railroads of the country into a few hands , and then there will be a great outcry to achieve it , notwith standing the fact that the people them selves will be to blame for the concen tration of power and proprietorship in the transportation facilities of the country. The objections to government owner ship are many , The probable introduc tion of politics into our transportations as a consequence would be a very serious objection. The extravagance with which government business is conducted is another objection. My opinion is that the postoffice department , which is often referred to as an ideal government func tion , is managed in anything but an economical way. The government pays the railroads of the United States about 28 per cent of its total earnings from the postal department and shows a large annual deficit. Private interests control the express companies , which pay the railroads fifty per cent of their gross earning * , and still show a profit. In a town of 20,000 people the postmaster re ceives a salary of three or four thousand dollars per annum , and the express agent one hundred dollars per month. The express agent is in an office that costs a thousand dollars a year. The postmaster is in the government building , the interest on the cost of which is any where from six to twenty thousand dollars lars a year. Service. I hold that transportation is a public service , and to some degree a tax , and believe that all shippers and travelers should be treated alike. I think it would be just as proper for one merchant to buy his postage stamps or his customs duties for less money than another , as it is under like circumstances and similar conditions for one shipper or traveler to have better rates of transportation than another. The rates of transportation in this \ country , both passe * ger and freight , are ewer than they are anywhere else in ho world , and the service rendered is ar superior. The tendency of rates is till downward , but this will have to be checked. The service the railroads of ihe country render is in every sense a composite service. The cost of it de- ) ends very largely upon the cost of sup- ilies and material. If the Atchison , fopeka and Santa Fe had to buy the steel rails , ties , bridges and locomotives today that it has bought in the last ihree years , they would cost the com- > any nearly four million dollars more. Fixed Prices. If it is fair to the people of the country to establish maximum rates on the com- ) osite service rendered them by the rail roads , why is it not equally fair to the railroads to establish maximum prices on labor , steel rails , ties , coal and other component parts of the service ? Is it 'air to make a price , on the wholewith out considering the cost of the con stituent parts ? Transportation by rail should be considered as a monopoly , and should be supervised as such. If the government of the United States were to have different custom houses alone the coast competing with each other as to import duties it would , in a sense , be a repetition of what is now going on in the transportation business. I do not believe , as is often claimed , | that railroads are overbonded. Most of | the western railroads have been through | a period of disaster or distress. Their 8 bonds , in many instances , have been | scaled down , as have their rates of interest , and as a general proposition the principal roads in the western country could not be duplicated today for what they are capitalized per mile. Notwithstanding these arguments in its favor , I have no hope that congress will at any time soon pass a pooling law. The fact is our public men are afraid to look this matter squarely in the face. I believe the time will come , however , when the small shippers and the small towns of the country will demand some thing of the kind for their own protec tion. The reason they have not already made this demand is because they are not fully aware of what is hurting them. Consolidation. Further consolidation of railroad in terests is to be expected. If it comes very soon it will be because of the in ability to secure proper legislation on transportation matters. The absence of a pooling law is hurrying the ownership of railroads into the hands of a few. I do not look upon this proposed consoli dation of carriers with any alarm ; in fact , I believe that if all the transporta tion lines of the country were operated as one grand system the service to the public would be superior to that now rendered , , and that charges would be "ft * V
