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