FINANCIAL REVIEW OF 1888. 



327 



Judge Fairall, and irregularities were disclosed 

 sufficient to induce him also to enjoin the exe- 

 cution of the tariff. These decisions served to 

 influence the commissioners of other Western 

 States to be more conservative in their action, 

 and complaints of injustice were confined to 

 the Iowa commissioners. The course taken by 

 the directors of the Chicago, Milwaukee and 

 St. Paul in passing the dividend on the com- 

 mon stock and reducing it on the preferred 

 September 12, aroused the European stock- 

 holders of the company to that extent that 

 they almost unanimously agreed to deposit 

 their holdings with a prominent London bank- 

 ing-house with a view to securing united action 

 for self-protection against what they regarded 

 as reckless management on the part of the di- 

 rectors. Subsequently, October IS, the Atchi- 

 son, Topeka and Santa Fe managers themselves 

 invited the co-operation of ;in American bank- 

 ing-house with European connections with a 

 view to giving assurance to stock and other 

 security holders that the financial affairs of the 

 company would be conservatively administered. 

 During November a plan was made public for 

 the organization of a railroad clearing-house, 

 intended primarily to embrace only the South- 

 western roads. But the scheme was afterward 

 made to include all lines running northwest, 

 west, and southwest of Chicago and St. Louis. 

 In the shape in which it was presented it pro- 

 voked the opposition of some of the Granger 

 roads, and this led to important modifications. 

 The consideration of the plan was subsequently 

 deferred, and early in December, in response to 

 a general demand for the adoption of some meas- 

 sures which would result in ending the rate wars 

 and in restoring and maintaining tariffs, con- 

 ferences were held in Chicago by some of the 

 Western railroad managers, which were attend- 

 ed by Commissioners Cooley and Morrison of 

 the Interstate Commission, and the fact was 

 then disclosed that the unsettled condition of 

 the passenger business resulted mainly from 

 the issue of tickets to brokers who were al- 



came aroused to such an extent that a demand 

 was made for radical reforms in railroad man- 

 agement. During the third week in December 

 there was a conference in New York between 

 the presidents of the leading Western roads and 

 bankers with European connections, which re- 

 sulted in an agreement being made to restore 

 and maintain rates, and to limit the authority 

 of subordinates to change the tariff. Petitions 

 were in circulation at the close of the year for 

 the modification of the Interstate Act, but 

 the commissioners were understood to be op- 

 posed to any essential change in the law, and 

 it was regarded as probable that nothing would 

 be done at that session of Congress. The South 

 Carolina Legislature amended the State 1 . 

 as to restore the power of the railroad com- 

 mission to regulate rates of freight and pas- 

 senger transportation. Among the prominent 

 events of the year were the placing of the Mis- 

 souri, Kansas and Texas in the hands of re- 

 ceivers ; the completion of the reorganization 

 of the Philadelphia and Reading, the Texas and 

 Pacific, and the Chesapeake and Ohio ; the 

 financial embarrassments of the Atchison, To- 

 peka and Santa Fe, resulting from the Chicago 

 extension and the railroad war in the South- 

 west ; the purchase by Mr. Gould of a control 

 of the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas; the 

 placing of the Minneapolis and St. Louis in 

 the hands of a receiver ; the changes in the 

 management of the Baltimore and Ohio ; and 

 the lease by the Louisville, New Albany and 

 Chicago of the Louisville Southern, giving it 

 connection with Chattanooga and the South. 

 Railroad construction was active early in the 

 year, and the new mileage for 1888 was about 

 7,000 miles, which, at $20,000 per mile for 

 road and equipment, would call for an outlay 

 of about $140,000,000. The following show's 

 gross and net earnings of the principal trunk 

 roads, the reports, except for the Pennsylvania, 

 being made for fiscal years, and the returns of 

 the New York Central including the operation 

 of the West Shore leased line : 



lowed an excessive commission, which course 

 was decided, by Messrs. Cooley and Morrison, 

 to be in violation of law. Revelations of the 

 methods pursued by some railroad officials for 

 the purpose of evading the Interstate Act called 

 forth the expression by the commissioners of a 

 determination to punish such violations of the 

 law as could be proved, and public feeling be- 



The Crops. The wheat-crop for the season 

 of 1888, as reported by the Department of Ag- 

 riculture, was 414,868,000 bushels, while that 

 of corn was 1,987,790.000, or about the largest 

 on record. Good authorities claim that the 

 cotton crop will be not far from 6,900,000 

 bales. Conditions for winter wheat were un- 

 favorable throughout the entire season, and the 



