50 SHOULD THE ?f ATION OWN THE RAILWAYS? 



Denver yet this coal is sold in Leadville for 19.00 to the individual consumer while tlie 

 same coal is hauled 150 miles farther and sold to the individual consumer for an 

 advance of 25 cents per ton over the Leadville price and is sold iu Denver for $7.10 per 

 ton in carload lots." 



With the government operating the railways, discriminations would cease, as would 

 individual and local oppression; and we may be sure that an instant and absolute divorce 

 would be decreed between railways and their officials on one side and commercial enterprises 

 of every name and kind on the other. 



There are but three countries of any importance where the railways are operated by 

 corporations permitted to fix rates as in all others the government is the ultimate rate 

 making power: these are Great Britain, Canada, and tlie United States, and while the Brit- 

 ish government exercises a more eflWctive control than we do there are many and oppres- 

 sive discriminations, and complaints loud and frequent and English farmers find it 

 nec(«sary to unite for the purpose of securing protection from corporate oppression as is 

 shown by the following from the Liverpool Courier of January 29th, 1891. 



"LANCASHIRE FARMERS AND RAILWAY RATES. 



"After the counsel given them yesterday by Mr. A. B. Forwood of Orma- 

 kirk, it may be expected that the Liverpool District Farmers' Club will be 

 on the watch for tangible evidence of their grievances against the railway com- 

 panies. ***** Under certain circumstances competition operates to 

 the advantage of the public, and rival carriers are constrained to convey goods from place 

 to place at moderate charges, but where a company is not held in check the tendency is 

 for rates to advance. In many cases, too, special interests of the companies are promoted 

 at the expense of localities, and even individuals are subjected to the wrong of preli ren- 

 tial charges. (There are no complaints in Britain that tliese discriminations are praciised 

 for the purpose of enriching the officials.) Hence the necessity for the Railway Commis- 

 sion to regulate the magnates of the iron road, who, when left without restraint pay little 

 regard to interests other tlian those of their share-holders." 



Although Mr. Acworth fails to mention this phase of English railway administra- 

 tion it would appear that the evils of discrimination are common under corporate manage" 

 men tin Great Britain and thatthey are inherent to and inseparable from such management, 

 and that the questions of rates, discriminations and free tralticin fuel can be satisfactorily 

 adjusted only by national ownership and if for no other reasons such ownership is greatly 

 to be desired. 



The failure to furnish equipment to do the business of the tributary country 

 promptly is one of the greater evils of corporate administration, enabling officials to prac. 

 tice most injurious and oppressive forms of discrimination and is one that neither federal 

 or state commission pays any attention to. With national ownership a sufficiency of 

 ears would be provided. On many roads the funds that should have been devoted to 

 furnishing the needed equipment, and which the corporations contracted to provide 

 when they accepted their charters, have been divided as construction prolils. or, as in the 

 case of the Santa Fe, Union Pacific and many others, diverted to the payment of un- 

 earned dividends while the public sufTers from this failure to comply with charter obli- 

 gations; yet, Mr. Dillon informs us that the citizen commits an impertinence when he 

 enquires why contract obligations, which arc the express consideration for the excep- 

 tional powers granted, are not performed. 



Another great advantage which would result from national ownership would be 

 such an adjustment of rates that traffic would take the short route and not, as under 

 corporate management, be sent around by way of Robin Hood's barn, when it might 

 reach destination by a route but two-thirds as long, and thus saving the unnecessary tax 

 to which the industries of the country are subjected. That traffic can be sent by these 

 round-about routes at the same or less rates than is charged by the shorter ones is prima 

 facie evidence that rates are too high. If it costs a given sum to transport a specifio 

 amount of merchandise a thousand miles, it is clear that it will cost a greater sum to 

 transport it fifteen hundred; and yet traffic is daily diverted from the thousand mile route 

 to the fifteen hundred one and carried at the same or lower rates than is charged by the 



