108 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS 3 CONVENTION. 



for farm products, clothing 12 per cent, fuel and lumber 28 per cent- 

 all commodities 15.9 per cent, which in the last two years has increased 

 to probably 20 per cent. Wages paid by railroads have risen propor- 

 tionately. Relatively, therefore, railroad rates would be about 20 per 

 cent less than in 1895, even if the figures had not been changed. But the 

 rates, passenger and freight, have decreased actually as well as rela- 

 tively. Lately, notwithstanding that passenger trains are crowded, 

 freight cars loaded heavily, locomotives carrying loads up to their capa- 

 city—conditions most favorable to maximum earnings— the increase in 

 expenses and lower rates has been such as to reduce the net revenue 

 to railroads, compared with last year, though the business carried has 

 been the greatest ever known. 



This, I think is of interest to you, because it is your problem as well 

 as ours. To increase transportation facilities that will be needed to 

 meet the growth of your business, somebody's privately owned dollar 

 must be invested in railroads. And he won't invest it unless he has 

 confidence that you and I and all the world are going to afford it the 

 same protection as if invested in some other business. 



It won't do to say that the general troubles of railroads are due to 

 mismanagement. There is probably the same proportion of mismanage- 

 ment as affects other important lines of business; for men, whatever 

 their vocations, are not classified as to their honesty, ability, or energy 

 by their lines of work, provided the work be honorable. But all the rail- 

 roads have suffered— not one has been exempt. The record of security 

 values will show that. The stockholders of railroads have not been 

 turning things up side down; they have been satisfied quite generally 

 with their managements. Men controlling and operating railroads are 

 not different from other men. 



This I would like to bring home to you as a matter of vital interest. 

 The people of California have the lowest freight rates, distance consid- 

 ered, in the world to move their products to Eastern markets. Reduc- 

 tions that would wipe out absolutely net revenues to pay interest on that 

 dollar I have referred to would mean an average reduction in the United 

 States of less than 6 per cent in the freight and passenger charges paid 

 to railroads to-day. That means little to you and far less to the aver- 

 age citizen. But the service the railroad gives you, dependent upon 

 the investment of somebody's money, is of vital importance in your busi- 

 ness, and you can afford to protect that investment to get the service. 



We hear a good deal about water in railroad stock. How about Kan- 

 sas land, now worth $100, that was worth $1.25 per acre until somebody 

 built a railroad to it?— or the value of the village property until the 

 railroad came and the village was transformed into a city?— or of a 

 newspaper that grew with the city and that now has a value far beyond 

 the cost of its type and presses ? Gentlemen, everywhere, in every line 



