Railroads

REMEMBER

That every figure in this book has been verified. Should anyone dispute the authenticity of the statistics given herein, investigation at the source to which they are accredited will in all instances show them to be genuine in every particular.

The writer has taken the liberty of italicising and emphasizing certain lines and words in some of the quotations from the opinions of the courts and elsewhere.

CHAPTER 1.

Cost of transportation greater than the cost of government.-Gross and net earnings of railroads in the United States from 1830 to 1896.- Failure of Railroad Commissions to afford fair rates.Statistics furnished by Railroad Commissions not the kind the people are entitled to.- Miles of railroad constructed in the United States from 1830 to 1896.- Miles of road in each State and Territory on June 30, 1896.-Number of miles of road per 100 square miles and per 10,000 inhabitants.-Groups or territorial divisions. Total number of miles of all tracks on June 30, 1896.— General balance sheet of roads for year ending June 30, 1896.— Alleged cost of construction of roads.

In speaking of the amount collected from the people of the United States by the railroads for the year ending June 30, 1890, the following statement is made on page 10 of Part I, "Transportation by Land," Eleventh Census of the United States, 1890:

"A few facts in the summary of Table 5 are worth special notice. The aggregate earnings from operation are $1,074,104,550.13, which shows that the railroads received for the services which they rendered to the public a sum in excess of the amount collected in the form of taxes by the Federal Government, the State governments, the municipalities, and the minor civil divisions. Thus the service of transportation costs the public more than the service of government. It is something of a measure of the extent to which concentration of railroad control has proceeded in this country, to observe that $77,792,343.38 is annually received by rail

road corporations as rental upon lines leased, and $52,439,057.72 is passed to the credit of railroad companies on account of the interest and dividends upon bonds and stocks (the great majority being bonds and stocks issued by railroads), which are the property of railroad corporations."

According to the reports furnished by the Interstate Commerce Commission, Poor's Railroad Manual, and the Statistical Abstract of the United States, the earnings arising from the passenger and freight traffic do not represent the entire earnings from the operation of the roads. The miscellaneous earnings for the year 1896, not included in the earnings by the carriage of passengers and freight, amounted to the sum of $89,894,754, while those of 1895 from the same source amounted to the sum of $87,681,245. (See introduction to Poor's Railroad Manual for 1897, page iv.) From 1830 to 1896, the gross earnings of railroads in the United States from the carriage of passengers and freight amounted to more than $27,000,000,000, while for the same period of time their net earnings from the same source were over $9,000,000,000.

Many railroad manipulators and officials have grown enormously rich through rascality in the construction of roads and the fraudulent over-issue of bonds and stocks thereon. Roads that have been constructed and equipped for $18,000 or $20,000 per mile have been bonded and stocked for more than four times as much as it cost to construct and equip them; and then, for

the purpose of paying interest and dividends on these fraudulent over-issues, and giving them a market value, the people have been forced to pay exorbitant rates on the roads. Many talented but dishonest rascals have been employed by the roads, and made figurehead officials, paid enormous salaries and sent to the Federal and State capitals for the purpose of corrupting the legislative, executive, and judicial servants of the people. The people have many times attempted to have laws enacted for the purpose of controlling corporate greed and dishonesty, but the courts, while reiterating their tiresome platitudes about the right of the States to control the roads within their jurisdiction and protect the people against unjust rates and discriminations, etc., etc., usually find that the State law in question is inoperative, null, and of no binding force, for the reason that it violates the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States by depriving the corporation of its property "without due process of law," or that it deprives the corporation of the "equal protection of the laws."

The Federal and State governments have elected or appointed railroad commissions and enacted laws for their guidance in the discharge of their duties, but the labors of these commissions, instead of settling the vexed questions concerning fares and freights, have brought about a vast amount of expensive litigation in the Federal and State courts, the expenses of which have all been paid by the producers, Voluminous reports have

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