Texas and Her Railroads
BY
W. B. SCOTT, President
SOUTHERN PACIFIC SUNSET-
CENTRAL LINES
HOUSTON, TEXAS
April 5, 1914
UtBRARY
rt.'nr;.!! OF f?A!V-VS^ :CO?vOMtCa,
■Ai ASíiíNGTONi o. g.
When we state that the fundamentals of individual and col¬
lective prosperity are indissolubly tied up in the extension,
maintenance and prosperity of the railroads, we may be ac¬
cused of using an expression that is not only trite, but time
worn. Yet, at the risk of being considered wanting in original¬
ity, we make this statement, and would add, that the desti¬
nies and future of the United States and its millions of people
are so bound up in the transportation lines and facilities, that
any movement or thing, calculated to interfere with the rea¬
sonably free operation of their units, as applied to earning
power, or which may stifle their enterprise by unnecessarily
burdensome restrictions, will sap the actual vitality of the
country and create conditions which will seriously affect the
fortunes of our whole people.
There is nothing very radical in this utterance. It is based
upon the magnitude of the transportation industry as a whole,
and the fact that this industry is part of every other industry
in some degree or other, or is a base upon which the entire
business of the country is founded. When it is considered that
the revenues of the railroads approximate yearly over three
billions of dollars, and that of this, nearly one-half is immedi¬
ately returned to the money circulation of the country in the
form of wages to employees, the relation of the roads to one
class of the public may be easily understood and appreciated.
That some forty per cent of the earnings go to the purchase
of material also makes it clear that the rail lines and the man¬
ufacturers have much in common, and whj' years of railroad
economies are known as "lean 3'ears" and years of unprofit¬
able operation for the thousand and one industries whicli co¬
ordinate the extent of their activities and output to the de¬
mands of the roads. A glance at the index of any of the great
trade publications will show the number and variety of the
labor emplojdng establishments which supply the railroads
with the almost innumerable articles of daily use, and in this
item alone will the observer witness the fact that not alone
are entire industrial plants, but entire industrial communities,
devoted to and developing on the ever increasing requirements
of the transportation lines.
3
THE GENERAL RAILROAD SITUATION
Mr. Howard Elliott, Chairman of the New England Lines, re¬
cently said:
"The growth of the railways in the United States is with¬
out parallel in any other nation. In their present form these
railways have been constructed practically within the last fifty
years. The total operating revenues of railways earning
$1,000,000 or more for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1913,
were $3,057,089,811, of which $2,134,363,789 came from trans¬
portation of freight and $678,440,089 from carrying passen¬
gers. In the same year these railways paid out for expenses
$2,118,529,173, of which $407,156,008 was for maintenance of
way and structures, $501,663,582 for maintenance of equip¬
ment, $1,074,914,428 for the actual expenses of transportation,
and $134,795,155 for administration and traffic expenses. The
net operating revenues of the railways of the country in the
last fiscal year amounted to $938,560,638, out of which was
paid in taxes $123,682,118.
"The railways east of the Mississippi, and north of the Ohio
and Potomac Rivers, in the same year, did a business of
$1,386,073,429, of which $992,403,390 was from freight and
$293,234,927 from passengers carried. For the three items
which make up between 90 and 95 per cent of the expense of
operation, maintenance of equipment, maintenance of road¬
bed, bridges, etc., and transportation, these roads spent in 1913
$246,727,105 for maintenance of equipment, $180,273,335 for
maintenance of tracks, bridges, etc., and $502,734,000 for trans¬
portation.
"Everyone admits now that the transportation question in
this country is a very vital one, and these few figures are given
to emphasize its importance. And the importance to the gen¬
eral welfare is not alone in the service rendered by transport¬
ing man and his property, but also because the railway is a
great paymaster. The railway payroll is one of the greatest
payrolls in the country; more than 1,700,000 employees, re¬
ceiving in wages and salaries last year nearly $1,250,000,000.
Adding the families of those employees, there are nearly
7,000,000 people, about 7V2 per cent of the total population,
supported by this payroll. Think of what this means to the
communities in which these railway employees live, to the
tradesmen to whom their earnings go for food and clothing!
Think of the effect upon the business interests of this country
generally of the distribution of this sum of money, passing
through the hands of this multitude of purchasers into the
channels of trade. It would be difficult to find a person in this
country who is not, in one way or another, benefited by this
employment of labor. The railway employee is an important
factor in his community, and there is no better proof of the
theory that the prosperity of a railroad and the section it
covers are interdependent than that furnished by the part the
railway employees' purchases play in helping business.
4
"Out of $2,750,667,435 which the railways earned in 1910,
$1,143,725,305, or 41.58 per cent, were distributed in wages and
salaries; in 1911, out of $2,789,761,669, $1,208,466,470, or 43.32
per cent, and in 1912, out of $2,826,917,967, $1,243,113,172, or
43.97 per cent. And each year this wage distribution has been
taking a larger proportion of the railway dollar. Between
1910 and 1911 there was an increase of 5.66 per cent in the
payroll and only 1.42 per cent in the operating revenues. Be¬
tween 1911 and 1912, the increase in the payroll was 2.87 per
cent, and in operating revenues 1.33 per cent. There are no
very complete statistics of the amount of material purchased
by the railways, but it is very large, many hundreds of mil¬
lions of dollars."
THE RAILROADS OF TEXAS
The State of Texas and its constantly increasing population,
and particularly that part of the population in the rural sec¬
tions—the producing element—is vitally interested in every¬
thing pertaining to the maintenance of its railroad facilities,
to say nothing of a constant extension of those facilities.
Thousands of square miles of territory within the arable sec¬
tions of the State are minus adequate transportation oppor¬
tunities, without which these sections cannot possibly aspire
to any particular commercial or agricultural aggrandizement.
The life of trade and traffic is in the means of transportation,
and the fertile, yet unproducing, acres must lie fallow, await¬
ing the coming of the steel arteries which may eventually
cause the inert possibilities to throb and pulse with the prom¬
ise of accomplishment.
With an area of 265,806 square miles, Texas today possesses
15,283 miles of railway—increasing the mileage during 1913
but 342 miles. Any excess of miles operated in Texas is due
only to comparison with much smaller states, and does not in¬
dicate that Texas has stimulated railroad development through
any particular liberality, at least in late years, when the de¬
mands of civilization and modern progress would seem to
have made such action more or less necessary, or at least
desirable.
Day by day has the existence of the railroad been made
more miserable. For some time regarded as an Ishmael
against whom or which every man's hand was raised, and
even now, when the pendulum has swung hack towards its
starting point, considered as an element against which the
glance of suspicion was to be directed for fear some unlawful
5
act or suggestion might work detriment to the body politic or
to the peace of mind of the citizenship of the State.
The railroads have been baited and browbeaten in court
and out of court. They have been made to suffer for the al¬
leged misdeeds of a thousand forefathers—"purveyors of pred-
atorj' wealth"—who rode to the pinnacle of success through a
sea of watered stock and the use of a skeleton key which
unlocked the doors of legislation and gave access to the enact¬
ors of the law. If these conditions were actually of effect a
generation or even a decade ago, and we are not prepared to
admit they were, why shonld the railroads of Texas today
be "demogogued" and put on the defense every time a prom¬
ising candidate concludes to take the dear people into his
confidence and tell them why he would make a good officer of
some sort or other?
The railroads are not avowed philanthropists, nor do they
attempt to operate their properties upon any but a purely
business basis in which selfish interests naturally dominate.
Do they not also dominate every other business? Are the
butcher, the baker and candlestick maker operating their sev¬
eral callings becanse of a love for their fellow, or to make a
living? But even agreeing to the lack of philanthropy on
the part of the transportation interests, we still feel that the
element of sympathy and sentiment is not entirely wanting, for
no organized business institution has in times of private or
public distress or calamity done more than the railroads to al¬
leviate conditions and sufferings not of their wanting nor
making. Yet in doing these things they are merely doing what
they ought to do; but, recognizing this, what is done is done
quickly and cheerfully, and usually well done.
NOT A PAYING INDUSTRY
The fiscal year ending June 30th, 1913, showed the thirty-
three Texas railroads earning a gross total of $118,617,454.
The operating expenses were $92,609,612, the net income be¬
ing $26,007,842, with other income given as $1,907,227, or a
gross corporate income of $27,915,070.
To measure against this income, items including taxes,
rentals, leases, hire of equipment, interest on bonds, debts,
etc., aggregating a total of $30,050,656, were properly charged,
tlie result being that instead of the thirty-three roads men¬
tioned really earning any money, they actually sustained a
deficit of $2,135,586. This does not mean that all of the lines
6
failed to earn net revenue, for some of them did, but it does
mean that the burdens of operation set seriously upon the
majority of the Texas lines, and that of the total number of
roads, twenty of them sustained deficits which in one instance
ran as high as $1,227,000.
It may be seen at a glance that no business can exist for
more than a limited period where the outlay is greater than
the income, and a consideration of the subject from a serious
standpoint would seem to suggest the need of a readjustment
of conditions so that the roads, provided they are well man¬
aged and properly supervised, be given the right to exist and
a right to earn a legitimate interest upon the gross sum of the
investment, thus applying a principle well recognized in com¬
mercial circles and one conducive to at least a moderate suc¬
cess.
The Texas roads increased in mileage from 8,654 to 15,283 in
the years 1891 to 1913, or a growth of 6,629 miles in twenty-
two years. In the same period the gross revenues increased
from $35,666,491 to $118,617,457, or a gain of $82,950,956 in
gross. Figures just compiled for six months, July 1st to De¬
cember 31st, 1913, show however, that the lines included de¬
creased their gross earnings in that period practically $4,000,-
000, while the expenses of operation increased $883,352. In
the six months taxes alone increased $630,801, while interest
on debts increased $287,056. Thus, while the roads earned
$60,827,340, the operating charges were $45,981,797, or in ex¬
cess of the corresponding period $883,358. Fixed charges to
income of all sorts increased $824,761 ; the total figures, which
include the loss of revenue and increase of expense, indicating
an actual difterence against the roads of $5,539,130, the net
income for the six months of 1913 being $600,119, as compared
with $6,139,249 for 1912.
There is little necessity for suggesting the significance of
these statistics. As the phrase goes, "Everything going out,
nothing coming in," and we feel constrained to ask in all sin¬
cerity, what can the possible result be to the transportation
lines and to the welfare of the State and its people if the con¬
ditions outlined herewith are permitted to continue? The
answer should be easy and will be comparatively simple, if
the parallel is applied to the operation of an ordinary manu¬
facturing plant or other commercial enterprise, or even a small
farm holding, where, notwithstanding the practice of a proper
and necessary economy, the cumulative expenses exceed the
income.
7
WHERE THE MONEY GOES
The railroads of Texas, and incidentally the Sunset-Central
lines, have religiously endeavored to give the people of the
State an adequate and safe means of transportation despite
the ever increasing burden of expense. Speaking for our own
individual lines, we have constantly worked to this end. Heav¬
ier steel rails; steel passenger equipment; the finest locomo¬
tives money could purchase; additional freight cars of all
classes; ballasted tracks; heavier steel bridges, and a hun¬
dred other conveniences have been provided, year by year—
borrowing money for that purpose, and hoping that increased
production of factory and field would provide sufficient ton¬
nage and revenue to justify the expenditures.
It has been uphill work. Strikes of employees, all unneces¬
sary, have cost our interests millions of dollars which would
otherwise have gone into property improvements of all kinds.
The floods of last October and December, in addition to
curtailing prospective tonnage, cost us in actual money nearly
half a million dollars—gone, never to return; lost absolutely.
The effects of legislation. State and Federal, have been very
apparent in increasing expenses. Equipment of cars with
safety appliances cost nearly a million dollars. Elimination
of grade crossings, $240,000; electric headlights, $53,000; self-
dumping ash pans, crossing bells, etc., $20,000; boiler inspec¬
tion, $40,000; vestibules, steel platforms on old passenger cars,
$53,000, while nearly $600,000 was voluntarily spent for auto¬
matic block signals.
We make no complaint as to these expenses, as we consider
them necessary, but only indicate a few of the avenues through
which our earnings are escaping in order that the public may
appreciate the opportunities for expenditure. Much legisla¬
tion was attempted, but failed because of an awakened public
interest, which, had it been enacted, would have additionally
■swollen the outgo.
At the risk of being considered both prosy and prolix in
supporting our argument by the use of figures, we beg to sug¬
gest for consideration the item of taxation. In 1906 the Sun¬
set-Central lines, as an illustration, paid taxes in Texas to the
extent of $336,854. Each succeeding year has witnessed an
increase in the total of payments, the year 1913 being signal¬
ized by the heaviest tax in the history of the system, that of
$1,056,929, or an increase of $720,075 in eight years. Today
the tax payments are almost 5 per cent of the gross earnings
of the lines at issue.
8
And again; material costs have more than kept pace with
the cost of high living. Lumber, one of the articles much in use
on our lines, has advanced 70 per cent since 1897; switches,
146 per cent; cast iron, 64 per cent; paint, 30 per cent; brasses,
65 per cent; pipe, 29 per cent; steel rail, 50 per cent, and
practically every article used by railroads shows an eleva¬
tion in price.
Labor rates have not been permitted to sleep. From
1900 to January 1st, 1914, rates of pay on the Sunset-Central
lines have undergone a perpendicular increase which has cost
millions. Thus :
Per cent.
Passenger engineer pay has increased 331/3
Freight engineers' pay 29
Passenger firemen 62
Freight firemen 26
Passenger conductors 371/2
Passenger brakemen 35
Freight conductors 39
Switchmen 81
Agents 17
Operators 15
Overtime rates increased from 9 to 100 per cent and in train¬
men from 57 to 100 per cent, while in some instances hours of
labor were reduced.
The matter of personal injury payments represents an item
which alone seriously affects the earnings of the Texas roads.
In the nine years from 1900 to 1908, the lines earned $613,-
726,540 and paid out 2.362 per cent of this amount, or $14,-
496,220. The payments for 1910 were 2.491 per cent of $94,-
731,460, or $2,359,790.
In contradistinction to this it will be noted the percentage
of personal injury payments by all the roads of the United
States, exclusive of Texas, was only .802, or less than 1 per
cent of the gross earnings, as compared to nearly 21/2 per cent
in Texas.
THE TEXAS ROADS PROPERLY CONSIDERED
This would seem to suggest the fact that the Texas roads
are not given the same degree of consideration nor justice as
falls to the lot of the transportation lines in the other states.
We believe, however, that our citizens are as intelligent as are
any people in the world, and when they realize that the inter¬
ests of Texas and its entire population are inseparable with
those of the railroads and other similar corporations serving
the public, that the suggested conditions will speedily change
for the better. If the sixteen million dollars paid for personal
injuries, or at least that portion which represents a purely
9
sentimental award, had been applied to the building of new
depots and other conveniences, the result to the State would
have been more beneficial.
Since 1902 the Sunset-Central lines expended in betterments
and additions (by this we mean anything which added to the
actual value of the property, including motive power and roll¬
ing stock) $21,074,097, or 25 per cent of its actual net earnings.
That this was not half enough is evidenced by the present
necessities of the system and the indefinite withholding of im¬
provements of various character which would have conduced
to the comfort and convenience of the people, and the more
rapid and better transportation of themselves and properties.
Nearly twenty million dollars worth of work on buildings,
track and bridges, and the purchase of new equipment, which
was scheduled for 1914, has been abandoned because of the
inability to co-ordinate the expenditure with the possible reve¬
nue.
For instance, the Sunset-Central lines in Texas actually lost
$952,596 as the result of twelve months' operation to June 30,
1913-—this after paying taxes and fixed charges, but making
no provision for additions nor betterments to the properties.
Little explanation would seem necessary in view of these
figures, and taken in connection with the figures previously
given affords food for additional thought and speculation. It
may not he amiss, however, to state here that with an ever
increasing cost of operation, due partly to increased cost of
material, labor, taxes, etc., freight rates are almost correspond¬
ingly decreasing. The candle is being consumed at both ends,
as it were, and the public denied the prospect of improved
service and additional facilities simply because the roads have
not the money with which to make the changes or improve¬
ments desired, and the effect is more widespread because of
curtailed expenditures as aftecting industries which supply the
roads and which are also large labor employing concerns, and
which, to he profitably operated, cannot he restricted in their
output.
Railroads, like other commercial institutions, have certain
commodities for sale, viz : transportation of persons, transpor¬
tation of goods. Out of the sale of this transportation must
they find their revenue. If the price of sale is too low, then
the establishment cannot make a profit and if it cannot pro¬
vide the necessary funds for operation, must cease to be a
going concern. There must he a limit to the present loss or
the roads will be faced with cither a decided decrease of
high priced service or placed at the tender mercies of a re¬
ceiver, and in either instance the public must sufi'er accord¬
ingly.
The remedy, when it is acknowledged the roads are intelli¬
gently and economically administered, is indicated in an in¬
crease in the freight rates sufficient to overcome the loss and
to meet the increase qf expense in operation due to causes
10
already set forth. Quite recently the Texas roads made appli¬
cation to the Texas Railroad Commission for permission to in¬
crease the freight rates. The Commission viewed the request
from a different angle and refused to grant same.
WHAT FIVE PER CENT INCREASE IN FREIGHT RATES MEAN
It may seem to some that this action was inspired by a
proper regard for the pockets and welfare of the people, but
the truth is, that if the rates were increased to the extent sug¬
gested its effect upon the public would actually be inappre¬
ciable. An increase of 10 per cent in all rates would of course
apply on the rate per 100 pounds by class and commodity. For
instance, the approximate increases on certain articles of
common use would he:
Suit of clothes $0.0055
Man's hat 0.0017
Overalls 0.0024
Candy in pails, per lb 0.0008
Pair shoes 0.0042
Whiskey, per drink 0.0001
Beer, per glass 0.0004
Tobacco, per plug 0.0001
Matches, per box 0.0002
Baking powder, per can 0.0007
Potatoes, per bushel 0.0240
Axe handles, per handle 0.0001
Axes, per axe 0.0024
Barbed wire, per reel 0.0260
Mower 0.0300
Plows 0.0300
Hoes 0.0002
Cup and saucer 0.0001
Corrugated iron, per sheet 0.0045
Fire brick, per brick 0.0014
Bagging, per yard 0.0004
Canned goods, per can 0.0005
With an increase of a trifle over a half cent on a suit of
clothes, a fifth of a cent on a hat, less than half a cent on a pair
of shoes, four one-hundredths of a cent on a glass of beer, and
five one-hundredths of a cent increase on a can of corn or
tomatoes, all based on a prospective increase of 10 per cent,
it is only necessary to cut these figures in half to show how
very infinitesimal would he the cost to the consumer if the
railroads were permitted to increase their rates, as requested,
in this State, if only 5%.
In spite oí this, however, the increase to the roads would
probably enable them to meet the present cost of operation
11
without facing the serious deficits and difficulties which now
confront them, and which seriously threaten a curtailment
of service and efficiency and a decrease in the work of rail¬
road development in all sections of the State.
The extremely narrow margin which at present separates
the net revenues of the roads from an actual deficit constitutes
a matter of such moment that the most casual observer must,
if he thinks at all, be seriously disturbed. He may not say,
with any truth, that it is of no concern of his, for it is his con¬
cern and very much so. No citizen of Texas can escape a
certain liability, or responsibility if you will, in the operation
of the State's railroads. He is a part of it, almost as much so
as if he owned the stock. In fact, if he were a stockholder
his interest could he no greater, as the stockholders secure
practically no return on their investment in the shape of divi¬
dends.
The citizen of Texas has been really wise in one respect,
and that is, he has refrained from investing any of his earn¬
ings in Texas railroads. It is very doubtful if more than a
dozen citizens of this State, doing business within its border,
have a dollar invested in the hundreds of millions now tied
up in the various lines, and while this may be considered as
somewhat reprehensible, considering what the roads have ac¬
complished in the development of Texas, yet it may after all
be wise financing.
RAILROADS ENTITLED TO FAIR RETURNS
However, we believe the roads are entitled to a proper re¬
turn on their investment. The time has gone when the wa¬
tered stock bugaboo and the overcapitalization idea is suffi¬
cient to cause a scampering of our people into the forests of
"Don't Care." The question now is, are the lines to be eternal¬
ly damned because the peripatetic seeker for political for¬
tune makes capital out of the alleged crimes of the early pro¬
moters or projectors; because they, the roads, have been easy
marks for the slings and arrows of every Tom, Dick and
Harry who sought to turn the people, and did turn them,
against one of the great civilizing and developing agencies of
the century for his own advancement?
Railroads are called corporations because the development
of the property necessitated more capital than one man could
secure, and hence a co-operation of men and capital was
effected in order that the project could he consummated.
Without thi.s, railroads would be impossible and the States
denied the elements which conspire to make both common¬
wealth and people great and prosperous.
Because they are corporations they are often held np as ex¬
amples of modern ruthlessness and power, seeking to override
every element of justice and law, and to place a permanent
burden about the neck of the citizen, wringing the dollars
12
and dimes from his clothes and depressing and stifling both
industry and enterprise. This sort of talk is absolutely at
variance with conditions as they exist, and while the unthink¬
ing man may have permitted his reason to he temporarily
diverted from its proper channel of thought and expression
through a shallow and specious argument, it is safe to assert
that today men are doing their own thinking and they must
realize that the railroads are in themselves doing more to per¬
petuate progress and prosperity than any other agency in the
country, with the single exception of the press, which is, per se,
the power that makes to greatness.
The farmer is one of the active principles of development.
Without him, the world would cease to revolve, so far as hu¬
manity is concerned. As the result of his enterprise and labor
men grow rich and powerful, while communities flourish in a
ratio with his prosperity. The railroads must of necessity
depend upon him for their revenue, and it follows, as the
night the day, that the two elements—the farmer and the trans¬
portation line—are so tied together in a bond of common pur¬
pose that neither can he attacked or injured without the other
being equally affected.
While the rail or other transportation lines should receive
the active sympathy and support of every citizen, it would
thus appear that the farmer, of all classes, is more directly
affected by the situation expressed in this article than all else.
The railroad is his conveyance to market, and the better the
service, the more regular the communication, the more ex¬
tensive the facilities supplied for the transportation of his
products, the more stable and profitable must he his business.
Again, the railroads fully understand the bond which exists
between them and the producing class, and as proof of this it
is only necessary to point to the efforts the roads are making
to assist the farmer to success and to systematically settle the
vacant lands. Agricultural agents and special experts in farm
methods are employed by these lines, whose duties ally them
directly with the farmer and his work of increasing produc¬
tion. Farm and cattle demonstration trains have been oper¬
ated in numerous instances, and thousands of dollars have
been spent, and are now being expended, in books and pamph¬
lets, each of an educational value both as to methods of agri¬
culture and products, and in calling attention to the oppor¬
tunities for the man who tills the soil. Even if all of this may
be charged to selfishness, the good is manifest after all, and the
State and its people secure the ultimate benefit.
EVEN THE GOVERNMENT SIDESTEPS
Seldom do the railroads receive the consideration due them,
and this is evidenced by the attitude of the United States Gov¬
ernment in the matter of adequate compensation for the car¬
rying of the mails, for notwithstanding the vast increase in
13
the mails, due to the extension of the parcel post, the railroads
have carried the excess weight and quantity practically with¬
out pay.
Look at the mail and parcel post situation for a moment.
The Government pays the railways for transporting the mail
on the basis of weights obtained in the autumn of 1912 for four
years beginning July 1, 1913, although there is always some
increase in weight each year. In January, 1913, the parcel
post began with a weight limit of 11 pounds, then increased
it to 20, and it is now, in some cases, to be 50 pounds. The
parcel post takes business away from the express business
of the railway and reduces earnings in that way, but the Gov¬
ernment pays nothing for the extra weight carried, as the
test weighing was before the parcel post began. So for four
years the railways must carry the increasing weight of the
ordinary mail and the rapidly growing parcel post freight for
nothing, unless the Government takes steps to pay for service
already performed and to be performed, which, so far, it
seemed disinclined to do.
The position of the Government in this respect is strikingly
illustrated by the suggestion made February 17th by the Post
Office Department to Congress, that "on account of the in¬
creased weight of mails, due to the parcel post, the Postmaster
General he authorized to increase the compensation of the rail¬
roads not more than one-half of one per cent." This would
mean the munificent total of $254,000 added to the mail pay of
the railroads of the United States. Congress, however, de¬
clined to consider the recommendation and left the matter to
the joint congressional committee now investigating the whole
subject.
The railroads of Great Britain receive 55 per cent of the
revenues from the parcel post. Prior to the establishment of
the parcel post in the United States the railroads of this coun¬
try received some one-fifth of the post office revenue for trans¬
porting the mails. As it is expected the revenues of the de¬
partment for 1914 will be increased $60,000,000 from the parcel
post, and assuming the service rendered by tbe roads is no
greater in handling the parcel post than with the other mail,
it would seem that the roads were equitably entitled to a sim¬
ilar compensation of 5 per cent, which would, instead of the
$254,000 generously recommended by the Post Office Depart¬
ment, mean a payment of $12,000,000 to all of the railroads of
the United States.
All of the above considered, the appropriation hill so far
passed by Congress provides no ])aymcnt to the rail lines be¬
yond tlie 5 per cent increase added to the pay of roads on
which there has been no weighing since January 1st, 1913. A
most potent fact for consideration in connection with the par¬
cel post is, that while receiving no adequate compensation for
carrying the parcel post, the railroads are also suffering a seri¬
ous and continued loss of income due to the decreased earn¬
ings of the express companies which cannot compete with the
14
post in many of the articles now included in the ever expand¬
ing governmental schedules, and which have as a consequence
lost much business.
This is merely another illustration of the contracting earn¬
ing capacity of the railroads due to no fault of theirs, even if
it indicates how easily the Government may augment the reve¬
nues of the Postal Department by providing a service at the
expense of the carriers and at no expense to itself. It is a
simple matter to show efficiency and profit under these cir¬
cumstances.
TEXAS LINES WELL MANAGED
We naturally believe the majority of the rail lines to be well
and efficiently managed, and operated with a due and proper
regard for the welfare and comfort of the public. The per¬
sonnel of the official force engaged in directing the Texas
roads is probably equal to that engaged in other walks of life
in which the human factor builds to a proper completeness or
necessary excellence. As a class, it is doubtful if they are as
highly paid for their labor as are the experts who are directing
the various manufacturing plants now furnishing the railroads
with their traffic. While individually some railroad offi¬
cers receive large salaries for handling the affairs of a great
railway system, it is safe to assert that this compensation is
less than that received by individuals whose scope of effort
and character of responsibility is much less, and who are con¬
nected with commercial organizations solely.
We are confident that the people of Texas are fair in their
dealings with all public questions, even as they are intelligent
in their investigation of such matters and just in their de¬
mands. There is always, however, a possibility that but one
side of an argument has been properly displayed, and there
is always a chance for a distortion of fact and figure. A cor¬
rect estimation can only be formed by a knowledge of exact
conditions, and even as "reading maketh a full man," so edu¬
cation on lines of public interest and public welfare, as demon¬
strated by the public utility concerns, must necessarily give to
the reader a more correct understanding of all the principles
of the case, and establish a base upon which justice and equity
can exist in perfect harmony and accord.
The people and the railroads have everything in common.
Their interests are interdependent. Their efforts are for mu¬
tual progress and advancement, and their aims and ambitions
are similar. Realizing the truth of this assertion, as the think¬
er must, does it not follow that there should exist a greater
bond of sympathy and understanding between the two forces;
a more complete harmony and appreciation of each other, and
a more determined and natural tendency to a mutual support?
The people cannot exist without the roads, nor could the roads
exist for an instant without the people.
What greater argument could we adduce?
5000—3-25-14
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