OCR Text |
Show TRU T H RAILROAD MATTERS. If you neglect to buy a railroad leket before entering the cars and lie conductor attempts to charge you excess fare, you need not pay it, says the Supreme court of the state of South Carolina. A passenger has just tested the matter, and he was awarded damages. He entered one of the trains on the Southern railway without a ticket. The conductor asked him for his fare, plus the excess. The passenger tendered the amount of the fare, but refused to pay the excess, whereupon the ticket puncher called a husky brakeman and ejected the passenger. He sued for damages. The court of common pleas decided against him, and he appealed. The Supreme court was a unit in reversing the lower court and deciding in favor of the appellant. Rebate checks will now go to seed in that section of country. The rebate check affair, however, is not a grievous burden. Collecting a few cents in excess of regular fare serves to check the cupidity of the dishonest conductor who might otherwise knock down cash fares taken in. But if the courts decide that a man does not have to put up, put up he will not, and in future in South Carolina, and elsewhere when the matter is brought to trial, the railroads will have to resort to the old bell punch arrangement in order to keeep tab on their employes. For some months our Socialist friends have been pointing to the fact that the great combinations of capital have been promulgating the most unanswerable socialistic arguments. That by combining systems of railroads under one management they were demonstrating how easy it would be for government to own and operate railroads. That If five or six men, or five or six companies, can run all the railroads of the country, government can also run them. But here comes a plaint from the other side of the house. A voice from the corporations themselves, admitting that combinations, in so far as railroads are concerned at least, are par tial failure. The Wall Street Journal says: Mr. Stuyvesant Fish, president of the Illinois Central railroad, recently gave it as his opinion that the process of consolidation and merger would continue in the railroad world subject to two limitations. The railroads would never be controlled by any one man, nor would the government take control of them. Mr. Fish fixed the limit of the process at a point where twenty or thirty corporations would control the railroad sysThe Pennsylvania road has fortem now represented by some 801 bidden its ticket agents from permitThe purpose of consolicompanies. dation he conceives to be to secure ting purchasers to sign tickets with greater economy, and its probable ef- their own fountain pens. It appears fect would be lower rates. that ticket brokers furnished patrons Mr. with dees Fish think that But, with fountain pens, filled with ink twenty or thirty companies controll- that disappeared four or five hours ing over 200,000 miles of railroad, the most economical rates wil$ be ob- after signing, thus placing an untained? Does he think that systems signed ticket in the passengers of 10.000 miles are more economically hands. Such tickets are easily scalpoperated than systems of 5.000 miles, ed and can be handled nicely. It may and systems of 15.000 miles still more be news to the general public to learn economical than 10,000 miles? that Messrs. Nason and Keyes have econIn the past year or two, the similar instructions here. That is omy of large systems is a . question why these urbane young men hand upon which serious doubts have you a pen dipped in real old black arisen in the minds of a good many ink each time you make a purchase competent railroad officers and stu- of a coupon ticket dents. We have in mind, however, Jt & statements made to us by officers of Senator Clark has been interviewed two considerable systems, expressing considerable apprehension on this very question of economy in the operation of a good many thousand miles of road. They find a constant tendency towards increased expense and diminished efficiency rising from the fact that compactness of organization is difficult to combine with the necesrequired. sarily thorough supervision of organtask the In their judgment, and preizing a very large system behand of out venting it getting comes more difficult in geometrical ration to the increase in size of the . 3 in Paris concerning the San Pedro railroad. He is reported as having said: "1 am personally constructing a railroad from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Los Angeles, California. This of consignment; Perry S. Heath, Thomas Kearns and the balance of the directorate to oblivion and forgetfulness by omitting to relate the important part they are taking in the great work is nothing if not ingratitude in its most intensified form. m.-kles- s J Senator Clark is in Paris, and to a newspaper on August 29, made the following statement, which was taken from the Examiner and printed Thursday under a raised date by the The newspapers have to have me married managed but you can state frequently, I am not engaged. I am not married and I am not on my honeymoon. I am waiting for my daughter to arrive. Thats better than getting engaged or having a suit for breach of promise brought against one. Yes, I intend building a railway from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles all by myself. I want no concessions, and while I have authorized an issue of stock, I dont intend to place it on the market, at least at present. The corporations have disgusted the public with American stock they throw on the market. The people have plenty of money, but they dont like to be surfeited with the stock of these gigantic corporations and probably by such trusts as confer no benefits whatever to the public. Morgan and others thought the public would buy anything. Its a bad thing to make the worm' turn. What you say about the nation taking the ownership of railways does not frighten me. Should I do so, it would amply compensate the present owners. Government owenrship wont come in our time. I see one great objection to national ownership the party in power when the national ownership of railways is accomplished could never be turned out. All the only-three-ee- railway employes of the country would work for that party. What army they constitue! It Is difficult enough now to appoint an administration. The postoffice frauds are a blight of government should know who those irship, ; are of the opinion that govern-reownership would infalibly But in unsatisfactory conditions. there is a strong sentiment in minds of a great many people cannot be accused of socialismo prefer-tgovernment ownership is control concentrated highly llroads in the hands of a few is, we think, beyond ques-Iother words, we believe thatd of this ijority of the people vote for government own-iof the railroads as an alternate their control by a compact the matter in-ua- ls n coun-nroul- n individuals, p of closely allied n po urely from a business feel ng that the . we cannot help has consolidation ess of railroad and far enough for the present to pusn it will be time enough o irther when the advantages more are . has been done already nt: upon our civilizatoin. They show the necessity for a cleaning out of the stables. The interesting portion of the interview is the bowling out of Kearns, Heath and Kerens, the other directors who have been supposed to help the senator in the building, of Another thing we do appreciate' is the fling the senator takes at our esteemed friend and fellow townsman in the last paragraph. Does not the senator understand that it was under the beneficent administration of our esteemed friend and fellow townsman that these frauds took root and sprouted up and grew into a tree which overshadowed everything? Really, the senator ought to be coached ' before permitting his mouth to go off in such a reckless manner. By the way, the eliminated that paragraph from its raised date story, the-road- . only-three-ce- nt & & Really we confess to a feeling of mystification concerning the management of the affairs of the San Pedro. Recently a directors meeting was held in this city at which the stdek of those well known managers and backers of Senator Clark was voted by those patriots, Kearns and Heath, but now, with Heath here, Kearns here, Clark in Europe, Kerens in St. Louis, and the others scattered all the way from Beersheba to Dan, comes a telegram from Los Angeles stating that on Wednesday a meeting of the directors of the San Pedro was held there at which Fred K. Rule was elected treasurer. Can it be possible that the system has a board, of directors In every state it traverses? It is too deep for us. o DRUG STORE VS. SALOON. The article in Truth last week regarding the inconsistency of the city permitting drug store proprietors to run strong drink dispensaries for seven days a week under a license of $400 a year and clubs and dives to sell liquor without paying any license at all, while liquor dealers who make a business of it, openly and above board, are charged $1,200 a year for the privilege of selling the stuff only six days a week, caused considerable comment. There were several features of the case not referred to in Truths article. One is that the regular liquor dealers, on the advice of eminent lawyers, pay their license money under protest, holding that the municipality cannot constitutionally charge one class of men $400 a year as license and another class $1,200 for the privilege of conducting identically the same kind of business. It is the same kind of business, for the drug stores and soda foutnains dispense liquor by the drink just as the .ordinary saloons do. Before very long the city will probably find itself the defendant in a suit brought by the saloonkeepers to recover the excess of licenses which they claim is being extorted from them. Another phase of drug stores being converted into saloons is that these kind of saloons are productive of infinitely more evil than ordinary saloons. Young, girls and boys, respectable ladies and ultra respectable men who would not be seen going into a saloon get their wants supplied at the drug stores. Minors who would not be served in the ordinary saloon can get what they want at the soda fountains. In this apparently innocent way the young acquire a taste for strong drink which may be the curse of all their future - lives. o Men who have their measures taken for shirts invariably smile in of the satisfaction the garments are certain to give. The Pennsylvania Democracy met. in convention, adopted a platform and nominated candidates without making one single allustion to the Kansas City platform. Whither are we drifting? i . j . . |