OCR Text |
Show PERTINENT RAILROAD QUESTIONS Why Should Not Kallroad Finance Be Sub-Jeer Sub-Jeer to flotirnmont Supervision? C. Wood Dvls lit the Arena. The railway aud the national bank each performs functions that the state might; yet the bank alone is held to tho most rigid discharge of its duties, a maximum fixed for the rates of toll, the amount it shall loan any ono party, and the kind of security determined, deter-mined, as well as the amount of its reserve re-serve fund, it books ami assets at all times subject to inspection without notice, no-tice, no share issued until paid in full, the payment of unearned dividends made a penal offence, and breaohes of trust punished in au exemplary manner. man-ner. Can there be any sufficient reason why , the railway corporation with infinitely in-finitely greater power and privileges, performing functions a thousand times more important, and directly affecting a hundred person for one alTected by bank administration, should not be subjected to control quito as stringent aud quite as far reaching? Shares and bonds being tho basis tolls; should a railway company be permitted per-mitted to insure share or bond until its par value in actual money has been covered into the corporate treasury? Should the basis of tolls bo laid until has been shown that a proposed lino is necessary to public convenience and will make fair returns on its cost? Should a railway company be permitted permit-ted to collect tolls until it has shown the exact cost of tho instrument of transportation? Should it. not be a penal offence for a railway official to pav an unearned dividend? div-idend? Should not railway acoounts, stock and bond ledgers, and assets be subjected subject-ed to like inspection as those of nation-banks nation-banks ? Would not rate wars cease, were railways once having reduced rates, debarred from ever again advancing them without government permission? Should not railway companies be taxed on the capitalization as shown in issues of bonds and shares? Should not railways be appraised at present cash value and earnings, from all sources, be limited to what would afford a given or maximum return on such appraisal? Or should the nation assume the ownership and operate tho railways through a non-partisan commission, as tho Province ol Victoria, Australia, has shown to be both practical and economical? econom-ical? There is no longer auy question as to the power of the nation to control theso great arteries of trade, nor is there outside out-side a limited circle, any question as to the necessity of such control, and it but remains for the lawgivers to formulate such statutes as will protect user and investor, both of whom are at the mercy mer-cy of a small body of men who can and do make and mar the fortunes of individuals, indi-viduals, cities, and states, without let or hidrance. |