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Show . .; it?:. ?c :.?i. i. ' : 1 " : ccuntrj' t! t 1' : : .'( '.'..( r:y cn'll.3 trc.i::r 2;u 'ly in-. in-. c f t'.j country. 0 :r ov. n t clicf i? : ' - ' ' 1 f. r,a (1 cull o puro?;?. - : v. r r; ::i t!;3 IIarr;r.ir.n rc;.j3; and, ' : r-i tL: pccj la to Lccp the: i frcm buy- : " : " ' r1. rr.J eo, for a f:v -u'ccl:3 at least, : : ci' r::z: ttocLs will have to close down 1 ::rt' 1 C'.tcmine to hold cn. v 11.3 jz'.lrQzls are in the went fix, because 'they r.-;d r.n i :r.;cn3 amount of money this year for bet-t-rmcnts, cud most of lheri find it very difficult to cltain it. The railroad situation is really almost il-.Tzlz. . For, as one shrewd railroad man ex-jh:n; ex-jh:n; 1 yesterday," for years they have been increas-in increas-in the weight of rails and of rolling stock, and have ret tn!:ca into consideration. the fact'jhat, with the heavy cars and the pounding of great engines, they ivcre endangering the roadbeds. ' ' .' TiTe would take it that is what Mrl Hill meant whea he explained how much money the roads needed need-ed in the next five years to keep in trim, and at the fane time handle the increasing business which is ' ieing thrust upon them. It is the sub-structure of the roads that needs attention, and we believe railroad men are in doubt how to overcome the great difficulty. There is not ' money enough to give them a rock coating or a cement ce-ment strata, but the weight is there all the time, the w eight and constant knocking which not only wears . out the roadbeds, but so soon as they become the j least uneven, then the wear gets to the rolling stock. Government began its prosecution, of the railroads to reduce them in fact to common carriers that they might do their business without discriminations, discrimina-tions, and at the same time to prevent railroad managers man-agers from using the credit of the roads for speculative specu-lative purposes. That has been picked up by the press, much of it by unscrupulous newspapers and by demagogue politicians, and they have drawn such weird pictures of the universal iniquity that attaches at-taches to railroad managers that capital is afraid, and is, if not withdrawing from railroad investments, refusing to extend more credit to them, which leaves them in the position to try to handle the growing business with imperfect, equipment. J "We believe a good many roads will have to succumb, suc-cumb, because nearly all the business of this Country is done on credit anyway, and men are like sheep, if a few. leaders tell them there is danger they all go in a flock, even if they hurl themselves over a precipice. In the meantime some Legislatures, just when prices are doubling up and the cost of operating roads has been increased quite 25 per cent, .without the slightest understanding of the facts, have arbi-trarily arbi-trarily reduced rates on roads. Then demagogues are crying out against the oppression op-pression of the railroads and clamoring for Govern- Kent ownership. Just now the roads, especially the great through lines, and those that have to run on heavy , grades and short curves are, amid the great prosperity, in the middle of the closest' place they were ever in. |