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Show ft ft ft HAILROADS AND HIGHWAYS There Is a great deal of loose talk about the great advantage to be derived from government ownership ot railroads. In the first place It would rob the state, the nation, tho cities, the counties and roads and school districts dis-tricts of taxes. Tako the Santa Fe system as sn Illustration. Its taxes for 1917 were $9,870,634, and federal taxes will probably Increase this to $12,-000,000. $12,-000,000. This Is distributed to the smallest towns and little school districts, and many of tthe counties would be crippled without It. The railroads alone pay about twenty per cent of the taxes and with government ownership twenty-per twenty-per cent would be added elsewhere. Take the common highways and the country roads they are under public ownership and have they been a howling success? Thero has been waste end Inefficiency Inef-ficiency written In lcttors as big as drygoods boxes all over the publicly owned highways. Would we have the railroads as well managed as the county roads or very much better we would like to have some one answer T In many states there are counties where the only piece of good public highway is some piece of tollroad that Is privately owned The Manufacturer. |