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Show PITY THE POOR RAILROAD. In connection with the recent failure fail-ure on the part of the railroads to obtain ob-tain higher freight rates, the following follow-ing extract from an artlclo in tho April American magazine Is interesting interest-ing as showing how much the railroads rail-roads have had done for them only recently to increase their profits: "First, the pass ovll has been stopped this must put many million dollars Into their pockets each year I can remember about fifteen or twenty years ago my father never paid any railroad fare. Nono of his friends did; his shipping clerk never did; his snleamau often traveled on passes. Why, it used to seem to us that the mah who couldn't get a pass was nomo kind of social outcast to bo pitied from the bottom of our hearts "Second, freight rebating was stopped and no one can ecn guess at tho millions and millions of dollars this has saved the railroads; It must be a fabulous sum. Wo can only l vaguely measure -it when wo seo tho ltumonso monopolies, such as tho r Standard Oil company, that -wero largely built up on it, and owe not only their early start, but their greater great-er and later gigantic strides to its practice. , ...... ....-. "Third, -prnctlcally- all -- cutthroat-compotltlon cutthroat-compotltlon among railroads has been stopped. No more do we hear of tho rnte war such foolishness has been stopped by tho great flnanclalhcads; It's not good business. - "Fourth, and greatest and bestf of oil, tho people thofte great prospofous United States havo poured Into tho lap of the railroads business, business, business, in a swollen and ever-Increasing golden flood. Even, the best of them havo been unablo at times to take care of this Immense and growing grow-ing tonnage. "I am a manufacturer and can tell you, as will any of my fellows, that what we are all after today Is more business. Wo can't get larger margins, mar-gins, but wo can and do got moro business, and by doing moro business with tho same factory we bring down our overhead charges' |