"It might easily be contended, and even proved beyond all doubt, that the first characteristic is a result of the better condition in which the state keeps the permanent way; and, so far as this is the case, the public convenience, safety and general advantage are promoted.
"The highest range of traffic expenses on companies' lines undoubtedly argues greater laxity of management, since, as we have already shown, this is one of the most elastic of items, and may be either very high or very low, according as economy or extravagance is the prevailing system.... The experience of Continental Europe points unmistakably to the exercise of greater economy in state management."
Judge Dillon, of the United States Court, in his order appointing Hon. J. B. Grinnell receiver for the Central Railroad of Iowa, in 1876, said:
"The railroads in the hands of the court—and in the circuit there are eight or ten—have all been run with less expense, and have made more money, than when they were operated by the companies; and we hope and believe under your supervision that this road will prove no exception, and that the property will be worth more at the end of the litigation."
Upon Mr. Grinnell's resignation, after nearly three years of service, Judge Grant said, in asking for the discharge of his bondsmen:
"I concur entirely in the opinion of the State commissioners that he has very much improved the condition of the road, and he left it in far superior condition to that in which he received it."
Yet Government ownership and management of railroads also has its drawbacks. It is claimed by some that such management is more expensive than that of lines owned by private companies. It has already been shown that the permanent way is kept in better condition by the state than by private corporations. In Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France and Italy the state expends from 15 to 30 per cent. more for the maintenance of the permanent way than the private companies. It is perhaps also true that the rank and file of railroad employes fare, on an average, better under government than they do under private management; but, as an offset to this, it should be remembered that quite a saving is effected by the state in the salary account of general officers. The people will not consent to pay the manager of a railroad line a salary six times as large as that of a cabinet officer, and provide at the same time sinecures for his sons, brothers, nephews and cousins.
It is furthermore claimed that, as government is organized, it cannot, all other things being equal, respond to the demands of commerce as promptly as private companies. This feature, however, may be an advantage to the country at large rather than a detriment. But the strongest argument that can be produced against state ownership of railroads is that under a democratic form of government it might exert a demoralizing influence in politics. The 1,700 railroad companies of the United States have at present an army of about 800,000 employes. This number is constantly increasing, and it is more than probable that before the end of the present century it will have reached a million. When it is considered what importance is at present attached to the political influence of a hundred thousand Federal officers, it is not surprising that conservative citizens should hesitate to add to the ranks of these officeholders a six or seven times larger force. Dangerous as the railroad influence now is in politics, it would be ten times more dangerous if under a system of Government management considerations of self-interest should induce a million railroad employes to act as a political unit and political parties should vie with each other in bidding for the railroad vote. Could our civil service ever be so organized as to divest it entirely of political power, state management of railroads might still offer the best solution of the railroad problem.
Mr. T. B. Blackstone, president of the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company, has recently created somewhat of a surprise by declaring in favor of Government ownership of railroads. That Mr. Blackstone's programme will eventually receive the approval of a large number of his colleagues there can be but little doubt. With the people wide-awake upon this subject, the opportunities for railroad speculation are lessening, and the scheme to early unload the railroads of the country on the Government at a highly inflated value speaks well for the financial farsightedness of its author. Mr. Blackstone proposes to have railroad stockholders do here what the former owners of the telegraph did in Great Britain, i. e., dispose of their property to the Government, at a price representing several times its original cost or even several times the cost of duplication.
Mr. C. Wood Davis, formerly general freight and passenger agent of one of the leading roads east from Chicago, is one of the best informed and clearest-headed writers upon the railroad question. He has, after much experience and long study, been converted to the advocacy of national ownership as a solution of the railroad problem. In a recent article published by the Arena Publishing Company, entitled "Should the Nation own the Railways?" he presents the objections and advantages of national ownership. He says: