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CONTROL OF THE RAILROADS. SOMK \M> ol is o| l>is. MONtX! I I n \\Cl . 'I b? Main Point ?I IssSSSS It I MM* hi Not Lrgltlsnate Service; Dui the I n s r?.iilon or a I i i ill** I icld or i ??? nie Raga: Regeers w be Kik.u Bcm IU-*t to < iiltitulC loa, Ikdd. The railroad gang Is busy and the people of the I'nlted States must be on guard The scheme Is to regain private control of the railroads after the wnr. On the plea that the taking over of the roads is only a war ine is ure the gang doesn't want to take any chances with congress in the matter bill hopes to grease the way so that they may slide buck automatically in? to private control without any legisla? tion. "This must not be permitted. The government must not return the rail? roads to private control, either at ;he clone of the war or at any other time. On the ether hand, no one who has studied the proldem deeply wants 'government ownership,' in the sense that j;o\eminent ownership is under? stood today Public ownership, yes; but the railroads have always been publicly owned. We have had public ownership under the control of finan cial pirates. ?Internment ownership, as It is usually understood, would amount to nobody-ownership under the I >ntrol of political buz/.ards." Is this hard to understand f Well. Nathan L. Amster is a little hard to und? i t.iad at Hist. Hut you will un? dersiand him?that's the kind of man he Is. Ills principal oeeupa Ion for scve-al years lock has consisted o' making himself understood. He is a railroad investor. Not a magnate. Not i one of the big adventurers of the (iould and Hill class, hut a man with a few hundreds of thousands that he didn't want to gamble with. Ho wanted to invest it in something safe. You know the type; just the kind of come-on in the railroad field that the big Insiders go gunning for. Only. Nathan L. Amster didn't come . < i uulte according to schedule. When trained their guns on him, he dodged. He dodged Into little courts, where the hunters felt sure they could sn oke ftpu cat in a week or two. Thev had alw.i^s I.u able to do it with others of fgr spoi jest but they had never tocklcd^rWfe such a nervy lit? tle scooter before. He scooted from court to court. He scooted behind in? junctions und mandamuses and inter pleadings and writs of this and that., nnd finally he scooted Into the Inter? state commerce commission. Om bright morning. In fact, he scooted right into a directorship of the Chi? cago. Kock Island and Paclile rail? road and announced that he was there to fight. Newspaper readers are quite weil acquainted now with the fight gsj made. He fought tin- dlieetorg single I handed, and when that wouldn't do. he went buck and had two director.; elected Insteud of one. IdMfl your he c*.me In with four directors, repre ?mting the Asustcr understanding, nnd with a loud minority voice he won almost all the points he was lirhting for. For one thing, ho com? pelled the directors to declare a di? vidend after they had suhl they couldn't: also he proved that th< v I Miami was a profitable proper? ty after th. \ had labelled it nothing but two streaks of rust and nil the other things that go to describe a rail load in the process of being scuttled Hut it Isnf the history of the Kock Ifdnt d tight which I set out to teii. ..'list n??w Nathan L. Amster has set hmut lf to tin- biggest task of his life. It is to put a Stop forever to the sport of America's financial kings? us-.n - the cre.it public m r\ice propel ties of the country not as a means of earning legitimate profits but as trap-* for the inventing public. , ' ' "b?Bjl financiers," he says, "ar? not the I ? u who own the rallro .ds. Tin i. roa Is have always bOOg own ed fix the public bv the Im c t.n, public The millions of stookholden havo been \itally Interested at al! times in the su< ? ? <?f the rouds aa pa> lug properties. I: t they have gosor bees eogaaJged, Tiny have enti ui led the n in i g< ment of the sg gi not |g peepls who rspressnt tin 10 but to pttppeesd sup-amen in thi linanciul world whose interest it has been t?? wreck the properties In id. "V few years ago, for Instance, ?.< ? k Nland was selling at Itff, i share. A few months ago it was sell mg Had the property deter* lor ii? d I No; iieconhng to the inter? state commerce commission, it was doing a blggei bu - ; and making i:if,ii'T e.linings than ever before Kut for gftSSS years the gang ot iflStfJOtefs In charge had not managed It. They lud milked it. They had run It not to maks dividends on the money Invested but to draw off thr sarnlngs as fast on thev accrued Into O" i own polls, Im ib n? ill. in.il in-.' the rsllway company pay for th pat Is ss well. ? These palls were cnllod holding tompanica. The general public NMM'1 knOW w h it a holding com? pany is. Call it a pail anil it may gel across more quickly. It is something which a UnaNi u-r holds when ho uses a ra I t oad lor a cow. "Th' ir wove two of these compa? nies, one in Iowa ami one in New .1? i -ey. The ROOk Istend was capital? ized at $7 ?,000,000. The holding com pail leg wire capitalized at $850,000, 000, Thev Issued their stock as fully I. Put actually no payment was made on either. Then upon motion of !>. (J. Heid, the entire stock issue of the New Jersey company and the entire bond issue of the Iowa company were placed with the Central Trust ? onnwiny of New York, under an 11? cement that they ware to he ex ? h i need for railway company hold? ings on the basis of $-7o in the hold kng companies' stocks and bonds for $lo0 of railway stock. Inder tins agreement, D. G. Rel 1. W. II. Leeds. J. II. Moore and W. II. Moore disposed of about $20,000,000 of railway stock for which they re? ceived over $11,000,04)0 in the other securities. The only revenue of the holding companies' stock came from tho dividends of the railway com? pany, and the stockholders stamped ed, as expocte.l, to ex,?hange their se? curities. All but $1,000,000 of the original Rook island stock was thus exchanged. ? Nov.. under the agreement. tli<* lailway stock was to be held by ihi trust company as security lor th Iowa company's bonds. 11" the In? terest on the bonds eouhl not be paid, the railway stock would be sold; and lour men w ho had held only about a fourth of the railway stock had wormed themselves into a position where tiny could make the road pay or not pay as it suited their Interests best. The road paid.. That is, it paid somebody How much it paid theso four men. the interstate commerc commisskn was unable to ti ll. When the series of dtali which resulted In receivership was dually investigated, Mr. Raid testilied that lie always "tuned hll books at the end of each nicnth. ' I tut the road didn't pay the stock? holders. Note this letter from a roughueepsie girl. She was working to help support her father, who was nearly blind. Her father had invested1 a few hundred dollars in Rock Island which hut been drawing lo per cent dividends. When the dividends stop? ped, because of llnanical difficulties which the girl didn't understand, she couldn't bear to tell her helpless fath? er. She paid the dividends out of her Own earnings. She kept up this deceit as long as she could, year al ter year, I lit Mr. Raid and others- wen- burn? ing their books. < u- this from Concord, N. H.: "i am t widow, and the loss of $886 which I paid for my bond means a good deal to me, as I am too old tn earn a living now.' "Why wasn't tho interest bein^ paid? Was it because wages were higher every year and because the road COUld DO! raise its rates to meet thaml it is far more to the point U> read the history oi the Frisco deal, a precious bit of ?llnancing,' by which tho Rock Island had $00,000,000 drawn out of its treasury to meet an obligation of the Iowa holding com? pany, an obligation for which the railway company wus in no wise re? sponsible ami from which it receive,1 no benefit. Alien the small investors in Poughkeepslc and Concord read, away back in 100ti that an agreement had been made between the holding com i nil - nid the .1. I'. Morgan company to tXChnngl the stock of the St. Louis and San Franscis-co Kail way company lor their securities, the in? formation didn't mean anything tan? gible to them. Hut under this agree? ment $28,040,100 of Frisco stock was exchanged for $84,718,800 of the holding companies' stocks and bonds, and the Frisco sbpek was deposited as collateral for the bonds of the Iowa company, Then in December, 1900, this stock was resold to 11. F. Yoakum Tor $::7.."?o a share, or $10,052,000, m amount insulin lent to redeem the Iowa com pain's bonds. The Iowa company then issued $7,G00,000 of these bonds" to the RoCk Isla lid Rail* way company, receiving $7,800,000 in c sh. which the railway company had borrowed from the First National ! lank of New York. It was subs quontly round that the Iowa coin puny bid no assets to retire these bonds, and more than $0,000,000 was taken from the Kock Island treas iii y for |h0 purpose " It was over this deal that Mr. Ai l ster as a <dmk holder, sued the Held Moore combination as individuals and recovered more than $8,000,000 for the stockholders. He insisted, how lever, that Ihf deal was only one of la long aeries of ho railed financial op? eration; Which had resulted in more titan $80,000,000 loss to the mad, and ibat Mimllar opcratlonn fire the rub. not the exception, In the great Mime of railroad financing. ? It is the chance to renew those operations," he snld, "which the so I railroad nianagors are looking for now. Tiny are not particularly concerned about the joli of .supplying freight; and the $75,000 salaries and Slue,nan bonus* s to presidents and of? ficials are only an item in the pro? gramme. It is the job of irresponsi? ble private financing which they want, for the railroads, from the very na? ture of the industry, must he contin? ually linanced. They cannot he fin? anced from their earnings. Every year imperatively calls for greater and greater extensions to meet grow? ing demands] for better terminals, more trackage, more up-to-dale equipment and more and better roll? ing stock. The roads then, havo been oompelled to do business with! the banks, and no one can object, if the banks are called upon, to tholr getting adouv/ite remuneration for their services. But the tendency of such a system is inevitably to turn the railroads over to the money trust. ' The money trust," he said, "is able to get away with all this, simply he cause it is organised, The obvious remedy is to organize the one section of the American public which has never been organized before, the small investors. The remedy is not to be found in abolishing Wall street and its legitimate business in the buying and selling of securities. The remedy is not to bo found in the abo? lition of responsible ownership and turning our Industries over to the temler moroles of a political bureauc? racy. I don't object to public owner? ship so-called because it is too radi? cal. I object to it because it isn't radical enough. It is pseudo-radical? ism, the lasy substitution of an eco? nomic phrase for the actual correction of an economic evil. "The trouble with the railroads is not that their stockholders have been making a legitimate protit Some of their worst evils have ap? peared when they were making no profit at all. The trouble with Wall street is not that brokers get com mis-ions for the legitimate ex (hange of securities. The trouble with both institutions is that they have been under Irresponsible private control." As th the railroads, Mr. Amster's plan is B Simple one. He would hare tive it leral corporations organised by the government, each corporation to take over all the existing railway lines in a given territory?one for the south, one for the northwest, etc. All the roads in a given territory thus merged ifit'o one combination, wo would do away with most of the present evils of competition, duplica? tion of terminals, special routing, etc. While the government would or anlse thess systems and they would be under government control, their actual ownership would he vested, as now, In private stockholders. Stock in each should be sold to the public or exchanged for present railroad hold? ings and the ? rvernment should be the one financier for all. Dividends In these federal corpo? rations, Mr. Amster thinks, should he fixed by law with a maximum and minimum rate. There should be no opportunity to gamble for high .-ti kes, but each investment should be made secure and some encourage? ment should be given to the investors to help make the enterprise succeed. ' And how about the actual direc? tion of the enterprises?" I aski d. "That," he said, "should be vested in the various Interests served. The primary Interest is unquestionably the public at large. That is the reason Tor railroads?to serve the public. The dominant voice in the directorate should be the public's. But the stock? holders should also he represented; and no scheme of public control would be complete without giving adequate representation to the other interests." "The other interest?" "Certainly," said Mr. Amster. "Kailroad labor. Under government control it is unthinkable that the in? terests of labor shall be ignored. On the other hand, it is unthinkable that these millions of workers shall have no voice except the strike. Strikes, in fact, must be made impossible; hut it would amount almost to slavery to pass a law to that effect and let it go at that. If labor la not represent ed in the actual management of the property to which it gives its life and strength, it wouldn't be democracy at all. "Labor should not only he repre? sented in the management, but pro? vision should be made for the work? ers acquiring dividend paying stock, stock whose dividends shall be deter? mined largely by the faithfulness and efficiency of the labor performed. Union labor has one valid objection to even the most advanced profit sharing plans today, but this objec? tion WOUld disappear in stich a sys? tem of public service. Today the profit sharing plan may lie used to keep individual workers from joining (he unions, ami keep them from striking against the profiteers who arc exploiting them. Hut railroad labor does not think of the striking directly against the people of the United Slates. "Under this system there would he no profiteers to arouse the envy of the toilers. The representatives of the workers would si: with the other directors, not as pleaders or as an? tagonists, but as equals whose inter? ests are known to be one with the other interests concerned. And in? stead of striking for higher wages when a higher Income seemed neces? sary they would be arranging doubt mmimamww??n .n iiiiiimi ?.?? m i less fop an additional dividend Inj stock stock whoso actual value would be determined by their ( wn responsibility and loyalty in future service." "Just tell me," Mr. Amsler con? cluded, "if such a System isn't a rr ore reasonable form of publie co-opera? tion than, say. the postofhoe is to? day. In the POStofllce labor has no voice at all. The general public is served, after a fashion, but no great body of the people care a, hang whether the enterprise pays or not. At the worst, the postoflioe system is a mess. At the best it is Prussian Ism. The people of America, I am sure do not want our railroads and cur essential industries to go that way. "And that is just what the financial pirates are depending upon. They are trying to make us think that wc shall have to choose between the old system and this spurious government ownership. Of these two evils, I believe, the American people will choose neither." OFFICERS DESTROY STILL. Benncttsville, Feb. 21.?R. J. Paterson, Jr., and Deputy Sheriff Henry Hubbardj Constables J. C. YVeatherly and United States Deputy Collector P. J. Coleman seized the largest still last night that has ever been taken in Marlboro county. The officers found a complete still of 110 gallon capacity, with all fixt ires. Everything was ready for a run. There was kindling near the furnace and three barrels of mash prepared for distillation. They found three gallons of whiskey and five ga Ions of low wines, and 100 gallons of beer. The Officers left Benncttsville early this morning and after a search along the creek found signs where two -still? had been operated and then located the one ready for work. Fresh foot? prints were seen, but no one wos to be found In charge. The still was located on a small creek on a place known as the fruit farm, about six? teen miles northwest of Bennetts ! vi lie. Expect Scarcity of Flour. Minneapolis, Minn., Feb. 21.?With farmers holding their wheat fo * a hoped for increase in the government price, Minneapolis millers expert a scarcity of white flour In the near fu? ture. Stocks are said to he practi? cally exhausted, though figures are not available, and prediction is less than half of last year. Last week 2 4 2,704 barrels were shipped, against 27<?,?)O0 in the corre? sponding period last year. Production was but 151.020 barrels, against 311, 4 30 a year ago. INCREASE INTEREST RATE. Half Billion in Treasury Certificates to Be Issued at 1 1-2 Per Cent. Washington Feb. 21.?Another $500,000,000 Mock of treasury certi cates of indebtedness in preparation for the third liberty loan was offer? ed for subscription tonight by Sec? retary IfcAdOO* This will bear in? terest at the rate of 4 1-2 per cent, as against the previous high mark of 4 per cent., and will be payable next May 28. Subscription books will close March 5 and payments must be made between February 27 and that date. The certificates will be in denomi? nations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10. 000 and $100,000, will be sold at par and accrued interest and will have the same tax exemptions as previous is? sues. The treasury may redeem the entire issues at par and accrued in? terest on or after any date before their maturity set for the payment of the first irstallment of the sub? scription prif i of the next liberty loan. The right j reserved as usual to reject any subscription, to allot less than the amount of certificates ap? plied for and ;.o close the subscriptions [at any time v ithout notice 1 About $2,1h)0,000,00 in certificates ' remain to be issued at the higher rate I of 4 1-2 per cent, before the. third j loan campaign, probably In April. War and the Farmer. The Germans have built monster submarines with a scope of operation as broad as the Atlantic; the Belgians have invented a powder that makes dynamite seem like a joss stick; the French have -nounted a 52-centimeter gun that hurls a ton and a half of explosive twenty miles; the British have constructed that terrible land battleship, the "tank." But American farmers have done their share to render these things possible. They have vied with mu? nition makers?they have made the United States a stockyard and a granary for Europe. They have fur? nished cotton and wool for uniforms, leather for harness and saddlery, horse and mule power for artillery, beef and grain for the commissary. They have achieved scientific farming triumphs parallel to the creating of great guns and stable aeroplanes and war machinery. And more people are becoming farmers or studying ag? riculture, or reading farm literature than ever before?well aware th the farmer represents one of the gest forces in American lifS tot Dr. J. M. Fleming and wife hav arrived in the city to make this their home. Dr. Fleming will be found in the future at Hearon's Pharmacy. a Patriotic er! You will make every acre produce its ut? most in food crops, cotton and tobacco, all greatly needed by our country- You will best serve your country and yourself by fertilizing each acre liberally with J 0 STEER RAND 1 LI1 " IT PA YS TO USE THEM" TIMERS There is a national car and labor shortage. Delay is dangerous. 'AY r ft PAYS JO V5EWM Manufactured by SWIFT & CO. FERTILIZER WORKS ATLANTA, OA. CHARLOTTE, N. C. Factories: Atlanta, Albany, LaGrange, MouStiie, Savannah, G u WILMINGTON and GREENSBORO, N. C.f CHESTER and COLUMBIA, S. C. ASK YOUR DEALER OR WRITE US. V