People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1893 — RAILROAD NATIONALIZATION. [ARTICLE]

RAILROAD NATIONALIZATION.

A Radnetlon in Rat«a of Transportation Ineropiot, Instead or Rodoeoa, Railrose Earnlne*. Talking about the desirability and results of state operation of railroads, the last batch of facts as to the operation of the state owned Hungarian system under the zone plan, just published in Vienna by Edward Engle, may be of interest. Previous to the introduction of the zone system by the government, the average annual number of passengers carried was 6,000,000. The first year after the zone plan was adopted (1889) the passengers were 16,000,000. The second year they mounted up to 19,000,000, and the third year, that is last year, they reached 28,000,000. The financial result has been equally brilliant, the receipts rising from 9,705,000 florins annually before the adoption of the zone system to 28,300,000 florins this last year. The zone system was simply an extraordinary reduction of rates on a systematic plan. No railroad managed for private profit ever dared to do such a thing or ever would dare to do it The whole story of the zone system is an overwhslming argument for public railroad management as not only the least oppressive but the most progressive system possible.—New Nation. About the time of the annual encampment of the Knights of Pythias, which was held in Kansas City last summer, the newspapers made a great hubbub about the low rates made by competing railroad lines. The Chicago Tribune said: “It costs only IS to travel from Chicago to Kansas City, and several persons, they say, are thinking seriously of going before long.”

In the course of an editorial upon the subject, the Kansas City Journal said: “The lower the rates go for the Knights of Pythias encampment the more people will come here, that is evident. Both the Santa Fe and the Alton are trying to force them down as low as possible. They have got them down where a big business is assured. They may take them lower. Kansas City can rejoice. Whether there will be any after result to the fight can't be told. As a rule when rates go down it is pretty hard to put them back to the old figure again. Three dollars from Chicago to Kansas City is a pretty small sum to pay for a ride; so is 84 from Kansas City to Chicago. These rates should make business. It can’t be expected that they will remain at that figure, but if they stay there just a few weeks there is no prospect of ever getting them back again—not all the way back. ” There are some very important admissions in the fpregoing paragraphs, chief among which is that the lower the rates are the more people there arc who travel. But we see no reason for the statement thot the rates “can’t be expected io remain at that figure.” The demand made by the people’s party that the railroads shall be owned and operated by the people, or the government, if crystalized into law, would give us a permanent feature, as low, or lower rates than those mentioned. In Hungary, where the government owns and operates the railroads under the zone system a passenger can ride any distance, from 148 to 454 miles, in first-class compartment of fast express train, for 83.84, and third-class upon the same train for 81.92. The secondclass fare is 82.80. The full schednle of passenger rates is as follows: Ordinary x i Express Distance, Mixed Trains. Trains. Miles. I IL HL L 11. 111. 16 to 24......1 .40 4 .82 8 .20# .48 j"*) 8~24 25 to 34 00 .48 .80 .721 .00 .30 35 to 44 .80 .04 .40 .98 .80 .48 55 to 01. Z 1.20 .96 .0.) 1.44 1.20 .72 65 to 74. 1.40 1.12 .70 1.68 1.40 .84 75 to 84 1.00 1.28 .80 1.92 1.00 .90 85 to 94 1.80 1.44 .90 2.16 I.BJ 1.08 95 to 104 200 1.00 1.00 2.40 2.00 1.2.) 105 to 114 220 1.70 1.10 2.64 2.20 1.32 115tol8l. 240 1.92 1.20 2.88 240 1.44 182 to 148 2.80 2.12 1.40 &80 2.00 1.68 149 and over 3.20 2.32 1.61 8.84 2.80 L 92 Tie inauguration of these rates and the zone system effected a reduction of rates of from slightly less than 50 per cent, in the case of the shorter distance to within a fraction of 80 per cent in a distance of 454 miles It was expected that the increased volume ot travel would compensate for the lower charges to individuals, and that the total revenue would be equal to that received before the reduction in rates. The.results proved that the Hungarian, government was fully justified in its expectations.' The system was first inaugurated in the summer of 1889, and yet from January 1, 1889, to December 31, 1889, there were 9,097,200 passengers carried, as against 5,587,700 for the year I^BB,while the receipts increased from 13,694,280 to 14,126,840, a net increase of 1482,560 — thus proving that a reduction in rates increases rather than diminishes the revenue receipts and knocking into a cocked hat the arguments used by the tools of plutocracy who are organizing railroad employes into political clubs for the purpose of antagonizing the people’s party. Government ownership and operation of railroads, by reason of the reduction in rates, would make it possible for two or three times as many people to travel and yet so largely increase the revenue of the roads as to make it possible to reduce the hours of labor ana increase the wages of all railroad employes.