Part 38 (2/2)
”Stealing foodstuffs, stealing rides, stealing handcars, threatening and injuring trainmen, placing obstructions on tracks, stoning freight crews, setting air brakes, and robbing ticket offices, are typical offences.”
As bearing on the question of, literally, ”Who pays the freight?” the following is from the New York Central's report:
”We are required by law to charge all of the costs arising out of the operation of the railroad to operating expenses, which const.i.tute the loss of the services rendered. Among these expenses are loss and damage due to the effects of trespa.s.sing and the acts of trespa.s.sers.
Inasmuch as the definition of a reasonable rate has been stated to include the cost of the service and a reasonable return upon the value of the property employed, it inevitably follows that our charge to the public includes these elements of cost. It may, therefore, be said that in the end the public pays, but we would prefer to eliminate this source of cost as far as practicable.”
Many railroads ascribe the increased number of vagrants to ”hard times,” resulting in the reduction in the number of men employed throughout the country.
The report is frequent that more ”honest out-of-works” are stealing rides and trespa.s.sing. President McCrea reports that ”not many of the illegal train riders are vagrants, but men out of employment.” The Southern Pacific reports that ”the type of trespa.s.ser is as a whole better.”
With striking frequency the railroads report the majority of illegal train riders to be young men and boys. The ages ”18 to 25” are often mentioned. The Central Railroad of New Jersey says they can be considered as the coming generation of tramps.
Answering the question, ”Do you believe in a State constabulary to cooperate with the railway police in prosecuting vagrants?”
twenty-three railroads replied ”yes,” five replied ”no,” and sixteen either had not considered the matter thoroughly or made no reply. The State constabulary is favored mainly by trunk lines that are troubled by vagrants.
N.Y. _Times_, Feb. 14, 1909.
VIII
PUBLIC STORE NOTES
The last report of the Director of the Mint (as quoted in _Statistical Abstract of the United States_, 1908, p. 714) gives the stock of gold in the United States as nearly $1,600,000,000 and amount of silver as almost $700,000,000--in all, $2,300,000,000. Of course, all this coin will never be at the disposal of the State; some of it will remain as now in private hands. But all the coin now held by the Government as reserves to secure greenbacks issued will be gradually released by the subst.i.tution of store notes for greenbacks. This subst.i.tution cannot be honestly effected except in proportion to the amount of produce which goes into the public stores. There are at the present moment a little over $1,000,000,000 of greenbacks issued by the United States Government redeemable in coin. If in any given year the produce acquired by the state amounts to--say, $100,000,000, the state can withdraw greenbacks to the amount of $100,000,000 and subst.i.tute therefor public store notes for $100,000,000, and so on, until there have been subst.i.tuted public store notes for all the greenbacks in circulation.
As regards the remaining $1,300,000,000, some of this, of course, will remain in private hands; and if it were the policy of the government to increase its supply of gold for the purchase of foreign goods, it could levy taxes paid by those engaged in private industry in gold instead of in produce. If, on the other hand, the private banking system operated satisfactorily, the state could leave the whole of $1,300,000,000 in the hands of private bankers and through its owners.h.i.+p of mines, would still have the whole gold and silver production in the United States for the purchase of foreign goods.
As the amount of gold and silver produced in the United States amounted in 1907 to over $90,000,000 of gold and over $37,000,000 of silver, it will be seen that the state would have at its disposal some $127,000,000 in gold and silver which it could use in the purchase of foreign goods against which it could issue public store notes. In other words, gold and silver will be confined to the amount used in the compet.i.tive system and that required for the settlement of foreign exchanges.
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