Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

WHO OWNS THE WASHINGTON "TIMES"?

T

HAT BREWERS SHOULD BUY A NEWSPAPER to favor their business interests seems no more reprehensible to some editorial observers than that any other industry should invest in a newspaper enterprise. But the charge of Mr. A. Mitchell Palmer, Alien Property Custodian, that "twelve or fifteen German brewers of America, in association with the United States Brewers' Association," furnished the money to buy a great newspaper "in the shadow of the Capitol itself," and that the organized liquor traffic of the country is "a vicious interest because it has been unpatriotic, because it has been pro-German in its sympathies and its conduct," excites the wrath of others. The newspaper in question, the Washington Times, has been declared to be owned by Mr. Arthur Brisbane, chief editorial writer for

Mr.

the Hearst papers, and reputedly the highest salaried editor in the United States. Let nobody forget, remarks the Richmond Journal, that this same Arthur Brisbane is the same precious editor-in-chief of the Hearst publications, whose virulent antiBritish and pro-German utterances, published by and with the approval of his principal, have been a stench in the nostrils of all true Americans." The Washington Herald reprints at the head of its editorial column one of Mr. Brisbane's editorials from The Times of February 23, 1918, which is entitled "The Law Compels Editors to Tell Who Owns the Newspaper." The gist of Mr. Brisbane's comment is that the law, "good as far as it goes, doesn't go far enough," and while "it is well enough to know who owns the newspaper, it is even more important to know who and what owns the man that owns the newspaper." Meanwhile it is rather humorously noted in some quarters that fortune has played a grim joke on the brewers if they had hoped to influence Congress, because since Brisbane took over The Times Congress has passed the National Prohibition Amendment, which is without example in the history of liquor legislation, and has voted the nation dry on July 1, 1919. Mr. Brisbane's chief offending, as some see it, is that following the law requiring an affidavit on the ownership of a newspaper, he averred that he and his wife were the sole owners and that there were no known bondholders, mortgagees, or other securityholders. Furthermore, as the Newark News points out, he took oath that he had "no reason to believe that any other person, association, or corporation has any interest, direct or indirect, in the said stock, bonds, or other securities." Referring to the Senate investigation into Mr. A. Mitchell Palmer's charges, the Newark daily says that the public is entitled to all the facts that can be produced, and "ought not to be satisfied with partizan statements by either overenthusiastic drys or self-interested wets." In giving the story of the transaction through which he acquired The Times, Mr. Brisbane relates that he bought the paper from its previous owner, Mr. Frank A. Munsey, paying half cash and allowing Mr. Munsey to keep all the stock of the company in security for the payment of the other $250,000. To finance the paper and put it on a paying basis, Mr. Brisbane arranged for a credit of any amount up to $500,000 with Mr. Christian W. Feigenspan, of Newark, a brewer. Of the amount borrowed it was found necessary to use only $375,000, and the loan was made without security, altho Mr. Brisbane

says he had offered real estate as collateral. At first no interest was asked by Mr. Feigenspan, altho Brisbane says he insisted on paying interest on the loan, which was made for five years. Since The Times has come under the control of Mr. Brisbane, we are advised by a Washington correspondent of the New York Evening Sun, it has frequently published editorials and news articles supporting the sale of beer and light wines, but opposing the sale of whisky, and this informant quotes from a Brisbane editorial as follows:

"My attitude on the temperance question is well known. For more than twenty years opposing the sale of whisky, I have advocated temperance, which I believe can best be promoted by forbidding the sale of all alcoholic spirits, permitting only the manufacture and distribution of light wine and beer in which the alcohol content is reduced to an innocuous percentage."

In a statement to the press Mr. Brisbane confesses that the thing he is chiefly concerned about is the "false accusation that I and my paper are, or have been at any time, in any way, pro-German," and he proceeds:

"I have never written one line in favor of Germany, and I have written hundreds of columns in denunciation of Germany and her methods and purposes in this war.

"I do not think there is any paper in the United States or any editor in the United States who has been as bitterly, as violently, and as persistently pro-Ally and antiGerman as I have been.

"And I know that the accusations made against me, therefore, are not only untruthful, but wholly insincere.

"I believe that every unprejudiced newspaper editor in the country will know that this is a fact. "ARTHUR BRISBANE."

Mr. Christian W. Feigenspan, of Newark, who was trustee for the pool of brewers that advanced the money to Mr. Brisbane, has asked to be called as a witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is to investigate the activities of the brewers in legislative matters. As to the loyalty of the brewers, Mr. Feigenspan is quoted in the New York Evening Post as saying the charge is "a dastardly and outrageous libel, unworthy of the representatives of this Republic." Also in defense of the patriotism of the brewers, we have large advertisements in the daily press, from which we quote in part:

[graphic]

"More than 95 per cent. of all the brewers in the United States are American-born. And in a very large proportion of cases their parents were American-born.

"What money they have has been made in American business and invested in America. Since the beginning of the war brewers have been among the largest purchasers of every Liberty Bond issue, the total of their subscriptions amounting to many millions of dollars. They have contributed in large amounts to the Red Cross and other war-activities.

"Brewers themselves are wearing the uniform of service and the sons and grandsons of brewers are fighting under the Stars and Stripes.

"Much publicity has been given to the fact that before the war commenced brewers of the country contributed money to the German-American Alliance for the purpose of contesting prohibition. Not one single dollar was ever paid to the GermanAmerican Alliance by any brewer after the declaration of war between Germany and our country, and this fact is well known to every man who has investigated this subject.

"It has never been shown and can never be shown that, any American brewer has contributed, directly or indirectly, to the dissemination of any unpatriotic propaganda!"

First no

ys he

for five Mr. Brist

of the

ditorial at Wines uotes try

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

In the Washington Herald we are reminded that Mr. Brisbane is outlined, The Globe tells us, an ingenious plan, to understand
said in his anniversary number:
the possible significance of which it is necessary to read Mr.
Konta's own description of the plan, which it quotes as follows:

"This newspaper was purchased to tell the news as accurately
as possible, to reflect in editorial columns the thoughts and
feelings of good citizens, to entertain and inform in the evening
the working people, rich and poor,
to support the President and the
Government of the United States,
from the first to the last word
through every hour of the war.

"The owner of this paper may
truly say in a very small way, to
his readers, what Michelangelo
said to the Pope for whom he
built St. Peter's:

"I have made nothing from the building unless it be by adding to my reputation and my soul's salvation.""

The Herald follows this with a statement in the Washington Post in which Mr. Brisbane quotes from a letter received by him from Mr. Feigenspan, who wrote:

"I write this note to define a business arrangement existing between us. I and a number of my friends, all of whom I am authorized to represent, have for years felt very strongly that the public welfare and our own industry-because of your wellknown convictions would be benefited by your personal ownership of a newspaper.

--

"We agreed to supply you with a capital of five hundred

"A paper that would not be hostile to the personal liberty of the citizen who drinks in moderation what he pleases could count upon the powerful support of the brewers and distillers, who command almost illimitable capital, and, what is more, means of giving the paper in question a circulation large enough to attract advertisers.

[graphic]

Copyrighted by the Evening Post Company.

PUBLIC OPINION.

[ocr errors]

-Cesare in the New York Evening Post.

thousand dollars ($500.000) for the purchase and establishment of a newspaper by you. We have at this time supplied two hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars ($295,000), and We shall, as soon as possible, supply the balance

The Government itself has "indicted" Mr. Brisbane and the Washington Times, The Herald observes. Now the people will judge, and their verdict and actions will be interesting.

According to the New York Globe the "really sinister purpose" suggested by the Times transaction, "from which the veil has been only partly torn," lies embedded in the letter of Mr. Alexander Konta to Dr. Dernburg, discussing possibilities of purchasing New York papers for German propaganda. Here

"Add to this a discreet appeal to every German society in the country for support by its members, and we could easily count upon a national daily circulation of 500,000 copies. This, to be sure, would be a circulation among Germans and GermanAmericans, whereas what is

wanted is native American readers, but if this German circulation is built up discreetly as I suggest, the men in the street will be imprest by numbers.

"A large circulation widely advertised would impress the native American and lead him to take the paper. And meanwhile a deficit would be changed into a profit to be used for further propaganda. The interests to which I refer have repeatedly consulted me on this very subject, of a newspaper not hostile to their industry, and I know they would be more than ready to give their support to the plan now in hand."

A Senate investigation may find out whether Mr. Konta was "the impresario of a show that was staged in Washington and also played to large houses in New York and Chicago," or whether his is "merely one of those fertile minds that dream dreams of great enterprises while men of action are busy with similar affairs of moment," and The Globe points out that

"Meanwhile those who are not favored with glimpses behind the scenes know only that the newspapers Mr. Brisbane has been active in, the Hearst newspapers, did what they could to keep England and America apart before our entrance into the war and labored unceasingly to arouse in this country a feeling of apprehension of Japanese designs upon our shores."

TOPICS IN BRIEF

DAILY the Central Empires are becoming more central.-Chicago Daily News.

BETTER leave the sugar in the bowl than in the bottom of the cup.Helena Independent.

GERMANY's peace offensive may make some progress when it has another goal than an offensive peace.-Newark News.

THE Socialist vote seems to be falling off heavily this season, except, of course, in Leavenworth.-Grand Rapids Press.

THIS is one time when the thought that there may be no Turkey for Thanksgiving makes us feel cheerful.-New York Tribune.

IT is safe to assume that Austria is getting more and more in carnest in her advocacy of peace.-Jacksonville Florida Times-Union.

THE Kaiser says to agree on peace two are needed, but he is reminded that to make peace only one has to do the job.-Savannah Press.

IT must irritate the German soldiers to hear that every military reverse they suffer was deliberately planned by their officers.-Washington Star. WE have an increasingly deep conviction that some people are going to find it a darned poor policy to strike while the nation's hot.-Philadelphia North American.

IT is reported that Germany will transfer a division of Kurds to the West Front. They will naturally be the cream of the Teuton Army.Rochester Post-Express.

AMONG the other great tasks now confronting the Kaiser, at which he does not seem as yet to have succeeded very well, is to compose a speech consisting of defiance and whine in about equal measure and make it sound impressive-Columbus Ohio State Journal.

IN other words, the Government has taken the bar out of barley.Philadelphia Inquirer.

THE Austrian peace-dove broke all records for getting back to the Ark.-New York Evening Post.

HINDENBURG should have taken the precaution to patent his line. The Allies are infringing on it.-Chicago Daily News.

DOES Mr. Brisbane still think that there is less danger in beer than in other alcoholic beverages?-New York Evening Post.

Sounds very

IF Germany sinks many more ships loaded with codfish she may receive an ultimatum from the Mayor of Boston. Rochester Post-Express. AMERICANS Overlook the Hindenburg Line.--Head-line careless, but they probably had their eyes on Berlin. Philadelphia North American.

BULGARS haye appeared on the Western Front. They feel, we suppose, that they might just as well get licked there as in Macedonia.-New York Evening Sun.

THE strategy of Foch is meeting with the approval of all the grocerystore strategists. Could any man's reputation go further than that?Birmingham Age Herald.

THE Kaiser says his troops are "loyal to the core," but the fact remains that the majority of them now begin to recognize there ain't gonna be no core.-Philadelphia Inquirer.

THE protest against cotton price-fixing, lodged at the White House by a delegation of Southern Congressmen, shows how times have changed! since everybody was being importuned to buy a bale.-Pittsburg GazetteTimes.

Ο

SHALL GERMANY
GERMANY HAVE HER COLONIES BACK?

NE DEMAND BY GERMANY sure to be made at the
peace-table is that her colonies be restored to her, and
she is especially keen about her former African pos-
sessions, we are told, but some British editorial observers feel
that England will never yield to her wish. They quote from Mr.
Lloyd George's war-aim speech of last
January, in which he said that "the Ger-
man colonies are held at the disposal of a
conference whose decision must have
primary regard to the wishes and interests
of the native inhabitants of such colo-
nies," and he spoke also of applying to
them "the general principle of self-deter-
mination." Before the war Germany had
four colonies in Africa, one in Asia, and
nine islands or groups of islands in the
Pacific Ocean, we are reminded, and their
entire estimated area was 1,027,820 square
miles. What may be considered an official
statement of her colonial aspirations is
found in a speech of Dr. W. S. Solf, Ger-
man Secretary of State for the Colonies,
who declared that "the safeguarding of
our colonial future is not only the aim
of our Government and certain groups
of individuals, but it has become an aim
of the German people." Dr. Solf said
further:

"A lively consciousness now extends far into the workers' circles that the retention of our colonies is a vital question for the honor of Germany as a great Power. Our colonial war-aims are second to no other in national importance. The growing realization of German workers as to Germany's position is especially gratifying in view of the plans of our enemies."

Turning then to an address of Mr. Arthur J. Balfour, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Solf charged him

A flat denial of Dr. Solf's foregoing utterance is made in the London press by Lord Robert Cecil, who declares that when Dr. Solf says Mr. Balfour or any British statesman has "definitely proposed the annexation of the African colonies to the British Empire, that is inaccurate." No such proposal has ever been

with having "formally announced Great Britain's claim for the annexation of our colonies," and speaking of Mr. Balfour's reference to improved conditions in colonies taken from Germany, Dr. Solf stated:

"This means that England conquers land and asserts that she can govern it better than its lawful owners, and from this derives the claim to annex it. Does the British Foreign Secretary know nothing of the decimation of the colored populations of the various African colonies by the Entente's action? Nothing of the enforced recruiting in British East Africa? Nothing of the gigantic armies of war.1ors and workers from the British and French colonies?

"Has he any idea of the immeasurable damage to the colonial mission of all civilized races which must result from the use of black armies in battle against the white races and the bringing of the former to Europe?

"The short history of our colonies shows that neither in Africa nor in the Pacific have we pursued an aggressive policy. We strive for no supremacy, no preponderance of power. We wish for a compromise between the colonial possessions which shall correspond to the economic strength of the European nations and to the merits they have shown in the protection of the colored races entrusted to their care. Economic energy alone is not a sufficient claim."

[ocr errors]

made, according to Lord Robert Cecil, who is further quoted as follows:

"Mr. Balfour and others have said that it is impossible for Germany to resume control of her colonies. Beyond that, neither Mr. Balfour nor Mr. Lloyd George has gone. The Prime Minister said that the future of the German colonies would be decided at the peace conference. Clearly a great world issue can not be settled by this country alone. It has to be settled in concert with her Allies. . . .

"Dr. Solf is very indignant at the suggestion that German rule is inhumane. I do not believe that any one knowing the facts will accept that opinion. The British Government has collected information on that subject, and in a short time there will be a Blue Book about German rule in the colonies. Some of the evidence is a fearful record of brutality. I can not accept Dr. Solf's doctrine that the Germans wanted a peaceful African Empire. On the contrary, we know, at any rate, one important section of German thought advocated a German African Empire, to dominate Africa militarily and furnish a great store for the military purposes of the German Empire. That is quite apart from the fact that the possession of coastal ports would be the greatest danger to the British Empire and of importance to Germany."

In the London press also Prime Minister Massey, of New Zealand, states that he has no personal knowledge as to the German African colonies, but he does know something of the Pacific Islands, and

"I am able to say that Germany is hated and detested by the native races there, who, on the other hand, have shown in the most practical form their sympathy with Britain and Britain's Allies. Natives of New Zealand, Fiji, Nuie, Rarotonga, the Gilbert Islands, and other places have made the supreme sacrifice for the great cause which has drawn British citizens to the different theaters of war from every corner of the earth. I have never heard, however, of a native of any of the islands occupied by Germany prior to the war who wants to fight for Germany and against Britain."

Herr von Lindequist, who was German Colonial Secretary after Dr. Dernburg, and before Dr. Solf, startlingly discloses in the Berlin Tägliche Rundschau some German reasons why Germany should recover Southwest Africa, and we read that

"For the position of power of our chief enemy, England, in South Africa, it is a matter of decisive importance whether Southwest Africa comes under English sovereignty or not. With this question stand or fall General Botha, the chief pillar of Great Britain in the Union, and his evil spirit, General Smuts."

Herr von Lindequist avers that a rebel movement in South Africa is gaining in strength, and adds:

"Even if Botha once more maintains his position by force,

[graphic]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

he will certainly fall with the evacuation of German Southwest
Africa, and a Nationalist Afrikander Ministry will take the
place of the English Botha. That means for England the loss
of her position of power at the Cape; for German Southwest
Africa it means a good neighbor; and for Germany it means a
well-wisher with whom to bargain in all South-African questions.
"If, on the other hand, German Southwest Africa were to
become English, that would confirm the accuracy of the policy
of Botha and Smuts, and their position and the power of the
English party, whose tools they are, would be so greatly strength-
ened that even a German Central Africa would be imperiled. . .
The loss of German Southwest Africa would not only strengthen
very considerably England's position in South Africa, but would
also create from the outset a
strong and dangerous enemy for
the German possessions in the
north."

It is noted in some quarters that while the German Government professes to be opposed to the "militarization" of Africa, the Berlin Kreuzzeitung is responsible for the following:

"Of necessity Germany will follow the example of her enemies in militarization. The natives of Kamerun and German East Africa are by no means inferior to the Senegalese or Kongo niggers in military qualities and efficiency. In Southwest Africa the Hereros, and especially the Hottentots, will supply splendid military material. In the military training of colored troops Germany will march at the head of all the nations. Our enemies will have to realize this quite clearly. And France will hardly be able in a future war to fill up her regiments with African reserves.

66

'Among the demands upon which Germany must insist in a victorious peace is the rounding off of her colonial territory in Africa. East Africa, Togo, and Southwest Africa will form the corner-stones of a united German Central Africa. A victorious Germany will be able to demand, as indemnity from En

T

THE SUCCESS OF ALLIED PROPAGANDA HE MIRAGE OF VICTORY has buoyed up the rank and file of the German people for four full years-the Kaiser, Hindenburg, the various Chancellors had all promised it to them "on their German honor"-yet by the middle of summer the average Hun had slowly begun to realize that this dazzling vision of victory was, after all, a mirage that retreated the more he prest on after it. This produced an obvious restlessness in the public mind which the series of unconcealable defeats inflicted by Marshal Foch has changed into

CAPITAL ERRORS.

GERMAN EMPEROR" Got to Rome yet, Karl?"
AUSTRIAN EMPEROR-" Not yet, Wilhelm. By the way, are you
by any chance speaking from Paris?"
-Punch (London).

gland, France, Belgium, and Portugal those cessions of territory which she needs for the building up of her Central African colonial empire. German Africa, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, must be our watchword.

"A self-contained German Central Africa, equipped with a strong white and colored army, will never permit her neighbors to transfer a single man from Africa to the European theater of New Germany in Central Africa will not only be invincible, but will also permanently fetter the forces of her neighbors in Europe."

war.

The London Saturday Review voices the opinion that British South Africa has "resolutely made up its mind not again to tolerate a German Africa on its frontiers," and the grounds for this, briefly, are that

"The Germans have proved themselves impossible as neighbors. So far as the natives are concerned, South-Africans have had bitter experience, before and since the war, of the kind of sedition-mongering that the Germans have fostered among them, and of the depths to which these exponents of Kultur will descend on the chance of securing a political advantage. South Africa knows, too, the meaning of German militarism as applied to native races: how Germany has trained, and would continue to train, her black armies in the German tradition-the tradition that was responsible for the murderous horrors of the Herero war and other campaigns of brutal repression undertaken by Germany in Africa, no less than for the late tragedies in France and Belgium."

something very like panic. There is a veritable nostalgia for peace, and the papers are beginning to demand that the Government take the public into its confidence and tell them the truth. This in turn is reacting upon the leaders themselves, who are frightened at the evidence of public discontent. "The morale of the Germans must be stimulated," they cry and urge propaganda at home as a cure. Here are some significant extracts from an article in the Berlin Vossische Zeitung from the pen of Siegfried Heckscher, the head of the HamburgAmerika Line's publicity department and a member of the Reichstag. He writes:

"One may doubt whether speeches by statesmen and discussions in the Parliaments of the world bring peace nearer. But it is quite another question whether the German practise of silence in face of all the pronouncements of enemy statesmen can be borne any longer. Anybody who follows the effect of the Northcliffe propaganda in foreign countries and in Germany can have only one opinion-that this silence is equivalent to a failure of German statesmanship.

"With masterly skill every single speech of the English leaders is adapted not only to its effect in England, but also to its influencing of public opinion among the neutrals, and quite especially to its effect in Germany. Let people but listen in the country, and even at the front, and note the effect when the plain man has read the picturesque phrases, filled with an apparently genuine idealism, of a Lloyd George, a Balfour, an Asquith, or a Wilson, who has successfully imitated the well-proved methods of the English.

"Hundreds of thousands of Germans, when they have read a pronouncement by the President of the United States, ask themselves in despondency and bitterness what the German Government says; so there is formed a cloud of discontent and dull doubt, which, in great part, thanks to this Northcliffe propaganda, spreads itself more and more over the German people. Against this, of what use is it that the Supreme Command publishes its excellent commentaries on the official Army reports? Of what good is it that the Admiralty Staff adds its most skilful explanations to the report on the German submarine successes? And of what use is it that the Wolff Bureau appends a lifeless and sober remark to the English, American, and even the French ministerial speeches?

"We try to shut our country off from enemy espionage and from the work of agents and rascals, but with open eyes we leave it defenseless while a stream of poisonous speeches pours over our people.

"Now, it will not do for enemy pronouncements of any weight to be withheld from our people. But it is as necessary for our people as their daily bread that the English-American-French influence should be opposed by the German view, and that the

[graphic]

justice and the greatness of the German cause and of the German idea should be brought into the full, clear light of day. But defense is not sufficient. In attack also we must champion our cause before the forum of the civilized world, without any anxious pedantic fear of repetitions."

This tribute to the excellence of Allied propaganda is comforting, but better is to come. Mr. Heckscher assures us that our propaganda has penetrated so deeply into Germany that to

IN RUSSIA.

THE BOLSHEVIK" Of course, if you were Boches I would not kill you." --La Victoire (Paris).

it is due Dr. von Kühlmann's "victory-by-the-sword-impossible" speech. He proceeds:

"My conviction of the penetrating effect of the Northcliffe propaganda goes so far that I declare Herr von Kühlmann would not have delivered his last unhappy speech if he had not unconsciously been subject to the emanations of the Northcliffe work.

"I repeat to-day what I have said for years, that Reuter and the English news propaganda are mightier than the English Fleet and more dangerous than the English Army. A people which looks back, as the German people does, on four years of war with such unparalleled achievements and successes has of a truth every right to look to its future with pride and confidence. Is this confidence to be artificially undermined by the refined cunning of the enemy, in league with the hopeless inactivity of German statesmanship? I am speaking only of propaganda, and do not want to deny that even the war has seen successful individual achievements on the part of the Wilhelmstrasse.

"Time presses.

Just as the enemy has learned many things from us during the war, so we ought not to shrink from going to the enemy's school if his teachings and his methods have stood the test. So let us create a propaganda ministry-a ministry in which all the threads of German defensive and offensive propaganda will come together."

The semiofficial Kölnische Zeitung cries aloud for vengeance: "As our good name has been stolen from us and made despicable throughout the world, one of our peace demands-as indispensably necessary as the guaranteeing of our national future must be that our enemies publicly and officially confess that they have circulated nothing but lies and slanders. We proclaim here and now before the whole world that the hour of reckoning for this contemptible agitation is coming."

The Kölnische Volkszeitung is strong on the need of propaganda at home. It writes:

"The greatest need of the moment is a campaign of enlightenment, organized by all the competent authorities, to hammer into German heads, if further sacrifices and exertions are required of us, that it is not the hobby of some dozens of people in Germany, nor German obstinacy, but the enemy's impulse to destruction that imposes them on the people at home and at the front.

"Dishonorable and stupid is the man who toys with the idea of a cowardly surrender of the exalted treasures which for four years we have successfully defended or who toys with still worse ideas, which our pen refuses to describe."

T

CANADA TO RUN HER OWN RAILWAYS THE LARGEST RAILWAY PROPRIETOR in Canada with one exception is the Canadian People, and the day may come when there will be no exception, said Premier Borden in an address delivered at the Toronto National Exhibition. The country has embarked on a wide policy of state ownership under very favorable conditions, the Premier said further, and if the policy of state ownership is to be successful, certain conditions are essential and the people must resolutely support the Government in maintaining them. As a means toward profitable control, the Toronto Globe notes with satisfaction that all the lines owned by the Government are to be operated as one system and under one management. The Government has hitherto given the impression, we are told, that each of the state-owned roads would be separately operated with its own staff of officials and all the pharaphernalia of an independent system, and the Toronto daily observes:

"The superfluity of offices and officials in the transportation services, especially as compared with the new order of things in the United States, is a reproach in these times, when waste and extravagance are crimes. It is reassuring to know that the Government has resolved to bring the public railways under a single administration. Apparently the reconstituted Canadian Northern board is to control the unified roads, an added reason why its personnel should represent railway experience and ability of the highest order.

"The acquisition of the Grand Trunk and Grand Trunk Pacific should be the next step, to be followed as soon as possible by the nationalization of the Canadian Pacific."

The state-owned railways of Canada comprise a system of about 14,000 miles, including the 10,000 miles of the Canadian Northern, the 1,941 miles of the Intercolonial, the Prince Edward Island, and other small railways, and the 1,811 miles of the National Transcontinental, and Premier Borden explained in his speech that

"The acquisition of the Canadian Northern Railway system was brought about by conditions arising out of the war, and, in my judgment, it was the wisest solution of existing difficulties. The system comprises about ten thousand miles of railway, of which more than 9,700 miles are in actual operation; and, including the $10,000,000 to be paid for the capital stock, the total cost to the country will be between $44,000 and $45,000. per mile.

"The greater portion of the line runs through a country which must develop rapidly in the early future. For this reason its future prospects are more favorable than those of the Intercolonial or the Transcontinental.

"But if we take into account capitalization the comparison is still more favorable to the recently acquired system. The government system of railways, comprising the Intercolonial Railway, the Prince Edward Island railways, and other small railways in the maritime provinces, embraces a total of 1,941 miles, hitherto known as the Government System of Railways. It represents a capitalization of more than $137,000,000, without including interest. That means a capitalization per mile of $70,666.

"If, however, interest were included (as it has been included in the capitalization of the Canadian Northern system), the capitalization would exceed $100,000 per mile. Comparison with the Grand Trunk Pacific is equally striking. It embraces a total of 1,748 miles. The total expenditure upon the road, equipment, and rolling-stock amounts to about $180,000,000, or more than $100,000 per mile.

"The Transcontinental Railway comprises 1,811 miles, from Moncton to Winnipeg. The actual cash paid out for its construction, without including a dollar for interest, is nearly $164,000,000, and if interest is added the amount exceeds $200,000,000 for 1,811 miles. This represents a capitalization of $92,000 per mile if interest is omitted, and of more than $112,000 per mile if interest is included.

"The total mileage owned by Canada is very large, comprising nearly 14,000 miles, and reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. All the lines included in this mileage should be operated as one system and under one management; this system should not be administered by a department of the Government; it should be connected, as soon

as practicable, with

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »