Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-08-15
THE IRON HAND.
Speech Of Governor Beoth, Of Califor-
mia, Upon the Railroad MOnOp-
oily Question.
A Clear, Explicit and Plain Statement
OF Facts, IncOntrOFertibIe and Not
to be Gainsayed.

SAN FRANCISCO, August 1.-THE
great speech of Governor Booth upon
the railroad question has been the prin-
cipal tl1pic OF conversation to-day, ard
created a most profound sensation. At
ter reviewing the question of the disfn-
tegration of party Ties, the growing ten
dency to-day toward eentralization OF
power, and the aggregation Of corporate
wealth, to the eorrupting influences Of
the credit mobilier, and to contract and
finance companies. ne passed TO the illus
tration of the
ABSOLUTE POWER OF RAILROADS
to monopoIize the commercial business
of the country, and ruin all competition
by systems of special and discriminate
ing rates Of transportation. When
touching upon the subject of the Cen
tral Pacific railroad, and its interference
in the political and mercantile affairs
on the Pacific coast, he said that this
statement was not exaggeraged or emo
tiOnal. He appealed to the experience
of every business man in the commune
ty who takes part or feels an interest in
public affairs, and asks them to
get together a committee for the purpose
of considering question Of public i'm
portanee. The moment it trenches upon
railroad ground how many viii feel that
It is dangerous ground, too full Of pit
falls for their personal safety. In an at
tempt at an organization to resist rail-
road demand, no matter how bold OF
unscrupulOus, how many will tell you
81 should like to join you, but it will in
jure me in my business. The railroad
can take away special rate, or give to
my neighbor. They can give out all
along the line that none of their en-
ployes shall deal with me. They can
RUIN MERCHANTS
who will not regard their orders. It
may be question of fruin, of bankruptcy,
Of bread to my family" The struggle of
his manhood is earnest and painful, but
the yoke is upon his neck and the iron
is in his soul, and the ballot-box is stuffed
or returns altered to cary one subsidy.
Another demand follows: Men viii say,
~ know it is wrong, IT is an outrage. My
property is all in the city; they could
not affect its ultimate value, but it is
mortgaged; they can unsettle prices by
their threat, and should have the sheriff
at my door" What interest is there
here which cannot be made to feel this
iron pressure? But, as if it were too
tedious to capture these several interests
in detail, they go to congress, demand
the possession Of Goat island, still de-
mand it, Toast that they viii get it, and
viii get it, if they carry this election,
reserved strictly for military pur-
poses. They scarcely intend to change
its purpose, they only intend
to lombard the city inssead of its enc
mics. Have they got a hook in the
jaws of this leviathan to draw as they
please? Down in the country the farm
ers will tell you that rates may be
changed; that depots may be moved;
that accommodations may be restricted,
or that they are upon railroad sections,
with imperfect titles, and that they,
too, are in the tolls. To one community
hopes are held out; threats are made to
another. Go through the State and
upon every pulse of industry there is an
iron finger, counting its beats. Upon
every throat there is an iron band that
TIGHTENs Or RELAxEs
TO grasp az the interest or caprice of an
iron viii. I have referred but incident
ally to that twin birth of incestuous
shame, the credit mobilier and the con-
tract and finance company. 1 have
said nothing Of the two hundred and
twenty-four million acres of public
lands, three times the area of Great
Britain, given to railroad companies;
and at the last session Of congress bills
were introduced giving one hundred
and eighty-nine millions more for the
hundreds of millions of which the
southern States have been robbed,
and under tie false pretense that the
railroads were to be built by the proper
companies. L have made no refer
ence to the three millions this State
and its counties have been asked for
railroad companies, through legislative
action and popular votes, nor to the fact
that while the general government is
paying tWenty-seven millions of dollars
per annum for the bonus of the Central
Pacific, and the State one hundred and
five thousand dollars, the company can
successfully defy the State to collect its
taxes, and with an effrontery that is
sublime, makes the gifts and largess it
has received one of the grounds Of its
refusal to pay for the fact that to-day
there is not a piece of this species Of public
property, from the China basin and Goat
island to all the broad acres of our ma
tional domain; from the remOtest point
on the mountains to the rolling-waters
of the rivers of the plains, upon which
some incipient of full grown monopoly
has not fixed its eovetous eye, and does
not hope to obtain through some kind of
political corruption of bargain and sale.
BY the burning of AHtereith's factory
in Central avenue, Brooklyn, last even
ing, one hundred and seventy-fve men
were thrown out of employment. On
an average of five hundred sewing
machine frames were turned out daily,
besides q large amount of chamber furni-
ture and considerable number of re-
frigerators. 1t is proposed to rebuild the
factory Immediately.
A Washington dispatch says that the
secretary of the treasury late last night
sent by special messenger to Colorado,
Arthur, OF the port of New York, an
order for the immediate removal of
nearly one hundred custom officers, some
of them occupying responsible places, on
the charge of fraud and corruption, and
that the dismissal of another lot of dis
honest officials is expected IN few days.
Mrs. Fred Huber, of Gallatin, Tennes-
see, left Lebanon one day last week for
home in buggy driven BY little ne