The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-10-03
VOLUME 16.


crime and weakness.
Should further proof of my
statement be required l would re
fer TO the columns of the public
newspapers, freighted from day to
day and week to week with the
freshest and best thoughts OF the
people. So earnest is the call and
so warm the discussion in these
couriers OF popular thought that
their united desire found expires.
sion last winter in the annual mes
sage of the President of the
United States. The President
published to Congress and to the
world the fact that the means OF
transporting to market the pro-
ducts of American industry fall
far short of the demand. His
Excellency also suggested a few
remedies. But forgetting that we
have neither the nat country OF
Holland or the sluggish ways OF
the HOllanders, he talks of canals
and land locked navigation Long
before railroads were known, and
before steamboats, were consider
ed practicable, canals were justly
thought our best means of trans
portatien. In those primeval
times some of the. earlier Presi-
dents recommended to cut = canal
through the Allegheny mountains
OF Virginia. connecting the Ohio
river with the tide water at Nor
folk. As a dernier resort, in the
face of a great national necessity,
of course the scheme was practical
BILE. And the work might have
been completed by long continued
national effort, just as Egyptian
pyramids and Chinese walls have
been built. But since the inven-
ton of steamboats, and the uni
versal prevalence of the railway
locomotive as agents of safe and
speedy travel and traffic, nothing,
it would seem, could be more alb
snrd than cutting a ship canal
through q range Of mountains!
Does it not seem strange that a
great national executive, from the
'.banner" railroad State of the
Union should repeat this obsolete
suggestion as a remedy for our
urgent and all-pervading national
necessity for cheap and speedy
transportation? emphasize the
word speedy because that word is
in accord with the spirit OF the
age and the nation in which we
live; and because speedy move
ment is required for many of the
perishable products of agriculture
and horticulture, which were un-
known in the public markets of
our ancestors.
More and more is it becoming
evident that the prosperity of the
United States is dependent upon
an abundant means OF cheap and
speedy travel and tansit by the
steamboat and locomotive.
Yet, notwithstanding our habits
as a people and our necessities as
. nation for greater commercial
facilities, there arises on all sides
an outcry against the high, UD-
equal and irregular charges OF
railroads. 1t is well that this
cutlery be needed, and that the
subject be we'll examined. Do
these wrongs belong inherently to
legitimate railroad commerce, or
are they merely the result of NAL
practice on the part of railroad
managers?
Railroad charges are said to be
high because the producers and
consumers of those products of
industry which are to be carried
are compelled to count and clutch
the pennies they receive for their
labor with mIserly tenaclty in or
der to possess the means of sup
plying their families with the
commonest comforts of life, while
the railroad kings who cause the
carrying of these same products
to market dwell in marble palaces,
reyel in the splendor of monarchs,
and handy from hand to hand
millions of money and stocks
with the easy carelessness OF full
handed gamblers.
RAILROAD charges are unequal
when they discriminate for or
against certain cities or districts,
saying to one: "You shall pay
high freights so that your neigh
Dor over yonder may be allowed
lower!" What right have these
public carriers to tamper with the
interests, growth and prosperity
of cities, sections and Statesf
saying to one, prosper thouH
and to another "Be thou occurs
ed" Why shall charges on the
same road be greater for short
distances than for long ones? In
spite of the spirit of that consti,
tutional provision which says,
mo preference shall be given by
any regulation of commerce =.
to the parts of one
State over those of another"
| Charges are irregular when
they are suddenly changed in
rate, perhaps doubled or trebled
by a dispatch from headquarters
without one single note of warn
ing to the patrons of the road
who are continually making in
vestments and ordering shipment:
on the basis of existing rates
Traders and shippers are thus, IL
self defense, compelled to operat'
on larger margins of profit, t.
cover the uncertainties of the
case, all of which additional
burdens must be borne by tn,
producers and consumers of tn,
, commodities carried. / know tina
railroad companies claim the RICH
to manage their own private prop
= srty in any manner they see fit
, am aware, also, that the court
= in some or the States have decid
ed that the roads are private prop
erty. Yet, no such claim was eve
set up in behalf Of q road seeking
: the right of way through on
: farms, and other favors and fran
? chises All roads are loudly pro
) claimed to be public improve
: ments," when forcing their track
!. through our-homes by the right c
; "eminent domaini" And it j
Y only by virtue of their public ns
a ture that they are allowed th
: right of way in opposition to th
d will of the free holder. Railroad
/. are claimed and classed as publ
e benefits with much zeal, when asl
= ing bonds, lands and other subs
y dies. But the moment the la:
J. spike is driven and the last bon
" is issued there comes a might
l. change. The whole concern
&c now the private property"
some corporation. And the ma
IT agement shall be fast or slow,