Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1873-01-02
Correspondence
RAIL ROAD RULE.
The question of the IIour.

one OIL the aDiesL memoirs OF the Low
or House Of Congress, has introduced
a bill calculated to regulate the freight
and tariffs OH railroads between the
States, under that clause of the Consti-
tuition of the United States which de-
clares that Congress shall have power
to REGULATE commerce among the sew
eral States" He has also written
letter to the Boston Journal Of Com
7nerce, under date of the 10Th instant,
in which he deliberately sets forth the
necessity and the constitutionality of
such a regulation for the protection of
the people from the grasping, hcartlcss,
soullcss railroad monopolies, which
are rapidly absorbing the capital as
well as the legislation of the country.
Mr. Shellabarser says:
ain answer to an unofficial circular
letter sent during Tho last session of
Congress to all parts of the republic,
l received information showing the
most cruel and intolerahle discrimina-
ton and cxactions made By these COM
mon carriers. Yet these corpoMtions
derive their right TO exist from the
grant Of the people and ont OF their
public domain. The result OF these
expressions are seen i'm fruits like these :
Millions Of bushels OF 'bread' are to-
day being either being burned for fuel
or else are rotting in the fields of the
West, and at the same moment the hui
name i'll the city OF New York are or
.ganizing CHARITIES to give one, perhaps
last, Christmas meal to from 10000 to
81 1000 men, women and children,
w HON they describe as without work
an d without bread, and as selling or
paSvning, first their furniture, then
their clothes, then their children's
clothes, and then accepting starvation
as the last resort.
Is II your opinion. sir, that, when
such state of affairs is largely caused
by BY facts like those Just uttered by
the Commissioner for Iowa, (Mr. Rob-
ert Lowry in the Centennial Boards
recent me citing in New York, when he
~the crop of corn in Iowa is
immense, b ut it cost five bushels to get
one to the .scaboard.' **
They are burning corn for fuel in
churches and residence
es.' Will the people long endure it !?
Do you think that when the Constitu-
ton commands, that Congress shall
regulate commerce among the several
States, so as to secure the common
and best interests ofthis entire people,
as one nation, that people will long
stand by and see tens of thousands Of
their children starving for bread at one
end of huge and yoracious- monopo-
w, and those at the other perishing for
the other necessities of life. and all
this because the railroads will not in
except at exorbitant rates,
the commodities which are perishing
for want Of consumers at the places of
production?'
tits evident that the time has struck
for the protection business to pass
around the board. Heretofore it has
seemed to be the entire duty of our
law makers to protect one class of the
laborers Of the country, to-wit: the
manufacturers, at the expense of the
q ericulturists, until to-day, every eligi-
bic situation around Pittsburg is
crowned with the castle of an Iron
Bauon, and NATL that interest is able
to control all the railroads of the coun-
try with their gigantic capital and to
exert dominant influence in the Ma
tional councils.
The West is tcc,nirg to-day with
srrfcit of agricultural products which
scarcely pay for marketing, because Of
The fact that tlse railroads charge two
or three prices Tor transporting them
10 the eastern markets.
Something must be done 10 bring
The East aud the West together by
cheap transportation. and that some
thing must be done speedily.
While Mr.. Shellabargei.s plan. if il
can be legally, constitutionaily and
speedily eousnnilnsted, might alleviate
the burdens now imposed upon our
western agricuiturists, we still have
m opinion that they viii require
more desperate and radical remedy.
lis our opinion that Congress ought
to charter National railroad compa-
ny, to build railroad on IN air line
from New York to Omaha.
That it ought 10 be wide guage,
double track, steel rails, with easy
grade, built with the sole idea of di-
rectness aud efficiency for safe and
cheap transportation and without re-
gard TO towns OF other interests; that
the cars of this road should be wide,
with managers and troughs, SO that
stock could be fed and watered en-
route to the end that they could be put
down in New York as fat and healthy
as when they left the prairies ;
That the government should issue
its bonds on say fifty years time tG
build it.
That it should perpetualy be con-
trolled by the government through di-
rectors apportioncd to the different
states, appointed by the President an
nually, by and with the consent of
the Senate.
That it should run at q uniformly
low rate of speed and be engaged only
in transporting our products to the
eastern markets and bringing in re-
turn the merchandise, &C., purchased
there.
That tariffs sufficient to keep it in
repair and pay low rate of interest
into sinking fund for the ultimate re-
demption of the bonds, should only be
imposed.
A plan like this or similar to it, is the
only one i'll our opinion which can
break the power of the railroad mo-
nopolics which now bind the people
Il nd and fnnf