Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-05-02
Railroads and Courts.
New York Tribune.

Railroads and Courts.
New Fork Tribune.
In the present antagonism be-
tween the farmers and the railroads,
there is a tendency to ignore the
real service of the railroads to the
people. and the State, and not only
to look upon them as public enc
mics, but to regard in the same way
all persons and especially, all Judg-
es, who do not join tie prevailing
hue and cry. When the people
carry their indignation so far as to
| propose revolution Of the Courts,
and to discuss the project of tear.
ing up rails, they permit their pas
sions to run riot over their reason,
and are treading upon dangerous
grounds. The present attack on
railroads began with supernatural
ance of produce. There is more
grain raised than can be moved in
the winter season by all the means
OF transportation We possess. The
producers are naturally those who
suffer most from this state ofthings.
They have sought for an explana.
ton of it, and believe that they
have found it in excessive freight
rates. There is no doubt that a re-
duction in charges should be made:
but this would not wholly relieve
the pressure. So long as the West
produces more ola particular kind
OF grain than can be moved to the
market by existing means of trans
portation, the price of grain must
decline, and the surplus on the
farmers hands must be burden
1t may be burned if it makes good
fuel; otherwise, it must be held
over for better market, or left to
rot. = ~
The popular crusade against rail
roads should be tempered with
sense OF what the railroads have
done and are still doing for the
country. This sentiment should
not be permitted to extenuate the
otfense of exorbitant rates or unjust
discrimination; but it should de-
ter people from rash and ill con-
sidered movement calculated to
break down the independence ofthe
Judiciary if not ripple system
which they must take for large
share of the prosperity they now
enjoy. There is no better way to
bring this phase of the present con-
troversy within the popular appre-
citation than to pict1re the state of
things that would follow a COM
plete suspension of the railroad bu-
siness for thirty days. Suppose ev-
cry locomotive-engine in Illinois
were tied up and rendered motion
less tor one month. 1t would be
a national calamity. 1t is hardly
too much to say that it would bank
rupt everybody in the State. Pc
cuniary ruin, political chaos, domes-
tic wretchedness, universal sense
of poverty, and decentralization
extending at once to commerce,
trade, government, and society,
would be the results. Without
railroads, it would require four or
five days to reach Chicago from the
Mississippi River. The transport
tation question would then be set
tied with vengence. There is use
now for all the horses, mules, and
oxen, for all the wagons and ordi-
nary vehicles, for all the canal
boats, RATS, and propellers. How
could the grain be moved then?
The price would rise in the East
ern and foreign markets; but how
would this help the farmer If he
could not get hi. corn twenty miles
from the crib without consuming
its entire value? One of the vital
elements of modern civilization
would be lost, and the way for re-
turn to barbarism would be open.-
Take away the railroads, and the
business of the West would come
to standstill, cities would be de-
serted and left to totter and decay,
the farmers would huddle together
IN communities, cultivating only
enough land tor their own necessi-
ties; the vast and rich graneries
would disappear from the face of
the earth become abiding places for
wolves and prairie dogs. All this
furnishes no argument why rail
roads should be permitted to over
charge, to extort, or to discriminate
unjustly; but it shows that they
must not be put in the category Of
public enemies from whom the pro-
lection of law is withdrawn, and
against whom-every mans hand
may be turned.