The Rutland weekly globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-08-15
Speech of Gov. Booth, of California.
SAN FRANcrsco. Aug. ID.

Peoples Union, was given last Tuesday
night is the sensation of the day. Touch
ing the disintegration of political parties
that have growing tendency towards the
Capitalization ,of power and aggregation
of corporate wealth he illustrated alb
solutc power of railways over the CONNER
cial business by special and discriminating |
rates in transportation, and applying his |
remarks to the Central Pacific railroad, and |
reciting its interference in political and
mercantile affairs on the Pacific coast.
He showed that his general propositions
were neither exaggerated nor sensational.
| appeal, he said, to the experience of
every business man in this community who
takes part or feels an interest in public af-
fairs to say If they can get together q COM
mittec for the purpose of considering any
question of public importance without in
stantly feeling the cncroaching power of
this railroad monopoly. The moment such
committee trenches upon RAILROAD ground,
how many feel that tits dangerous ground,
full of pitfalls for their personal safety,
ATTEMPT to create an organization to resist
railroad demands, no matter how bold
and unscrupulous, and how many will tell
you 81 should like to join you but it
will certainly injurc me in my business.
| The railroad can take awaymy special or
give discriminating facilities to my neigh
Dor They can give out all along the line
that none of their employers shall deal
with me. They can ruin meychants who
will not regard their orders. 1t may he
question of ruin, of bankruptcy, of bread
to my family" The struggle of his man
hood is earnest and painful but the yoke is
upon his neck The war in his soul. \
ballot box is stuffed or returns are altered
to carry one railroad subsidy and then
another demand follows.
They will say II know it is wrong, it is an
outrage but my property is all in the city
They cannot affect its ultimate value, but
it is mortgaged, and they can unsettlc
prices by their threats, and | should soon
demands" What interest is there here
which cannot be made to feel this iron
pressure? But as if it were too tedious to
capture there several interests in detail
they 90 to Congress and demand posses
sion of Goat Island, they still demand it
and board that they will get it if they
carry this election. Reserved, though it is
for military purposes, they scarcely intend
to change its purpose. They only intend
to lombard the city from it instead of
bombarding the city's enemies until their
demands are conceded. In Gods name
look at it. You are one hundred thousand 3;
they are but three men, Have they got a
hook in the jaws of this leviathan to draw
it as they please? Even in the country,
farmers will tell you that rates for trans
portation may be changed, or their depots
may I've moved to their disadvantage,
or else their accommodations restricted.
Or they tell you that they owe money upon
railroad sections of land with imperfect
titles and that they too are In tolls. To
one community seductive hopes are held
out threats are made to another to sway
both to the monopolies will. 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 hand
that tightens or relaXes its grasp at the in
stance or caprice of an iron will | have
referred but incidentally to that twin birth
of incestuous shame, the Credit Mobilier
and the Contract and Finance company. |
have said nothing of two hundred and
twenty-four millions of acres of public
lands, three times the area of Great Britain
given to railroad companies, and at the
last session of Congress bills were intro
duced giving one hundred and eighty-nint
millions more.
have said nothing of the millions ant
hundreds of millions of which the southern
states have been robbed under false pre-
: tence that railroads were to be built by
| were granted.
have made no reference to the $50, 900,
900 that this state and its counties hav'
4 been asked to appropriate for railroad com
3 panies through legislative action and pop
ular notes.
} Nor have | cited the fact that while til,
general government is paying two millions
of dollars per annum interest on bonds o.
the Central Pacific railroad company, anC
state $105, 900 more, the company can sue
cessfully defy the state to collect its taxes
With an effrontery that is sublime it makes
the very gifts and largesses it has received
t on the ground of its refusal to pay
e to such infamous successes we are in
7 debted for the fact that to-day there il
= not piece or species of public property
1 from China basin and Goat Island. to all
! the broad acres of our national domain,
l from the remotest point on the noun
tains to the rolling waters of rivers, OF
plains upon which some incipient or full
grown monopoly has not fixed its coyetous
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