Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-08-08
Railroad Legislation.

lhefe Is In these times q great
deal Of cxtravagent talk, vehement
denunciation, and unrcasoning and
unreasonable criticism over the
question Of railroad Legislation, with
very little knowledge of the SUBJ
ject, and scarcely any well-defned
suggestion for it's solution. It is,
in the hands of dcmagogues, a pro-
life theme for arousing the passions
and exciting the prejudices of that
too large class of tho people who
do not read or reason; bu. to no adj
equate extent has the railroad ques-
ton been discussed as a practical
one, in tho proper and just settle
ment of which all classes of the
community are equally interested.
The following extract from an arti-
Gle in the Dubuque Times, may con-
tain some facts and suggestion.
new to our readers:
We believe we assert simply
what the records of legislation in
this State will bear us out in, when
we declare that the representative
of the agricultural districts OF the
State, many of them farmers them
selves, have been the men who have
yofoI ono,ncf nric1ofivo ooofro1 of
railroads, and defeated the passage
of and bill fixing the rates of fare
and freights. The representatives
of the cities have generally been in
favor of control, and for a long time
have earnestly supported any move
ment in that direction, but they have
constantly been overborne by repre-
sentatives Of agricultural districts,
who were either divided upon the
question of how to regulate, or else
were so much interested in securing
new roads through their districts
as to deem regulation Of any kind
opposed to the immediate interests
Of their constituents. and in anita
gonism to their peoples desires.
Hereafter, the number of repres-
entatives who will be opposed to
regulation, because Of the hopes of
their constituents for new roads, will
be much fewer. Nearly every local
ity in the State is now provided
with railroad facilities, and will be
disposed to look with greater favor
upon the proposition to restrict fares
and freights,
We do not anticipate, therefore,
any direct antagonism to the propo-
sition to regulate. We think the
only question is to be, as the diff
cult question heretofore has been,
what form is legislation to take?
And to this the press ought to give
it's attention, and to the calculation
of the difficulties surrounding this
problem ought the public mind in
this State to be now turning, instead
of exhausting itself in undisputed
assevcrations of the power to con-
troll.
Nine-tenths Of the men who are
loud-mouthed in their denunciation
of the fact that no scheme of rail-
road regulation has thus far been
adopted by the Legislature, and who
Will be prolific of promises that if
they are sent to Des Moines next
winter they will have an equitable
freight and passenger tariff fixed for
all the roads in this State, are not
capable Of giving the first idea of
how such tariff should be framed
or what would be the effect of any
given plan upon the State at large.
They know that if it depended upon
them to draft such law it would be
ridiculous failure. They expect
that somebody else will have a plan
already prepared for them, and
that all that they will have to do
will be to adopt it. And their opin-
ion of it will be guided, unquestion-
ably, by the consideration whether
the schedule proposed gives their
town or their county lower rates
than before. If they should happen
to have been located at a point
where competition had given them
low freights, they will oppose with
all vigor any proposition of gradua-
ted charges that brings their
charges up; or if they do not, they
will be likely to find themselves con-
demned by their constituents for
lending themselves to the establish
ment of a law increasing instead of
diminishing their railroad charges.