Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1873-05-16
The Question of Cheap Transportation

The National American Cheap Trans
portation Convention, at its recent session
in New York City, adopted the following
resolutions:
WHEREAS, The productive industries of the
United States, plantation and farm, mine and fac
tory commercial and mercantile, are not only the
sources of all our national and individual wealth.
but also the elements on which our very national
and individual existence depends; and
WHEREAS. All national products are the fruits of
labor and capital; and as neither labor nor capital
will continue actively employed without an equ1va-
lent measurably just; and
WHEREAS, Great national industries are only sus-
tanned and prospered by the interchange OF pro.
ducts of one section of the country Tor those OF
another; and
WHEREAS The existing rates of transportation
for the varied products Of the Union from one part
of the country to another and to foreign countries
well as the transit cost Of the commodities re-
quired in exchange, are, in many instances nJurl-
GUS and to certain interests absolutely destructive
arising, in part at least, from an nsuf1c1ency OF
avenues; and
WHEREAS, The great natural want of the nation
to-day is relief from the present rates OF transit
upon American products therefore,
ReS0LUed, That it is the duty of the hour and the
mission of this Association, to obtain from Con-
gress and the different State Legislatures such leg
slation may be necessary to control and limit by
law, within the proper constitutional and legltl-
mate limits the rates and charges OF existing lines
of transportation; to increase, where practlcabe,
the capacity of our present water ways, and to ada
such new avenues, both water and rail, as our i'm
mensely increasing internal commerce demands, SO
that the producer may be justly rewarded for his
honest toll, the consumer have cheap products and
our almost limitess surplus find foreign markets at
rates to compete with the world
ResOt0ed, That cheap transportation, both OF per-
sons and property, being most conducive to the
free movement of the people and the widest inter
change and consumption of the products OF the
different parts of the Union is essential to the well
fare and prosperity of the country.
ReSOtUeG, That constant and frequent ASSOCIATION
of inhabitants of remote parts of the United States
is not only desirable, but necessary, for the main
tenance of homogeneous and harmonious popu-
lation within the vast area of our territory.
Resolved That the best interests of the different
parts of the country also demand the freest posi-
Bile interchange of the industrial products of the
varied climates and industries of the United States,
so that breadstutfs textile fabrics, COAL lumber,
iron, sugar, and various other products, local IN
their production, but general in their consumption
may all reach the at the least practicable
cost of transportation, and that an arbitrary and
unnecessary tax levied by the transporter over and
above fair remuneration for investment is a bur
den upon the producer and consumer, that 1t is the
part of wise craftsmanship to remove.
ResoIued, That certain leading railroad corpora
tiOns of the country, although chartered to sub
serve the public welfare, and endowed with the
right of eminent domain solely for that purpose,
have proved themselves practically monopolies,
and become the tools of avaricious and unscrupu
capitalists, to be used to plumber the public, en-
rich themselves, and impOverlsh the country
through which they run.
ResolUed, That many of the railroad corporations
have not only disregarded the public convenience
and prosperity, but have oppressed citizens bribed
our Legislatures, and defed our Executive and
Judges, and stand to-day most menacing danger
to American liberty and to republican government.
ReS0lged, That the present system of railway
management, having failed to meet the just ex-
pectations and demands of a long-sufering people,
must be radically reformed and controlled by the
strong hand of law, both State and National, and
the railway corporations compelled to perform their
proper functions servants, and not as masters of
the people.
Besolued, That to this end we invoke the aid of
all far-minded men in all States of the Union in
excluding from the halls of legislation, from our
executive offices and from the bench, all such rail-
way officials, railway attorneys, or other hire
ngs, who prostitute public office to the base uses
of private gain. -
Resogyed, That leaving the different sections and
interests that desire cheap transportation to work
out the problem in such manner as they may deem
best we earnestly invoke their careful consldera-
ton their energetic action, and their resolute Will
in regulating and controlling rates of transporta-
tion and in giving remunerative wages to the Pro-
Queer and cheap products to the consumer, untaAed
by unearned charges for their carriage.
ResoEUed, That we invite the people OF the varl-
Gus States to organize subsidiary associations State
county and town, to cooperate with the National
Associations that the power to accomplish the pur-
poses desired rests absolutely with the suffering
millions Relief is within their reach and control.
United action and the near future will give, as GER
tain as it is needed for all time and the good of all,
the true solution of the problem of cheap trans
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