Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-04-04
Two Years Were Lost.


supported the O'Donnell-Keables
Bill, l feel in measure personally
attacked by the article taken from
the Davenport Gazette, which APP
peared in the BULLETIN two weeks
ago under the heading, "What was
Lost?'' l have seen similar ideas
expressed in various quarters, and
1t seems to me they have common
origin and common object, and
that object appears to be to confuse
and mislead the public mind, and
demoralize and divide the sentiment
that demands the proper regulation
of the corporations in the State
There is no doubt but what there
are difficulties in the way. We
cannot expect to get 4 perfect law
the first time we try for it, but if
the people of the State can be lulled
into inaction by the plea that we
are not yet ready, that we must have
more light, and collect more statis-
tics, SO that we can act with more
wisdom, the present awakening viii
all be in vain, and we shall lapse
into state of torpor infinitely more
helpless than ever before. To do
this work requires the united action
of the whole people, and the people
are naturally inert and exceedingly
slow, but they arc now pretty thor
oughly aroused, and if they do not
allow themselves to be deceived or
misled they will eventually effect
the needed reform.
Now is the time to commence &C
ton. We must expect to totter be-
fore we walk strong. We shall tot
ter when we begin if we defer our
beginning quarter of q century -
No man ever learned to swim by
studying the motions of frog in a
basin Of water, neither shall we ev-
er learn what kind of tariff law
we need by watching the move
ments in other States. We must
work out our own salvation. We
must pass the best law we know
how, and perfect it ourselves as ex-
perience teaches us how. Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois may al be
working for the same thing, they
may be vanquishing one by one the
obstacles in their several paths, but
we can never build on the results of
their experience. Their State Con,
stitutions are not like ours, or their
corporation laws are different, or
their judges are made of different
material, or the temper Of the peo-
pie is not the same. If we wait and
watch them for forty years we shall
then have to begin where they be-
gun and toll up the same rugged
way that they have toiled up
Then the duty of the hour is to
4egin to assert the right of the State
to protect its citizens from injustice
and eXtortion, and those members
of the Legislature who tried to make
that beginning are entitled to cred
it, although we can here at home
and at our ease imagine law which
we think better than the one they
supported there, but which was the
best attalnable owing to the great
diversity of opinions and interests
among the different members. At
least we should not misrepresent
them by bringing against them
charges that cannot be sustained
And yet that is just what the Daven-
port Gazette does in the article to
which / have alluded. 1t says
"The House, it seems, inadvertently
got two inconsistent measures into
one bill. These were the O'Donnell
Bill and Keables Amendment. By
the former the rates of transporta-
ton were limited to certain prices
per ton, or car load, graduated ac-
cording to distance; that is the price
per mile was to be reduced as the
distance increased, while by the
Keables Amendment the railroads
were forbidden to make any dis
elimination at ALL"
Now let us look at the facts. The
above account of the O'Donnell Bill
is correct as far as it goes, but the
keables Amendment reads: "No
road shall charge or collect for the
transportation of goods for any dis
lance any greater amount as toll or
compensation than it charges for
carrying the same over greater
distance" This is the first condi-
ton of the amendment, and it says
dmou1at-not rate per mile-and it
means, for example, that car load
OF wheat shall not be carried from
Waterloo to Dubuque for less
amount than the same car load is
carried for from Independence to
Dubuque over the same railroad
The price fixed in the bill is the
maximum. They may go as much
below it as they please, but they
cannot make short routes pay doub-
lie, to make up what they lose on
long routes, and that is all there is
to the first part of the Keables
Amendfnent-if they choose to car.
ry from Waterloo to Dubuque for
one dollar car they cannot charge
but one dollar for carrying it from
to Dubuque.
The second part of the Keables
Amendment forbids the charging of
a greater amount for carrying goods
over a given distance on one part of
a road than is charged for carrying
the same over an equal distance on
another part of the same road. Re-
duced to practice that means: They
shall not charge any greater amount
for bringing q carload of coal from
TT. Dodge to Independence than
they do for carrying it an equal dis
lance from TT. Dodge west. In 9TH
er words, if they carry ives, cheaper
than they can afford, they cannot
make it up off from us. They may
carry just as much below the maxi
mum rate, mentioned for that dis
lance in the O'Donnell Bill, as they
please, but if they reduce the price
west they must also reduce it east,
and that is the plain and obvious
of this part of the Keables
Is it true, then, as
the Gazette affirms, that this amend
ment forbids all Discrimination
4 Al.