Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1873-08-28
Advantage of Railroads.&c. Rata.


the royal bird needs something to
tear and lacerate and the lion has
teeth and claws, but these imple-
ments would be useless if nature had
not provided some enemy upon which
he might show his prowess. The
people of Lancaster, Fennimore and
other neighboring towns are patriot
ically pugnacious, but since jeff Da-
Wis was chung on sour apple tree"
they have had nothing on which
they could exercise their fighting
qualities. We need a railroad, some
"cursed monopoly" TO run its trains
past our doors and farms and then
we would have something to fight
and fire at-something to serve as O
conductor of our spleen and venom
and denounce for robbing the farm
ers of their crops stealing, thieving,
running and impoyerishing the peoo
pie to enrich the monopolists.
Yes, we are determined to have a
railroad in Lancaster. We can have
no Changers here unless we have
such an institution to arouse their
patriotism and show to them the
dangers and designs of the monopo-
lists. We are willing to enlist heart
and soul in this war against railroads,
but we want the railroad first, and
we will fight. The only objection
we have to the war is, our friends
should have kept quiet till every
part of the country was visited by
the nuisance of depots, tracks, cars
and locomotives, and the whole ma
ton could have risen at once, as from
an ambuscade, and made a simulta-
neous raid on these Establishments
and captured the whole of them.-
Our friends in Illinois sounded the
tOcsin of alarm too soon. They
should have waited at least till Lam
caster and Fennimore Were ready.
And we shall be in favor of the
pro rata system too when we get the
railroad completed. We want to
reach Milwaukee and Chicago. But
we shall not be in favor Of the bill
that Governor Washburn drew up
some years ago and recently publish
ed in the State Journal. He would
allow on "frst class freight, per 100
pounds, for the first 80 miles l cents,
and z mills for each additional 6
miles" We shall favor Il cents per
100 pounds between Lancaster and
Milwaukee, aud for all freights west
of us, going east, let mills be adj
ded for each additional 6 miles. APP
ply this rule TO railroads extending
west into Iowa and Minnesota, and
it is pretty clear that the Changers
in the remote part Of those States
cannot get their grain to market at
all' Then they would complain that
we had m0nopoIised the wheat mar
ket. But we would reply that mo-
nopoly is a very good thing if we
are monopolizers. Besides, if the
pro rata principle is good and sound,
it cannot be broken by State lines,
1t must go the whole length of the
same road, no matter into what
States it may extend. And it would
be poetic justice to blow up the Min
nesota and Kansas farmers with
their own petard. They have clam.
ored for pro rata tariff and have
got it.
We have recently read 3 decision
of the Supreme Court Of the United
States, which declared law of Penn.
sylvanis, fixing a tariff upon freights
entering or leaving that State, IN.
constitutional. That court say Con
gross alone can regulate commerce
between the States, and if a State
can impose a tariff on freights com.
ing in or leaving the State, it may
impose such tariff as would prohib
it Interstate commerce entirely
This decision, II auuwed to stand
will seriously interfere with some Of
the projects of the Changers. But
after we get our railroad built we
have a plan to remove this obstacle
Judge Craig of Illinois, recently
elected to the Supreme Court Of that
State, has solemnly pledged himself
to regard the resolutions of the
Changers as the Supreme law of the
land. He has written out long
oath setting forth in full his judicial
programme. We will Gas soon as
our railroad is built) have President
Grant appoint his Honor, Judge
Craig, Chief Justice Of the Supreme
Court Of the United States. This
will enable the Changers to run that
fogy institution. That Court will
forthwith decide that all railroads
belong to the tillers of the soil, upon
the ground that they, directly or in
directly, are the creators of all prop.
erty, and from their sweat and toll
these monopolies have become dau~
gerously and nconstitutionallv rich
and overbearing.
But the good book says it is good
for us to be afflicted and chastened,