The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-08-29
Cheap TRANSFORMATION.

As railroads have In many localities
become the exclusive means of trans
portation, it is natural that by the ten
dency of all human undertakings to
place self-interest paramount, railroad
corporations have taken advantage of
their peculiar circumstances, and in
many instances raised the prices of
transportation to very high figures. No
wonder that those interested in low
transportation rebel against this, and
attempt to check such extortions by all
possible means at disposal for instance,
promoting the construction of compe-
ting roads. In many instances, howev-
er, the original roads succeeded in OBJ
tanning such large interest in these COM
peting roads that finally consolidation
was the result, which totally defeated
the project of the originators of the
competition. In the meantime the in
creased money power of the large con-
solidated railroad corporations became
able to buy up editors of certain jour-
nails to defend their actions as immacu-
late, and even, in many instances, to
crush all further competition by bri-
bling legislatures, of which that of New
Jersey has for many years been the
most glaring illustration.
The opposition to extortions by mo-
nOpolizing railroad corporations has re-
Gently taken another form, in the cree
ton of an American cheap transporta-
ton association, chiefly intended to
fight the abuses in railroad manage
ment ; for instance, the building of rail
roads on mortgaged bonds while the
stock is divided among the projectors
without equivalent, in consequence of
which the public is taxed with Excess
sive freight charges, so that interest on
the bonds and dividends on the stock
may be paid. Besides this wrong, the
stocks of many railroads have been wa
tered, doubled and trebled, in order to
prevent public attention being too con-
stantly turned to the enormous amounts
thus wrung from the people.
Another enormous wrong is that in
almost every company we find a "ring"
in the management, which charges the
road two or three prices for its sup
plies. The officials Of all the compa-
MES are interested in the "fast freight
lines" to whom they give special pri-
vileges because they are so interested
These lines take the cream of the bust
ness, and their officials become million
aires at the expense, nominally of the
railroads, but in reality of the public.
What the merchants, the farmers,
the whole community have to complain
of in the present railway system, is the
rank abuses which accompany, 1.-THE
inside "rings," the swindleing manage
ment, the "Credit Mobilier" freight
lines, and the watering of stock, which
make it necessary for railway compa-
MES to charge the price of four bushels
of corn at the place of production to get
one bushel to market. 1t can make no
difference whatever to the farmer of the
west whether he loses three-fourths of
his labor product by a failure of his
crops, or whether it is absorbed by the
tolls which are levied upon it in getting
it to market. All would lament the
failure of our western crops as sad ca
lamlty, but the shipping merchants of
the east are as much deprived of the
profits of handling and exporting cere-
ais, as though the corn were milldewed
in the fields. The evils of the railway
system, as it has been conducted, and
in which stockholders are often as much
abused as outsiders, the cheating of the
red, white and blue lines, the swindle-
ing and thieving, of the officials, who
appear to leave honesty behind them
when they enter railway service, all
these and other aggravations have so
accumulated one upon another, that
the people have resolved to bear them
no longer if aremedy can be found for
them.
This is what the American cheap
transportation association, which was
organized last month in New York city,
and recently published their constitu-
ton and bylaws, intend to correct by
all legal means at disposal. Every
body who is not railroad stakeholder
or official, is interested in cheap trans
portation of persons and property, and
therefore we expect that the great ma
iority of our people will not only wish
this association all the success it fully
deserves, but demand powerful assist
ance from our government.-Manwfac-
ttLeT and Builder.