The anti-monopolist., 1874-10-08
&mf-SHuuupulist.
THE RAILROAD QUESTION.


The St. Cloud Press, discusses a
speech we made the other day at the
Stearns County Fair. 1t says:
Mr. D. tells us that unless the principle be
established that the State has the right to
regulate railway traffic, that there is no Sc
curity for the producers of the country. We
ask, Is there not equal danger to railroads if
it be once settled that their business is to be
at the mercy of improvident and hostile leg
ls]ation.
Granted. But if we have to choose
between protecting the rights Of the
people and the rights of the railr Dads,
would it not be better to protect the
people Are not the people more i'm
portant than the roads! Can not the
roads better trust themselves to the
mercy Of the whole people, than the
whole people trust themselves to the
mercy Of few stockholders and capl-
talists
Then says this Republican paper:
''THE WAGON ROADS ARE STILI4AT
OUR SERVICE IF WE DO NOT WISH TO
PATRONIZE RAILROADS."
Now we know the editor did not in
tend to insult the farmers and yet
this utterance is little less than an in
suit. If we had not given nearly one
half Of the whole territory of the State
to these roads; if we had not voted
hundreds of thousands of dollars of To-
Cal aid; if we had not submitted to have
our farms cut up for road ways, we
might patiently submit to such doc
trine. But the people have contributed
more to the construction of the roads
than the stockholders; and now we are
told, just as the Republican par ty told
us in their National Address, that five
don't like the railroad charges, we can
start with our wheat for New York in a
wagon!
Then continues this Republican
paper
This state of things can be largely ac-
counted for in the fact that our railroads
were built in advance of the necessities Of
the country; and to make them pay reason
able returns for the investment implied in
their construction it has been necessary to
resort to what seems to us as high and ex-
tortionate rates W 4.
Why, then, do they not sell their
lands, which were given them to tide
over this very period of sparse popula-
ton and small businessl
What motive was there to grant
them bonuses of land, worth the entire
cost Of the roads, if the business of the
roads is to pay interest on the capital
invested from the start!
But if the roads hold their lands at
high prices; assign them to stockhold-
ers; avoid the payment Of taxes; and
thus prevent the settlement and growth
Of the State; while at the same time
they impoverish the people by extor.
tionate rates; they become source Of
unmixed evil to the State, and should
be regulated and restrained like any
other nuisances.
The St. Cloud Press continues.
The shoemaker who supplies the farmer
with shoes, the miller who grinds the far
mel s wheat, the manufacturer who furnishes
him with the materials of his dress, do their
parts as well, and are entitled to equal credit
with him who gives them bread in exchange
for thqif wares.
Precisely. You have given us the
righ< y0f1s- -"EQUAL credit That is
1t. hui suppose the miller uses the
machinery Of law to impoverish all the
other P1rsuits and enrich himself; !;
or .sarppese the farmers combine
and fAHahence legislation to rob all
their fellow laborers, would that be
right 30. "Fair play" says the
EndllshhAsn, sis pretty thing" All
we ask is ''EQuAr. credit But If the
men who transport the wheat roll in
aaiuence, while the men who raise the
wheat struggle with poverty, then
there is something rotten in the State
of Denmark" and that something
should be corrected; and the man who
helps correct it, is not, as you say, ''a
tirebrsnd, and "disturber of societv,"
bat friend Of his fellow men and a
public benefactor.
All injustice is dangerous. 1t is "the
green mantle of the standing pool" that
breeds death; not the white caps of the
turbulent waves, breathed over by
Gods grand agitating winds, blowing
sweet from out the blue heavens
Human government has no higher
office than to correct wrongs.
CAMPAIGN LIES.
We understand that A. G.. Smith Of