The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-10-08


knows our condition is bad enough.
The new movement may improve it; it
can hardly make it worse.
A CONTRAST. MINNES 0TA AND
WISCONSIN,.
Minnesota has been under the DOM
nation of the Republican party for the
past fourteen years. During the last
few years the public mind has been
: deeply agitated upon the question of
controlling railroads by legislative &C.
ton in the interest of the people. Re-
publican Minnesota has passed two
laws upon the subject, one in 1871, the
other in 1874. To neither of these laws
do the railroads pay the slightest atten.
ton. Nothing Of any practical conse-
quence has been done to enforce them.
On the contrary the roads have given
orders to their employees to pay no at.
tention to them, and the companies now
station men at the doors of the cars to
refuse admission to any one that does
not buy his ticket in advance, so that
no man can enter the cars and there
raise any question as to the legal rate
of fares. This is Minnesota. We have
had all manner of protestations from the
Republican party all manner of high
sounding resolutions in platforms all
manner Of golden promises from can
didates. We have had one Governor
who proposed to shake the railroads
over hell; and we have now another
who declares that the subjugation of
the people to the corporations is a
modern feudalism'' worse than the old
time serfdom and peonage; and we have
got three commissioners with clerks
and secretary, costing the State about
$4,000 per year; and now we have
Dunnell, Window and Bill King all
preaching up the necessity Of control.
ing railroads, and "the good time com.
ing wait little longer Ard what
have they all effected! Not a thing.
"By their fruits ye shall judge them. :"
What are their fruits Are freights
lower? Do the companies obey the
people! Not bit Of it. The only
hell is that enjoyed by the people :
high taxes, high freights. small crops,
low prices and Munich and Mcllrath
The modern fe judaism" continues; and
is the voice Of our Governor heard in
the land rallying the people against the
railroad barons- does he preach
an instruction of the serfs! Not
at all. He and Ramsey are at it "nip
and tuck'' to see who can pack the
next legislature with the most tools to
elect them to the United States Senate.
This is Minnesota.
Now look across the Mississippi river
to our neighboring state Of Wisconsin.
Last fall tho people revolutionized;
they throw the Republican party over
board: they elected an Anti Monopoly
Goyernor and an Anti-Monopoly Legis-
iature. The Governor didn't promise
t. shake the railroads over hell: he
INDUCED in no learned dispositions
on feu lalism; but he went to work to
second the efforts Of the Legislature
and the result was the passage of q
Law regulating freights and fares. They
didn't adopt the policy show not to do
it, and shift an unlimited response
biity on to three commissioners, but
they divided the railroads into classes,
and they prescribed maximum rates,
beyond which the companies should
not 60.
What were the results
First, the railroad corporations filled
the heavens with their hoxls. 'sThey
never would obey the law" at was q
farce st would bankrupt then,"
&C., &c.
Then the Autobiography Gov
ernor came out in pronun.
eiamento, that they mast obey
the law. The question was taken into
the courts, at once; it did not dawdle
along, Is in Minnesota, for three OF
four years. Wisconsin did not have
Corneh in the Office of Secretary of
State, AID hence the government moved
upon thu enemy's works at once.
Within sin months after the passage Of
law the RAILROADS are brought upon their
knees, before the august power Of the
people. They cry peccavi,-they sub
n"' They VII obey the Law. They