Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-06-11
A GrOan from the Railroads.

Lie <1mSTtcUN hQitTOUu journal mas
very solemn article entitled, "The
Agrarians and the Railroad Corpora
tion." 1t means of course the conflict
which the farmers are waging against
the railway extortion. This is called
agrarianism and communism, 4"
and the movement is charged to
I" the dishonest portion of the commu-
nifty"
The editor says that " A small wave
of agrarianism has recently swept over
the country-that is to say, a DISPOSE
ton among those who have little or
none, to share among them the
property of others more fortunate or
more frugal-and it is surprising to dis
cover with what readiness it has been
welcomed"
The burden of the article is that all
attempts by the Government to inter-
fere with rates of transportation are an
infringement of the RICH of property |;
and so far as such attempts shall be
successful it will be downright robbery.
He alludes to the bills on the subject
now pending in several States, and even
in Congress, predicated on the new
doctrine that the -Stete has right to
supervise and cut Idotn at its pleasure
the rates. 1t 10 consended that every
lawyer. who is not . demagogue, be-
lieves all such action - dnconstitution-
al and communistic..f
The railway corporations are urged to
get an authoritative declaration of the
law which maintains the sanctity of this
the same as all other species of proper
ty. If the Government can reduce fare
to two cents per mile it can reduce it to
one cent, and so destroy all railway
profits as to render such property
yalueless. If they can limit the profit
of railway stock to seven per cent, they
can limit to three or TO one per cent.
What is this but total destruction of
private property ! What other result
could follow than the prevention of all
further private investments In railroads
and the confscation of such roads as
are now i'll operation
The Railroad Journal demands that
transportation be left, like all other
business, to competition as the only
natural and just arbitrator of rates and
profits.
In reply the farmers would say that
the corporations, by consolidation and
combinations, destroy competition
wherever there are competitive lines. 1t
seems to be impossible to reach this
wrong. Government might as well
regulate rates and limit profits as to
say that corporation like an individ-
ual, shall not buy, sell nor lease rail-
roads, nor agree among themselves
upon certain rates. The one is as much
an infringement of tine right of proper
ty as the other.
AS to roads in the unsettled West,
where there are no competing lines, the
corporations should be supervised, be-
cause, first, they have received dona-
tons of land from the public, and the
public have claim upon them for rea-
sonable rates of transportation /; and
second, because they, like all other
roads, were chartered to promote the
prosperity of the country.
If they charge such rates as make the
farmers mere corn-growers for them,
mere slaves to work for the railroads
and find themselves, there is no court
that will say they are promoting the
public good, or that they are not out
rageously violating the spirit of their
charters. What other protection has
the public than the supreme Legislative
power? So certain as self-preservation
is the first law of nature, so certain will
the people protect themselves and their
labor.
Garry out the old ideas about the
sacredness of property and the rights of
capital, and in half a century from this
time there will be but two classes In
this countryside rich and the poor.
The age we live in is new era in his
tory. We have abolished entailments,
primogeniture and patent nobility but
we are building up what is worse, hydra
headed monopoly that insures to capital
such profits as will, if continued, swal-
low up the country.
The advantage of combination by the
richest and the strongest has been fully
developed, and the power of capital ovel
industry more than quarupled. Henct
the necessity for the abolition of thu
Legislative policy OF strengthening CAPT
| tai by making it monopoly, and als'