New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-10-01
PRICE FOUR CENTS.
THE RAILROAD QUESTION.
AN ADDRESS BY CHARLES FRANCIS
ADAMS. JR.


LATION.
OSHKOSH Wis, Sept. 3O.-The Hon. Charles Fran
els Adams ir delivered an address at the Northern
| Wisconsin Fair held in this city to-day entitled
Force Bills or Public Opinion Which will Quick
est Solve the Railroad Question r. The following Is
/ the address:
will begin by asserting fact-some may NJ first feel
dispoeed to deny IT, but think callner retrospect VIII
yield assent IT, OF all the wonderful phenomena ID
the growth OF this wonderful railroad system there IL not
one so well calculated excite special admiration a.
the ease the absence Of friction speak with which,
taking II altogether, IT has adjusted itself to existing
political and social organizations In this respect com
pare it with momentOus and NOISY episodes 40
history The French Revolution for instance, war GER
tainly a very considerable civil cOnvuson and after
shaking society to its foundations, left behind
il world forever different from that which
| preceded il; yet in spite OF it's fury and tumut
how small end Insignificant seem even the political
results brought about by that Revolution com
pared with already wrought in the quiet progress
of the railroad And still, with this engine OF all
pervading change working quietly and 80 mpereeptt
bly, before unseeng eyes lash ourselves into
rage because it does accomplish everything without
ripple on the OF the water The truth If that II
is a great deal easier part OF thing than the
whole; aud great movements so quietly along tat We
are hardly conscious of them We chafc and fret over
their petty incidents Now respects the railroad sys
TEN; q great deal has been very eOqucnty said about ";
al first in language OF unalloyed admraon ana more
recently in tone CT hearty nycctiye bat do you here
in Wisconsin realize that IL tie railroad system thai
made you possiblei
How many the system brought here 10 ths regior
which ~ the Ranhi year contributed from its whole
broad eXpanse solitary nhabtaut 10 swell tie
figures OF the censusi The last tells the whole
story briefly enough-30,000 in 1910, 100000 III 1850
nearly four times number to-day and four times the
population of Massachusetts, when Burke pleaded the
OF the coloniss. Here then is one side OF the
picture-the agreeable sidehat upon which We all, and
you of the West especially, love TO dwell II H. however
reasonable suppose that the picture has hut side,
or that that side all hight and no shadow The roses
proveria for its thons well for its sweetness and
color and may he very that hidden bitter must
soon or late reveal itself beneath all these railroad
sweets. Well it has developed itself developed itself
with much commoton East and West, and now let W
fairly and dispassioEatey consider what IL Is.
TOO MANY RAILROADS AND FARMS.
So far as the West especially is concerned, do NOS
think that the Of the trouble is very far 10 seeks
indeed in my opinion, IL lies the surface that
almost hesitate state IT, for where every one II pro
found it requires little courage to profess TO be
doctor and neither to learned words nor 10 suggest
potent remedies Is the stnctiyely Western trouble
after all just this that National wont, have
been going ahead little tOOfast-subdung the wilder
too fast, peOpling the waste places too fact
building railroads FAST my point of view
cannot think that the real root OF the troubles and
that consequently we are witnessing-as respects
this Western transportation quesona spectacle OF not
nfrequent on smaller scale East and west
an alteration namely, between two partners in
turc which for the moment scarcely promises well one
partner has agreed lay and improve farms the
other TO build roads to them; accordingly the hrst
has laid out a great many more farms than I'M
mediatcly required, and the other has built altogether
too many railroads to Them The natural consequence
in the appearance of great many impatient land
holders and quite many disappointed hcndholders
The landhoder Indignantly asserts that the bondholder
ruins value OF the farm by charging for carriage all
that it's produce is worth and the bondhoder while
stoutly denying the accusation. adds that even upon
those terms the business does mt pay go there IT, and
fancy it must remain until there IL less compet-
ton among the farmers and business for the rail-
roads The worst of is that just at present both par
ties seem to be telling the truth.
There is however, another Of trouble in connec
ton with the railroad system far more general In IFS ma
ture Perhaps, owing to the peculiar Industries OF the
Western ates and their great distance from their mar
and Of supply this difficulty ALSO has made
itself felt distinctly here than elsewhere am in
cined to think has but il is the less difficulty
common 10 Massachusetts, with Wisconsin and destined,
as believe to be felt in the future than IL Is now
When they into existence forty years ago. rail-
roads brought with them queer results AZ affecting
certain theories which had based both our govern
ment and political economy. We here in America about
that tine thought that had things beautifully ar
ranged; we were tired Of saying that the old
world had hitherto governed great deal too much
and that model republic had no business to concern
itself in any way with industrial enterprises that tbcse,
OF whatsoever nature they might be- would reeu-
late themselves II only left alone to do 80 under the un
peded action Of the Of competition supply and de-
mand OF course, when the existence OF railroads be-
came an established fact they cassed Al with
all other established industrial facts under the new gov
ernmental and economical dispensatiOn Accept theD
was said, and leave them alone Do you not see how
bread factories and shoe factories and cotton factories
regulate themselves II the State only cries Hands ohF
II YOU have but faith will be the same with railroads
II was the teaching Of Adam Smith carried to lie logical
conclusions and applied universally.
FREE TRADE AND RAILROADS.
II was also free trade run mad. Now there are lew
things better and wiser than free trade In its place m
place. too is very Large one-as large, indeed as inc
broad limits within which the laws Of supply and de-
mand of competition, rule supreme. The time VIII come,
do not doubt, when the CustOnhouses will be demo-
ished on our frontiers they already between our
States and trade will be the rule IN every field Of in
dustry in which all men, even n fair proportion or
men, can enter and compete with each other Unfortu-
naey the railroad system does not belong in this class
it in its nature field. At the very commence
ment few clearheaded men saw this difficulty and at
once declared that when as this case combination was
possible competition impossible and competition Is
free trade they but different names for one and the
same thing Free nothing but clear held
indusriaiy with no favOrs and the liberty 10 all 10 ask
what you please and get what You can Now when tho
principles OF free trade first enunciaed by Adam
Smith, iust century ago, snonld De
remembered that there scarcely any interest IN ex
sence 10 which they did apply. lndeed, how many
sch are there now Not many There IL the posi-oce
the supply OF and OF In our great cities the
telegraph and finally transportation by ra-as respects
All these gradual experience has taught US mat they
are i'm their matters OF monopoly that Ia he done
most economically they must be done as whole, and
that each new competitor, II he does not deteorate
guaitv does increase cost In other words the state
urnciDles perform