Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-09-09
The Wisconsin Railroad Law.

known as the Potter law attempts tt
justify that act because the citizens o
Wisconsin have contributed so much
toward the construction of her rail
roads, for which they got no direct
return. That is to say, the losses sus
tanned by her people by cash sub
scriptions, farm mortgages, and mu
nicipal bonds of one sort and another
afford an excuse for the legislature &c
enact law that cuts down the earn.
ings of the companies to the very low
est living rate; thus giving the com.
munities through which their lines
pass an indirect compensation for in
voluntary donations at the time they
were built. Such a claim would hard
ly justify the unfriendly legislation re-
ferred to, provided it rested on a solid
foundation; but the facts in the case
do not warrant any such conclusion,
as little examination will show.
Prior to the passage of the Potter law
in 1874, all legislation in Wisconsin
encouraged the building of railroads.
Up to that time 1920 miles of road
had been constructed in the state,
nearly one-half of which had been
built since 1870. These completed
lines cost, according to the best au-
thority, $88, 149,382, of which it is es-
timated that her citizens contributed
in cash, mortgages on land, city, town,
and county bonds. and in land for
right of way and depot grounds, about
$6,0O0,000; while the balance was fur
nished by non residents; say, at least
S8O,OOO,O0O.
1t is not our intention to discuss, in
this brief article, the unfortunate state
of affairs that was the natural out
come of plunging headlong into debt
by the issuing of municipal bonds and
the mortgaging of farmers home
steads to aid in building railroads, but
admitting as we DO, the disastrous re-
suits that followed, and deplore them
as We must, nevertheless they do not
furnish warrant for the extreme &C.
ton that the Legislature has taken in
the premises. If the people of Wis
consin owned one half of the property
that is now represented by the stock
and bonds of the railroad companies,
then their con6scatory acts would be
unjust toward the nonresident part.
ners in the concern, for obvious reas.
ons; but when they have only contrib
uted one tenth Of the cost of the roads,
as is the fact while the non-residents
furnished the remaining nine tenths,
their right to exercise supervisory
control over this sort Of property may
we'll be called in question.
Then again, it would be easy to de-
wonstrate that the people of the state
have received back ten times as much
as they have expended, in the increas-
ed price of their lands, in the enhanc-
ed value of all marketable c6mmodo-
ties, and in the convenience that re-
suits from this means of transporta
ton. In the language of the late BY.
ron Paine, of the Supreme Court of
Wisconsin,
Railroads are the great highways
of the world, along which its gigantic
currents of trade and travel pour
compared with which the
most magnificent highways Of antiqui-
ty dwinde into insignificance. They
are most marvellous invention Of mod
ern times. They have done more to
develop the wealth and resources, to
stimulate the industry, reward the la
Dor and promote the general welfare
of the country than any other, and
perhaps all other mere physical causes
combined. There is probably not
a man, woman or child whose interest
and comfort have not been in some
degree subserved by them
The farmer who carted his grain a
long distance to market over a bad
road, and returned home poorer than
he started, as was often the case in
early times, ought to appreciate the
value of that conveyance that des-
troys isolation and brings daily to his
very door the market that was once
a hundred miles away.
But apart from the injustice that
has been done to the nonresident
owners of railroad property lying
within the limits Of the state, the ex-
IRENE folly of frightening capital out
of new State is becoming every day
more and more apparent. Perhaps
our sister State has gained point in
forcing the issue with the railroads
end getting the opinion from her Su-
preme Court that there is a constitu-
tional warrant for legislative control
over such corporations; but the prac-
teal effect of such decision and of
such legislation as the Potter law are
thus pointedly set forth by the Por-
tage City Register, paper published
in the heart of the agricultural region
of the State:
at is a disagreeable fact to contem-
plate that to-day there is not being a
spade struck in Wisconsin in building
railroads, and very little prospect of
any the present year. With large
portion of tie state undeveloped, and
much of it absolutely suffering for
want of railroad facilities; with mag
nifcent land grants lying idle, power
less to aid the building of the roads
for which the grants were made; with
plenty of unemployed capital in the
land, it seems impossible that such a
condition of affairs should exist Yet
rhe fact stares us in the face. What
is the matter? Where is the RENE
dy?"
The answer to this pointed interrog
atory is very brief: The matter is the
Potter law, and the remedy is its alb
solute and unconditional repeal. I'm
til that is done, and foreign capita
feels safe from confscation, from
agrarian laws, the people of Wiscon
sin must furnish their own money anC
build their own roads, or 60 withou
them. And any man who is at all ia
miliar with the vast undevelope(
| traaSnraS of that State and comnre