The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1876-10-12
A RAILROAD GOBBl.ED,


a RAILROAD GOBBLED.
JOhn Wentworth Tells nIou
rtiden did IL, and Robbed the
People I'm the Act.
In his speech at Chicago the other
night Long John Wentworth proved
himself to be the Independent" he
had been reported by the Tildenites to
be, but he didaot advocate the election
of that gentleman. Having gotten up
the meeting on his own account, hir-
ing the hall, paying for the posters,
ETC., at his own expense, Mr.. Went
worth was Independent enough to
talk as he pleased. And this is the
way in which he "went for s. J..
Tilden rs railroad grabber, of the
kind whose robbcries nccessitated the
Grange movement and aroused popu-
lar feeling against railroad extortion-
lists so earnestly He said:
"They think the people can be pur-
chased, and they propose to raise the
purchase money out of these railroad
| rings, of which we now hear SO much
in this country. Now some years ago
was started a railroad towards Galena,
called the Galena 4 Chicago Union
| Railroad. Ii was the first road ever
started. II was the peoples road Ii
was made by the the people and for
their benefit. Every man along the
line took 4 share; if he had not the
money he worked it out himself. The
road was a great success. We got it as
far as Freeport in one direction To con-
meet with the Illinois Central; and we
had got ii well to Cedar Rapids i'm an
other direction. The road paid divi-
dend seni-annually all along. 1t was
considered ~ good as Government
bonds now are. Trust funds, the
funds of widows and orphans were in
vested i'm its stock. The men who
managed were an economical set of
men. Their salaries were very low.
The President got about 81 900 for his
services, and the lawyer, who did the
whole businees of the road, now your
Corporation Counsel, Elliot Anthony,
he had 2,56O a year, and everything
else was done on an economical basis.
| was member of the Auditing Com
mittce. Every bill that was contract
ell on that road passed through my
hands, and had no pay for my SER
vices. If there was a cause for COM
plaint along the line of the road, the
people knew exactly whom to speak
to, and, when there was an annual
election, every man who had one share
had a free ticket for his wife and FAM
lily, and came here and voted The
vote got to be merely IA matter of form,
and no attention was paid to the col
lection of proxies. AT one time, whilst
we supposed the thing was all right,
no complaint was made from any
quarter But on came Samuel j. Til
den with lot of men from New York
city and stepped into the office, and
about fifteen minutes thereafter the
road was wiped out and was ever
afterwards known as the Northwest
crn. [Chccrs and laughter The
documents were drawn in the hand
writing Of Sam. Tilden; the whole
thing was manipulated by him; and
now, if you want to see the merits of
that consolidation, how il was that
those men had claims upon the trust
funds-the funds of widows and or
phans that were invested in that road
Il will read it to you: Tildcn bought
up, for n merely nominal sum, first the
bankrupt concern called the Illinois x
Wisconsin Railroad Company an
other bankrupt concern-the st. Paul
4 Fond du Lac Railroad COMPANY
another one-the Peninsula & Mar
quette Railroad Company. Now, the
beauty of that consolidation with the
Galena Road was, that, whilst il ran
out of Chicago, you had to go about
400 miles and Il large distance over the
lake in steamboat to get to it.
Laughter.l Whether they CONSOLE
dated the steamboat or not | don't
know. Laughter. They had also
got the Hamilton Extension Railroad
Company and then the Chicago Il
Northwestern Company. They had
bought those up for Il nominal sum,
and stepped right in and took ours.
We had not the least idea there was
any opposition to the road, and made
no effort to collect the proxies. They
went around purchasing stocks, and
took little up here and little there
until they got a majority. What did
this great Reformer do" The first
thing was to declare dividend of
three per cent. on the whole Of the
road, the most of which they stole
from our treasury. [Applausc. ] The
more, the better. And having made
the dividend of per cent, it put their
stock up and enabled them to unload,
and they sold back the stock at an
enormous profit. have never heard
the profits Of Mr.. Tilden estimated at
less than IA quarter of million of dol
lars in that operation. [Applausc.l ]
Now, what else did they do' ! am
talking to the farmers, and am glad
to see some of my Indiana friends here.
The first thing they did was to put up
the tariff on wheat - per cent, upon
coarse grain q per cent, upon -four II
per cent, upon lumber 35 per cent, up
Oh live stock 73 per cent, upon mcr-
chandise SO per cent, upon passenger
traffic 2sI per cent. These are the Re
formers operations with the Illinois
& Northwestern Railroad. Laughter.
Now, look at the enormity Of the con-
Germ. 1t took every road running out
of Chicago to the north, clear up into
the upper part Of Wisconsin, Lake
Superior, Iowa, Minnesota and every
thing, and there was nothing that
could come to Chicago from that di-
rection that hadn't to pay toll to them.
And my opinion is, if Mr.. Tilden is
elected President of the United States
4