The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-06-29
THE BOSS THIEVES.

When poor devil AT the point OF starvation
steals a loaf Of bread or a sheep, or plumbers a
till or picks pocket, his punishment is as
certain as that he is found out. When the
officers of big banking, insurance or railroad
corporation steal anywhere from 100000 to
million, there is not one in forty that is ever in
serious danger of punishment, and in many
cases this kind of stealing is done with an
open, unblushing lmpudence that positively
excites admiration. OF all thieves on the
magnificent scale however, the officers and
managers of the Pacific railroads maintain the
prominence. They stole $50,000000 out
right in the construction of the road, and they
have stolen from the t. s. three millions
year since the completion of the road by re-
fusing to pay the interest on the bonds the
government lent them But now comes to-
light "A holder and meaner steal by these roads
than either of the others-bolder, because in
unbushing and indisputable violation of law
and meaner, because on comparatively small
err scale, and also because involving the rob
berry of poor class Of people as we'll as the
government.
The steal we refer to is this: The law of
congress under which the Central, Union and
Kansas Pacific railroads were constructed do.
mated to them public lands equal to ten miles
on each side of the roads tor their whole
length; but the same section by which this
donation was made provided that "all lands
granted to the companies which shall not be
sold or disposed q within three years after the
roads shall have tecn completed shall be sub
ject to settlement and presumption at 1926 per
acre. the same as government lands"
The Union and Central Pacific Railroads
were really completed IN May 1869 though a
decision of the court of claims fixed the legal
date of their completion in November 1869.
According to that the unsoId railroad lands
became subject to settlement and pre-emption
at price not exceeding $1.25 per acre" in
November 1872. But have any of the lands of
the Union, Central or Kansas Pacific railroads
ever been treated by the companies as 50 open
to settlement or pre.emptionS
The Union Pacific Railroad, in its annual
report made about month ago, states that
during the year 1877 it sold iVS,4lS acres of
and at an average of 500 per acre; the Kan
sas Pacific, in a like report, boasts the sale of
l27,721 acres for the Same year at an average
of 1928 per acre; add the Central Pacific re-
ports the SALE for the same year, of 124, 1875
acres at an average of $12.65 per acre. And
ii is certain that at no time since 1872 has
there ever been an acre of the lands of any of
these companies allowed to be pre-empted or
occupied, save on the extortionate terms of the
companies of from $3 to $l2 per acre. Yet
every dollar exacted by the companies for
their land since 1872 above $125 per acre is
sheer robbery of the poor settler And this
thievery will go on until the last acre of their
lands is sold at these robber prices; for where
is the settler who can undertake to go into
court with these monster corporations and
compel them to obey the law, Thus they are
above the law Is it u wonder, however, that
the helpless people whom they thus ruthlessly
rob occasionally get beside themselves and
tear up their tracks or burn their property?