Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-12-09
EQUALITY IN FREIGHTS.
JUDGE BLACKS PROTEST AGAINST FREIGHT
DETERMINATIONS.

ORGANISATIONS.
Blacks Letter to n. Y. Chamber of Commerce.
The two companies between Omaha
and San Francisco raised in cash out OF
government bonds, lands and mortgages
of their franchises four or five times as
much as they necessarily expended upon
the roads. The stock holders, with
out paying anything, put the enormous
surplusinto their pockets. These roads,
thus built at the public expense and in
some cases paid for by the public five
times over, are now claimed as the priv.
ate property of the companies, and the
right of the public to use them as high.
ways is utterly denied nevertheless
think the claim of these companies to
take reasonable tolls stands upon the
same foundation as that of companies
whose roads were built by the stock.
holders themselves at their own proper
expense. The grant of the lands in.
vested the grantees with a title which
could not be revoked if the conditions
OF it were performed. If they sold or
mortcaged the lands and invested the
proceeds in the construction of n rail
road under a charter from a State or
RtHttdl pONtIHHltnl "iIIth duNlOltLt5
them to take fair profit in the shape
of tolls, they have as good a right to the
tolls as If the capital to build the road
had been raised by themselves that is
to say, those companies which built the
railroads with capital donated by the
public have the same right as other
companies to charge reasonable toll,
but their demand OF excessive tolls,
though not worse in law, seems in the
eye OF natural reason a greater outrage.
II railroad corporations have unlimited
power which they claim, then all busi.
ness Is at their rcy-aerlculture.
commerce, manufactures must suffer
what they choose to intlict. They may
rob labor of the bread it wins and de
prive all enterprise of its Just reward.
Though this power does not belong TO
them legally they have been permitted
to usurp it, and need not tell you that
they have grossly abused it. They avow
that they make their exactions with an
eye single to their own advantage, with.
out considering any right or interest of
the public They boldly express their
determination to charge az much as the
traffic will bear; that is TO say, they will
take from the profits of every mans
business as much as can be taken with.
out compelling him to quit it. In the
aggregate this amounts TO the most euor-
nous, Oppressive and unjust tax that ever
was laid upon the industry of any peo.
pleaunder the sun.
The irrcgularity with which this tax
Is laid makes it still harder TO bear.
Men 90 into a business which may
thrive at present rates and will find
themselves crushed by burdens uncx.
Pectedly thrown upon them after they
get started. 1t is the habit of railroad
companies to change their rates of
transportation often and suddenly and
in particular to make the charges ruin.
ously high without any notice Mt all.
The farmers OF the great West have
made large crop of grain, which they
may sell at fair prices II they can have
II carried TO the Eastern points, even at
the unreasonably high ireights of last
summer. But just now it is said that
the railway companies have agreed
among themselves To raise the freight
five cents per hundred weight, which is
equal to an export tax upon the whole
crop Of probably SO, 100000. The
farmers must submit to this highway rob.
berry or else keep the products OF their
land to rot on their hands. They submit,
OF course. as all other classes OF indus.
trious people submit to similar impo-.
ltions. Common justice imperatively
requires that freights bc fixed, settled
prescribed by law, and that they be not
changed at the mere will of the railroad
81
which make the rates unequal are the
most odous feature.
A grain dealer at Baltimore gets n
reduction or drawh back IS hich is denied
to others and he makes fortune for
himself while he ruins his competitors
hy undertaking them. 4 single mill Mt
Rochester can stop the wheels of all
the rest if its flour be carried at
rate much lower. BY discrimination.
Of this kind the profits Of one coal
mine may be quadrupled, while an.
other. with all its fixtures and machin.
cry, Is rendered worthless. Such wrongs
As these are done not only in n few
sporadic cases, but generally and habit.
ually on "A very large scale. Certain oil
men, whose refinery was on Long Island,
eighteen months, and seventy nine
houses Il believe that is the number)
engaged in the same business were
broken up. The creditors of the Read.
ing Railroad having coal lands of their
own made determinations between
themselves and others which drove all
competition out of the field, gave them
the monopoly of the Philadelphia mar.
ket and enabled them to charge for
their coal as they charged for their
ireights--whatever they pleased Thus
producers, dealers and consumers all
suffer together. Worse still than that,
the prosperity of large communities is
blighted by the refusal of railroads to
carry the products of their farms, gar.
dens and shops unless they submit to
the payment of rates much larger than
what are charged on similar goods from
other regions much further away from