The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1880-12-15
THE RAILROAD PROBLEM.

THE
The question of the advantage Or disad-
vantage Of railroads to a country has been
often discussed, and there always has been a
large element il the population OF every
section where railroads have proposed to En-
ter the weight Of whose belief was on the
side Of their disadvantage, and in the Terri
tory Of Montana this element comprises a re-
spectacle minority Of its people. We must
admit there is more ground for this opposl
ton than mere ignorant prejudice, and that
the advantages conferred BY railroads on a
community are often counterbalanced by
evils peculiar. to the system. They upset most
>all previously existing economic and COM
mercial conditions. The merchant finds his
profits reduced, and himself obliged to meet q
deadly competition which he is usually I'M
prepared for; the freighter and the common
CARRIER, of all branches, find their occupation
gone and themselves obliged to seek other
lines of action, and employment for which
they may not be fitted by education, and
which they find hard to enter owing to the
degree Of competition they are certain to en-
counter. The mechanic is brought into COM
petition with centralized labor in combination
with the most perfect mechanical appliances,
and is driven to act as a mere repairer and
cobbler, Or to an enlargement of his business
on a scale commensurate with conditions
he cannot ignore, and with which he is una
BILE to cope The lahore. loses his independ-
ence, and becomes a part of the machin-
cry of construction which has grown up with
the contract system" The agriculturist
finds his local business reduced to a level with
sections which may be more favored with
cheap labor or close proximity to the great
marts Of trade, which arbitrate, through the
Capitalization which railroads have induced,
the price of every article he may produce.
The immediate effect of a railroad on a
previously existing population is always bad,
and almost without compensatory benefits,
and it requires years for a section or commu-
nifty to readjust itself to conditions which are
altogether new and which have altered with
startling rapidly.
But the effect Of railroads is more far
reaching than in the REIMBURSEMENT of COM
mercial details. They are completely chang
ing the social and political life Of the world,
and destroying the deductions Of pre-con-
ceived political philosophy; they are de-
stroying the liberty Of the individual, by
making him dependent upon conditions
which he is unable to affect without combi-
nation, and which is the animus of the growth
Of cooperative and communal institutions
and tendencies during the past forty years.
This tendency Of Capitalization Of labor and
capital is the direct result of the centraliza-
ton of commerce by means of railroads
because neither they, nor the vast industries
which depend upon them, couldbe built up or
maintained without the combination of both.
And all the world over, during the past forty
years, these changes have come with an i'm
mutability subject to no evasion, and are
reducing empire. and republic alike to the
general level Of the stock board, and to the
will Of its controllers.
Here in Montana the immediate effect of
railroads will probably be more Oppressive to
interests which are based upon long credits
and large profits than il more eastern Sec
tons, because here the credits are longer and
the profits greater than there; and we are
forced to admit that the change will effect a
revolution in ways and means that will over
throw all but the most solid and conserva-
tive business interests. These will survive
and reap added benefit, because they will
take advantage of the period OF depression to
get q wider control of business, which they
will retain in the certain period Of initiation
which will eventually follow.
But, while we are forced to admit that
railroads will in greater or less degree injure
interests already here, and founded upon con-
ditions which they will revolutionize, and
while it might be better for most of those
who are at present identified with this Ter
ritory if railroads would never come into it,
we are brought face to face with the fact
that five or more railroads are coming, wheth-
er we like it or not-Whether we sink or
swim, whether we survive or perish-and the
one we recognize the evils Of their ad-
vent and prepare to meet them, and observe
the utility they will induce, and take advan-
tage Of il, the better it will be for us all, and
we must recognize the n and take adYan-
tage of the other, or be driven to the wall.
We have heard our argument in last weeks
issue, %faYoring the advent Of railroads into
this Territory and into this town, unfavor-