The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-12-25

notice at all. The farmers OF the
great West have made a large crop
of grain, which they may sell at
fair prices if they can have it carried
to the Eastern ports, even at the
unreasonably high freights of last
summer. But just now it is said
that the railway companies have
agreed among themselves to raise
the freight 5 cents per 100 weight,
which is equal to an export tax
upon the whole crop of probably
$75,ooo,ooo.
The farmers must submit to this
highway robbery or else keep the
products of their lands to rot on
their hands. They submit, of
course, as all other classes of indus
trious people submit to similar inn
positions.
Common justice imperatively re.
quires that freights be fixed, settled
and prescribed by law, and that
they be not changed at the mere
will of the com panies. But the dis
ordinations which make the rates
UNEQUAL are the most odious feature.
Baltimore gets a reduction or draw
back which is denied to others, and
he makes fortune for himself while
he ruins his competitors by under
SELLING them. A single mill at
Rochester can stop the wheels of
all the rest if it's -four be carried at
rate much lower. By discrimina
ton of this kid the profits of one
coal mine may be quadrupled, while
another with all its fixtures and ma
chinery is rendered worthless.
Such wrongs as these are done,
not only in a few sporadic cases,
but generally on a very large scale.
Certain oil men, whose refinery was
on Long Island, got rebates amount
ing to 100000 in eighteen
months; and seVeAty-miRe houses,
| II believe that is the number. en
gagged in the same business 7Oere
broken ub.
The creditors of the Reading
Railroad having coal land of their
own, made determinations between
themselves and others which drove
all competition out of the field, gave
them the monopoly of the Philadel-
phia market, and enabled them to
charge for their freights-whateve Ell
they pleased. Thus producers, deal
ers and consumers all suffer togeth-
err Worse still than that, the pros
perity of large communities is
blighted by the refusal of railroads
to carry the products Of their farms,
gardens and shops, unless they sub
nit to the payment of rates much
larger than what are charged On
similar goods from other regions
much further away from the com
moi market.
The case you mention of 81 from
New York to Salt Lake and only
81 50 to San Francisco is perhaps
not the most unrighteous, but 1t is
as gross a violation of legal prin
cipal as can be conceived.
If the railways belong to the PEG
pie, then the rights of all citizens
are precisely equal, and all discrim-
nations are unlawful. Without ref
erence to the public right of prop
erty, they are so shamefully imperi
Gus in their general effect, land in theil
particular consequences, that no wei
governed State will endure them.
These railroads and trauspor
tation companies connect them
selves with everything. The pro
motion of commerce, internal anC
foreign, the interest of buyer anC
seller, the rights of producer anc
coiisdmer, the needs of the poor, anC
the prosperity of the rich, all cry
aloud for some system of manage
ment which will compel them to dc
the duties they owe to the public
faithfully, at rates reasonable, fixed
uniform and equal, without extor
ton, without wanton changes, with
out discrimination. The laws ne
cessary for this purpose are not diff
ficult to frame. If you will look a
the Constitution of Pennsylvania
as amended in 1873, you will fine
in the seventeenth section series
of provisions which, if carried out
and enforced, would be amply suffi.
cient. They have managed to i'm
press the State Legislature with the
idea that they are (the railroads,
above the State Constitution of the
great sovereign State of Pennsyl.
vana. The railroad companies
assert that every restriction imposed
upon them in the interest of justice
eq uality and fair dealing is viola
ton of the contract embodied ir
their charters. All this is no doub
very false doctrine, but they con
trive in some way I really do no
know how to make the State au
thorities accept it as true.
[ maintain that all the States have
a clear and indefefeasible right tc
protect their people against sucf
wrongs, and to exercise the power
as sacred duty. When that duty
is properly performed the interna
trade of each State will cease to be
enslaved and crippled it is now
But the commerce between the
States will still be open to inequali
ties and liable to oppression and
| plumber by transportation compa-
MES unless the National Legislature
does something to save it. Con
gress has power ''to regulate com
! 7