Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1880-12-18


cost the stockholders anything, and
III some cases they got lands worth q
great deal o than all expenses of
making, stocking and running the
roads. The two companies between
Omaha aud San francisco raised in
cash out of government bonds, lands,
and mortgages of their franchises
four or five times Is much az they
necessarily expended upon the roads.
The stockholders, without paying
anything, put the enormous surplus
into their pockets. These reads, thus
built at the public expense, and in
some cases paid for by the public five
times over, are now claimed as the
private property Of the companies,
aud the right Of the public to use
them as highways is utterly denied.
these companies to take reasonable
as that of companies whose roads
were built by the stockholders them
selves, at their own proper expense.
The grant of the lands invested the
grantees with a title which could not
be revoked if the conditions of it
were performed. If they sold or
m%ortgagsd the lands and invested the
proceeds in the construction Of q rail-
road under . charter from a state or
general government which authorizes
them to take a fair profit IN the shape
Of tolls, they have as good a right to
the tolls rs if the capital to build the
road had been raised by themselves F.;
that is to say, those companies which
built the railroads with capitaidonat-
ed by the public have the same right
AS other companies to charge a reason
able toll but their demand of Z
cessive tolls, though not worse in
law. seems III the eye of natural rea-
son d greater outrage.
Ii railroad corporations have the
unlimited power which they claim,
then all business is at their mercy !;
agriculture, commerce, manufactures
must suffer what they choos Sc to in
iict. They may rob labor of the
bread it wins aud deprive all enter
prize of its just reward. Though
this power does not belong to them
legally, they have been permitted to
usurp it, and | need not tell yon that
they have grossly abused it. Wo
Know that they make their exactious
with an eye single to their " ad-
vantage, without considering any
right or interest Of the public.
They boldly express their deter
mination to charge as 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 without compelling him to
quit it. In the aggregate this amounts
TO the most enormous, Oppressive and
unjust tax that ever was laid upon
The Industry of any people under the
suu. The i~rregulsrity with which
this tax is laid makes it still harder to
bear. Men 60 into q business which
may thrive, at present rates, and will
fiud themselves crushed by burdens
Unexpectedly thrown upon them af-
tor they get started.
1t is the habit Of the railroad COM
paniss to change their rates of trans
psrtation eften and suddenly, aud in
particular to make the charges ruin
ously high without any notice at all.
The farmers Of the great west have
made q large crop of grain, which
they may sell at fair prices if thew
can have it carried to the eastern
ports, even at the unreasonably high
freiRhts of last summer. But lust
now it is said that the railway con-.
panies have agreed ameBg themselves,
TO raise the freight i've cents per ,
hundred weight, which 10 equal to an
export tax upon the whole crop of
probably $3.50 0 600.
The farmers must submit to Ibis
highway robbery or else keep the
products of their land to rot On their
nAnna 'Ihnu onhun ]
al other classes of industrious peo.
pie submit TO similar impositions.
Common justice imperatively re-
qulres that freights be fixed, settled
and prescribed by law, and that thew
be not changed at the mere will Of
the railroad companies. But the dis.
ordinations which make the rates
unequal are the most Odieus feature.
a grain dealer At Baltimore gets a
reduction or drawback which is de-
nled to others, and he makes a for
tune for himself while he ruins his
competitors by underselliug them. A
single mill at Rochester can stop the
wheels of all the rest if it's -four be
CARRIED at u rate much lower. By dis
crImlnatisn of this kind the profits
OF II coal mine may be quadrupled,
while another with all its fixtures
II machinery is rendered worthless.
such wrongs as these are done, not
only In q few sporadic cases, but
yehsraily and habitually On a very
large scale. Certain oil men, whose
refinery was Oh Long Island, got re.
bates amounting to &c. 900, GOO In
eighteen mouths and seventy-nine
houses Il believe hat is the NUMBER
engaged Ill the same business were
broken up.
The creditors of the Reading rail-
road, having Goa! lands Of their own,
MADE determinations between them
and others which drove all
competition cut of the field, gave
them the monopoly of the Philadel-
phIa market, and enabled them to
charge Tor their coal as they charged
their freights - whatever they
pleased. Thas producers, dealers, and
all suffer together. Worse !
'tili Than that, the prosperity OF large
communities is blighted by the re-
lusai OF the railroads TO carry lin,
of their farms. gardens, and
shops, unless they submit TO the nav.
.ent of rates much larger than what
are charged on similar goods, from
sther regions much further AWAY ,
the common market.
Lac case you mention of 81 from
New York to Salt Lake and only ;
% to San Francisco is perhaps not i
me most unrighteous, but it is as l
gross a violation of legal principle as ,
can be Conceived. !
Ii the railways belong to the peo- {
PIE, then the rights of all citizens are !
precisely equal, and all discrimiua, {
are unlawful. Without refer !
to the public right of property. )
hey are SO shamefuiiy imperious IN S
heir general effect, and in their mar
ocular consequences, that no we'll
governed state will endure them. J
These railroads and TRANSFORMATION :
connec themselves with S