Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1881-01-22

ilC ldHuS STdhlcu Ileuldtely VI HhhiS"
ately by the United States to the several
companies which now have them IN
charge. They did not really cost the
stock holders ANYTHING, and in some
cases they got lands worth great deal
more than all expenses of making, stock
ing and running the roads. The two COM
NAMES between Omaha and San Francisco
raised i'm cash out of government bonds,
lands and mortgages of their franchises
four or five times as much as they necces-
sarily expended upon the roads. The
stockholders, without paying anything,
nut the enormous surplus into their pock-
cts. These roads. thus built at the pub
lie expense, and in some cases paid for by
the public five times over, are now
claimed as the private property of the
companies, and the right of the public
to use them as highways is utterly de-
MED; 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 stockholders themselves at their own
proper expense. The grant of the lands
invested the grantees with title which
could not be revoked if the conditions of
iG were performed. If they sold or mort
gagged the lands and invested the proceeds
in the construction of a railroad under
charter from state or general govern
ment which authorizes them to take a fair
profit in the shape of tolls, they have rs
good right to the tolls as if the capital
to build the road had been raised by
themselves; that is to say, the 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 Il greater outrage.
Ii railroad corporations have the unlimi-
ted power which they claim, then all
business is ut their mercy-agriculture,
commerce., manufactures, must suffer
what they choose to inflict. They may
rob labor of the bread it wins, and deprive
all enterprise of its just reward. Though
this power does not belong to them legal
ly, they have been
PERMITTED To USURP 1T,
and | need not tell you that they nave
grossly abused it. They avOw that they
make their exactions with an eye single
to their own advantage, without consld-
cring any right or interest of the public.
They boldly express their determination
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 calf be taken without compelling him
to quit it. In the aggregate this amounts
to the most enormous, oppressive anu UNI
just tax that ever was lail upon the in
dustry of any people under the sun. The
irrcguiaritv with which this tax Is LAID
makes it still harder TO bear. Men go in
to business which may thrive at present
rates, and will find themselves crushed by
burdens unexpectedly thrown upon them
after they get started. 1t is the habit of
railroad companies to change their rates
of TRANSFORMATION often and suddenly, and
in particular TO make the charges ruinous-
ly high without any notice ut all. The
farmers of the great West have made q
large crop of grain which they sell ut fair
prices if they can have it carried to the
eastern ports, even at the unreasonably
high rates of last summer. But just now
il is said that the railroad 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 S75, 900. The
farmers must submit to this
HIGHWAY ROBBERY,
or else keep the product of their lands to
rot upon their hands. They submit, of
course, as all other classes of industrious
people submit To similar impositiOns.
Common Justice imreritivcly requires
that freights be fixed, settled and pre-
scribed by law, and that they be not
changed ut the mere Will OF the railroad
companies. But the determinations
which make the rates unequal are the
most odious feature. 4 grain dealer at
Baltimore gets a reduction or drawback
which is denied TO others, and he makes u
fortune for himself while he ruins his
competitors by undertaking them. =
siuyle mill at Rochester can stop the
wheels of all the rest if its flour can be
carried at much lower rate. BY dis
examinations of this kind the profits of
one coal mine may be quadrupled, while
another, with all its fixtures and machin-
ery, is rendered worthless. Such wrongs
aus these are done not only in few spo-
radio eases, but generally and habitually
OH very large scale. Certain oil men,
" hose refinery was Oh Long Island, got
rebates amounting to $l0,9OO,OOO in
eighteen months, and 10 houses q believe
that is the nuInber) engaged in the same
business were broken up. The creditors
of the Reading railroad having coal lands
of their own, made Determinations be-
tween themselves and others which drove
nj competition out of the field, gave them
the monopoly of the Philadelphia market
and enabled them to charge for their Goals
us they charged for their frcights-what-
ever they pleased. Thus producers, deal
ers and consumers all suffer together.
Worse still than that, the prosperity of
large communities is blighted by the re-
q 4. Il. 81, re of
their farms, gardens and shops, unless
they submit to the payment of rates much
larger Tia" What are charged on similar
goods much farther away from the COM
mon market. The case You mention of
81 from New York to Salt Lake and only
81. 30 to San Francisco is, perhaps not the
most unrighteous, but it is as gross vio-
lation of legal principle rs can be con-
ceivcd. Ifthe railways belong to the peo-
pie then the
RIGHTS OF ALL CITIZENS
are precisely equal and all determinations
are unlawful. Without reference 30 the
public right of property they are so
shamefully imperious in their general eff
feet and in their particular consequences
that no well governed State will endure
them. These railroads and trahsporta-
ton companies connect themselves with
everything. The promotion of commerce
(internal and foreign,) the interests of
buyer and seller, the rights of producer
ard consumer, the needs ofthe poor and
the prosperity of the rieh-all cry aloud
for some system of management which
will compel them to do the duties they
owe to the public faithfully at rates reason
able, fixed, uniform and equal, without
eXtortion, without wanton charges, with
out discrimination. The laws necessary
for this purpose ere not difficult to frame.
If you will look at the constitution of
ne onap6aI in GA xo,,