The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-05-25

the burdens ana expressions OF the present
means Of transportation.
For cheap transportation or not
cheap transportation, that is the
question? Whether it is nobler
| in the mind to suffer the sings and arrows
of the railroad Kaisars, who have acquired
fortunes by outraging humanity, or to
peacefully invite the government of the
United States to see us out of our troubles
| by building the Hennepin Canal and end
them, and neither die or sleep until that
canal is built and thereby cure the heart
ache. otis contamination devoutly to
| be wished For if we die, sleep, or per-
| chance snooze around and dream, the canal
will never be built, and by such conduct
some Jay Gould may our quietus make
with naked bodkin.
| Gentlemen enterprises of great pith and
moment must be stamped with action to
succeed, and action without organization
and direction is powerless.
That we can build that canal / have
never doubted, for we have the cause, the
strength, and all we need is the will That
we viii create the will by celebrating
wisely is my earnest wish, for it is no ordi-
nary occasion that has brought together
such an assemblage as this. And remem-
Der that in this contest of unorganized
producers and consumers, with well organ
ICED corporations, for fair deal in trans
portation rates, we will be met by an ops
position that reaches out the mighty hand
of power, and takes within its grasp the
greater portion of the ruling strength of
all departments of life The sweat and
toll of millions is coined into money, and
that money is used with liberal hand to
influence persons who represent Tor rather
misrepresent) the people in ell branches of
1 !. Al. 4
The Mississippi Valley, the cornucopia of
this continent, the granary of the world,
is forced to pay annually over twenty -f1ve
millions of dollars as their portion of this
corruption fund, and so long and so regu-
larly has it been practiced that even our cat
tie and hogs instinctively know when they
are eating the corn that will fatten them,
that the railroad companies and stock yard
bosses will get five-eighths of their carcas-
ses and their lords and masters the bal
ance. These railroad companies, influence
ed by a refined sense of unqualified greed,
make their strength more potential Oen-
mis- Kearney like) by both pooling their is
sues and earnings. This pooling system
is the ligature that binds them together
like the Siamese twins, and having no soul
to damn, they have no conscience to quick
en- Did not Jay Gould, the Tycoon of
railroad magnates, shamelessly and with
bold effrontery volunteer the statement
under oath, to the committee appointed by
the Legislature of New York, that as man
ager of the Erie Railroad, he used money
to buy up the Legislatures of four States:
that in Democratic district he was a
Democrat, in a Republican district Re
publican, in a feather-head district feath
er head. in half-breed district a half
breed in sore-head district a sore-head,
but in all an Erie man; that large sums of
money was paid to influence elections and
guide legislation; that this money was
charged to the India rubber account"
and when pressed for details his memory
was as elastic as the account. |
He finally confessed that instances were so |
numerous where money was used, that it !
would be as impossible to enumerate them
as it would to recall to mind the number of |
freight cars that passed over the Erie road
from day to day. Why, these railroad |
kings estimate their wealth in bulk, and |
only count by millions. And so rapidly |
have they acquired wealth that the tale of |
Aladdin and his wonderful lamp in COM |
parison has lost its gloss of fiction
Within the last twenty years Hunting
ton, Hopkins & Co were only known to
the people of San Francisco as small shop
keepers. By a recent legal investigation,
Mr.. Leland Stanfords wealth is estimated |
at 1914, SOC, 900, Mr.. Chas. Crocker's about |
the same amount Mr.. Hopkins at S25,-
900, 900, while Mr.. Huntington's wealth is
at more than either of the 9th
ers, making an aggregate of more than
800, 000,0 900 piled up by these four gentle
men in less than twenty years, out of the
profits of the Central Pacific Railroad /
company.
The late Commodore Vanderbilt com
menced railroading some twenty years ago,
md his wealth was estimated at that time
not to exceed $40, 600 900; when he died
his estate was estimated at $4,000, 900.
When Jay Gould obtained the manage
nent of the Erie ins 1878, his wealth was
not to exceed $1,000 900: to-day
he good Lord only known how much he
s worth for it would puzzle the arithmetic
If memory to compute it.
VIII it be claimed that such Croesus
ike wealth as this can be acquired in so
hort time fairly and honestly? These men,
ike the lilies of the field, toll not, neither
10 they spin, and yet l say unto you that
wen Solomon in all his glory was not ar
ayed like one of these.
And yet, gentlemen, the extortionate
ates charged with the pooling system as a
ender, to make it more binding and GER
ain is not SO ruinous to commerce and
agriculture as the discrimination in rates;
he former is a slow consumtion that,
quietly but surely surrounds the lungs of
commerce and the products of the farm
md steadily feeds while there is life, but
he latter is an epidemic that battles the
kill of experience, and no known remedy
an arrest its deadly progress.
Ny friends, these railroads monarchs
ither own or control goodly portion of
II things terrestrial, and it has recently
cen discovered by the proceedings in the
suit, that they have a hard grip
pom things celestial, and it has occurred
0 me that Ben FRANKLIN could hardly
ave thought when he tried to induce
he goose to take a dose of lightning
hat his wisdom and knowledge of science
tould be used to Cypress the American
eople-a people he so dearly loved.
Yes gentlemen, the American people
ave witnessed this state of things for
ears, and have grown dizzy looking with
larm upon the power welded by the rail
pad companies in all departments of life,
ocial, political and financial. This alarm,
nus created by the wrongs perpetrated, has
lvoked the power of the people and their
to come to the rescue by
,SrioIo+ixro