Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1881-01-13

which they may sell at fair prjcas If
they can have it carried to the
Eastern ports. even at the unreason-
ably high freights Of last Summer.
Bat just now it is said that the rail
way 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 seventy-6ve millions
Of dollars.
Tie farmers must submit to this
Highway robbery or else keep the
products of their land to rot on their
hands They submit. of, course, as
all othor classes of Industrious people
submit to similar i'm positions.
Common justice imperatively re-
quircs that freight charges be fixed,
settled and prescribed by law, and that
they be not changed at the mere will
of the railroad companies. But the
determinations which make the rates
unequal are the most odious features.
A grain dealer at Baltimore gets 4
reduction or drawback which is
denied to others, and he makes a
fortune for Himself while he ruins his
competitors by underselling them. A
single mill at Rochester can stop the
wheels of all the rest if its flour be
carried at rate much lower By
Discrimination Of this kind the profits
Of one coal mine may be quadruppled,
while another, with ali its fixtures and
machinery, is rendered wort less.
Such wrongs as these are done, not
only in few sporadic cases, but
generally and habitually on a very
large scale.
CERTAIN OIL MEN
whose refinery was on Long Island,
got rebates amounting to $4,000, goo
in eighteen months. and seventy nine
houses (I believe that is the number)
engaged in the same business were
broken up.
The creditors Of the Reading Rail
road having coal lands Of their own
made determinations between them
selves and others which drove all
competition out Of the field, gave
them the monopoly of the PhiIadel-
phia market, and enabled them to
charge for their coal as they charge
for their freights-whaUever they
pleased. Thus producers, dealers and
consumers ali suffer together Worse
still than that, the prosperity Of large
communities is blighted by the refusal
Of railroads to carry the products of
their farms, gardens and shops, unless
they submit to the payment of rates
much larger than what are charged on
similar goods from other regions much
further away from the common
market.
The case you mention Of 81 from
New York to Salt Lake and only
So to San Francisco, is perhaps not
the most unrightcous, but it is as
gross a violation Of legal principle as
can be conceived.
IF the railways belong to the peo-
pie, then the rights Of all citizens are
precisely equal, and all determinations
are unlawful Without reference to
public right of property, they are so
shamefully imperious in their general
effect, aud in their particular conse-
quenccs, that no we'll governed State
will endure them.
These railroad and transportation
companies
CONNECT THEMSELVES WITH EVERY
THING.
The promotion Of commerce, in
ternal and foreign, the Interest Of
buyer and seller, the rights eff
producer and consumer, the needs of
the poor, and the prosperity of the
rich, all cry aloud for some system of
management which viii compel them
to do the duties they owe to the public
faithfully. at rates reasonable, fixed,
uniform and equal, without extortion,
without wanton changes, without dis
elimination.
The laws necessary for this purpose
are not difficult to frame. IF you will
look at the Constitution of Pennsyl- |
vania, as amended in 1873, you will |
find in the seventeenth section a series
of provisions which, if carried out |
and enforced, would be amply suffice
But the railroad men and their
advocates have managed to impress
the Legislature with the idea that |
they are above the Constitution. |
They assert that every restriction
imposed upon them in the interest of
j Justice, equality and fair dealing is
violation of the contract embodied in |
their charters All this is no doubt
very false doctrine, but they contrive
in some way really do not know
how to make the State authorities
accept it as true.
| maintain that all the States have
a clear and indefeasible right to pro-
tect their people against such wrongs,