Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-02-26

countless cases of excessive and unfair railroad
taxation fairly represented by the case Of tho
Standard Oil company, and In pools, which
have eliminated in the Great Trunk Line ex-
ecutive committee, makes it clear that an ade-
quate power must be called in to secure these
things:
First-Railroad charges must be public.
Publicity is the great moral disinfectant.
SecOnd-They must be stable. In transporta-
ton, as In currency, taxation, aud the law, it
is indispensable that the citizen know what to
count on.
Third-They must be reasonable. They must
be based on the cost of the service, not on what
people will stand. The community will not be
taxed to pay dividends and interest on the $751;
5O7, 900 of water in the New York Central, the
$63 963 1881 in the Erie. the $13 200, 900 in the
New York Elevated roads, and SO on through
the list, or to fatten corrupt railrosds officials,
like the secret stockholders in the Acme Oil
company.
Fourth---They must be equal; for similar
services, similar rates. If the absolute equali-
ty of the postofiice, which sells stamps at the
same price by one or one million, is not prac-
ticable, and there must be wholesale and retail
rates, let the additional charge---as in the case
of the single harvester of the small farmer
along the Northern Pacific---in no case exceed
the actual additional cost of handling and haul
ing.
: Fifth---Railroads and railroad men must ex-
ercise their public functions. No road shall
voluntarily stop running, as several roads did
in July, 1877, and no railroad man or multiple
Of him shall desert his post or interfere with
the operation of any road.
Slxth-There must be national board to
hear the complaints of citizens and railroads,
with power to take testimony, to investigate
abuses, to publish the results, and to call up
on the legal officers of the government to
prosecute where prosecution is needed.
Seventh---Under the constitutional right of
Congress to pass laws and levy taxes, "to es.
tablish Justice" there must be such amend
menu OF the law and its processes that all vio-
lations of the duties of common carriers, sin
commerce among the States" can be prosecu-
ted by civil or criminal proceedings promptly
and cheaply.
The costliness, the delays, the technicalities
OF our law amount to denial of justice that
is eating deep into the hearts of the people.
Only the rich can get justice; only the poor
cannot escape it.
In less than the ordinary span of lifetime,
our railroads have brought upon us the worst
labor disturbance, the greatest of labor mo-
nopolies, and the most formidable combina-
ton of money and brains that ever overshad-
owed State. The time has come to face the
fact that the forces Of capital and industry
have Outgrown the forces of our government.
The corporation and the trades-u union have
forgotten that they are creatures of the State.
Our strong men are engaged in headlong
fight for fortune, power, precedence, success.
Americans as they are, they ride over the peo-
pie like Juggernaut to gain their ends. The
mOralists have preached to them since the
world began, and have failed. The common
people, the nation, must take them in hand.
The people can be successful only when they
are right When monopolies succeed the peo-
pie fail; whena rich criminal escapes justice,
the people are punished; when a Legislature
are brlbed, the people are cheated. There is
nobody richer than Vanderbilt except the body
of citizens; no corporation more powerful
corporate sovereign at Washington. The ma
ton is the engine of the people. They must
use it for their industrial life as they used it
in 1861 for their political life. The States
have failed. The United States must succeed,
or the people will perish. n. D. LLOYD.