The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1882-08-26
TIE INDEPENDENT.
MONOPOLIES.

zens generally, 10 discuss needful re-
forms as well as the correction of abuses
in our State Government. As was as
serted by our fathers, "all just govern
ments derive their powers from the
consent of the governed" It is only
by removing the controlling forces re-
notely from the citizen and barricading
the approach to power, that great and
injurious abuses can long continue.
So long as the people assert and main
tain their right to local self govern
ment, they will be able to regulate and
centrcl the governing forces and main
tain their natural and inalienable
rights and correct any and all abuses
before great suffering can result there
from.
The two great contending forces in
ali civilized nations labor and capital
must well understand these princi-
Piles of right, in order to maintain
equal and just balances. Labor, the
great producing and life-giving force
Of the nation, will ever assert and
maintain its rights, when the abuse is
direct. The great and growing power
Of corporations, the creature of the last
century, by the concentration of the
great money power, have sought in
this country as in all others, to destroy
local self government, that it may the
better control the labor of the country,
to its own advantage and profit. In
the State of Oregon the majority of our
people are laborers engaged in agricul-
ture and are compelled to resort to the
markets of the world to find customers
for their products To do SO they are
and have been subject to many impo-
sitions and exorbitant charges in
freights and portages, unknown and
unheard of in any other State or
country, and so severe Is this that by
the time the fan mer of the Umpqua,
Willamette and of Eastern Oregon re
ceives his return, there is nothing left
to pay the interest on the money he
has invested in his farm, after paying
the ::reights and costs and expense of
raising the crop.
One of the great causes for this is in
the fact that the railways and portages
ara all under the control of gigantic
foreign corporation, whose agents and
tax gatherers estimate how much the
crop will yield, and distribute the
amount to be collected at each of their
numerous toll gates, through which the
produce of the State is forced to pas,
bafore it can reach a market. These
wealthy Germans who own the stock
cf this corporation and who are gorg.
ing their Golfers from year to year of
the farm and farmers of Oregon,
send out agents and operators, whose
unbouhded cheek and impudence is
unsurpassed by any precedent in an
cient or modern history, and they AFRO.
gate and claim for their masters all the
power of government, the highest re.
rogative of State, that of eminent do
main. They go through cultivated
farm or orchard at will and send their
eumissaries out to approach courts and
boards of equalization and have their
taxes reduced to a mere nominal sum,
as was done in this county, and deny to
the State and people the right to en-
quire into their earnings en- the ground
that the capital invested belongs to prl-
vate individuals. They charge for
freights and passengers from twice to
three times as much as is charged for
like distance over roads in otherStates.
In order to prevent remonstrance by
the people they endeayor to create a
sentiment and belief that the road is
not making expenses, yet, strange to
say, the st ,ck of this great fraud can.
not be purchased at scarce any price.
Nothing but Legislative interference
will secure justice and equality of tie
producer with this common carrier,
which has secured the entire monopoly
of the carrying trade of this State.
The right to regulate and control these
public highways belongs to the people
in their collective capacity of a State,
and it is only for them to assert this
right In their legislative capacity, and
enact freight and fare bill that will
be just to the producer and the com
mon carrier at the same time, and that
will enable the farmers Of Oregon to
share in the profits of their own labor
and ths products Of their lands, rather
than have it all swallowed up by this
corporation and sent to Germany to
enrich those who know not and care
not for our State and people further
than We serve to enrich their Golfers.