Mexico weekly ledger., 1882-07-06
MEXICO, MISSOURI, THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1882.

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of Congress should be exercised al
ways in favor of labor and neve
against it. Quoting Webster again
"The government. was made to en-
courage and protect this Industry
ilabor-and give it security. . To thi.
very end, with this object in view
power was given to Congress over th'
currency of the eormtry.''F1
| TRANSPORTATION.
| Transportation is the transfer o1
the raw material to the laborer, OF
the product of labor to the market
or which is the same thing to { The
consumer, and its cost is always a~di
rect tax upon labor, and as such cost
may be large or. small as dictated by
the common carrier who makes the
transfer, it is matter of vast concern
to labor, as such costs may be so ex-
cesslve as to make production abso.
lutely worthless, and hence stop and
annihilate labor.
Judge Rice,a distinguished member
of Congress from our own State, il
a. speech made in the 10 wer house ot
| that body, The other day, snlnslup the
| whole matter plainly, but fairly, ir
these words:
''There is no subject wider in its
range or more general in its effects
than transportation. 1t rules subsis-
tence and subsistence is life; it
rules values and values. are pros
perity or ruin just as it is regulated
it rules comfort for it fixes the
price of the elements of comfort
it rules the price of land and the price
of labor for it determines the value
of each. 1t is the one element upon
which all exchange is dependent.
Exchange is commerce; commerce.
rules all activities of labor, all actiyi-
ties of education the status of orli
labor and education is the true meas.
of our civilization" :
Eight-tenths of all our transporta.
ton is interstate, that is embracing
in its operations more than one State
crossing out of one State into an
other-a vast proportion of it is trans.
continental, and is performed by cor.
porations over railroads owned and
controlled by themselves. These are
private corporations, and their roads
are private property. They are Gre
ated by charters granted them, either
by the legislature of one or more
states, or by Congress, and giving to
each corporation vast powers, as may
be expressed in its individual charter,
and which charters the courts hold
are in the nature of contracts, and
hence are not subject to alteration OF
repeal, except by and with the CON
sent of the corporation itself. -~'
Their charters seldom or never reg
ulate the amount of tolls to be charged
for the transportation of the commod.
tiles of commerce, and such amount
is measured only by the greed O
spleen of the given corporations
The people-labor-commerce un'
aided by government can have nc
protection against the eXtortions Of
these carrier corporations, for a mos
obvious reason. The roads used by
each corporation is its own property
The carrier and the owner of the roa6
used by him, is. the same persoI
or body-no one else has right TX
or can use it t;-over that road it i.
impossible that there should be compe
tition, and hence, such carrier, ovel
the commerce, the production ant
labor of the section of the country
through which his road runs is king
He can say: 1 will carry the produce
of labor as I will, when l will, and a
such prices as either my greed or lus
shall dictate; and when he fixes rates
his tolls may exceed the market value
of the commodity, or he may discrim
mate between one class of labor o.
laborers, and build up the one ant
ruin the other.
This brigand, with his hand upor
the throat of labor-production-
commerce, has none to molest him
or make him afraid. He is supreme
Labor must find a market for its pro
duction through these agencies, be
cause in this age of lightning ant
sound, rapid transit is necessity
besides, there are now, no othe
methods for the purpose, except il
those small but happy parts of tn
country through which Gods high
ways the navigable rivers and lake
happen to flow and be. Transports
! ton on the navigable waters is al
ways cheap, and will always remai
so, mainly for the reason that the.
are public highways, and free to a
common carriers, between whom ther
t is lively competition for the busi
, ness. If one will not carry the pre-
/, ducts of labor at living rates anothe
, will, and hence, there can be no eS
| actions. With railroads, as no.
owned and controlled by the commo
carrier, there can be no competition
no protection. TO illustrate: tn
streets of our city are public higl
ways, and free to all, while the mean
/ of transportation belong to the il
dividual citizen; all our stable hav
right to use them. The compel
ton of carriage owners enables yo
and |, to obtain transportation at rea:
enable and living rates. But suppos
\ the public should transfer all OF
) streets to, and they should become tt
private property of one of our stab
lowners, whose. carriages only could ru
$ along them, do you not see that I'll
: extent of the extortions upon I'll
i travel Of the city BY such owne
p could have no limit?
o This being the relation of transpo
tation to commerce and labor, and Il
r uncontrolletl power sSof the form
o over the later, makes plain alike, "a
\ truth and force, of the following e:
r tract from a speech, by an emnne1
o Democratic member of Congress du
# ing the former session of that body
1.-THE business Of transportation,
. the last quarter of century, h
i grown into such vast and almost il
! measurable proportions of important
n to the general welfare of manknls
l. that Legislative restraint upon its {
d legedaggresssive tendency and powe
,r has become as Indispensable and il