Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-24

AID TO RAILROADS.

all classes ana all aVOcdGlOnS OF us clClZeils.
AID TO RAILROADS..
The debate in the state senate during the
past two days on Judge Wilson's proposed
amendment to the constitution prohibit
ing the granting of bonuses by cities,
towns or counties to railroads or other cor
porations, will probably result in benefit,
no matter what shall be the final disposi-
ton of the matter. Judge Wilson, the
author and promoter of the amendment,
has had large experience with railroads,
as private citizen, as lawyer and as
iurist. Probably no man IN the state
knows better the means adopted by the
railroads to secure bonuses from the PEG
pie or the evil effects that frequently if not
invariably follow the granting of them.
There are in the northwest, in other states
besides Minnesota, scores of towns and
cities that have rendered themselves wholly
bankrupt by granting their credit or issuing
bonds in aid of railroads that were either
never built or which, if built, brought no
business worth mentioning in return. HI
inois, Wisconsin and Iowa are dotted all over
withvillages that are bonded for half the val
ne of all property within their limits, and
taxed yearly to the extent of thousands of
dollars for interest on bonds issued to rail
roads, and all the return they receive is the
privilege of being way station on some
through line of road that does not bring
dollars worth of business to the
fOu Ac cfoto
is deprecated, enterprise of all
kinds checked, and men of business am
bition driven away to the more furnishing
centers of trade. There may be some in
stances in which towns have been bene-
flied by the assistance they have given to
railroads, but these are exceptional, and
only prove the accuracy of the rule.
Railroads are like all other enterprises.
They will go where business is to be OBJ
tanned will penetrate regions that give
promise of rapid and permanent settle
ment, and avoid sections that give small
promise of future business prosperity.
They will be constructed where they will
pay whether the towns along the line grant
bonuses or not, and they will run to all
towns that are the centers of thriving
district if they can do so without too
great a DETECTION from the nearest route
towards their objective point. All the
bonuses in the world will not induce rail
way corporations to construct lines where
there is no prospect of paying traffic, and
people who vote away their own money with
any such idea do so foolishly.
1t may be question whether it is the
duty of the legislature to pass laws for
bidding people from making fools of
themselves. Yet there are great many
gullible people who believe everything told
them by the agents of railroads in search
of subsidy-who can be made
| to believe that all that is necessary
| to induce the bushes to bear
| greenbacks instead of green leaves is to
have railroad pass by their doors. These
may need some protection. But the peo-
pie most in need of protection from the
subsidy voters are the property owners
who do not wish to tax themselves and who
cannot afford to pay the taxes that are
voted upon them by men who own no
property and pay no taxes. This latter
class are in the majority in every commu-
nifty, and have no computations of con-
science in putting their hands into the
pockets of their more industrious neigh
bors if they think they can thereby benefit
themselves.
The railroads are no longer infant in
dustries that require either protection or
aid. They are owned by millionaires who
are also shrewd business men. They can
afford to build all needed extensions, and
will build them wherever and whenever
they are necessary. OF course they will
ask subsidies, for their policy is to get all
they can out of the public and keep all
they get, and then damn the public" for
their idiocy. The railroads are abundantly
aba to take care of themselves, but it is
only ODE regretted that the public are not
as well qualified in that direction. If that
was the case there would be no need for
such an amendment as is proposed by
Judge Wilson.