Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-03-17
tIEMPMS APPEAL
SATURDAY, MARCH II. 1883
THE RAILRoA DIS AND The PEOPLE.

SATURDAY, &: MARCH IL, 1883 |
TIE RAILROA DIS AND The PEOPLE.
The temperance and religious fanatics de- |
n1unce all who doubt their infallibility IS
either in6dels or the purchased tools Of the
whisky interest. The railroad msgnaies are
equally as fanatical. Becsuse the people do |
not fall down and worship them as demi-
gods, and hand over their liberties, their
great material interests, into their keep |
ing, and by setting them above all laws
allow them TO do as they please, ergo the
people are stigmatitzd IS hostile 10 rail
r1sds. These monopolies take the absurd
position that the railroads have made the
country and that the country would go to
the bow-wows if the railroads are to be ham
Pered by legislation. The facts are the
reverse-the country has made the railroads
Instead Of the railroads making the country.
The railroads have no doubt been in
strumental, aud q country without rail-
roads in this progressive age would be like
q world without a sun. II is the value, the
Importance, the power and necessity of rail-
rsads that makes legislation for limiting
and directing this power necessary. There
is fabulous story about the ingenious me-
chanic who constructed an artificial man.
So soon as life was bresthed into the body
the creature became greater than the creator.
The people built the railroads, but since
they have become monopolies and passed
3 e. Il
artificial man, they are ready 10 destroy the
source OF their creation. Every great labor
saving invention, all facilities for the speedy
transit Of the travelling public and the COM
merce of the country, if wisely and
r--r--i- ~~.I 80 a. ho hailed
as a blessing. But the people are
not prepared to admit that the United
States would De no wiling wilderness with
out railroads, and that they should be be-
yond the reach of all law because of their
indispensable importance. The truth is, the
railroad monepolies and the magnates that
control them, in thsireg otism and vanity over
estimate their value. The people give them
all the credit they deserve. But the facts show
that the county would hav been great and
prosperous even without railroads. The
States of the Union we're prosperous before
the railroad era, and it is not true that the
fertile lands of the interior could not have
been settled by the modes in operation pre-
Vious to 1850, the beginning of the railroad
era "From 1920 to 1850 The States of Nj ine,
New Hampshire and Vermont had in
creased in population from 77S,477
to 1,215,265-sn increase IN thirty
years before the railroad era OF about sixty
per cent. The same three States have, since
railroad building became active, increased in
thirty years l1295S, or less than eleven per
cent. upon the population of 1850. This
much for New England. We now turn to
the wegr. II spot Is more favorable 10
railroad interests than all other places, we
suppoie y 10 be Illinois. That remote dis
trict in 1920 had 55,211 inhabiianis-In-
1850, period of thirty years, she had gained
796,259 inhabitants, having increased her
population, without railroads, to fifteen
times its number al the beginning of the
time. In the thirty years from 1850 10 1880
Illinois was literally made 10 resemble
gridiron by the number of rails laid down,
but her population only advanced from
S51, 40 to 3,077, 81, or not quite four times
the number she had in 1850. This proves a
wonderful falling of in the rate of in
cteae In 1860 California had 379, 1894 peo-
Pile; in 1870 she had 560,247; In 1880
she had 854,604. Up TO 1870 the railroads
had very little influence, yet the population
had gained in ten years about forty-seven per
cent, while sirce 1870, under the boosted
railroad influence, it has increased about
ffty-four per cent. But even this apparent
increase can be accounted for in a great
measure by the emigration to Oregon, Idaho
aud Nevada, which took place mainly be-
tween 1860 and 1870, and which was prob.
ably large enough 10 account for the seven
per cent. difference in increase during the
two decades. These figures are carefully
taken from the tables of the census, and we
feel safe in giving them as true, and we think
that they show very plainly the absnrdity of
the baseless claim that the railroads have
made the country. The very opposite is
the truth. The country has made the
railroads. The msgnates of the railway
system owe thousand times more 10 the
people than the people owe to them. Not
only was the country advancing in popula-
tioa and prosperity in an unexampled man.
ner before the rairosd era, but the people
were rapidly becoming able TO build for
themselves all the roads of every sort that
they could have possibly needed, 1t is plain
thai other causes must contribute to pros
perity. The railroads alone are insufficient,
else we should not witness the present long
continued stsgnation in the affairs of three
such enterprisipg communities as Maine,
New Hampshire and Vermont. Anyone who
will think moment will perceive that the
great State Of Illinois, which for a lorg
time, and without railroads, increased her
population by doubling in numbers every
seven years, musi have speedily become very
well settled. She does not increase that way
now, nor has she since 1850, when the mania
for railroads fairly set in. There are two
sides to this question, and we are persuaded
, that they both should be well examined be.
fore conceding any extravagaut claims as
being we'll founded. We believe that the
total population of the country has been in
creased but very little by this influence, and
If there has been an increase of wealth it
has not been distributed in way to increase
the good Of the population. We mean by
this that while few are very much richer
than formerly, the average wealth per head
il probably less, after deducting the posses
aions nf The favored fewU
CONGR EssIONAL wISDOM.
As the new tariff bill is examined in de-
tail, the laundering iuseparable from the