Omaha daily bee., 1883-05-25
How tie Railroads IlG8d the
Producers Of the State
Of Iowa,
Millions Wrung from the Pee
pie by Overcharges and
Discrimination.
An Appeal to the People to
Orgauizs and Regulate
Monopolies.
Facts Collected by a Joint Com
mittso OF the davenport Board
of Trade, Produce Exchange
and Citiz ens,


undertaking, they see no reason to doubt
its success il energetic steps are taken. |
The work to be done will present itself at
each step Of progress. The following seems |
the general plan to pursue: The memorial
and such appeal as you shall adopt to be |
printed as soon as possible, and freely cir.
culated; the entire press, public off cars, |
recognized friends of the people, and ali |
leading citizens should be supplied and re-
quested to correspond with US. This
SHOULD lead to a state convention, in June, |
at Dss Moines or some central point. At
this convention, machinery should be put
in motion for county organizations. Per.
sonal effort should be used where organ.
izations were not perfected. To meet the
preliminary expenses funds will have to be |
raised at once.
Respectfully,
Il f. PARKER,
o. A. FICKE.
Sub. Committee.
Appeal to the People ct Iowa to Pfotec. Them. |
telves Against hallroad EYtortion and Dis |
elimination Amounting to Mil ions oil Over |
charge:
STATE POWER TO REGULATE RAILROAD
TARIFFS.
The power to enact laws to regulate
railroad charges for moving freight
from one point within the state to au-
other has been fully decided to exist
IN the legislature, The power to reg.
ulate charges from one state into or
through another state, tests In on.
gress, and is claimed to rest solely
there, though this point has bsen
questioned by high authority. The
supreme court of the state of Illinois
has recently decided that tho state has
the right to punish discrimination,
even on hsuls contracted to go into
another state, The question OF regu.
lating Inter. state m is, how
ever, of much less interest to as than
that of local rates, as the waterway
competition on I'll borders and to the
eastern market serve as regulations,
of all through freight.
THE STATE OF IOWA
Is the third state In the Union In rail.
road mileage, and first for agricultural
products for transportation. Her
vast agricultural that re-
quired an outlet, coupled with the
level nature of the country, have
made 1t a fascinating tisld for railroad
construction. The people anticipat-
ing large returns from the sale of pro-
ducs If cheaply marketed have con.
tributed literally to the construction
of these roads, In order to secure this
cheap transportation, often entailing
burdensome taxatisn ss we'll as prl-
vate indebtedness. Large tracts Of
GOVERNMENT LANDS
have also been given to these com.
panies on which they have realiz id
millions of dollars. These roads are
now mostly owned by non-residense ,
and the contributions of the people
are In bat very few instances repre-
scented In stock, and the hoped for
cheap transportation has NOT been
realized.
IOWA PAYS $3O,COO,O CO
to the railroad companies. The rail-
road commissioners say in their report
that "thls vast business ought to ap-
psal with effective force alike to the
senss Of justice, but the railroad man.
ayers and the wisdom of the state In
the matter of public CONTROL" and
add, "the only security of both lies in
tn, prompt and mutual recognition of
the rights Of EACH" We add that az
there is no p%er,sptible recognition of
the rights of the people by the rail-
roads 1t is time the people were secur.
ing the enactment of
JUS LAWS
to secure the reasonable charges to
which the volume of freight, as we'll
as the cheap construction, easy gradi.
ents and curvatures of the railroads
In the state entities them. That we
are entitled to the low rates of the
leading states, Is fully shown by the
LARGE DIVIDENDS
on leading roads. These dividends
would become enormous on some OF
the roads, If they were estimated or
their actual cost within this state.
The six leading railroads, operating
3.4l9 miles of road, report a net
profit of $40, 900, 900, or SO, 900
mile, which would be a large per cent.
yer on the nominal cost. The oom
missions report of 1881 says ''ths'
every effort to show the actual cost o.
the railroads Tin Iows) has been {
failure" Hence we can only approx
innate their actual cost.
EXAMINE FACTS.
The commissions reports give q
the average cost of freight on road
operated only In part within this state
but do not give any averages on strict
ly local, or freight moved from on,
point within the state to another
They give the rates charged between
points on the leading 70 lds, and leav
us to approximate from these to 90
general figures. These estimates woult
make us safe In saying that we pay
cents a ton a nile on an average, OF
less than car lots, and % cents o.
wheat, coal and lumber in large lotE
We invite the fullest examination G
these facts by each individual reade
az his own locality, and that he report
to this Office his facts and Inference.
We have no wish to exaggeratt
While the rates are simply eaormoq
on strictly local rates for short haul
1t will be seen by the following tabl,
that there ara no cheap rates In whic
citizens of Iowa are specially inter
ested, The freight that crosses Il
state from other states may be loy
but II we have any interest In this,
Is to have 1t high, tina. we may
charged less. We compare Iowa rat
with the average rate of eight 10 adj
roads In the United States, l cent