Morning journal and courier., 1883-01-06
Antf-MOnOpOIy.
2AHAIN 1[OHHW F5O-g From the Washington National Republi

From the Washington National Republican,
 "Anti-monopoly will bethe oyershadowing isgue two years hence, :" prophesled western member yesterday. ''The amazing power and rapid growth of corporations will array them in direct opposition to the people, and
 the people will turn in and choke them to
 death, or at least choke them into state of
 subiection to the popular will. If the people
 do not assert themselves, the corporations
 and money combinations will have them in
 chains. Something must be done. When
 this question was raised 8 few years ago 1t
 was a granger issue. It has become nation
 al issue now. Just look at it. During the
 past twenty-five years the government has
 given to railways 195, ,000, 900 acres of land
 Only about 15, ,OOO, ,00O acres of this land have
 been sold, and the amount realized there
 from aggregates $75, 100000 The railways
 retain control of 1SO,OOO,O00 acres, which
 would cut up into 1, 125, ,000 hemesteads of
 100 acres each. This vast domain, capable
 of supporting 8 population of 10, GOO, GOO of
 people, is virtually fenced in against the
 public. Although at least 100, GOO, 900 acres
 have been forfeited by the failure of the
 railway companies to fulfill their contracts with the government, these companies have the effrontery to insist that they have earned the land, and that it is theirs beyond the power of the government to take it away. They set up a howl about vested rights and all that sort of rubbish every time the sub- ject is approached, and Congress seems to be afraid to grapple with the question. The Department of the Interior has declared large grants forfeited, but they cannot be thrown open for settlement like other public lands without legislative enactment, and nothing can be done in that direction on account of congressional cowardice. The time was ! when the companies interested in retaining l their grip! on land grants approached Con- gress humbly, as becomes those who have fa' l vors to ask. Now they buster and swagger, and brazenly ask Congress and the people. l What are you going to do about it?' You | say you are going to oust us, but are you, and | if so, how do you propose to do it Congress f owes it to the people to protect them from l the railways, and it's first and highest duty is to declare forfeited the one hundred million l acres of public lands these companies are at- tempting to steal, that they may compel set tiers to pay exhorbitant prices for their homesteads. Congress will have to protect ! the people from burdensome and extortion- ! ate charges for freight and passenger trans portation, and it will have to legislate against combinations of capital beyond cer- tain limit. These issues are coming on us more rapidly than we imagine, and they will have te be settled. The towering fortunes which have been built up of late years by railway, mining, and speculative kings have sown the seeds of deep dissatisfaction among the masses, who cannot be made to under
 stand that there is either justice or reason in
 state of society which makea such colossal accumulation possible"