The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-09-16

| What Is this but despOtsm interpreted! IN
| despOtism of a corporate creature exercised owe
| its own creator. The freight charges paid by TeXa
people 10 five lines of railway alOne,in lsS, amour
| 20 fifteen million, one hundred and thirty-si
! Thousand dollars. Two of them are the roads tina
! traverse the state to the Rio Grande, which ar
sometimes told cannot pay expenses, and yet thus
! live roads realized an interest on a valuation o
! twenty thousand dollars per mile, which,
charged on loaned money by a private citizen, on
| laws would have declared usuriOus and forfeited
| Yet we are told they don't pay. VIII
! then are they still building her
| in Texas faster than ever before
! Your laws require every railroad, once year u
make 10 the comptroller OF state a sworn repOr
| of it, operation. Now, then, TO show the apathy
OF the people, while this work of gathering toll
| out or their pockets TO pay interest watereC
bonds Is progressing here state, that neither be
| fore nor since | procured these data from thu
comptrollers office, has any citizen of this stat,
ever called for condensed report Of railroad re
ceipts, profits and operations until procured II II
May last. Why, my friends the Missouri, kansa
and Texas road, made "A sworn statement repOr'
which, If true, showed that in s. its net earngn;
were S2,SO4, I3l. Now, the mileage of that road Is
five hundred and eighty miles, which, if valued al
twenty thousand dOllars mile would show that
last year the net earnings of the road was twenty
three and nine-elevenths per cent on that valuation
| may be mistaken, but firmly believe thattwenty
thousand dollars would reconstruct and equip that
road. The average Of the sworn valuations OF
Texas roads is less than eight thousand dollars
mile. This IL all they pay tax on, and If we take
their own sworn testimony to ascertain their value
then the Missouri, Kansas II Texas road in 1888
paid not far from 80 per cent interest o. its value.
| don't know that the newspapers will publish
these facts, but said that thOee who do, and will
keep them before the people, deserve their graft
tude and thanks Give to Texas the average
freight rates of the United States on her short
haus TO the gulf, and she must quit raising
cotton and raise grain to feed the world Describe
from Galveston circ that will reach two hun.
dred miles in the interior, and you include more
rich land than can be found that near any other
coast On the globe.
Now, give lis the average rates of other states
where they have water competition that deiies
their pools, and we would have bust e of corn
taken two hundred miles by rail and delivered in
Galveston for little over five cents, and the quar-
ter of a million people west Of the Guadalupe, who
must buy corn this year, would be supplied from
the bottoms Of the Colorado and BraZOs, instead of
from Kansas, where dwell the favored children OF
the long haas.
NV friends the inequalities of fortune between
those who toll with their hands and those who do
not, are broad enough anyhow without the aid of
legislation help to corporate power to help it in
its plundering.
You may ponder over that dark era preceding,
the French revolution, when the pea antry were at
the feet of the proud mobiles who had been pam.
pered by a prOtliglte monarch, to that period
when Englands power sustained the rapacty OF
the East India company in plundering HindCo
princes, to that when the assemblies Of
the people We're prohibited, and a
corrupt senate parceled out the
wealth of the empire to few
and made paupers of the people, aud yet | assert
that no period of mans history shows such vast,
Gnearned and suddenly acquired fortunes as nave
Ueen piled up in this country under government
tavOriteism to railroad corporations. What
will you think when assert that
the Hepburn committee (atter whose report the
New York railway commission was credltedl re
ported to the legislature that III 1873, New YORK
railroad men, with one stroke of the pen, added
Sl",Om,OW OF watered stock, pure ana simple To
the capital OF the elevated roads OF that city. hat
stock was sold on the market at hundred cents on
the dollar, because Tue government permitted them
to plumber the people, IN charges 70 pay interest
on that Ma'gleu stpck, was ,lot SENATOR Soke
TiSnt "heh ne S"io IN Ghe Ahercah senate;
we we heedh shrink from contest
and systematically use their power to wrong ana
deifraad the people"
ar,s yn,Id solve tb nT"hIs If rne tr,snn ~
tati0n withnnt legisintiye aid bnt there js no CON
nntition here win water wnys where combination
Il nosaihIe Competition il never found We
have now In Texas that continuation which dafas
inw and hrtateS frei"ht rates Nnt i,yn months
have nassed since II Vas unhInabinyIv nrncia,nnJ
that certain renresentatiyes Of Teyns raiways had
zone TO Saratoga to adjust traffic rates This was
s3pnther n"n,S 1"r H%iT,, nonIs and rnmhiminT il,
d"Goucs nf the rnnstitmt an -
Wn,y if thn senarsta nn,yar of ana road or cnr
noration even over its own business rruIIirrs con.
stont vuchfulnnsa hv tina atata tn nrntnrt Tho nan
nIe from its ranucity how much 70 he dreaded il n
noIi, r,v ,yhih c"nSoiates th,t
p,n a ~ snl, t asii olIish an ont,rrati" ,rtr"i
p,'r ali H., o,anuas of trn,ieS A. In Oil tinias
aIi rnnJs want r.. Rome an no,v nvary rnad lad
70 Nv Yorls, and ,yI,ls c.rrvinr onr ,,rndrre 10
In tho sarse ~ Tho cnnatituti.,n a comnatn, rnad
~ -, 'It ' a ati
Win i i'd ,i,i ,nhIP EiI
Saus, nv" h! ~ H., @ al -
,L I ,,s,'ir t ,,r,e
o,r,, ,,i,Su, anJ J ',l,ii, vpm"ni ppaI
I iT a." -, ,,nantSSt; H;ttpt
WY VII "ai"uS u,et' AZ m,m"m.
PleHsl'lE t',oi ~ TteaH M ~ ~,
anu crea'e a inoeli,sJI tiluuii"' w S'N''H ''ese
loaas, ue7ytNe W w Pluhuo.eH
She railWay men we're WISE Iuey Woliu cease
W oienu pupuior oPilioh, anu stoP ailehGth9 pop
ulaI suppoIt ny naR an an, Vhese colhoihatiohs
aGalnsV tue lreeVom Oh Texas
Fellow citizens, approach subject
about which feel constrained to
differ with many pducatorsw no met re.
Gently in convention nj Austin | refer to the
blair hill NV Obiertion il not To federal help hut
hacnr az such helm was never contemplated or a,l-
thorized under our form of government
The maternal hand that bestows gifts
,yould soon claim the RIGHT TO dictate their dispo
sition and dominate and control the training of
our children Such "A power would never confer
A question of finance involved in this rift of our
seventy millions for education It would be
raised nv catherine taxes with one federal hand to
he returned by another federal hand, and would
constitute an admirable pretext for sustaining "a
thieyinr tariff
But my friends when look at "A hill which |
now hold in NV hand aud remember that it was
drawn by the distinguished constitutional lawyer
from Texas whose term in the American senate is
about to expired think the PEG lie
should quit Censurng Mr.. Blair
a .I,t, hat l.. ~