Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-05-14

lOl lut ldSJ oiA VI NlHhb = N"A - 81
least, and probably much longer.
There is no measure before this
Senate, and possibly none before
the House Of Representatives,
which attracts more attention from
the general public than this one to
regulate interstate commerce.
may be permitted to say here,
too, that much of the discussion
that has eusued upon this bill has
not been of the kind that we had a
right to expect from Senators. Too
many stump speeches have been
migrated into it. IL is this which
makes it quite proper for a Senator
who proposes to vote upon 1t to
give a why and wherefore.
Now, sir, if we leave in this bill
those few words, "and from the
same original point of departure, y
we do more, as the Senator from
West Virginia has said, than legal
ize discrimination; we come in here
at this time to approve and indorse
the railroad jObbery and railroad
robbery generally for the last fifty
years, and particularly for the last
twenty years. 1t is legalizing
the very evil from which the people
of this country have suffered at the
hands of the railroad corporations.
Who is here to assert that ship
mentS from terminal points are not
carried frequently at losing rates ?
Who Is here to assert that the IN
termediate shipper does not only
have to pay a profit upon what he
ships, but must make up the losses
that accrue from reduced rates
from terminal to terminal, and
make up also the profits that ought
to have accrued to the railroad
company from those shipments
This question has been argued
here as if there were but two term
inal points in the United States,
the one being Chicago with her
lakes, and the other New York. l
can account for it to my own salts
faction very well. This might as
we'll have been entitled a bill to
coerce all shippers into sending
their products to New York Har.
Dor. There are other cities in this
country; there are other harbOrs in
this country there are other towns
in this country, and those who
want to transport their products
from one terminal point to another
under this bill should know that
there are more people living be
tween these terminal points than
there are at the termini which they
propose to accommodate.
| want to illustrate the effects of
this bill upon the State that | in
part represent here. There are
four lines Of railroad, grand trunk
lines of railroad, tTaverSing three
or four, and one of them five,
States, passing through the State
of Virginia. A man who does not
know that this bill says they may
ship from the terminal points south
of us and can not discriminate be-
tween any freight that is shipped
from that same point, and at the
same time will not admit this bill
says that they may discriminate as
against all freight shipped from
any intermediate point, either is in
igorance of the bill, the terms Of
the bill, the spirit and the inten.
ton Of it, or else he is representing
remote terminal and wants to
transport his own products to the
commercial centers of this country
at cut rates.
If it had been the intention Of
the trainers Of this bill to deceive
the Senate, they would not have
put these seven words in it. There
fore, | must accord that they were
honest to a degree, for they put in
words that no man can misunder-
stand. YOu may ship from any
point south Of Virginia. terminal
point-yOu may land your cotton
or other produce at a seaport as
good as that of which New York
boasts, and better, at any rate of
freight that the railroads may fix
from that point. You come to
Lynchburg on one line Of road, and
they may fix even n higher rate
from Lynchburg to Newport News,
or to Norfolk, than that fixed upon
that which started from the "Origi-
nal point of departure south Of
Lynchburg.
You may take another line of
railroad that passes through Vir-
GINA and North Carolina and on
south, and ship from there, and the
same discrimination may be made
against Danville, Richmond, and
any Otner intermediate point on
that line of road. You may start
from Kentucky over the CheSa.
peake and Ohio and bring freight
across the West Virginia line and
land it at Stanton, and there
charge from Stanton on down to
deep water a higher rate on freight
which was shipped from the "Origi-
nal point Of departure in Ken.
lucky. If this be not true. then |
ask any Senator on this iOor to
explain what these seven words
mean
repeat, it is the greatest evil
from which we have been suffer
ing at the hands Of corporations.
1t is legalizing in the great here.
after these determinations against
the producing people who live oAt-
side of a few cities where non.
producing commission merchants
thrive and Elevators make a profit.
Ii is discriminating against every
body who lives between terminal
points or "original points Of de.
part1re."
Why, sir, | will take the Valley
Of Virginia and 60 on through to
the Tennessee line, and ] can
demonstrate, or illustrate rather,
Just exactly what the President Of
this body said when he spoke to
this same question the other day.
There they charge the producing
people along that line of road more
per hundred, more per car, for
what they carry even here into the
city of Washington than they
charge for the same carriage Of
freight over the same liue of rail
road under the same management
from points three, four, five, six
81 nI.sr