The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-04-29

chose TO make use of them. In thoir in
ception they were supposed to bear an anal
ogy 10 the canal, and traces OF this mistake
appear in almost oil Of the early charters.
Ii was believed that the railway, like the
toll-roads of that day, would be built by
one company and used by any and all who
chose to prepare suitable carriages.
The charter of the Ithaca and Owego
Railroad contains the following language:
SEC. ~. All persons paving the toll
aforesaid may, with suitable and proper
carriages, use and travel upon the said
railroad, subject to such rules and regula-
tons as said corporators are authorized to
make by the ninth section of this act"
| Special charters were the rule up to the
passage of a general act, regarded as a
convenience, by the Legislature OF New
York. which was initiated by the other
| States, aud in the acceptance of some pro-
vision of which nearly if not quite all of the
roads holding special charters have brought
themselves under its general provisions.
Liberal legislation and speculative spir-
it among our people led to overbuilding
and misbuilding, and upon emerging from
the crisis of 1857 many railroads found
themselves embarrassed and the mortgages
upon them were foreclosed.
u Il
nization which appeared plausible and
just to the people, to the stockholders. and
to those holding other than first mortgage
claims, bankruptcy was given novel and
dangerous turn in railroad financiering,
and additional capitalization, discounted
upon the markets of the world, paved the
way for the absolute control of this vast
value and interest by n handful of men r.
responsible to the people for the condition
| and conduct of their highways.
To-day il is represented that half dozen
gentlemen meeting in an Office on Wall
street may, by the power derived from
ownership in these railways, and wealth not
obtained by the development of the coun-
try, or improved transportation, but by
financial jugglery, dictate the profits or
losses of men and communities throughout
the land. BY their fiat Rochester must stop
milling that Minneapolis may thrive. All
manufacturing establishments at Niagara
Falls save one must suspend that the one
may become we lthy The capital and
labor inye sted in thousands of oil wells and
refineries must be lost that one combination
may be made powerful. Villages and cities
as we'll as individuals have been selected for
development, or for destruction. Mr.. Charles
Francis Adams, formerly of the Massachu-
sets Commission, now President of the
Union Pacific Railroad, before committee
of the Federal Congress in 1880 says
Il must ask you TO dismiss all preconcep-
tons from your minds, and to fairly con-
slider what is the real cause of the Unequal
ity, the injustice the determinations of the
existing railroad service, those ills of the
body polite for which you are now under
taking TO prescribe. / will not stop to dwell
upon them or denounce them. 1t is not
M 10 do fDr L 10 ha
proven, and their existence notorious. The
record is full of evidence on the subject
We all know, every one knows, that d s.
ordinations in the railroad treatment and
charges do exist between individuals and
between places. We all know that the
railroad tariffs fuctuate wildly, not
only in different years, but in different
seasons of the same year. We know that
certain large business firms, the leviathans
of modern business, can and do dictate
their own terms between rival corporations,
while the small concern must accept the
best terms it can get.
1T is beyond dispute that business is
carried tiither and thither to this point,
away from that point, and through the other
point; rot because it would naturally go TO,
away from, or through those points,
but because the rates are made on an
gard to these things | regard the existing
system nearly as bad as any system can be.
Studying its operations as | have long and
patiently, am ready now to repeat what
have repeatedly said before, that the most
surprising thing about il to me is that the
business community sustains itself under
such conditions. The principles of law
governing common carriers are habtually
violated; special contracts covering long
periods of time are made every day with
heavy- shirrrors under which a common
carrier, whose first duty it is to serve all
equally, gives to certain parties practical
control of the markets. There is thus nei-
| Their equality nor system, law nor equity, in
the matter of railroad charges. complete
change in this respect Is condition prece-
dent to any equitable system of railroad
transportation.
The Senate committee, whose investiga-
tons have resulted in the presentation of
this bill, present in their report eighteen
specific causes of complaint against the
railroad system, which may nearly all be
epitomZed as Discrimination" in one form
or another. They cite among the many in
stances the case of the Standard Oil Com
pany, which has been enabled by railroad
discrimination to practically control the oil
supply of the continent, and that is re-
ported to have realized $4,000, 900 in a
single season from diminished freights
alone.
A single instance, given on page 1919 of
the report, is sufficient to condemn the sys-
TEN. 1t appears that the company operates
the Macksburg pipe line which carries oil
to the Cleveland and Marietta Railroad.
This road was in the hands of receiver,
who was removed by Judge Baxter upon
the investigation of the rates charged for
the transportation of oil. II was found
that he was charging all independent ship
pers 80 cents per barrel, and the rate
to the pipe line was but 10 cents.
1t appears that the Standard Oil
Company owned the pipes through
which the oil is conveyed from wells owned
by individuals, with the exception of GER
tain pipes owned and used by one George
Rice, carrying oil from his wells, and to get
rid of this competition the assistance of the
receiver was sought and obtained.
The company offered to give the railroad
three thousand dollars worth of business
each month, while Rice could give but
three hundred dollars worth. If its de-
mands were not complied with it threat
ened to extend its pipe line from Macks-
burgh to Marietta, on the Ohio River.