The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-09-15
Allen G. Thurman.

If public opinion could be obtained as
% the purest, greatest, and ablest states
mn in America, Allen G.. Thurman, Of
Ohio, with one voice would be acclaimed
as the man. And yet he has been as
boycotted and dismissed
from public service as if he we're a con-
demned criminal. Why? And by
whom has the injustice been inflicted
upon this grand patriot? It was done
by the money power welded by the
androbbers, who have marked him and
plotted for his overthrow During the
ascendancy Of the Republican party law
were passed by Congress endowing lands
pirates with two hundred millions Of
acres Of the public domain without any
consideration whatever for the people
who purchased it and we're it. natural
nheritors. From his place in the Sen.
ate in 1870 Thurman lifted his eloquent
voice against these gigantic robbers. He
said:
WOW, what / first want to call the at
tention Of the Senate to is that these
grants are quite enough to build and
equip that road, even az the Government
price OF the land. You give to the road
It's right OF way 400 feet wide, far more
than it can have any necessity for. You
give it all the material it needs. You
give il ali the ground it needs for work
T. 4 TO- Il
the ike You give it ali that as a gift,
and in addition to that you give IL land
worth at the lowest Government price,
$50, 900 to the mile, and that to build a
road which can be built more cheaply
than any road Of equal length could be
built on the face Of the globe. Yes, sir;
more cheaply than any road can be built
on the face Of the globe Of equal length,
because nature has graded the whole OF
that road from the Rocky Mountains to
Lake Superior Any man who has
passed over the Union Pacific road has
seen that nature has done the grading
for all these Pacific roads.
"Why, sir, affirm, and affirm without
fear Of successful contradiction, that
the grants made by the charter Of this
company TO the company will defray
every dollar Of expense of building and
equipping the read, so that the result OF
the whole thing is simply that the Gov
eminent builds and equips this road and
gives it 10 a private corporation. Say
what you viii about it, argue as much as
you please upon it, talk as much as you
choose Of the advantages to the country
of the read, the simple, naked result o.
the " hole thing is that the Government
builds and equips the road and gives il
TO a private corporation to be a monop
oily in the hands of that corpora ton
That is the whole of it "
And Of the Northern Pacific" rob
berry, be said;
WHY, Sir, what have been the grants
to the Pacinc railroad companies alone
TO four Pacific railroad companies wha
have been the grants, the Union Pacific
the Central, the Northern Pacific, anC
the Atlantic and Pacific, four roads
| They are, as the Commissioners of The
General Land Office reports in his las
report, which is on the desks of Sena
tors, l24,000,000 acres, nearly as muel
land as there is in the States of Ohio
Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michi
gan. Five times as much land as there
is in the State of Ohio has already beer
granted to four railroad corporations
In addition to that, 5S.000,000 acres
have been granted to other railroad cor
porations, making l62,000,000 scres il
all, grant in the aggregate more thar
the entire territory OF what we used t.
call the "Great North. west"
His latest and grandest efforts were il
behalf of the law, which has not beer
half executed, to compel the great cor
porations to appropriate part of theil
princaly earnings to the restitution o.
the means provided them by the govern
ment for their construction. 1t was tht
feather that broke the camePs back
How many millions of dollars the lanC
robbers spent to compass the Danish
ment of Thurman, cannot be known
Ohio is represented by Sherman, who
within a brief time, became a million
aire on a salary of $4,000 a year, and by
Payne, another millionaire, a servile too
of the corporations, who was selected t.
occupy the place which had been honor
ed by the great commoner Thurman
ostracism is Ohio's shame and tht
uatinn's loss