The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-11-26
RAILROAD

The Great Question Discussed 6y Penn;
sylvanta's Great Son, jeremiah SuHt-
Van Black, BJore the Judiciary
Committee of the Pennsylvania Senate
at the Session of18S3.
THEY vICTIMIzE THE PEOPLE REMoRsE-
4 LEssLY.
At whatever place one of these rail
road corporations has power to n
troll the whole carrying trade, or
where several combine together for
that purpose, they victimize the PEG
pie remorselessly. give you the ok
ample of York FIR the reason that 1t
pre- ,ses itself on my attention with
peculiar force. The freight exacted
on the single article of anthracite coal
is nearly one dollar per ton more than
is charged upon the same commodity
carried from the same ml"e and del1v-
cred by the same company at Balt1
more. In all reason and conscience 1t
should be from fifty cents to a dollar
less, seeing that the distance is sixty
miles greater to Baltimore, That
makes the discrimination against
York at least equal to a dollar and a
half on every ton. The quantity con
sumed in the latter place is something
upwards of a hundred thousand tons;
ard the excessive tax upon 1t all is
therefore hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars. Every cent OF this is
ms wrongfuIly taken as if 1t were Tel
oniously stolen. 1t amounts to many
times as much in the aggregate as all
the legitimate taxes which the same
community pay for the support OF the
State, county, schools u aims
houses. Nay, it is more than all the
taxes imposed for those purposes on
the whole of the great county In
which the town of York is situated.
A manufacturer there who uses two
thousand tons of coal per annum must
pay three thousand dollars of black
mail to the railroads, or to the monop-
oily which they have created, unless
the influence of his wealth gets it re-
mitted. But the largest part of it is
levied upon poor laborers whose
wages are barely sufficient to furnish
their families, in scanty measure, with
food, shelter and clothing; much of it
is paid by the contributions of charity
for those who would otherwise perish
by cold and hunger. The man who
can hear the simple story of this
wrong without indignation must be as
cold blooded as a snake.
You need not confne your sympa-
thies to York. 1 can give you no
exact account of similar suffering in
Alcted on Philadelphia. But any
officer of the Reading company cal
furnish it. Mr.. Gowen, free spoken
as he is about the sins of his rivals, is
naturally ret cent concerning his own.
But if he opens his mouth he will tell
you the truth and, unless l I'm much
mistaken, it will be an awful tale of
wrong and oppression.
THEY HAVE VIOLATED THEIR CHARTERS.
A full inquiry, if it shall ever be in.
Btituted will probably show that near
ly all the railroad corporations-the
smaller ones following the example of
the greater-have violated their char
ters by engaging Gin mining and
manufacturing articles for ~transporta.
ton over their own works" and thus
acquired a monopoly of the produc-
ton as well as the carrying. 1t is in
tbs way that the Reading company
has got the coal market of Philadel-
phia under its foot. Why should not
that corporation and the others be
made to respect the majesty of justice
by an enforcement of the Constitution
(sec. 5, art. xviii which, if it leaves
them what they have already got in
violation of law, will at least prevent
or punish such outrages in the future.
THEIR LOCAL RATES.
The imperious necessity, however,
of enforcing the Constitution arises
out of the depreciation which they
may commit upon all classes every
where within the State, in what they
call their local rates. You a take
the figures known to be true and dem
onstrate by the plainest process of
simple arithmetic that their tariff of
rates for carrying goods from place
to place within the State as ectortGonGte
Beyond all reason.
They have not the face to-deny that
their through rates are high enough to
give them all the compensation they
a reasonably demand for that part
of their service. The trunk lines
struggled and fought for that trade
against one another with q ferceness
which showed that they regarded it
as very profitable. Their own compe-
tition reduced it for a while, but they
combined and raised their charges
high enough to satisfy all of them. It
is ridiculous to say that this mutual
agreement fixed the rates below a fair
standard. This is a sort of error
which monopolists never commit.
AoooptipO tho almost uDori~oY,e &oe