The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-11-19

p0EI0CO1y OuSln0SS-l1ko way Inc
appointed agents of the corporation
came to Harrisburg when the Legisla-
ture was in session, and regularly set
up a shop for the purchase of mem
bers at prearranged and specified
prices. You condemn this piece of
business because it was dishonest, but
was it more dishonest than that which
the same corporation habitually does
when it stands on the highway, and
by fraud or force EFFORTS from indi-
vidual citizens a much larger sum in
excessive tolls to which its right is no
better than to the money it tried to
get by bribery?
The functions of railroad corpora
tions are as clearly defined and ought
to be as universally understood as
those of any servant which the Safe
or General Government employs.
Without proprietary right in the
highways they are appointed to super.
intend them for the owners. They
are charged with the duty of seeing
that every needed facility for the use
of those thoroughfares shall be fur
nished to all citizens, like the justice
promised in Magma Charta, without
sale, denial or delay. Such services,
If faithfully performed, are important
and valuable, and the compensation
ought to be a full equivalent; accord.
ingly they are authorized to pay
themselves by levying upon all who
use the road a tax or toll or freight
sufficient for that purpose.
But this tax must be reasonable,
fixed, certain and uniform, otherwise
it is a fraud upon the people which
no department of the State Govern
ment, nor all of them combined, has
power to legalize.
IT IS EASY TO SEE THE MISCHIEF, ETC.
1t is much easier to see the nature
and character of the mischief wrought
by the present practices of the railroad
companies than it is to calculate it's
extent. If your action depends in
any degree upon the amount Of the
spoilation which the people of the
State have suffered, and are now suf-
fering for want of just laws to protect
them, you certainly ought to direct
an official inquiry into the subject and,
ascertain the whole truth as nearly as
possible.
But investigations have already
taken place in Congress and the Leg
islatures of several States; complaints
founded upon specified facts come up
from every quarter; verified accuse.
tions are made by some of the COM
panies against others; railroad men
have openly confessed their fraudulent
practices, and sometimes boasted of
the large sums they accumulate by
them. Putting these together, you
can form at least an approximate cal,
culation. l doubt not you will find
the sum total of the plumber they
have taken in the shape of excessive
charges to be frightful.
Three or four years ago a commit
tee of the United States Senate col
lected the materials, and made a re.
port upon this general subject, in
which they showed that an excess Of
FIVE cents per hundred weight charged
on the whole agricultural crop of the
then current year would amount to
seventy millions of dollars. Upon the
crop of the last year it would doubt
less come nearer a hundred millions.
The railroads would not get this sum,
because not near all of it is carried,
but it would operate as an export tax
operates; that is to say, the producer,
the consumer, or the intermediate
dealer, would lose that amount on the
whole crop, carried or not carried.
In 1880 the charges from Chicago to
| the eastern markets were raised from
ten cents per hundred weight to thir-
ty-fve cents, the latter rate being I'M
~questionably twice as high as a fair
one. You can count from these data
the terrible loss sustained by the
land, labor and trade of the country.
| It was the end and the attainment of
a combination still subsisting between
| the great trunk lines, as they are
called, to pool their receipts, to stop
all competition, to unite the stealing
power of all into one grand monopoly,
and put the whole people at their
mercy. It was a criminal conspiracy
by the common and statute law of all
the States.
THE RIGHT TO RAISE OR LOWER THE
RATES.
The magnitude Of these excessive
charges is not the worst thing about
them. The corporations think it per
fectly right to raise or lower the
| freight as they please without regard
to the rights or interests of anybody
but themselves. A grain grower,
manufacturer, miner, or merchant,
who can sell his goods at a profit, il
he can get them carried at the rates
of today. NAV find himself ruined to.