The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-10-01
RAILROADS.

RAILROADS.
And now brethren, wish to close
by paying my respects to railroad and
other. corporations.
If railroad corporations, instead of
being a benefit to all, are managed
for the few, then it is high time the
rights of common carriers be defined
by Legislative enactment. Ifthey, ,leav-
ing their proper sphere, seek by issu-
ing scrip and watered stock to evade
their Just share of taxation, then the
people will, as they did in Boston
harbof with cargo of tea,-throw
them overheard and that right
speedily
do believe that railroad companies
have fights that we are bound to re-
spect, but I as firmly believe that we
have lights they must respect also;
but when in their arrogance they no
longer respect ours, then is it time to
call halt, and compel them to bear
their share of the burdens of taxa
ton?
Brethren, we're not all these rail
road lines chartered by the State
by the people? Did we not concede
for the general good that public err
riers might trespass on our lands
might take them from us-indeed in
this country of ours we have given
them millions of acres of our best
lands, have we not aided in the con-
tributions direct, amounting to many
millions of dollars and have we not
done all this freely?
In turn what have they done for
US They have all over our country
destroyed our crops by fire, they
have burned millions of dollars worth
of property, they have killed hundreds
of thousands of our cattle, they have
charged us excessive rates for freight
and passenger traffic, they have in
vaded our Legislatures and as boast
ingly as King George they have asked
US What are you going to do about
it?"
You will remember, brethren, that
the evil one came and talked with our
Saviour-talked nicely-said the
angels should hold him up, etc., and
just so does his children, the ennis.
aries of the railroad do to-day. How
feelingly they talk to you of your de-
plorable condition-how they sympa-
thize withyou. Why they, too, have
plans to turn stones into bread. They
grasp the sons OF toll by the hand,
and like the serpent whom they re-
semble, they pour their saliva over the
farmer before swallowing him; or like
the spider to the fly, they invite you
into their parlor, "when these signs
appear know ye then that the destruc-
tion not of Jerusalem, but the
farmer is at hand, and another appro.
preparation for railroad is desired
Then it is they tell you how your
property will advance in value, that
they will ship your fruit from the
West to the East, and prosperity will
obtain. And when in good faith, you
vote the appropriation demanded,
they forget you entirely until they
need your vote and money again, and
charge you more freight on your bar
rel of apples from Clay to Currituck
than L can buy barrel of Michigan
apples for in Liverpool, England.
And not only SO, but they refuse to
pay taxes on the property they in
duced you to give them-they have
sought to obstruct justice in our
courts and their paid hirelings have
the efrontery to tell us that we can
not help ourselves
MORE HISTORY.
Let me give them one more lesson
in history. A handful of brave and
determined men a century ago were
told by Tories, whose love of British
gold was greater than their love of
country, the same tale our click
spitles" tell us to-day; but those
brave men and true, rose in their
might and destroyed kingly charters
Some other points in history may par
allel ere we are done.
We gave National banks unheard
Of privileges and deprived ourselves
the opportunity of borrowing money
on our lands. To-day we have to use
a go-between and then get money at
such rates as Shylock himself would
have been ashamed to demand. We
have given railroad corporations a
larger area of land than the combined
areas of England and France. We
have been stripped of our proud heri-
tage and for less than a mess of pot
age.
We are allowing our country to be
bought up by aliens who have no in
terest in our government, and think
you, foreigners would invest over two
billions of dollars if they did not
feel that capitalists would be protect
ed by the strong arm of centralized
government I? The idea is prevalent