The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-08-27
RAILROADS AND RAILROAD
COMMISSIONS.
No.. l.
GO Sc otland Neck Democracy

OF intense excitement over b pro-
posed passage of an act creating a
roilroad commission. AS a rule the
Republicans and a few Democrats,
some of whom were known to be in
the employment of some railroad
company, and the great army of rail
road lobbyists persistently, earnestly
and bitterly opposed and denouncing
the measure; and everybody else,
with almost equal earnestness, ad-
vocated it. During the discussion in
the Senate of the bill creating the
commission, and which had passed the
House under the superb leadership Of
that man of the people, Charles M.
Cooke, of Franklin, the lobby was
crowded with farmers, business men,
lawyers, editors, politicians, railroad
men and railroad lobbyists. There
were many ladies in the gallery,
among whom could be seen the excel
lent wife of a distinguished railroad
president, pencil and paper in hand
ready to keep the count of the vote,
and who, as was apparent to the most
casual observer, was deeply, intensely
interested in the discussion. The re-
suit of that discussion, or perhaps to
be more accurate, I should say what
followed that discussion, is well known
to all your readers.
But why this intense excitement ?
Why was there depicted faces of
those who were there such unusual
and great, even painful, anxiety ?
The scene made a deep impression
upon me; and from that time to the
present 1 have been trying to ascer-
tain it's cause.
[ went to one of the many railroad
lobbyists, hired to influence legislators
as to measures pertaining to railroads,
whose business it was to hang around
the Legislative Hobbies, the hotels, the
boarding houses and everywhere else
a legislator might happen to be, and,
by hook or by crook, get control of
him. l went, | say, to this honorable
lobbyist and asked him please to ex-
plain to me why this excitement, why
this unusual and, of course, expensive
fight on the part of the railroads
against the creation of a railroad
commission, and his answer came,
prompt and fluent:
"A lot of politicians desiring fat
places for themselves and friends, and
others wishing to reward party
leaders, are playing upon the credul-
ity Of the honest plain people OF the
country and seeking to place
properties " Zone of these big capital,
lists never speaks of "his property:
but always says "his properties'O in
the hands of three inexperienced,
perhaps ignorant men to say how
much we shall charge on a barrel OF
apples from Waynesville to Raleigh.
| We have invested our capital in pur-
chasing, repairing and building rail
roads in North Carolina, in engines,
cars, etc., for the transportation of
passengers and produce. We have
given u time, thought, experience
and money to the development of the
material interests of North Carolina,
and now this farmer legislature pro-.
poses to rob us of our properties byput-
ting men in Office with power to say
to us where we shall build our depots,
how fast u trains shall run, and
what we shall charge for the transpor-
tation of passengers and produce.
The Legislature has no more right to
say how we shall manage our proper
4;on o11 bour po17ob inoopo uo shall
receive for the use of our capital than
it has to declare how often the
farmer shall pillow his cotton or what
he shall receive for it when it is
| ready for market. The farmers have
been organized, talked to about hard
times, duped and excited by designing
politicians pretending to be their dis
interested friends, until they are wild,
and imagine that if they can only
have a railroad commission with power
to regulate freights, the cotton and
the corn will flourish and grow while
the farmer loafs at the neighboring
village, and with the end of the har-
vest will come heavily laden barns and
gin houses and big prices. Such leg
islation will put an end to
railroad building in North Carolina,
and utterly bankrupt and destroy
those roads now in operation"
From one to another of these lob
byists and railroad men I went seek
ing information, and from one and all
| received substantially the same
answer, the only difference being in
the manner in which it was given.
The lobbyists being polite, free and
easy, speaking as if he thought he was