Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-04-04

have employed no doubtful methods to
secure for it support. There has been
no trafficking, no opportunities, no solicit
tations. Senators will bear me witness
that | have not even requested their
aid. have not asked, and shall not ask,
member of this legislature to give this
measure his support. | only ask that
you give it unprejudiced, thoughtful,
contentious consideration. / believe
that it has merits that of rightly under
stood will challenge your better judg-
ments and induce your support. 1t is
intended to right wrongs, to correct
abuses, or redress grievances, and to pro-
mote equity and establish justice. There
is no poisonin it. 1t aims to injure
nobody. 1t grants no dangerous
license, and imposes no undue hard
ships. 1t seeks only to secure such con-
cessiOns and impose such obligations as
will work equal justice to all interests.
There is not line nor work in senate
bill No. 10, from its enacting clause TO its
conclusion, which if enacted into law,
and rightly interpreted and fairly en-
forced, will not promote wiser policies
and better relations between the railway
companies and the public.
Il come now to consider the objections
urged against the passage of this bill.
l shall confine myself mainly to the
arguments and statements made by the
able gentlemen who appeared before the
Joint committees in opposition to the
measure. | must of necessity be brief,
but If L omit any important points and
any senator will call my attention to
them, | will explain them as best may.
us there demand for such law?
Mr.. Miller, president of the Milwaukee
d st. Paul road, says there is not. Let
us see. There has been scarcely day
since the bill under discussion was in
troduced that numerous petitions have
not been presented in each branch of
the legislature praying for its passage. [
have received hundreds of letters my
self In support of the measure, and
many other members have received
them. Shortly before the legislature
convened, the commissioner at the head
of the bureau Of labor and statistics in
this state sent out letters to shippers all
over the state, seeking information on
the railroad question He received very
many answers that are now on file in his
office. | have before me extracts from
the answers of some fifty concerns, Sc
lected from the pile at random, repre-
senting all branches of business, and
every section of the state. They are all
of about the same general tenor. / will
read only few. The speaker here
read complaints from large number of
shippers.
''Now, remember that have read only
a few of those in my hands, and that
this bundle is only a fraction of the
mass of letters making complaints. Do
not these petitions and letters indicate
that there is demand for railroad leg
islation? There were no hired agents to
circulate these petitions, and no
inducements offered to secure the
writing OF these letters. But Mr..
Miller says, look at the remon-
strances against the passage of the
bill. Very we'll, let's look at them, and
see how they we're secured and who
signed them. | make the assertion, and
call upon any opponent of this bill TO
contradict it, that not a remonstrance,
resolution, or memorial, has been pre-
sented to this legislature that is not
traceable to the efforts of men in rail
road employ or under their pay. Every
station agent in the state, and there are
more than thousand of them, was fur
nished circumstances and ordered to get
OOO vi UllC1I OluCOS ClllO SOU OH UI1O olS
ers they could. Special agents, lumber
agents, freight agents, the whole vast
retinue of railway service, were set at
work. and swarmed through the manu-
featuring districts to induce shippers,
q leave you to imagine the inducements
offered) to write letters and adopt reso-
lutions, and sign circumstances against
the bill. The only wonder IS that they
didn't get ten times as many names. |
wish the senators would take time to go
to the railroad committee clerks and
look over those remonstrances. Some of
them have only two names, the station
agent and telegraph operator, [ pre-
sumo Others have the section hands,
evidently, and to avoid making crosses,
the agent has kindly signed all their
names, as the handwriting shows. Then
again, our clever railroad friends, to
show the popular uprising against this
bill. did what | never heard of before,
they had their petitions signed in dupli-
cate, SO that they would show double,
and presented in both senate and assem-
bly,.
80 for ways that are dark,
And tricks that are vain"
"Mr. President, not one in a hundred
of these railroad singers ever read line
of the bill. What formidable, intelli-
gent, and disinterested public sentiment
these circumstances do reveal to us?
The ought not to have the weight of a
feather with any thinking man.
us there necessity for such law? If
we are paying too high rates, and dis
examinations are being practiced against
either persons or places, then all will
agree that some remedy is demanded.
The letters which | read and the many
others to which [ referred, tell the story
of discrimination beyond dispute.
"As to rates, | will say that we are pay
ing much more than adjoining states are
paying for precisely the same service.
1t must follow that either they pay too
little, or we too much. take Illinois as
an example, as the expense of operating
railroads there and here is about the
same, and the railroads in Illinois make
no complaints at the rates in force there.
| have a letter under date of Feb. Z,
1889, from Mr.. Rinaker, who has been
for many years chairman of the railroad
commission of Illinois, in which he
says:
~ am very much surprised to learn
that railroad men or their representa-
tives should state that the laws of
Illinois regulating the conduct of rail
roads are doing injury to the roads and
the people. The relations between the
railroad companies and the people were
never so harmonious or more amicable.
l may say that the law in Illinois is not
complained of by the railroad corpora
tons, and certainly not by the people.
The reverse OF this would be true ii
both we're suffering injury
1T will be difficult to impeach such
testimony as that.
l.-rl., E.-,,rn.- VI. ich ch oil iI-o conna-