The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-02-25

to have passenger cars attached to
their freights and carry passengers, so
that the public will not be- eta ned as
they now are. Is there any injustice
in this Do not the people need all
the acco ommodations possible 4?
Will GA Unit explain why train
whose average is not over II miles
per hour, be more dangerous than one
running 80 or 40 miles per hour, on
the same road bed, under the same
rules and restrictions?
{" A Unit says: "There is no in
Justice in the companies charging the
same rates on both classes of trains. :"
/ take it that my brother has given
but slight attention to railroads.
In the courts and before the Rail
road Commission, railroad have ap-
peared as defendants and as plaintiffs.
Their sworn testimony lies before me.
Their testimony is in hundreds of
cases "that it costs far more to carry
passengers or freight rapidly than
slowly" This, too, is in harmony
with mechanical laws and principles
Now if it costs less to haul given
load slowly than rapidly, then it is
manifestly unjust to charge as much
for slow haul as for fast one
My brother grows eloquent when
he comes to the charge that poor
man cannot travel as cheaply as rich
one, and he asserts that {" It does not
cost a poor man one cent more to
travel one mile, or thousand, than it
does a rich cne."
[ am willing to believe that my
brother honestly believed this state
ment of his, but it is not true.
In the last eight months my diary
shows over 20, 600 miles of travel, and
in my life many hundred thousand
miles and ! do know that my brother
has his figures mixed. He knows,
and so does every reader of The Pro
GREssIvE FARMER, that poor man can
not buy 5000 mile ticket or 1000
mile ticket. There are, as [ know,
hundreds of farmers in North Caro-
lima that after working hard all the
year, cannot after settling up with
their merchant and laborers, buy from
the proceeds of large farm 1000
mile ticket much less a 5000 mile
ticket. This statement is hardly en-
titled to respectful attention. have
been quite tourist for 26 years and
have never seen a poor man travel
on an annual pass. Unfortunately,
the poor man is passed by when the
railroads deal out their favors.
When it comes to the arranging of
schedules for the purpose of diverting
travel from one line to another, GA
Unit says:
Merchants, towns, newspapers
and everything which comes into com.
petition, arrange their schedules for
their own agrandizement, regardless
of the injury inflicted on their com
petitors;" and not content with this
wonderful (?) proposition adds, "if it
is right for one it is right for another"
The competition of merchants or
newspapers is for the benefit of the
masses. The closer the merchant sells,
the more reliable the newspaper, the
better for the people. Not so with
railroads. 1t affects injuriously the
people who granted them the right to
build and operate the railroads.
Charitably, I conclude that A
Unit was endeavoring to make him,
self appear much more ignorant than
he really is. The bare assumption
that there is parable in his cited case
is enough to make horse laugh.
Many of his assumptions and special
pleadings are based on the idea that
railroads are under the same condi
tions that the farmer and merchant is.
Twill define the Status of both as held
by the courts.
Private railroad property is ac-
quired by deed of gift, conditional
occupancy or by purchase"
Public, real property or govern
ment property is owned in common
by all citizens of the government and
is acquired by purchase, by forced
concession, by treaty or by combi-
combination of these princi pies"
corporate, real property owned
by public carriers, is acquired by pur-
chase, by gift, by forced concessions,
but only after there has been treaty,
compact, a contract made by the
people on one part and the company
on the other The party of the first
part the people, the State conceeds
certain privileges and rights, each to
receive benefits from the contract"
No corporation can dispossess you of
your farm against your will or of any
lands which the State has previously
given you charter for, that is, a
deed, either directly or been passed
down from those the State did deed
directly to, unless by consent of the
citizens OF that State, which consent
is had when the charter is given, if at
all. And as all contracts must have