People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-10-14

sufficient amount, II reclaimed by
the government to provide a COM
Portable home for every man, woman
and child in the United States who
is to-day without a home. It is the
home owner that develops the re-
sources of a country, defends its
laws, builds It's schools and makes
society contented and happy. The
history Of all countries and times
teaches us that when the lands of a
country drift into the hands of the
few and the many are made tenants
and serfs, bloodshed and revolution
have been the invariable results.
Are the people of this country
to stand idly by and permit their
homes to be absorbed by aliens and
corporations simply because the po-
Itlcal boss says that it would be
communism to offer protest? If
the people would not see their chill
dren the tenants Of alien landlords,
let them put their protests in the
ballot box, which is the only remedy
left except the musket.
Both the old political parties
are so completely dominated
by these corporations that
they dare not open their mouths on
the land question. Examine their
platforms and see.
The transportation question is one
Of the most vital that is now engaging
the attention Of the American peo-
pie. Railroad corporations have be-
come so exacting that almost every
State in the Union has been COM
PEELED to create a railroad commits
sion, and the National Government
an interstate commission, in order to
protect the people, and they are still
unprotected, as everyone knows who
has endeavored to investigate the
matter. According to the price the
people are receiving for their pro-
ducts, the railroads are charging more
to- day for passenger and freight traf-
fic than they ever did since there was
a railroad In the country. It will
take twice as many pounds of cot
ton or bushels of wheat to carry
passenger one hundred miles or a
carload Of freight one hundred miles
than it did twenty years ago. For
example, it would then cost sc per
mile or S. to ride 100 miles. The
IS would cost rs pounds of cotton
at zoe per pound. Now it will cost
only &c per mile or So for 100 miles.
The So will cost so pounds Of cotton
at &c per pound.
It cost just as many days work to
produce a pound of cotton twenty
years ago as it does to-day, but
pound Of cotton then would buy
twice as much railroad service as it
will to-day. Railroad control, as
now practiced, is sham and fraud,
and the experience of some Of the
wisest railroad men in this country
and the old country teaches us that
the only way to control railroads is
for the Government to absolutely
own and operate them in the inter
est Of the people. s'Poor's Manual"
| for 1892 is just out, and is recog-
nized authority on railroad statistics
all over the world. It gives the
number Of miles of railroad In the
United States to be 170,601 actual
cost, $4,809,176,651 ; watered stock,
$5,956,449,390; total valuation,
$1O,765,626,O41. By fictitious or
watered stock they are compelling
the people to pay more than twice as
much for service as they should pay
in order that they may reap divi-
dends upon fraudulent investments.
I find in the same manual that the
gross earnings of the road is $780,
O24,459. Cotton at 6 cents per
pound, it would take ~, 149,054 bales,
or about five entire crops, to pay this
enormous sum. Wheat at 90 cents
per bushel, it would take 1,896,707>-
431 bushels to pay it. The net earn
ings are $356,209,880. At the pres
ent price Of cotton, it would take
u, 192,958 bales, or about one and
one-half crops to pay these net earn.
ings. In other words, about 100000
600 Southern cotton~raisers are re-
CURED to produce cotton at a loss
that few hundred railroad magnates
may become mlllionaires and squan-
der it going to Europe every year.
[ find from thorough investiga-
ton Of the management of the cor
porations Of the country that it is a
mere matter Of time until they will
own the Government. unless an An
drew Jackson rises up and lays the
strong hand of the Government upon
them as he did upon the national
bank.
The annual earnings of the four
principal classes of corporations in
this country are as follows:
Insurance 115,453,258
Banks 75,763,514
d.e.o orr . 40