The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1892-12-23
THE MIDLAND JOURNAL.
Government Ownership of Rail
roads.

In Australia the government is the
owner Of railways and there is neither
profit nor speculation. For six and a.
half dollars Que rides thousand miles.
Workmen ride six miles, 10 and from
their employment, for an English
penny. double that distance for two,
and eighteen miles for three. Commu-
tation fares are enjoyed for 80 mile
runs. round TIP, at sl8 year. Bel
GUM has owned her railroad system
nearly 30 years. And do that smart
little State and her plucky people
regret it? Let us see, You ride
d.sgonally across the kingdom from
northeast to southwest for about four
francs or 80 cents. The fares are, in
fact. astouishingly low, averaging about
four miles for cent. Freights are
correspondinsly down, and yet the
roads pay They have saved the peo-
pie over half million dollars a year,
besides turning into the treasury large
sum annually. A great and rapidly
growing increase in the receipts is
reported on account of the vast bus
mess occasioned by cheapness and the
Belgium government railways are prov
ing financial success for her treasury
In Hungary the government has con-
troll of the railroads. And what do we
find there +? One actually rides a
thousand miles for three dollars. You
buy tickets like postage stamps aud
they are good at all times and for all
roads. Such stamps are valid also for
freight. If you want to send your
package or box of merchandise, put a
stamp on the box of the face value
according to weight and distance-and
it is comparatively almost nothing.
These figures illustrate how fools of the
monopoly coaxing republic are being
gulled. They likewise show to the
timid at glance, that there is no risk
in any government buying, con6scatine
or building railways, no matter wha'
they cost-even though it be hundreds
of billions for each road Immediately
begins to pay for itself, as the Beleians
have proved, and the enterprise brings
with it complete emancipation for the
people from the threatening and oppres
sivc bullyism of monopolies.
A railroad can carry a man in splen-
did upholstered carriage, pound 70,
pound, cheaper than it can carry cattle
or hogs; because the ticketing, under
the stamp system, is done by the pas.
senger and costs nothing; besides the
human freight loads and un.oads itself,
which is large saving. But the vast
advantage of government roads over
those owned by companies accrues
more to the people than to their treas
uries. BY it the monopoly is entirely
destroyed and disappears. BY it, such
an insolent piece of treason as this,
done up in Tribune editorial, is made
impossible. 1t reads: The machinery
is now furnished by which, in an
emergency, the corporation, on days
notice, can act with such power that no
act of Congress can resist them.
If any one sees fit to deny the truth
of this hideous staten mt let him recall
the Standard Oil outrage. In the city
Of Chicago the creatures of this com.
pany are. openly called "banditti,'
made up primarily of the Standard
Oil trust, the street railroads, steam
railroads centering into the metropo-
lis !; aud following along after them is
a swarm of lesser desperadoes who are
l ontank NTH kba DsoL ,noa orJ atonl;on