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

DuG CulS is nOU ALL Inc FARMER
from 1850 to 1860 found himself IN
possession of about 70 per cent of the
national wealth, and growing richer
each year. The gold miners of
California were annually adding to
the circulation, enhancing prices, en-
ploying labor and diffusing prosperi-
ty through all the avenues of our
social, co nmercial and industrial life.
Farm values went up and farm pro-
ducts commanded ready sale at good
prices. The farmers sons and
daughters, as they grew Sup and
married, were easily provided for and
settled around the old homestead, or
at least in convenient reach of it.
But what a fate has overtaken this
Flooding, conservative, brave and
honest citizens. Poverty and debt
press him, taxes press him, freight
rates press him, and it has become
his hard and burdensome lot to toll
from January to December for the
bare necessaries Of life. Wife and
children must reGnquish the small
comforts and luxuries which once
were within their reach. The boys,
as they grow up to manhood's estate,
vanish from beneath the paternal
roof to seek their fortunes in the
facinating and mysterious West; but,
alas they find no West that prom-l
Uses fortune. The speculator, the
railway and the syndicate have pre-
ceded them and occupied the ground.
The railroads own 281, 100000 acres,
foreign and domestic syndicates own
100000 acres, making total of
376,00O,000, and 787, 906,375 are in
farms. There is probably not now
left of our vast public domain more
than an average of three acres per
capita of our population and much
of this is desert or barren land, unfit
for many reasons for occupation by
the housekeeper. Thus cut off by the
policy of our government from &C
cess to the cheap public lands, is it
wonderful that such large portion
of our people are tenants-that in
fact over 100000 farmers in the
United States are compelled to share
their crops with landlords?
But not only are the money and
lands monopolized, but railroads as
well. In the present adjustment of
our social and industrial life rail-
roads, as a means OF exchange and
distribution, have become an abso-
Lutte necessity. The use with which
a railroad is charged, being public in
its character-being in fact the ex-
ercise Of function belonging more
to government than to private indi-
viduals- there is the same reason
for reducing rates Of traffic on these
lines of transportation as exists in
favor of reduction of public tax
alton. Every person feels that
high rates Of taxation are burden
some, and hence the demand for the
reduction Of public expenditures to
the necessary expense of govern
eminent economically administered.
A moments reflection will serve to
convince any candid mind that the
same rule should apply to the ex-
pense of operating that system of
intercommunication by which the
products of labor are exchanged and
the social and business life of the
country is SO largely maintained.
Certainly agencies which affect
every member of the political COM
munity and which largely determise
and give shape to the complex re-
lat1ons and functions of society
which in fact deeply affect and in
volve its organic ought not to
be mere matters of private specula-
ton and gain. The inter ommuni-
cation Of intelligence and the ex-
change of wealth products by the
railroad and telegraph certainly lie
at the very foundation of our indus
trial, and thus our social well-being,
since our complex social life finds
expression (evolution) in our COM
pick industrial system and their
maintenance must be seen to be
rather function Of government than
Of the individual. And government
ought to take care that the expense
of maintenance shall be reduced to
the minimum like any other public
tax.
With this in view, the enormity
Of the tax levied upon production by
the railway and telegraph system Of
the country may be appreciated,
when it is understood that of the
$40, 000,000,000 Of stocks and bonds
representing the nominal cost Of the
railway system Of the country, ap-
proximately one-half is fictitious or
waetred, and that the gross income
derived from the operation of this
system amounts to more than ST.
600, 100000, sum probably exceed
ing the entire amount Of money in
actual circulation among the peo-
pie. The net earnings Of the sys-
tenn for 1890 are put down in
No. 226 Of the Statistical Abstract
at $346,921318.
But while the manufacturer, the
banker and bond holder and the rail-
roads thus levy tribute upon the
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