People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1892-10-21
LOOK OUT FOR RAILROADS.
Something for Every Honest Man to
Read Before Voting.
EDITOR VOICE:

time have been potent factors in the
politics of Kansas, operating in and
through the Republican party and
that now, controlling the immense
patronage of 24,743 employees, besides
their position in reference to the
people as quasi public institutions and
their fabulous wealth, they are able
to exert a powerful influence upon
elections, as well as they have already
done upon the courts, executive and
legislature of the state.
Their power in this respect is al
most absolute and irresistible and
this year, seeing the rise of a power
which promises to subject them to a
just and equitable regulation as re-
Spects the rights and interests of the
people, they have entered the field of
politics to fight and destroy these
forces Of the people that they may
continue to rule the powers that be
and sustain the grip they now have
upon every industry in the state.
FOStered. entrenChed and sustained
in enormous exactiOnS, privileges and
special favOrs by the Republican
party, which they have largely con-
trOlled, in their desperation over their
party and tool losing its grip, and
putting forth extreme efforts to stay
| its downfall, they have uncovered the
vandal hand which has filched from
the people of the state thousands of
acres of public land, and by rObber
rates, which almost makes the cost
of the transportation of the products
of the state to the seabOard equal to
the cost of their production, thus re-
ducing the price to the producer, de-
priving the farmer and labOrer of the
profits of their toll.
To mislead the people, they, the
companies, not employees, are sending
out printed circular headed, "An
Appeal to the People of Kansas from
Railway Employees" The statements
contained in this circular are 50 glar-
ingly false and misleading as to carry
refutatiOn in their own words.
This circular says, lin their recent
annual report, the interstate COM
merce commission shows the number
of employees to every 1000 miles of
line to be, in 1891, 1880. On the
same basis as prevails on all railroads
in the country, there ought, there
fore, to have been 1886 employees in
the state, instead of a, ,643, which is
to say, Kansas should have according
to her mileage, 1882 more railway
employees than she has" The circu-
lar then goes on to say that the state
has lost the earnings of these 1882
men, amounting toss, ,673, $3.50, which
should have gone into the channels of
trade.
1t is apparent that that statement
is the work of downright knave or
an ignOramus and is not true.
In the first place, the great bulk of
railroad employees which 60 to make
the average of 1000 employees per mile
on all railroads in this country, as in
the east. Why? Because there are
more roads there, more products to
handle, cities and towns more numer-
Gus, stations closer together, pOpula-
tiOn more dense, greater number and
larger shops and car factories and the
aggregated products of the great
west, northwest, south and southwest
cOnverging towards the seabOard, con-
geSt in ware and freight houses to be
handled, transported and unlOaded,
and commercial products diverging
from the same eastern points, to be
scattered as they come westward. 1t
stands to reason, therefore, that with
such a vast amount of traffic to be
cared for and handled at the eastern
SeapOrtS, and the concentrating of it
all at many points on its way there
and the other causes named, would
naturally make the average number
of employees per mile not only 1000,
but several thousand, increasing the
farther eastward it goes.
While Kansas is only one. of many
states, mere contributor to the great
heavily worked lines TO the east of us,
with population sparse in the west
half, stations few and far between
and products limited and scattered,
all serve to cut down the average
number of men per mile much below
1000 and yet there are enough men to
handle the commercial products of
the state, so that the statement as to
the loss of employed men and their
aggregated annual wages to the state
and its channels of trade, is simply so
much nonsense and does not demand
the slightest consideration except to
see the righteousness of it.
Their efforts also in organizing po-
litical clubs among the employees,
whom they would make believe some