The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-11-02

Its construction and has an iuierc>
IN lts management. In its nature II
Is public instruction. the succor oi
the public road; II Is itself pubh,
highway. Its magnitude aud mag
nlticance makes II national, in tn,
Office II performs. II j. public iu-
stitUtTon, the revenues whereof fnll
into private hands. Ii Il subject a.
public control. both state and nation.
al, such Is its status IN the theory oi
the law. From the standpoint ot
economics II IL simply an enormous
industrial machine. managed by n
creature not made in the image of
Cod, but invented by man and nam
ell a corporation. This creaurc :
from necessity destitude Of human
sympathy or compassion. IL arkn"wl.
edges no possibility 10 God. /
yields only to physical force. f.
build this system of highways the
people have contributed more than
two hundred million acres Of Ian l..
enough TO make four states a. larg.'
as Iowa. enough TO make quatrr-
| section home for every voter IN Iowa.
! This immense system of highways H.
substantially owned hy less than one
million of deople, mainly by less
| than one thousand, II Is controlled
| by less than one hundred. In the
| construction the people have proVi-
| ded both the material and labor
That is. all the real capital: the cor
| poration has furnished the manage
| ment, nothing mole. The common
| opinion that corporations have furn-
lshed enormous sums of capital i
wholly delusion. The process of
construction is very simple. The
| corporations provide form Of
credits, stocks and bonds; with these
instruments, materials aud labor are
brought together; the corporation has
paid for nothing, il has simply agreed
TO pay at future time. All has
been done with credits. The credit
is nomlnally based upon the road it,
self, but really upon the public who
use the road. The public is the ul-
innate paymaster. The road will
never be paid for in fact until the
public contribute the funds to re-
deem the stocks and bonds. SO in the
last analysis the total cost of con
struction is transferred to the public.
The corporation has contributed no
material, performed no labor, paid
no bills. 1t has simply confscated
the public credit, moulded it into
securities, sold them for what they
would fetch and invested the pro-
ceeeds IN the construction of the
railway. The boasted investment of
capital Is a fiction and a fraud. There
Is no such Investment as matter
of fact and never has been since the
stock and bond system was institut-
ed. Just here the people have lost
the road; capital and credit are pur-
posely confounde ed. Here in the fog
the people have been beating about
for whole generation looking for IL
safe harbor. Here rights are thrown
overheard and wrongs are taken on.
If all these stocks and bonds were
sunk IN the sea the capital would re-
main. These paper instruments are
mere tools of distribution and evil
dences of rights as between makers
and holders, but they are not evi-
dences of any public obligation
| whateyer
WATERED VALUE AND REAL VALUE.
Bringing together the whole sys-
TEN into one colossal aggregation,
we find the nominal capital to be
eleven billions of dollars sixth
part OF the total welth of the nation.
This sum is nearl y equally divided
into stocks aud bonds The stocks
stand as the title and the bonds as a
mortgage against the system. To-
| gether they amount to $63, 900 for
every mile of main line, branch and
stub. Railroad experts, testifying
before courts, commissions and
boards OF assessors, as well as the
standard authorities, but the actual
valve below So, 900 per mile. Thus
it is proven the total value of the
system falls below five billion dol
lars, leaving six billion dollars, more
than onehalf, totally fictitious-an
enormous credit having no redmp-
ton fund whatever, taking from in
dustry more than one hundred mill
ion dollars annually as revenues,
without any returning benefit. Here
| Is debt twice as great as the debt
of this nation when Lee surrendered
at Appmoattox, wholly fictitious, un-
| just and unnecessary. Here is a
burden upon labor, a tax upon in
dustry, as purely "a tribute as ever a
military despot wrung from a con
quered people. Hundreds OF millions
Of these tictitlons securities are
owned by foreigners. The products
of our fields and mines that Justly
should be distributed among our own
| people, are taken abroad to swell the
fortunes Of foreign aristocracy.
The wrack rents of Ireland that
have driven to hopeless poverty that
most industrious and generous race,
was no more a trespass upon the
rights Of that people than are the
exactlons Of railroad corpOations up
on the people of this country. Ex-
Governor Larrabee says:
The railroads Of the United
States collect from our people in
round numbers transportation tax
of eleven hundred million annually.
This tax Is equal to a levy of SIT per
head, or $50 per family: it is about
as large as all our othter taxes COM
bined. In the State Of Iowa it
amounts to abont $22 per head, or
$40 per family, and is two and one
half times as large as all the state.
county, school and municipal taxes
collected within her border"
Just here the supreme question
arises. Is it the policy of railways
to pay off this debt, Or is it the policy
to make it p-rpetuali 1t increases
as the revenues increase. The bet
ter the roads pay, the greater the
bonded debt, this is the lesson of
their own reports.
| REFORMS COME FROM THE PEOPLE.
Fellow citizens, it is the history OF