The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-09-20
A QUERY ANSWERED
How Watered Stock Affects the
Citizen.
l have received the following let

MY DEAR SIR:-YOu can't imagine
how joyful feel that you have drop
ped Fish. have said for the past
two or three years that as soon as
DOnnelly threw that fellow away, I
might be induced to assist him in
my feeble way. Now l am a SUBJ
scriber to the REPRESENTATIVE,
and really enjoy it.
Mr.. DOnnelly, notice in the REP
REsENTATIvE of the 21st, in your
letter to Mr.. M. I. Ringdal, where
you speak of watered stock. Gin other
words, the people are paying interest
on three or four times the amount of
money actually invested in the road,
ETC." am trying to find out how I,
lone of the people and a tax payer.
am paying any taxes at all on r. R.
property or bonds. Honestly I don't
know. Respectfully yours,
A. @. RANDALL.
The answer to this question is very
plain.
Everything that comes to Frazee
from anywhere else, except what is
brought in farmers wagons, pays
freight to the railroad companies.
And everything raised or produced in
or near Frazee, and which is shipped
abroad, goes over the railroads, and
pays freight charges to them. That
is perfectly clear. Now it is equally
clear that the amount of those rail-
road charges determines the price of
every commodity bought or sold in
Frazee. And if our correspondent
produces or consumes anything,-and
he certainly does one or other or
both,-he helps to support those rail-
roads by paying part of those
charges.
If now the roads are mortgaged for
three or four times what they cost
they must put up their charges on
the transportation of freight and pas
sengers to enable them to collect
enough to pay the interest on the
bogus debt as we'll as on the real
debt. If Mr.. Randall is farmer and
raises and sells wheat, and it costs,
we will say, thirty cents per bushel
to get it from Frazee to New York,
by all rail, then that thirty cents is
taken out of the price of his wheat.
If his wheat is worth Is cents in New
York then he gets but As cents per
bushel for it in Frazee. But suppose
that one-third of that 30 cents is
used to pay the interest on watered
stock then Mr.. Randall contributes
ten cents per bushel on every bushel
of wheat he raises. This on 1000
bushels is $1OO;-in ten years this
makes 1000; in twenty years $4,000
The sum of $4,000, if it had remained
in Mr.. Randall'S pocket, would have
built him pleasant house and barn,
and have given him great many
comforts of life in his old age. But
it isn't in Mr.. Randall's pocket; he
has paid it over to non-residents,
who never earned it, and never gaze
HIM anything for 1t; and they have
added it to the plumber taken from a
million other men, and have become
millionaires. And if Mr.. Randall
runs behind, and has to borrow mon
ey on mortgage, he will probably
borrow back some of the very money
he paid those knaves for interest on
bogus, watered-stock; and the sheriff
may finally drive him out of his
home for not paying interest on his
own money!
But suppose Mr.. Randall is not a
farmer but a citizen of the village,
suppose he is consumer and not a
producer. What does he spend his
money for? Why for groceries, dry
goods, meat, bread, vegetables, etc.
Now so far as the price he pays for
meat and bread and vegetables,
raised on farms in the vicinity, is
concerned, the railroad charges affect
it but little; but the groceries, dry
goods, hardware, ETC., have come to
Frazee over the railroads; and if they
have paid three times as much for
transportation as they should have
paid it comes out of Mr.. Randalrs
pocket, and he is so much poorer.
Moreover, if Mr.. r. is engaged in any
business, that must depend on the
prosperity of the whole country; and
Frazee city, and the success of every
man in it, hinges on the prosperity OF
the farmers about it; and every dol
lar taken from them, to pay interest
on bogus capital, is dollar taken
out of that region of country: and a
dollar less for the business and pro-
fessional men of Frazee to get hold
of.
The business men of Minnesota
should all stand with the peoples
party. Instead of that, as rule,
their sympathies are with the nom
resident rogues who are stealing
their customers poor and bringing