The advocate., 1894-03-21
[COPYRIGHT.l
The Dead Line.
BY GIDEON LAME, D. D.



pose one man owned through line OF
railroad, and there was no corporation
about it at all, wouldn't he have just
as much right to keep expenses down
and rates high as the owner Of a coal
mine has to get his coal out cheap and
then charge all he can make the shiV-
ering people pay? Wouldn't he have
lust as much right to get all he can as
the farmer has? or the millerS But
the Peoples party demands strict ma
tiOnal control of public transportation;
and in a good many states there have
been railroad commissioners for good
while to say how much railroads shall
charge, and even where they must put
up depots and stop trains, and how
many trains day they must run over
particular lines whether it will pay
'em to do it or not; and the interstate
commerce commissioners to boss the
owners of railroads toO-tO tell 'em
they mustn't make more than so much
money in such and such way. BY
what right can the government inter
fere this way with anybody'S private
business? Can anybody tell me?'
II suppose" said the president, sit
is on the principle that transportation
by rail has become matter OF public
concern because, in our changed times,
it has become a public necessity"
"That's the way we fool ourselves
with words. What do we mean by
public necessityT Why, something
necessary for the people something
the people have got to make use Of and
can't well get along without. And the
necessity comes in this way: The price
of grain in this country is fixed in New
York, so grain out here in Kansas or
away off in California is worth only
what's left after the grain buyer takes
out his profits and the cost of transpOr-
tation to New York-takes it out OF
the New York price; so if the railroad
owners allowed to charge what he
pleases he can cut down the price of
grain out here to below what it costs to
raise it by simply putting up the rates
that have to be taken out of the New
York price. And that's not all. If he
wants to build up one part of the coun-
try, say Illinois, he can give the farm
ers low rates from there and let them
sell their grain at q good price, and
then turn round and tax the farmers
out here to make up what's lost in Hi
nOis, and ruin 'em in this way. Then,
merchants out here have to sell their
goods for enough to pay their expenses
and the cost Of transportation from the
east and leave a profit; so the people
can be forced to pay more or less just
as the railroad owners see tit. IL the
owner of a railroad owns all the land
around a particular town and wants to
boom the town so as to make money
out of his land and lots, he can give
the merchants there lower rates, SO
they can get all the trade by selling
cheaper, and then he can turn round
and make it up by raising the rates on
all other towns and doing up the mer-
chants like he can do up the farmers.
So government control of the railroad
owners demanded because if he's left
to run his own property to suit hlmselt
"a kind of property the people have
got to use-he can make the people
suffer whenever he chooses, can make
'em rich or ruin 'em, just as he
takes a notion. If everybody had his
own railroad it would be different, but
this man has the only road there is, and
the people have got to use that road
can't help themselves. Isn't this what
we mean by public necessity
"That is true" said the president,
"although have never before had so
clear perception of the precise situa-
ton"
All this discussion, which l fear
some of my fair readers have already
been disposed to skip as "dry stuff, y
was intensely interesting to Lena, not
only because the frivolous" girl had a
mind given to solid thinking and not
davoted IN uentertainment''eY ''eYclusiYelY.