New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-07-25
The r r 0 bjeot ons..

The 2. {. objections.
A CORES pondent asks: 6 Has the Pho
Ineer Press ever given its reasons against
the Matchmaking Of railroads? If so, in
what manner? Will you not briefly re-
capitulate them?'' @
We have given the reasons q good
many times and are ready to give them
again whenever it may be necessary to
for,ify any one against this most dan
gerous idea. They are many in number
out we will name only three of the first
rank, any ore of which We should regard
as insuperable.
l. The principle Of state control OF
railroads is opposed to our whole system
of government and in the interests of
| Capitalization. Those who founded this
nation intended to make the central pow
er at Washington no stronger than it need
be to keep the peace and conduct the
business of the country. That is we'll
for liberty. The concentration of mighty
business interests in the hands of the
statc-which means in the hands of the
persons in power at the national capital
would create then power 50 tremen-
dous as to be dangerous to liberty. We
believe in the least government possible,
and in the utter separation, as far as
maybe, of business interests from the
state.
2. This danger becomes an absolute
certainty when we consider the condition
of ourycivil service, now used openly to
promote the political interests of the
party in power. State control of rail-
roads without fixed civil service, Who'll
ly disconnected with pa, ty politics, would
be Il frightful calamity. There are in
the United States say 100000 railroad
employees. Think of this army of men
holding their Office by the tenure of par
ty service, and receiving and losing APP
pointments at the pleasure of party
bosses! Any party that could have or
gained behind it the entire array of dis
ciplined railroad forces, under penalty
of dismissal, could not he dislodged. The
power of public opinion would be at an
end.
8. Perhaps the financial argument
should have come first, since it alone set
ties the whole project. How are tho
roads to be nationalized? The govern
ment cannot certainly confscate them,
for they are private property. 1t must
obtain them by purchase. Now their
value is somewhere from 49,
0oO,OoO,OOO to $1O,O0O,OOO.OOO. Where
is the money to come from? Remember
that the government cannot actually Gre
ate one dollar. 1t has already strained
its use of credit money to the breaking
point. And if the owners were willing
to exchange for United States bonds,
that would leave us with national debt
the like of which was never heard of,and
with the certainty that we could not. pay
either principle or interest. For rs per
cent of these railroads are now in the
hands of receivers. It is notorious that
public management is more extravagcnt
than private; and the average rate of
profit on railroad properties in private
hands is 50 small that it would practical
ly disappear when they were run for po-
litics instead OF for revenue. Assuming
then, general consent to the transfer, the
nation would treble it's national debt at
the highest point ever reached, fird no
way to ever pay interest or principle ex-
cept by taxation, while every congress
would vote Tor lower rates to please the
people who could not see that what was
taken out of one pocket was put into
the other, minus the cost of collection
and distribution. These are only three
reasons, but the woods are full of them.
A. II.