Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1894-10-18

L
almost as serious as any other connected
with the scheme, and one which has
been entirely overlooked. II the amount
OF new road to be built and the distri.
button Of it among the states should be
lett to congress or to department
created and Differed by political inf1u.
ences, it would lead to carnival Of
corruption and injustice. Favored sec
tions would get all the new roads, and a
gigantic system Of log-rolling would be
built up to secure to each community
Its grab from the public treasury.
But even If we made up our minds to
bear that, in addition to our other
political ills, we should still be in the
greatest difficulty.
The resources and credit Of the coun-
try would be strained to the breaking
point to acquire the new roads now
built.
In the past we have been adding to
our mileage from 1900 to $4,000 miles
OF new road each year. It is not prob
able that less than 1900 miles per
annum would satisfy the requirements
OF our people and our business for gen
erations to come.
The most radical Populist does not
place the cost of construction in a
prairie country, where it can be done
the cheapest, at less than $4,000 per
mile. Even at that ridiculously low
figure, the annual expenditure for new
construction would be 1920, 900, 900.
All our experience shows that if this
work were done by the government, it
would be do % less economically and a
reasonable estimate would place the
cost at not less than 5000, OOO, 900 a
year.
To all the other expenses and diff
culties incident to government control
must be added this annual outlay, for
which some new source Of income must
be provided.
10 give US comparatively as large
mileage as Great Britain would cost,
at $4,000 per mile, about SIG, 500, O00,-
600 more.
No means by which this money
should be raised has ever been sug-
gested.
Last, but not least among the objec-
lions to state ownership and control, is
the fact that it could not be realized in
the United States until we have entirely
reformed and readjusted our civil SER
vice system, without eminent danger
of overthrowing the republic and de.
stroying the liberties of the people.
1t is a common habit of the Populists to
Jump at some great conclusion, ignoring
the most obvious obstacles that must first
be removed.
If a man were really in earnest about
introducing here the naturalization of
the railroads, his first step, if he were a
rational creature, would be to build up
a system of laws that should forever
divorce the control of the civil service
from party politics.
The countries where government con-
troll prevails to any considerable extent
are mostly monarchies. 1t offers no
objection, under such government,
that the army of its employees should be
that those in power should
be provided with a host of willing and
devoted servants supported at the pub
lie expense.
In country like ours, such system
would necessarily lead to party despot-
ism.
The railway employees in the United
States are said to number altogether, at
the present time, not far from one
million men.
We have seen that the effect of throw.
ing into the political arena, to be strug-
gled for by hungry leaders, the one
to one hundred and fifty
thousand Offices now in existence, has
been to encourage corruption, degrade
politics and debase the civil service.
No such system as ours could possibly
stand the addition of million new
places to be filled at the command of
party leaders.
No political party, once entrenched
behind such an army as this, whose
daily bread depended upon fidelity to
it, could ever be ousted by anything
short Of actual rebellion
The existence of a free Republican gov
nation, under the spoils principle, is an
1t is as reasonable to ask an advocate
Of state ownership to first provide a
complete reform of the civil service
and the Punishment of the spoils prin-
ciple from politics as it is to ask a man
to first provide vessel, if he insists
that you accompany him on voyage
across the Atlantic.
NJ doubt there have been and still
are many grave abuses connected with
the administration Of the railroads in
the United States. These abuses call
for st riot regulation and for remedy,
but it is the most palpable absurdity to
propose as means of getting rid of
them the adoption Of a system which
has nowhere been as beneficial to the
people and which has been distanced III
the competition.
Whether regarded as an investment
Ct capital or as a means of providing
cheap transportation for the people, !
state ownership and operation of rail
roads has been demonstrated by the
experience Of the whole
world to be failure.
FIRST VICTORIES !!
Elections in Maine and Yer.
mont Indicate the TANNER