The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-09-17

of the United States except the credit Of
the individual inhabitants added to-
gether?
q am not here to defend railroads; I
am here to say that l believe railroad
managers will take everything that they
can get, aud / have seen a great deal of
railroad managers in this state and nation
within the last twenty years, that made
my blood boil with indig nation, They
need restraint They need control
They need feel the weight of the law,
like every body else; but when it
comes to taking possession of the rail
roads by the government of the United
States. / would like TO know how the
money to buy them is to be obtain ed, and
how it is to be paid. There are two ways
in which the people of the nited States
can take possession Of the railroads of
the United States. They can steal them
or they can buy them. They cost about
$4,000, 900, 900 in round mum ers, with
the water squeezed out of IT, We have
been since 1868 paying the half Of 81
600, OO0, 900. and l would like some arith-
metician, some ughGing calculator,
among the leaders Of the POpulist party,
to tell me how long it would take to pay
for the railroads, giving them their ac-
tual cost. What has been our experience
in paying the national debt since 1862
The administration of the pOstotfice IS
frequently referred to by our POpullst
friends as a reason why government ad-
ministration of railroads would be
equally efficient
What does the government do about
the postofflce system of this country 1t
appoints a large force OF highly paid Of
ficers in Washington and elsewhere, who
gather together the mails Of the country
aud have them put in bags for transmits
sion, and for what? Then they are turned
over 70 the very hands Of these very
agencies that our Populist friends de-
nOunce, the railroads, the steam boats,
tn corporations Of the country. The
government transports letters from New
York to San Francisco for &c. If the
country would turn over the mail system
to a private administration my letter,
that does not weigh over half an ounce.
could be carried by private corporations
from New York to San Francisco for lie
instead OF &c.
If you put your letter into one Of your
Uncle SamuePs letter bags today, regis
ter it, If you please, put it into one of
those .variegated barber pole envelopes,
that tells the thief where to loo K
for it; put il into one of those bags in the
custody Of one Of your Uncle Sans
agents, and that man steals It, and is
proven to have stolen il, and has spent
all the money there was i'm it, and you
bring that to the attention OF the govern
ment and ask them TO pay you for it and
they laugh At you.
AASEC aIC AAOEC bA1n ~OsOoO Eases OF
proved depredati0ns IN the St Louis Of
fee today. where the officials OF the gov
eminent have been proven to have stolen
money. and the government refuses TO
make restitution. If you put that into
the hands Of private carrier, an express
company. and they agree to transport il
from New York to San Francisco, they
would have to do it, or they would have
20 pay for it''
Speaking Of state politics Ingalls, said:
I'VE have had drouth, we have had hot
winds, we have had foundations. we have
had grasshoppers, we have had locusts,
but want TO say to you that if all the
drouths we have had in this state
| were condensed into one drouth; if