The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1894-02-23
RAILROAD coNsPIRAciES
Manner In Which They XIII Towns and
Villages and Crush Out Business Rivals

Villages and Crush Out Business Rivals.
spoke in my last letter of the gross
injustice in the levying of freight rates
by railroads, and compared the charges
on milk and -four, on certain Wander
bilt roads. also referred to the con-
spiracy entered into by many railroads,
with huge concerns like the Standard
Oil Co. Before leaving this branch of
Americas leading iniquity, another
Standard oil anecdote may be of in
terest
Whoever will take the trouble to ex-
anime the report of a special commit
tee of the United States senate, called
the Cullom committee, will be wonder
struck, nay, almost thunder-struck at
the magnitude of certain railroad
abuses which this investigation re-
vealed
Sometimes. where the private rail-
road was comparatively small line, it
was not the original criminal, or pro-
poser of that constant crime against
the public which private capital al
ways seeks to perpetrate.
Occasionally, the railroad was mere
ly an accomplice or lackey of the chief
thief. For instance, in one case, the
Standard Oil Co boldly demanded from
a certain railroad that its shipments
should be carried for 10 cents a barrel;
that other shippers should be charged
35 cents barrel, and that 25 cents of
the 35 paid by other shippers, should be
handed over by the railroad to the
Standard Oil Co.
Just think of that as a specimen
method of private enterprise and the
industrial system The Standard Oil
Co. threatened, unless this eXtortion
was complied with, withdrawal of their
patronage from that road.
1t is owing to this. and similar ar
rangements with the railroads, more
than anything else, that the Standard
Oil Co. has become the giant monopoly
that it is, and that it has succeeded in
crushing out all smaller companies,
strangling their business and destroy
ing their plants until they could buy
them in at their own ridiculously low
! figures.
The interstate commerce commits
sion, which was the outgrowth of an
aroused public sentiment in favor of
governmental interference in railroad
mismanagement and criminality. has
not as yet been able to do very much
remedial good for various reasons,
which 1 shall point out in a future
article, but it has been of value mega
lively in calling attention to our great
national criminal, the private railroad.
and exposing the many kinds of in fanny
which this licensed monster commits.
Among the railroad crimes, of which
only the localities njured seem to be
aware, is the running of one town and
its people and the building up of an
other by making differences in ship
ping rates Take for example, the
plucky little town of Beatrice, Neb.
The Union Pacific, Burlington & Mis-
souri,. Chicago, Kansas & Nebraska,
Omaha & Republican Valley and Chi
cago, Burlington & Quincy entered
favor of the towns of Omaha, Lincoln
and Hastings by fixing and charging a
much higher rate in proportion from
Chicago and st. Louis to Beatrice than
to Its business rivals.
These things are constantly done for
the reason that railway officials high
/ in office, getting salaries totally dis
proportionate, in most cases, to their
brains and the work they do, frequent
ly invest their wage surplus in lands at
certain points along the lines of the
roads they and their friends manage
Hence, to induce population and
thereby increase the value of their in
vestments they favor these places in
their arrangement of freight rates.
Then, sometimes, these official specula-
tors, after town has been depressed
In business by their unjust ratings Of
freightage, jump in and buy up many
of it's chief properties dirt cheap, and
then, presto. the freight rates are
changed, and as by magic that town
jumps up again and boom ensues-
A conservative estimate by former
railroad official puts the number of
towns in the west and south which
have thus been ruined or delayed in
natural progress by railroad discrimi-
nation at $50 in the last ten years. 1
think these figures multiplied ty two
would hit nearer the bulls eye.
Even some cities which have attained
considerable size have been brought to
a standstill Mobile, Ala, for example,
before the war was on the high road to
an Importance for which her fine har-
Dor. beautiful climate and her polite
and energetic people would seem to Of
fer fair promise and an almost GER
tain guarantee.
In 1860 she handled 1000, 900 bales of
cotton, but even fifteen years after the
| war, by which time she should have
| naturally recovered from any damage
done by conflict. her annual factorage
of cotton had fallen to 325 900 bales and
ever since 1885 she has been falling be-
hind in other avenues of commercial
and social activity.
Railroads tapping the cotton belts
| and carrying freights direct to Atlantic
ports at less rates than to her, have
knocked her out with blow on blow.
There is, perhaps, one valuable moral
suggested by such a downfall No
| city or community can have a true
basis of prosperity that seeks to sub
sist its population chiefly on the mere
handling of exterior labor.
New Orleans, also, Is now beginning
| to suffer in the matter Of cotton
through railroad rascality. But New
Orleans apparently has great certain
future anyway, as the natural gateway
| Of the coming, not yet come, commerce
| of Spanish America.
Speaking Of the ruinous discrimina.
tion in freight rates, the unjust favor
itism shown by railroads, am remind.
| ed of case that came under my notice
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