The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1894-10-12

can buy them. They cost about $lO,-
OOO,OOO,O00 in round numbers with
the water squeezed out of it. We
have been since 1865 paying the half
of $4,000, 100000, and 1 would like
some arithmetician, some lightning
calculator, among the leaders of the
populist party, tell me how long it
would take to pay for the railroads,
giving them their actual cost. What
has been our experience in paying
one-half of the national debt since
1865? The administration of the
postoffice is frequently referred to by
the populist friends as reason why
government administration OF rail-
roads would be efficient. What does
the government do about the post
Office system of this country? 1t ap-
points large force of highly paid
officers in Washington and elsewere,
who gather together the mails of the
country and have them put in bags
for transportation, and for what?
Then they are turned over to the very
hands of these very agencies that our
populist friends denounce the railroads
the steamboats,, the corporations OF
country. The government transports
letters from New York to San Fran
cisco 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 i0T lc.,
instead of &c. If you put your letter
into one of your Uncle Samuel's letter
bags today, register it if you please,
put it into one OF those variegated
barber-pole envelopes, that tell the
thief where to look for it; put it in
one of those bags in the custody of
one of your Uncle Sans agents, and
that man steals it. and it is proven to
have stolen it, and has spent all the
money there was in 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.
FALLACIOUS THEORY.
There ar more than $4,000 cases of
proved depreda tions in the st. Louis
Office today where the officials of the
government have been proven to have
stolen money, and the government re-
fuses to make restitution. If you put
that into the hands of private car
rier, an express company, and they
agree to transport it from New York
to San Francisco, they would have to
do it, or they would haye to pay for it
and yet there are men that would like
to take the whole business of the
country from the private hands where
there is some responsibility, into the
hands of what they call the "Govern-
ment," where there is no responsible
ity at all. If any private corporation,
any common common carrier, treated
its patrons the way the government
treats its patrons, it would be in a
bankruptcy court six months of every
year, and in Jail the other six month.
Our friends with that vast business
sagacity are in favor of transferring a
favored system like this from private
hands, where there responsibility un-
der the law, and to the law, to a
system where there is no responsibility
and no security. whatever; and I
would like to ask them into whose
hands-in case this were to be adopt-
ed-into whose hands is the admins
tration of railroads to be confded. Is
it to be supposed that man can 20
blood-raw from the farm or the forge,
or from the carpenters bench, and
run railroad? Wouldn't YOU expect
to confide it to exactly the same hands.
that have charge of it now, and don't
you suppose that within six moths
| after this occurred you would find
| very much the same condition that
you find today? Wouldn't there be
one man on the engine, and one man
on the car, and another man at the
brake, and another man riding in the
special, with every appearance of lux
ury and comfort about him, and
| wouldn't there be walking along be-
| side the track. with all his worldly DO
sessions in bandana trunk, with a
pin lock, our reforming friend looking
| for dry culvert for his next nights
lodging, and over and above all.
wouldn't you hear the voice of the
leather-lun ged reformer. whose wea-
pom is the favorite weapon of Samp-
son, with which he slew thousands
upon thousands of men, declaiminp
the injustices of society and asking
for another division? I am not here
as republican to deny that there are
great many things in modern society
that require rectifcation. I believe
that labor does not receive its full
share OF the rewards of society in this
system under which we live. I be-
lIeya that it is one of tho Uraat <,,,o.