The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-06-13
A LIVELY LETTER FROM NORTH DA-
kOTA.
Government Ownership of Railroads
Discussed.

/ hOTA.
Government Ownership of Railroads
| Discussed.
Editor Representative wish to say a
word or two through your noble paper.
The question is now being asked every
where now, What is the matter with the
people? Financially they seem to be SO dis
| tressed, when at the same time we have
had the most bountiful crops of all kinds
for the last 80 years.
| Well, Gen. Weaver's answer to the aues-
ton is this: If fellow wants to find out
what is the matter with himself all he has
| to do is to just feel down into his pockets
and the whole thing is explained at once.
| Wen, old Jones thought to himself he would
| act on the generals suggestion, and what
do you suppose he found? Well, all he found
was large sized rat hole down in the lower
| corner; or, in other words he found it was
| one of the has beens." Now, boys we
| must reason upon this matter together; yes
| and reason from cause to effect. You will
| pardon me for calling you boys, for that
| was the name we went by when on the
neld OF battle for noble cause. The pur-
| pose we were there for was to knock the
| shackles from off the hands of 1000, 600 black
| slaves. The problem that confronts us to-
| day is to devise ways and means to sever
the letters from the hands Of 500oO,G 900 white
| seffs so much greater is the cause this
| time that there is no comparison between
| the two. The magnitude Of the question to-
| DAY vastly overshadows that of 80 years
| ago. And our wise men of that time thought
II was a grave undertaking. On the other
hand we had at that time a few feeble
| minded things that came forward with a
| sort OF sckly smile and said 80, boys,
III only be breakfast SPELL History
| teaches you younger men what kind of
| breakfast spell it was.
| NOW, boys, have you ever stopped to think
| ABOUT this matter; or do you realize CIR I'M
| derstand what danger awaits us?
| The fact is self-evident that the American
| people today are confronted with one of the
| most gigantic tyrannical, inhuman, despotic
moned aristocracys the world has ever
known; and the people of This country know
| only TOO we'll how oppressive i. is And it
| must be dethroned, for it is entirely foreign
| to our institutions and a menace 10 our lib-
| erty and freedom
Boys 1t is our privilege this fall to elect
an entirely new congress; and bear in mind,
| IN case there is no choice by the vote of the
| people two years hence then the house of rep
| resentatives of congress- which YOU elect
| this fall, will choose the next president of
| the United States So you can see that this
| next congress is of the utmost Importance
| TO us, the cOmOn people.
| NOW, boys, let us meet together in our
| Iltle school houses all over this cherished
| lana and country of ours. Let these meet
| mgs extend from Maine to California and
! from the British provinces to the Gulf of
| Mexico. Let the boys, both blue and gray,
| together with all their friends, meet on one
| comon ground and for one common n,u nose
| How much better it will be for all of us to
| meet IN friendly council waive all past diff
| hculties, shake hands across the "b,oody
| cnasm. Then put our shoulders to the
| wheel for one common cause
| Now there are a great many changes to
| De made in our legislation before the peo-
| pie can possibly have any relief And
| among other things the railroad system is
| not the least by any means. Transporta-
| tlon is pertaining to the government and
| should be owned and conducted by the gov
| eminent, for various reasons. In the first
pace the people would get freight rates
| and transportation at actual COST and in
| the second place, it would be far better for
| the men who operate the various lines
| OF the system, they receiving twice as
| much pay as at the present times under
| the arbitrary control of corporations to-
| gether with an assurance of their Job dur
| ing good behavior Certainly the railroad
boys would be away ahead of the present
| SYSTEM where they get a fine, large cut
| now and again at the sweet will of a rail-
| road king. Thirdly, imagine how much
| more convenient it would be for the travel
| ing public and freight shippers if all trains
| made connection and all freight cars could
| be switched off onto other tracks: whereas
they have to be unloaded at the present
| time. or sent long ways around. Then
| think of the differences between govern
| ment union depot in each and every town
| and a number of corporation depots, trans
| fer charges added.
| And there are enough good logical reasons
| why the government should own and con-
troll the railroads to make large-sized
| book. And one would naturally suppose that
| any sane-minded man, that was not direct
| ly interested in any railroad, would be in
| favor of government ownership. But
| strange as it may seem, there are men
| who are not in favor of it,
| Now, while I think about it, in conclusion
| l want to tell you little story that will
| in measure describe what sort of hair
pins these mantle-pieces for plutocracy are.
| l was out on Main street one day last week
| and ran across some of my farm neghbors
and friends; and as the weather pretty
| dry and the prospects for good crop
| looking quite blue, 1 thought it would be
| well enough to touch them up on politics
| a little. So the silver question was
| preached, and we had no trouble whatever
| to agree on that subject in fact they all
| agreed that we ought to have a little more
| money by rights in the country. That ques-
| ton having been disposed of satisfactorily
| the railroad question came up, and just
| the very thoughts of government control
| of railroads came near paralyzing one par
| ticular gent in the crowd; it a hot
| day and he had his coat Off and he turned
around and tapped about and seemed to be
| in a perfect frenzy of passion. But the
| frenzy passed off. The whole thing was
| that in turning around he exposed a fine
| large reinforcement on the seat of his
| pants, which. being devised of so many
| kinds and colors of material, that it some
| what resembled the map of North Dakota
| laid off into counties, save that portion of
| the state known the bad Lands
| where the government survey has not been
| made yet. There a newspaper man
| standing by. l presume he was looking for
| locals. He did not say much, but his eyes
were sticking out like a toad's in a hail
| storm W. H. JONES'
Glendale, N. D.
FROM DODGE COUNTY.