The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-11-13
WAKING UP.
THE GREAT RAILROAD BATTER.
What it Means, and What the Peo
pie Demand.

We have been fighting railroad COM
binations and rings for twenty-five
years. and could not get particle of
aid from the daily press of the twin
cities. But now big battle is on be-
tween the Jim-Hill and the anti-Jim-
Hill forces, over the possession of the
Northern Pacific railroad, and the
Minneapolis Times is tearing it's shirt
to pieces in it's agonies Of denuncia-
tion Of the Hill-party; and it has sent
out one of it's reportes, to go from
town to town, along the line of the n.
P. r. R., and get up wonderful inter
views with merchants and others as
to the horrors of railroad combina-
tions on rates. Here is sample:
Sank Center. Mimi, Oct. 8.-(Times
cial)-Bond-rid ridden for years. this
little city is the hopeless victim Of
circumstances. A Shipment of freight
from New York city is carried to Chi
cago for 10 cents hundred, from Chi
cago to St. Paul for 80 cents, and from
st. Paul to Sank Center, distance of
III miles, for 40 cents. The citizens
forged the chains that now bind them
hand and foot. After bonding them
selves and their posterity, to enjoy
the advantages of railroad cOmpeti-
ton, they are confronted with the
proposition to unite both railroads I'M
der one management, and in one
giant monopoly. At no place in the
whole state OF Minnesota is the as
pect so serious as here. The injustice
from which the people have suffered
hoe fn16 81
like any other torture. and has been
borne with great patience and for
bearance. Suffering from the ven
geance of James ]. Hill, they now see
him overriding state laws to further
prosecute them. The history is briefly
told.
Now one would really think from
reading this that Sank Center had en-
joyed free railroad competition and
cheap rates for many years, and that
it's Great Northern road connection
with the Twin-cities and Duluth had
been engaged in fierce and deadly
battle, all that time, with the North
ern Pacific connection, via Little
Falls, with the same points. But all
this is false. There has never been any
competition between these roads in
freights or fares. II there had been
of course the road that charged least
would have taken all the business.
No man would pay dollar more to 90
from Sank Center to Duluth or St.
Paul by one road than he would to go
by the other road. And this is the case
all over the United States. We show
ed last year in this paper that even
the price paid for wheat at neighbor-
ing towns was so adjusted that there
could be no competition of market
with market.
What then is all this hubbub about?
The Northern Pacific has issued
bonds and stock to the tune Of $4,000
or $4,000 mile, and the country
could not pay enough to cover the in
terest on this gigantic robbery; and
the company is therefore bankrupt.
Now nstead Of wiping out the corpo-
ration, as you do bankrupt farmer,
the courts are invoked to perpetuate
the crystallized villainy, by protecting
the waGered-stock owners against the
suffering people who live tributary to
the road, and make the stealings of
Bill King and the rest eternal. Hills
road is bonded and stocked for $28, 900
a mile; the Northern Pacific for $75,-
600 or $4,000 mile. II there was
competition Hill could put down rates
to one-third of what they are now and
still pay interest on his $28,0OO mile
nd hr1f ho n
this. He must keep up rates to fig
ure to enable the Northern Pacific to
pay interest on its $4,000 or $50, 900 a
mile.
And what the Minneapolis Times is
working for is to keep alive $50, 5000 or
100000 mile of baseless, bogus wa
tered stock on the N. p, at the ex-
pense Of the people; and so it suddenly
wakes up now to the conviction that
the people have been robbed! In
deed!
This is like the New York rowdy
who knocked down a poor Jew, and
when the Jew asked him what he did
that for, eplied:-''Y GU killed Christ"
"But," said the Jew, "that was 1900
years ago." Don't care" said the
tough, II only heard of it last night"
Where was the Times all these
years, when the Populists were fight
ing railroad extortions?
Hill is no better than the rest of
them, but he has the cheaper road.
and he is trying to have the n. P. re-
organized so as to wipe out a large
part of that bogus stock. He is not
doing this for the good of the people,
but because he sees that the people
cannot much longer carry such bur-
den as is now placed on their backs;
and he sees also that if the fraud is
persisted in it will finally wreck the
Great Northern as we'll as the North
ern Pacific. Jim HILLS interests now
lie parallel with the interests of the
people; but what assurance have we
that they will long continue to do SO?
Can the people permit their most
sacred rights,-and, chiefest among
these. the right to prosperity and hap
piness,-to hang upon the operations
of any one mans mind? And what is
the remedy? Government wnership.
Even Attorney General Child begins
to see this. He wound up his argu-
ment in the battle between the two
roads in these words:
cit will be Capitalization of power
which no other company will presume