The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1895-10-12
GOOD PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER

While the Democracy are looking
for presidential timber it will not be
wise If it overlook Robert E. Pattison,
ex-governor of Pennsylvania, DEM
ocrat with strength enough to have
carried that banner Republican state.
HIS minority report as member OF
the q. S. Pacific Railway Commission
of 1888, stamps him as a man OF the
people, not hampered by corporate in
fiuences, and capable of standing by
the right regardless of the influences
of vast aggregations OF capital. After
a careful examination into the methods
of the Union Pacific and Central Pa
cific roads, both of which were built
with the governments money. Mr..
Pattison says that four railroad mag
mates committed perjury, and he fear
lessly gives the dates, the amounts in
volved and the names of the persons.
He says that Oliver Ames on Sept.
q, 1870, swore that stock had been
subscribed and paid for in the Union
Pacific amounting to $36, 1852, 300 when
but $40O, $50 had been SO subscribed
and paid. That Leland Stanford,
September %, 1871, swore that S54,-
2S3, 100 worth of stock in the Central
Pacific had been subscribed and paid
for when but $3.50, 900 had been so SUBJ
scribed and paid, and so with the other
two. After showing the character of
the management Of the Union and
Central Pacific in its relation to The
governments rights, he makes that
following sweeping denunciation of
their treatment of the public:
"Mr. Huntington testified before the
commission that competition is kill
ing and that there ought to be only
one railroad for the whole country.
The aided companies combined with
others to tax the communities which
they served, and they forced the con-
suming classes in all sections of the
country to contribute to the payment
of interest and dividend upon the fic-
titious capital which they had created.
They increased the cost of living.
They laid proprietary claim to the
traffic OF large sections of the country.
They squandered millions of their
money to protect their territorial
claims, while expending other millions
in encroachments upon the territory
claimed by other companies. They
constituted themselves the arbiters of
trade. They attempted to dictate the
channels that trade should follow and |
fixed rates of transportation that were
They charged all that
the traffic would bear, and appropri-
ated share of the profits of every in
lustry by charging the greater part of
he difference between the actual cost
If production and the price of the arti-
lie in the market. They Disseminated
,etween individuals, between locali-
les and between articles. They
avored particular individuals and
They destroyed possible
ompetitors, and they built up partic-
lar localities to the injury of other
ocalities, until matters had reached
uch pass, that no man dared engage
q any business in which transporta-
ion largely entered without first solic-
ting and obtaining the permission of
railroad manager. They departed
rom their legitimate sphere as COM
non carriers and engaged in mining
rticles for transportation over their
wn lines. They exerted terrorism
yer merchants and over communities,
hus interfering with the lawful pur-
uits of the people. They participated
n election contests. By secret cuts
nd violent and rapid fluctuations in
ates they menaced business, para
yzed capital, and retarded investment
nd development"