The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1895-05-30

A gentleman who wishes his name
withheld, has shown US letter from
Senator Butler i'm which he answers
his objections to the government
ownership of railroads. 1t is a very
strong, convincing and unique argu-
ment. We publish the letter in full:
ELLIOTT, N. c., May 16, 1895.
M. - -, N. c.:
DEAR SIR: Yours of May 7th, ad-
dressed to me at Raleigh, has just
been forwarded to me here, where l
am recuperating in the country.
Several very strong books have
been published on the government
ownership of railroads. l have
several of them in my Office in Raj
ejgh,- and if were there l would
send you copy which would fully
answer all your questions aud meet
all Of your objections to that plank
in the Peoples Party platform.
Allow me to call your attention to
tho historical fact that Thomas JEFF
ferson and the other leading patriots,
who formed our Constitution, were
uncompromisingly opposed to all
kinds of monopolies. They consider
cd monopolies the greatest menace
to liberty and the :deadliest foe to
free institutions. They took the
position that any business that
affected all or great portion of the
people, under circumstances where
there could be no successful cOmpeti-
ton by men of small capital,
was = go0ernment function and should
bs owned and operated by the gov
ernm mt, at cost, for the benefit of
all:the people alike. In short, they
were opposed to all monopolies and
they were unalterably opposed to
allowing private individuals or cor
porations to have charge Of or con-
troll any business that was mono
poly per %. They foresaw chat pri
vate corporations would run such a
business, not for the benefit of the
people, but would take advantage Of
their monopoly to bleed the people
for tho benefit of the few. The postal
system of this country Is mono
poly per se. Therefore, on this reason
ing, they decided that the postal sys-
tenn should be owned and operated
by the government instead of by
private corporations. If there had
been railroads OF a telegraph at that
time our forefathers would have had
them run by the government just as
tho mails are, and for the same
reason. If the same parties who are
now running the railroads had charge
of the postal system, it would cost not
less than 10 cents and probably more
to send a letter when it can now be
sent for two cents under government
management. And besides, the peo-
pie could not get postofice and
mail line whore they needed it until
they convinced tho mail monopoly
that such an Office and such a postal
line would pay big money into the
pockets of the private corporation,
or until the people would vote by
townships and counties to tax them
I selves to raise thousands of dollars
to give to the mail monopoly, as the
people often have to do now to get a
railroad. Thus you see that had il
not been for the wisdom and patriot.
ism of our forefathers, we would
today be cursed by a tremsndou.
mail monopoly, which would be daily
absorbing the substance of the peo
pie on tho one hand and building uE
another class of naughty and oppres
sive millionaires on the other hanc
who would be styled postal kings
But this is not the worst side of sucl
q pernicious system Of private mono
poly, for when the people would be
gin to complain Of the bad, expen
, slve and discriminating management
of the mails, and call..upon their Stat
legislatures and Congress to regulate
the price of postage and eorrec
other abuses, these postal king
would at once give franking priv
legs "a free pass for their letters) t.
to every prominent politician VIII
would take it, just as tho telegraph
monopoly now does. Not only this
, but they would in the next campaig1
use . part of the millions (they ha'
wrung from the people) to defea
every honest candidate, and if = ma
jority should be elected against then
! they would then send hired hor
of lobbyists to our legislative hall
to defeat the will Of tho people. Th
people might by supreme effort &c
) some law passed for their protection
2 or they might even get post con
t mission established with full power t
9 regulate the price of postage, to fore
, the mail monopoly to establish ne
!. Offices and postal lines where nece'
sary, and to deliver the mail oftene
J or in a manner moro convenient
J, the people-but from some caus'
= whether from a want of courage {
j because the mail monopoly manage
s to mako friends with them, such
D commission would never rise to th
!. point Of correcting the abuses {
NJ forcing these corporations to do ju
i tice. But if they attempted to do s.
- lot of newspapers which would
e owned and run by the ma
y monopoly, would at once cor
1t mence q TRADE of abuse al
l. misrepresentation. They wou
" brand them as anarchists and NAL
n many good men believe that Il
t. commission were bad and dangero
= men Is this not exactly what Il
railroad corporations, telegra]
monopoly and express companies a
doingi If it was necessary for t
~ government to own and operate t
= postal system, to give the people
o5 good mail service at cost, to prote
~ their rights and to prevent the ere
y ton of lich mOnopOlies who VOL