Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-04-22
THE GREAT OCTOPUS.
HAS TENTACLES ON EVERY IN
DUSTRY OF CALIFORNIA.
Robbers That Make Ordinary Thieves
Look insignificant, and How They
Have Plundered Both the People and
the Government.

By Congressman Bowers, Of Call
fornia. The facts in relation to the
building and operation of the Pacific
railroad are plainly set forth in the re-
port of the congressional committee ap-
pointed in 1887 to investigate the mat
ter. This report is verified history, and
is revelation OF shameless misappro-
priation of money. OF dishonest accu-
mutations of vast fortunes, unparalleled
in the history OF the United States.
But the proper and only question for
reasonable men to consider Is, what Is
the best thing to do now; the best for
the whole people, not for very few rich
individuals? To arrive at Just con-
cluSion, we must take into considera-
tion the thirty years record of the per-
sons for whose benefit this refunding
proposition is made. Knowing their
methods Of doing business in the past,
we may fairly conclude that there will
be no material change in the future.
Speaking Of the Central Pacific, the
people of the United States loaned to
few men money enough in the form Of
bonds to build the road, then gave
them land enough to equip 1t; then
gave them another grant OF land equal
to the first; then authorized them TO
give a first mortgage on the road to
themselves for twenty-five millions
They then issued and sold the stock of
the road for many more millions, ap-
propriating every cent of the money to
their own use. The road was built and
| became at once one of the best paying
| Tr1fk
skillful was the work done by the law
yers Of these men, who formulated the
different enactmentS made in favor OF
the road, that the company was not
called upon to pay any interest upon
the bonds issued by the United States
until their maturity, which, was thirty
years (the government having paid, up
to this time, upward of fifty millions
for them). Therefore, they practically
had railroad given them, and an op-
portunity to divide among themselves,
during it's construction and immediate
ly after its completion, not less than
$100,000,000. obtained by the most
shameless methods ever practiced by
any corporation in the United States
They then seemed to become aware Of
the possibilities their position gave
them and came to the determination
that no other road should be built to
California. l heard one of these men
declare in the presence of two other
directors, in the Horton House, in San
Diego, Cal, about the year 1873: mo
railroad not owned or controlled by the
Central Pacific company shall be built
iTtn CT at Of x1ybi
live. They may come after We are dead,
but not before" That declaration is
absolutely true to-day of all of Cali
fornia north of Los Angeles.
So soon as these men became fully
aware of their opportunities they set
to work to secure and occupy what was
then, and is practically now, their en-
| pire-the state of California, with eight
hundred miles of seacoast. They pushed
the Southern Pacific from San Fran
cisco south through the great San
Joaquin valley, and the California &
| Oregon to the north to occupy the ap-
| proaches to San Francisco, the metro
| polls of the Pacific coast. They re-
| ceived from congress grants in aid Of
these roads also, and by the same
methods, contracting with themselves
to build the roads, they dishonesty OBJ
| tanned many more millions. Then,
| having secured this system of roads,
upon which the government had no
claims, these men proceeded to organize
themselves into the Southern Pacific
railroad company of Kentucky, under
the laws of that state; and thereupon
these men leased to themselves the
Central Pacific railroad for one hun
dred years. They then secured control
OF the Panama railroad through their
Pacific Mail steamship company, and
| precluded any practical competition,
even by sea.
That is the condition of the state OF
! California to-day. Every approach to
the metropolis OF the Pacific coast is
! held by the Southern Pacific OF Ken
lucky. The mere statement of facts
connected with the methods by which
this condition has been brought about
would seem almost beyond belief, We're
they not absolutely proved and appar-
ent. No railroad car enters or leaves
San Francisco that is not drawn by an
ing the passage of this refunding bill
No freight can be sent from San Fran
cisco via the Panama railroad except
upon such terms as the Southern Pacitic
of kentucky may dictate. Every busi-
ness man of that city is completely at
its mercy. What wonder, then, that we
see interviews from merchants and
business men of San Francisco favor
ing the passage OF refunding bill,
which interviews are published as paid
| advertisements in this city. may say,
in passing, that it is now shown that
many of these interviews are infamous
| forgeries. The persons who appear 10
have signed them declare they never
had any knowledge of them. Every
merchant who has signed one of these
! interviews would hail with delight a
deliverance from the bondage he is in
to the Southern Pacific Every farmer
in the state, with the exception of those
living south of Los Angeles, and those
living Immediately adjacent to the
lower San Joaquin and Sacramento
| rivers, is absolutely at the mercy of this
| concern.
San, Francisco has for years earnestly
struggled to get relief from the CALLING
bonds of this railroad monopoly, with
| ouk avoiI Pocouflv a nuuhar oP ifo