The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-08-16
Though the Purchasing Power of
Money Has Been Doubled Freight
and Passenger Rates Have
Not Been Reduced.

under which the country now uIdSS
out lingering life. The friends OF free
coinage do not consider 1t universal
remedy. but an Indispensable one. The
single gold standard is the rock which
has been placed against the door
where our hopes have been buried, ana
until IL is rolled away there can be
no resurrection of our prosperity
Dives is urgently opposed to the re
rnoval of the stone, but certainly Lag
arls cannot come forth till it has been
taken away.
Among the many expressions visited
anon the masses by their present mas
Aars who have laden the people with
burdens grievous to be borne, but
which they will not touch with so much
as one of their little fingers, are the
freight rates and passenger fares,
which have not decreased with the
value of our products, but nave en-
HANGED with the enhancement IN value
of the gold dollar. the owners or Inc
great railway lines being among the
most active agents in procuring the
adoption of the gold standard, ana
they are among the largest contribu-
tors to the campaign fund to be used
against the restoration of silver to free
coinage. J. Pierpont Morgan, who was
conspicuous in procuring Mr.. Cleye-
land to issue the S262,000,000 of bonds,
and whose firm shared largely
in the $1S,O0O,000 of profits the syndl-
cate made by handling that issue is
the principal owner of the Southern
Railway Company's lines. When cot
ton was fifteen cents a pound (as 1T
still remains in Mexico), one pound OF
cotton would pay for five
miles of passenger fare on his rail-
roads: now, though he and his com
bination have increased the value or
money till cotton brings . TO cents
a pound. he has not reduced his fares
nor freights, and a pound of cotton
will only carry its producer two miles
instead of five, as formerly. Freights
remain as high as ever, and trucking
which should be very profitable bus
mess has been reduced to the same
level as other farming business, and IN
both alike all the profit is absorbed by
the TRANSPORTATION charges. is there
no protection for the people? Certain
~ there is. but it is in their own hands.
II cannot be found in the Railroad
Commissions.
THE TNTBR- STATE COMMISSION
has proved so utterly inetfi-
.cienat that two Of the great parties have
mands for its being made really etf-
cient. In fact. the Interstate Conn
mission has practically restricted itself
to protecting the corporations against
hurting each other, with no protection
to the people against exorbtant
rates, nor against secret rebates to
large or favored shippers, which were
the objects in view in creating the
Commission. Whenever that Commls-
sion has shown any disposition to
serve the object of its creation, it has
been promptly shaclSled by inJunc-
tions, or highly technical rulings by
the Federal judges, holding their posi-
tions for life, and a large proportion OF
them having secured their appoint
ments by the influence of the corpora
tions in whose behalf they
extend their powers by ey-
ery possible construction Be
sides. it is not certain that all the
appointments to the Interstate Com
mission itself have been made without
the influence, more or less active, OF
great railroad systems interested IN
the future action of such appointees.
STATE RAILROAD COMMISSIONS.
Afterithis result with the Interstate
Commission could the record of the
appointing? In some instances, as
western railroad president cynically
and openly declared, the railroads have
simply added the Railroad Commits
sions to their assets" In the ajorlty
of instances. however, the members OF
State Railroad Commissions have been
gentlemen of high character, but elect
ed by Legislatures instead of the peo-
pie Ga radical defect which the corpor-
ations carefully looked to-, they have
in rare instances had a majority OF pro
gressive members in close sympathy
with the people. They have generally
been intensely conservative, listening
to the asseverations of impending ruin,
literally made by railroad managers,
If rates were reduced, and not seeing
the patent ruin to the people if they
were not. AS rule, railroad commits
sions have limited themselves TO a
cheese-paring reduction Of "a or Is OF
a cent per mile on passenger fares, and
n similar microscopic reduction on
freight rates. and with ordering few
railroad stations built, where the cor
porations were not oyermuch IndIs-
posed to build them. Sometimes they
have somewhat raised the valuation Of
railroad property for taxation, over
which those railroads have raised
sham battle, knowing that the extra
taxation would really be paid by the
people, by quietly raising the freight
rates on certain articles When the
Standard Oil Company was assessed
for part OF the taxes it justly owed
Rockefeller said add Z a cent to the
price of oil till the people have paid our
taxes"
THE REMEDY.
The only way to reduce the burden
on the people is by a bona fide genuine
cut in passenger and freight rates
It may be said of more than one Rail-
road Commission that, at a respectful
distance, they initiate the ways of
Providence in one particular 1t has
been said: ''He takes step-and ages
roll away" All railroad commissions
when first appointed, have made a
show of reform by cutting off some in
fnitesimal amount from the railroad
charges. as Il or u of cent from pas