People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1896-10-09
on a bayonet bring their employees to
subsection. (Applause.)

Uncle Sam Running Railroads 1.
If the government is called upon to
run the roads and as we see now when
the corporations have them, they nave
to let the government run them part OF
the time, aud if they will let the gov
ernment take the railroads and run
them all the time it will keep them out
of trouble. Great applause') Ihey
say that we cannot pay for the rail-
roads. Don't you know that the cor
porations make you pay for the rail-
roads as the statistics show every
twenty years and what would they
want OF them if they could not make
you pay for them. If they were not
profitable property would they wan1
them? Don't you know that the returns
show that in freight rates and passen-
ger rates you pay for them every TWEEN
ty years? You pay for them every
twenty years Of your life. In twenty
years you have paid every dollar they
are worth, you have done that IN pay
ing freight and passenger rates, and
now you don't own single handcar'
(Applause.) The Peoples party stands
up for this proposition, that the next
time you pay for them that the prop
erty is yours when you have honestly
paid the last dollar on the price. Cap
plause.) What has been done in Europe
can be done here and nearly every
civilized country in Europe and the
East own their own public highways,
while in this country one, our com
merce is carried and controlled by prl-
vate owners of public highways. L do
not mean to rob any man or corpora
tions of its property, but l mean
they will not sell, to take this property
as they take yours under the law OF
eminent domain. Offer nthem fair
price first and pay them honestly the
price agreed upon or settled in proper
way, and then the government will
own its railways. applause
Private Ownership of Rivers.
Toere is not single man here that
would be in favor of allowing any pri
vate corporation to own the Mississippi
| or the Ohio river or the Missouri river,
And why not? Every reason that APP
plies to that if an objection to the pri-
vate ownership of the rivers of our
land will apply with equal force opri-
vate ownership of the railways. You
would all tell me that you don't want
the rivers to be in the hands Of private
persons or corporations but you want
| them open and free as channels of com
merce. And why not have our railroads
owned by the government and con-
trolled for the interest of all people.
You would tell me that if private cor
porations owned the rivers in time of
peace they might Cypress the people
who wanted to use them and in time of
war they might obstruct the govern
ment in it's use of them. The same
argument applies to the railroads. They
as a matter of fact. Cypress the people
in time of peace and might be opposed
to the government in time of war. And
therefore we are in. favor OF giving the
the government abQolute control of all
the pu61ic hfgl%H..afs5Is OF 0olG aaefce.
Put them on the same system as the
post office system under the strict civil
service law Who ever heard of a strike
among postal clerks? Who ever heard
of riot among postal clerks? Who
ever heard of the United states army
being called out to Suppress the postal
clerks? Whoever heard of the postal
cIearks running system in favor of
one town or against the interests of
another town?
Railroad Monopoly.
Don't you know that it is profitable
for this government to run its railways
and render good service under a system.
They talk about competition. Every
road may compete at some great City
but how is it at every small city and
town along the line, At every village
along the line, every farm along the
line,-do you know that there the rail
road has an absolute monopoly, the
people cannot escape from its eXactions;
they mus, submit to its terms. And
while thereiis competition al competing
points still there is no competition for
the great mass ofpeople who live along
the line. This transportation system
cannot be restored to exact justice to
all men until the government will step
in with its strong arm and take these
roads and pay for them honestly and
administer them as part of the public
service, (Applause)
Our Financial System.
/ come now to the financial system,
operated like our postal system,
Great applause) am glad that the
financial system has been so ably dis
cussed that now even the editors
OF our daily papers show signs ofknow-
ing some thing about it. IA
voice mot the Call,') What
is that system? We have at this
time practically system which keeps
the larger part of our people in debt
and until the amount of money is in
creased they can never pay ont of debt.
You have the largest national debtyou
ever ha7. Estimated not in dollars
but in the stuff it takes to get the dol.
lars You must estimate it in labor
D IA