The herald., 1896-12-20
RAILROAD REFUNDING

RAILROAD REFUNDING
The funding bill is out again with Its
brass cheek, in fact, we may say with its
two brass cheeks. Here is summary OF
matters precedent to the situation of the
railroad debt:
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD co.
Built by money furnished by the
United States government.
Security, first mortgage on road.
Vast land grant thrown in as bonus,
lands as large as France and Italy.
Company built road by contract with a
construction company. Construction
men same men as directors of railroad.
Road stripped. Government robbed.
Directors of railroads multimilionaires.
Got rich by cheating company they
managed. Never paid the government.
Procured passage of act to make gov
ernment first mortgage a second lien.
Then put on new first mortgage.
Money so obtained gone. Validity of
this substitution and clear robbery Of
the people doubtful. Case brought in
supreme court to procure the courts
endorsement. Case charged to
have been made up by collu-
sion and with the special purpose
of defrauding the government by Pacific
roads. Not brought on sound grounds
Fraud would make present first mort
gage second lien to government
Land grant management dishonest by
down in their homes by railroad agents
at Mussel Slough when these settlers
had converted desert into garden
Have been allowed to abuse and rob
settlers or kill them while putting the
money from land sales in their pockets
and putting their fingers to their noses
in mockery of the people.
They never paid the government
They never paid the interest on the
bonds, though still taking public lands
by gift. They never paid the bonds.
Principal and interest are both coming
due. Neither principal nor interest has
been paid. They had plenty of money;
made, in fact, great surplus. They di-
vided this among themselves ana
built new transcontinental line out OF
these stealings. They charge what the
traffic will bear This means that we do
the work and take the risks of produc-
ton and trade and they take the profits.
Where the S. P. combine dominates COM
mercial stagnation exists. Central
counties of California have even de-
creased in country population under
this clnch. Now, in face OF all this, in
face of political bribery, stuffed juries,
packed courts, subsidies to steamship
and others to keep up excessive rates;
in spite of all this and much more, this
octopus outfit asks congress to refund
and extend the debt due the people.
They have robbed the road. diverted
it's traffic, stolen or cheated it out of
every terminal, enjoy fortunes Of mill
lions and tens of millions out of the
stealings and still ask for chance to do
it over again
Because they never paid a cent
though rich and able, they are to have
an extension to eighty-nine years at two
per cent. A common citizen cannot
monkey with a mortgage this way.
There appears to be one law for the
citizens and another for the railroad
The government pays three and one
half per cent. and even supposing that
these men of the S. P. would pay two
per cent, the people would be paying out
on their millions of debt one and a half
per cent more than it got. The railroad
never paid its debt in all these years.
These multi -millionaires need not pay
a debt. They are above debt paying
and above law. These men want an ex-
tension to refuse to pay any debt an
other ninety years. They never paid
they never will. What representative
of the people can consider this funding
steal? We can say no honest man will
1t is too plain, too barefaced, too brazen
a robbery. 1t is not only the money
though SO many millions and so great a
land grant wrong perpetrated are inl-
portant in these hard times, but it is
the moral question Here is combine
that has done more to diminish the con-
fldence of the people in their legislatures,
congress and courts in California than
all other things together.
They made the sand-lotters. They are
the source of discomfort. They are our
social storm center. Yet, although it is
they more than any one or anything that
add to the cost of government, the
danger of property and the degrada-
tion of men, it is they alone who would
not pay their taxes. 1t was they alone,
the Southern Pacific railroad gang, that
for years would not pay its taxes.
No one who had not an inside deal on
justice and cinch on legal process could
have defied the state and held back its
taxes it's share of the expense to pre-
serve property. It never paid these
taxes Never paid it's share Of the state
expenses. The railroad people fixed on