, 1896-09-10
APPLY ILLUSTRATED,
A TARIFF ARGUMENT PLAINLY
AND POINTEDLY PRE-
SCENTED.
Mr.. Peabody Has a Dream Which Calls
Up the Entire Tariff Question and
Presents it in a Name Which Can
Be Easily Grasped and Understood
by Every Workingman.
Editor Republican.

Editor Republican.
| have had a dream; a dream so vivid
it seems as if ii was not all a dream. |
Everything around looked natural eX-
cept for an air of neglect and decay.
The men who were standing about had
a sad. seedy look and evidently were
old friends of mine. | knew they had
seen better days and | was puzzled to
account for their appearance. Sitting
down on the steps beside one of them
/ enquired the meaning of what | saw.
DO you see" said he, that smoke
down the line? You wait till hat train
pulls up here and it will a tale I'M
fold" | waited. To my amazement
ever before seen, stopped in front OF
me. There was the usual confusion,
passengers got off and got on again
and away she went. | could not speak.
l Nds tdhc all aDaCh. MY iTleLu, no.
ticing this. said: IF you are not in a
hurry | will explain all about this bust
ness. For years. up to 1892. we rail
way men made big money and enjoyed
good times. In fact we all bought
stock in the road and had a vote, and it
breaks me up 10Y every time | get to
thinking of them days. Well, some
men came along and began to talk
smooth to us about laying Tor still bet
ter times. They told us the English
were ready to run trains across the
country from ocean to ocean. They
explained that by this arrangement they
would obviate the necessity of build
ing across Canada, while we would
have the advantage of all their traffic
over our road; a traffic that would
make rich men of all of us in no time.
About half of us-and | was one OF
them-believed all they said. The 9TH
cr half would not listen to them. So
we had it back and forth. hot and
heavy, and finally we took a vote on
it. My side won and We gave to the
English company this right of way.
We'll sir. a fleet of big steamers
soon arrived at Montreal and landed a
complete equipment of engines, Eng
lish cars of all kinds and E%nglishmen
to run them. Before we got onto their
game they were running 40 end of
trains and getting most of the trade
from us, long and short hauls both.
They carried passengers and freight
at cut rates. They carried enough Eng
fish coal, carloads of it, to run their
trains across the whole country. They
carried extra crews along, in boarding
cars, to take turn and turn about.
They carried a repair car on every
train. In fact they don't have to pay
out any money except for fresh water,
and rent for a few roundhouses. All
the money they take in has to go to
England for circulation over there. We
must not have a cent of it.
That was one of their trains that
you saw just now. Yes, these British
ers take the traffic cheaper than we
can unless we work at their starvation
wages, and there is little work to get
even then. They have shut up about
all our shops. Il rolling stock is rust,
ing. most of it is; they lave taken the
bread out of our mouths; they say they
have got us just where they want us,
nd oil thn,, or1y 80 ~ g., 10 Iroo~ 49,,
bloody roadbed in good repair for
them. This is the eason you see us
standing around without work and
without prospect of work. And don't
you be thinking its only us railway
men that are up a tree, because, unless
its some that are getting salaries. all
the men in Laramie are as high up a
tree as we are.
How long are we going to stand this
humbug? Why don't we cancel their
lease? We can't do a thing till their
four years are up, and strange as it
may loo to you, lots and lots of us
can't or won't see a hole in a ladder
yet. Here's another election coming
on, the lease almost run out, and I'll be
hanged if it don't look as If we shall
vote to give the B%ritishers another
four years lease of this road.
"Oh, no, I amt joshing YOU; it's no
joshing matter. You just ought to heaf
these fellows talk: you ought to read
the Boomerang. a paper that takes
their side. They all say that English
trains and low freight and passenger
rates. amt got anything to do with
these hard times, nor they amt any
issue in this new contract; that it's
what they call demonstration of sill
yer that is making all this rumpus and
misery. These English trains, they
say. are the best thing that happened
for the country and will be the making
of US. only that we can't see 1t. l
thought just that same way. four years
ago. You bet l don't now, and l have
made up my mind for me and my fami-
ly to rough it for the next four years
on the English scale Of wages. I've
just got to come to it or starve. Work
won't be easy to get even at that rate.
In fact another lease for four years
will bust us up altogether.
Another yarn these men used to
tell us, that we would get things cheap
er when the English trains go to bring.
iru In Tho n{co cIofhon oud thfu0a tina