The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-25

government, for it pays them both equal
! ly. The railroad managers need to learn
| that this is no impertinent curiosity. but
| that these are matters of legal right, and
| that their management and rates are of
vital interest to the public, who pay ey-
cry expenditure they make. Yet last
winter when resolution as to
| the salaraes of the higher rail-
road officials was introduced, some of
them affected to treat it as an inquiry in
| to private matters and secured the defeat
| OF the resolution in one house, though it
| passed the other. They knew the investi-
| CATION would be damning and they dared
not let the people know how much they
were taxed for railroad salaries and ilIe-
| gal expenses. We know from their own
showing that the pro rata part of the
salaries on one tolerably short railroad
| was double that paid by the entire State
| to the Governor and all the other execu-
tive officers of the State government and
| that the salaries and emoluments of more
| than one official of corporate operating
| Ill THIS State amount to more than n
, dozen times what the State paws its
Governor, and yet both are paid by the
1 pNopAN anu IOIilt OuJ OI IllelF earnings
before they can use Il dollar for them
selves.
In coming to these conclusions Won will
see that L have advanced no idea that is
not based upon the reiterated decisions of
the highest courts in the land. In saying
| these things l have no desire, nor has any
| one, to excite any prejudices against any
corporation, except that opposition
which should always be aroused i'm the
breasts of freemen by seeing their fellows
| Illegally oppressed and their meager sub
s.stence taken from them to support the
| luxury and idleness-and too often the
vices of others. We should be men who
Know their rights, and knowing dare
| maintain Them
know that in all history whenever any
| man has dared to tell the people their
| rights and to tell them that they are op-
| pressed and that they have the legal right
to stop the oppression, it makes him a
mark for every hired arrow and every
| mercenary bowman. But in the language
| of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms,
| Here | stand. God help me. | can do no
other When the immortal Vance was
| asked to say nothing about the abuses of
| the CONSUMPTION, that it would all be ar.
| ranged, he replied: God forbid that the
rights and the honor of North Carolina
| and the welfare of her people should de-
pend upon the grace and mercy Of con-
I! script bureau And so | say now in your
hearing that God forbid that the free
| dom Oh North Carolina from unjust ex.
actions and the welfare of her people
| should depend upon the grace and mercy
of Pierpont Morgan and such as he" We
are entitled to regulate these charges of
| common carriers among us, as an imme-
| mortal right of a free people in all times
| and we will accept no petty statement
as favor from them. The decisions |
have quoted conclusively show that the
public not only have a right to fix rates.
but in doing so they justly should allow
nothing for eXorbitant salaries, extrava-
CANT expenses, illegal disbursements, nor,
after discarding these, anything above
| the expenses of economical management
| land a moderate interest on the real value
of the property, for the law is just and
| does not tolerate dividends on watered
| stock and bonds.
| could easily show you that the sum IL
| legally Wrung from the people of North
| Carolina above the legal requirements
| above stated is annually more than the
| entire amount of taxes levied upon you
| for your State government If the men of
| 1916 are to be commemorated for all time
| fer their resistance to Il little Illegal tax
| upon tea, the men who shall hereafter
| step forward and shall succeed in rescu-
| ing North Carolina from the enormous
pillage eXacted from her and from which
| her people are staggering without al
ways knowing the reason. will deserve to
| be remembered far, far on, in summers
| that we shall not see.'
| All corporations in North Carolina
| have not been willing plundererS of her
/ people. Some would reduce rates if others
| would permit them. Two conventions of
| the manufacturers and other great in
| dustres in the middle and western part
| of the State, which have been unduly de-
/ pressed by determinations against us
| and unjunst rates, have met and have
| taken steps looking TO some relief. In the
| eastern part of the State the truckers at
/ tempted action last year, but received
slight attention. Let the body of our peo-
| pie consider the great sums they are I'M
| justly paying as illegal tribute money to
the stranger, and they will send to the
next Legislature Il body of men who will
right these wrongs. They can as Il right
Il
secure a relief for which they will be
laughed at when it is asked as a favor.
/ have shown you that they have full
power to secure their own re-
lief, and l could say these
things nowhere more appropri-
ately than to the more than four score
young men in the largest law school in
the State and in Il college maintained by
IA body of people whose love of civil lib
erty and human rights is surpassed by
| none.
When the wicked son of Omri resigned
as king over Israel he was troubled by
| the free speech of Elijah, and on meet
ing him he cried out with flashing eyes.
Art thou he that troubleth Israeli"
And the prophet of Carmel answered
him back, ut is not | that troubleth Is
| rael, but thou and thy house." And we
know that when the SuDrpmp teSt comn