The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-27


being s131 ,944 per mile for every mile of road,
and paid in 1895 per cent interest upon the
bonds and per cent upon the stock.
We recommend that the bill be amended as
provided in Exhibit a. hereto attached,
and that as so amended we recommend the
same be printed placed on general orders,
and that when so amended the bill do pass.
Mr.. Won Lehe moved to substitute
the minority for the majority report;
but Mr.. Jacobson, also friend of the
bill, suggested that it would be better
to have the bill placed on general or
ders with both reports when the meas
ure could be taken up and disposed Of
In the regular way upon it's merits.
The Jacobson motion was acted upon
first and was defeated by a vote of
35 to AZ. This forced the friends of the
bill to fight for it's life at once, and
they were not unprepared. Mr.. Doug
las was the first to take the floor. After
referring to the Importance of the
measure, he explained it's object as a
plan to relieve the people from the
burden Of an indirect taxation by
means of excessive freight charges. He
insisted that it was a conservative
measure, that the opposition had not
advanced a single proposition to i'm
prove it nor single argument to COM
bat the proposition upon which it was
based. His only object at that time,
he said, was to prevent killing the bill
before it could be heard upon it's mer-
it's.
Then he took up the provisions of
the bill touching the rates on coal,
upon which, as a matter of fact, he
made his principal argument
He insisted that no representative of
railroad company which had ap-
peared before the committee had at
tempted to deny that the tariff on coal
was abnOrmally high as compared with
the rates in any other state, and high
er even than the rate on stone. In sup
port Of this he quoted the rate on
stone from Duluth to Moorhead, and,
in this connection, he also quoted the
rates upon cattle from Montana to
the Twin Cities as $65 a car, while the
rate on coal to MOOrhead From Duluth
was from $50 to $50 a car, not one-half
the distance. He also claimed that the
rates on wheat were 20 to 80 per cent
/ higher than in any part of the United
States
Touching upon the action Of the op-
position to this bill, Mr.. Douglas said:
Never since l have been in the state
has there been so monstrous a lobby
| as is assembled here to crush this
bill" He followed this up with refer
ences to the 'dexterous and peculiar
arguments" which were resorted to by
the railroad lobby and cited two of the
arguments as against one another
He said the representative Of the Mil
Waukee road had said to the commit
tee the reduction would come out of
the stockholders, who were poor peo-
pie; on the other hand, the workmen
claimed that the reduction in freight
rates meant simply a reduction of
their wages. He said that both could
not be true, and he argued that, if
the reduction came to the stockhold-
ers, it would be but a return to a fair
return upon their investments. In sup
port of this he cited the case Of the
Eastern Minnesota road running from
st. Cloud to Duluth, 1914 miles, upon
which there was paid last year, accord
ing to the railroad commissioners re-
ports, per cent interest on it's S., 200,
600 bonds and 9 per cent upon its
$4,5OOC0O He admitted that this was
an extreme case, but, when it was re-
membered that the road was capital
lied for $131.940 per mile, when it
probably did not cost $40, 900 a mile. the
enormity Of the proposition could only
be appreciated.
Mr.. Douglas, after painting a picture
Of the farmer raising wheat at 40 cents
bushel and speaking Of the general
fall in prices, including the recent drop
in agricultural steel and steel rails of
80 per cent, appealed to the railroad
men, whose brotherhood he said he
hOnOred, to remember that there was
larger brotherhood, the brotherhood
OF man; the people Of the whole state
should be considered. They were bur-
dened beyond endurance and the rail-
roads must cease their extortion.
Mr.. Jacobson followed in a similar
speech. He said the house could not
afford to refuse to listen to the argu-
ments for the BILL as was proposed by
the majority Of the committee. He
did not argue for thepassage Of the bill
nor discuss it upon its merits, but he in
sisted upon fair consideration Then
he devoted his eloQuence to a denunci-
alton Of the men who are about the
legislature to secure the defeat Of the
bill He alluded to them as "the paid
lobby; one Of the most corrupt, one of
the most damnabIe Hobbies that has
ever been employed. He said the
Workmen were compelled by the rail-
road companies to come down to ST.
Paul and demonstrate against the pas
sage of the bill, against their better
judgement, and that three of four of
them had said to him they hoped the
bill would pass. Then he turned to
that other class who also had some
rights-the farmers who pay SIS, 0OO,-
600 annually in freights to support the
railroads Those were also to be heard.
Mr.. Smith, Of Duluth, spoke against
the bill and in favor of it's indefinite
postponement. He said the law would
be unconstitutional, if passed This
has been decided by the courts in the
famous milk case which went to the
supreme court of the United States
from Minnesota, and besides the peo-
pie had abundant remedy in the rail,
road commission of the state If the
bill was passed it would result in driv,
ing the railroads to protect themselves
under the Interstate commerce act by
moving their terminals from Minnesota
to Wisconsin, and 50 build up Super
Tor at the expense Of Duluth; it would
also result in the overthrow Of the
Minnesota grain grades, which were
the pride and glory of the state and
Northwest.
The house took q recess to 2 O'Clock
at which time the discussion was re-
sumed.
In the afternoon session the debate
upon the Douglas bill was continued.
The first speaker was Mr.. Dahl, Of
Hennepin, who for the most part con.
tented himself with reading from a.
work by ex-Gov. Larrabee upon the
power Of the state to enact railroad
legislation. In this work the great
Iowa governor takes issue with Mr.
Gchpoi1t ,y-sS,-> fha law of +Ia oaco. AVA