Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1897-10-14

the Mississippi river and its tributar-
les. More important because more eX-
tensive; more important because these
steel-paved roads ramify the entire
country where the people live; and they
bring to every door the conveniences,
necessities and comforts of the daily
life of the people; and because they
have made and still make possible the
settlement and culture of the more
salubrious regions, and the most fer
tile soils of the continent. And at the
present time, the very existence of
great cities, the habitation and cultiva-
ton of vast regions, the continuance
of the commerce of the entire country,
and the liberties of the people depend
upon the just and proper management
of the railroad highways of the United
States.
Now, in view of these undoubted
facts is it not strange that the govern
ment and people of this country should
have made so little effort to hold and
control the great steel-paved thor
oughfares of the United States? Is it
not strange that we should have suf-
fered them to be bonded and stocked
up to twice or thrice their cost and
equipment, with fict itious paper, End
then allow the holders of these frauds
and forgeries to control the commerce
of the country, taking at will all our
great industries, all the traffic will
bear?"
Messrs editors, the transcendent inn
portance of this paramount subject
has elected my intensest interest in
the recent discussions in your collmns
Then the fact that President Ripley of
the Santa Fe railroad is a party in che
discussion surprises and pleases me
True, he says he did not desire to be-
come a party in the discussion. Yet
voluntarily or otherwise, he stepped
in. and has been a most useful party
in the case. ~ Both sides have been
heard. (2) We need him for the in
formation he has given us by admis.
sions and otherwise. For be it known
that the great railway corporations
make no satisfactory public reports for
the use of the people. They collect
and disburse over one billion dollars
Isl, 200, 900, OOO) per annum of money
drawn from the people but they do not
report TO the people; as to how, where,
or of whom they get it, nor what they
do with the money The government
of the United States collects and dis
burses about half billion dollars per
annum of the peoples money, and the
annual reports of the collections and
disbursements of the government, in
well bound volumes, load the shelves
Of our libraries, sent out to the people
at public expense. The inquiring citi-
zen can take up these reports and
learn from whence came every dollar
of taxes collected, and to whom the
disbursements were made and for what
purpose. The railroad kings make no
such detailed public reports. They
are, most assuredly, KINGS with all
that that dangerous word implies
They hold their Offices and preroga-
tives entirely above the will and power
of the people to reach them. or even to
learn why and for what the people are
taxed. 1t is, most truly, q case of
taxation without represeptstion.
One can take up a government "B!rc
Book" or puOlir Register aua learn
the name aud salary of every officer
aud subordinate clerk in the public
service. There are no such reports in