Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-09-14
management. Our entire railway

management. Our entire railwa,
mileage with all its accompanying
properties is not worth over five bill
lions Of dollars. The entire system
with all its belongings can be dupli
Gated for this sum. Natural justic,
would require that the tolls and fare.
be so adjusted as to make this five bill
lions fairly remunerative investment
Call US "agitators," ''demagogues,'
radicals" anarchists" and all Other
odious names, but not one of us viii
be found who will object to assess
ments upon SO equitable basis. But
we know that we are assessed upon ar
altogether different basis. We are by
law compelled to pay such fares anc
tolls as to make ten instead of five bill
ions of dollars, profitable investment
Five billions of this is water, it is fic
titieus, counterfeit capital. We know
we are by law compelled to pay such
an excess over just rates as enables
railway companies to pay enormous
salaries to their officers, reaching in
many cases the stupendous figures OF
IS, so and even rs thousand dollars pei
annum. We also know that railway
companies retain in their service al.
most every bright lawyer in the whole
country, to some of whom whole for
tunes accrue in single fees. We know
these outrageous abuses exist, and we
further know there is no disposition
to correct them, but on the contrary,
a fixed determination to have these
abuses upheld and perpetuated
through the power of the law, fortified
and sanctified by judicial decisions.
We know that continuation of these
abuses is equivalent to plain robbery,
bold confscation, a denial Of justice, a
subversion of natural rights, and car
rying with it the destruction of liber-
ty. Knowing these things, our self re-
spect, our manhood, a decent regard
for the welfare of our families, COM
pels us to complain, to protest, and
with the power of the ballot, to resist.
1t is no answer to our complaint to
savagely accuse us of making war on
the rich. We but ask that the rich cease
making war on the poor. 1t is not
against the privileges or opportunity
of corporations doing any amount Of
honest business, that we protest. It is
against the abuses they practice that
we raise our voices. In not single in
stance do we intend to cripple their
power to earn fair dividend on hon
est investment. We only cry out
against the systematic extortion that
is practiced to enable them to put
counterfeit capital upon an equality
with honest capital, and to permit the
payment of salaries to officials, and
fees to lawyers that are outrageously
sinful.
If, under just system and economi-
cal management, railway company
can haul car load of stock for me
from Webster to Chicago "a distance
of less than 300 miles) for IS OF 80 dol
lars, common justice requires that I
pay that amount, neither party being
wronged. But, if under an essentially
vicious system, and VIGOROUSLY ex-
travagant management, I am forced to
pay $50, as has been the case for many
years, and is the case now, then have
not only the right, but it becomes my
duty to complain and protest.
THE sO-CALLED PROTECTIVE SYS-
TEN.
If, as farmers, our natural environ
ment is such that the so-called protec-
tive system can not possibly benefit
us; il natural conditions exclude us
from the benefits it dispenses to 9th
ers, then with no intent of being hos
tile To capital, we have right to pro-
test against the system. If, as is cas-
lily demonstrable, we are compelled to
sell the result of our labor in free
trade market, we have the God-given
right to ask that we be accorded the
privilege Of investing the proceeds OF
this labor in the same market. To
ask the right to buy where we are
compelled to sell, is neither demagog-
ism, radicalism, anarchy, nor bad f.
nanciering. But this right, sacred as
it is, the manufacturing corporations
have, at least for time, destroyed.
During the life of the Dingley bill, the
farmers of Iowa and of the whole
Mississippi valley who raise grain
and produce meat, will be compelled
to sell in free trade market and buy
in protected market. In other words
they will be compelled to submit (at
least for some years. to partial con-
fiscation of their earnings. And this
is not so much for the sake of public
revenue. as for the purpose of reim-
bursting hundred fold and more, the
shrewd corporations who united in the
patriotic work Of raising fund of 16
millions of dollars, with which Mark
Hanna prosecuted a presidential cam
paign, that did more to degenerate
the manhood of the voter, deaden the
conscience of the people, and generate
distrust in the efficacy Of free insti-
ticed in all the campaigns combined
since the government was founded.
AS under the combined provisions of
the prohibition and mulct laws of
Iowa, the privilege can be bought
from the state to commit crime
against society, so the manufacturing
corporations, bought with cold cash
from une republican parry, one PfiVl-
lege to rob and plumber their helpless
victims.
DINGLEY BILL NOT ASKED FOR.
We are told that the people voted for
protection last fall, and that the Ding
ley bill is but the natural response to
this vote. This is not true. The gold
standard democrats decided the presi-
Dental election. Their vote elected
Mckinley. Not one of these asked for
the Dingley iniquity. Every one OF