The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-05-04

fit to raise money enC- S to pay what
ever salaries they see proper to allow
themselves, and whatever expenditures
they care to make and interest on three
or four times the stock and bonds the
property really COST Yet nothing is
farther from the law.
Railroad, telegraph, telephone and ex-
press companies are quasi public cor
porations, the charges are in the nature
OF public taxation, and the public have
the right to look into the nature Of
their expenditures and to fix the rates
at reasonable net profit above econom-
lcal and necessary disbursements The
public right in this regard is fully
shown by the uniform and numerous
decisions Of the courts. With the en-
hanced value Of money and the CORES
ponding fall in the prices Of farm pro-
duce and of labor, THERE SHOULD
Be A CORRESPONDING FALL IN
PASSENGER AND FREIGHT RATES.
This would conduce to the public bene-
ut and convenience and would at the
same time rebound to the benefit Of the
corporations, which instead Of carrying
few cars half full of passengers or
freight, would find it to their benefit as
we'll as that Of the public, to reduce their
rates and carry two or three times the
number of cars with full loads. The
present charges are an embargo Of trav-
ell and traffic alike
There is no disposition among any
of our people to deal other than liberal
ly with these corporations. There is
no desire to fix rates unreasonably low.
But we know that when one great line
voluntarily reduced it's rates one-third
it nearly doubled it's receipts, and that
these lower rates were stopped by an
injunction illegally granted at the in
stance Of rival corporation Our peo-
pie know that the railroads were built
nearly entirely with our money, and
largely with money from the public
treasury. We know that by shrewd
manipulation the owners of the origl-
nal stock, and the controlling man
agement, is now chiefly dictated by nom
resident multi-millionaires, living in
London and New York, and that these
railroads, which in the eye of the law
t'were chartered and built for the public
benefit, the pecuniary profit of the own
ers being incidental only" are now run
at "the highest the traffic will bear,"
for the enrichment Of the non-residents
and with precious little regard to our
advantage. We know the enormous sal
aries paid it's higher officials, who are
also provided with sumptuous private
palace cars and staffs of servants, pri-
vate secretaries, lawyers and newspa-
pers at our expense. We know that all
Ing masses, from whom they are COL
lected by the station agents as surely
and more rigidly than the taxes are
collected by the sheriffs and collectors
for your state and federal governments.
And we know, too, that we have full
power, through our representatives, to
fix every charge made by every railroad
in tho state.
The supreme court of the United
States had decided in the cases I have
quoted to you that the public in fixing
rates have the right to know the
amount of the salaries of railroad Off.
cials and the nature Of their disburse-
ments, that it may be seen how high it
is necessary to fix rates. If the expend-
itures are extravagant, as for high sala-
ries, or illegal, as for lobby expenses or
running newspapers, those items may
be disregarded. The public have the
same right to be informed as to all these
matters as in regard to the salaries and
expenses of it's state government, for it
pays them both equally. 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 in
terest to the public who pay every ex-
Luty uEdhc.
In coming to these conclusions, you
will see that I have advanced no idea
that is not based upon the reiterated de-
cisions of the highest courts in the
land. In saying these things have no
desire, nor has anyone, to excite any
prejudice against any corporation, ex-
cept, that opposition which should al
ways be aroused in the breasts of free
men by seeing their fellows illegally op-
pressed, and their meager subsistence
taken from them to support the luxury
ard idleness, and too often the vices of
others. We should be men who know
their rights, and knowing, dare main
tain them"
SENSIBLE THOUGHT.
There is a growing feeling among the
members of the PODulist Dartv that we