The Advocate and news., 1898-08-17


Kinley Is a bad man, but he is weak.
He is handicapped by the men who paid
of his debts ten years ago, and tOler-
ates them because Of that fact. That's
all | have to say about the war. 1t was
my duty to patriOtically support 1t and
the people who managed 1t. Bad as
some Of them are, think more OF them
than any Spaniard that ever lived"
The Governor then paid high trib-
ute to Lincoln and Stanton. He then
turned his attention to State affairs,
saying: II am here in order that you
may see and hear me and judge for
yourselves what kind Of a man am.
AS principle Of government hold that
every citizen should be privileged to do
anything that is not prohibited by law,
and that corporation should not be
privileged to do anything that 1t is not
authorized to do by the law In other
words, a corporation Is created by char
ter and should be confined in It's opera
tlons to the letter of that charter. /
have tried to hold corporations to that
line, and will continue to do it If re-
elected"
Speaking about criticisms upon his
administration for having committed al
legged violations of the constitution in
his fight against the corporations, he
said: ITO be frank with you, in the
hurry Of official life l do not always
know whether my actions are constitu-
tiOnal or not; but know when they are
right, and believing them to be right
l assume them to be constitutional We
have only asked the corporations to deal
fairly with the people, and IL that Is not
constitutional 1t ought to be constitu-
tional. l know | will demand fair play
for the people so long as l am in office,
and If the corporations think 1t Is not
constitutional they can prove 1t to me
by taking the matter into the courts for
a decision and then showing it to me.
But they won't do it. You could not
drag corporation into the State courts
for the two years passed They have
patronized the federal courts, and by
the way, these federal courts have de-
cided with us in the stock yards and in
surance cases.
1--WE have made laws to govern these
corporations and we find no complaint
against them coming from the people.
They indorse, think, the STATE banking
law, the stock yards law, the school
book law and the many other laws
passed by our people for all the people"
The Governor then explained his at
titude toward railroad legislation, and
gave the reason for his veto of the rail-
road bill during the winter of 1897.
II am in favor" he said, "of passing
a law making the rates now in effect the
legal maximum rates. and prevent it
from being lowered In favor of any man
to the prejudice of another. The Santa
Fe company, in an investigation, it was
proved, paid out S7,6O0,0OO in rebates to
favOrites
The Governor advanced the theory
that inasmuch as the courts have de-
clared that railroad company shall be
allowed to charge rates to cover operat-
ing expenses and a certain percentage
on the capital invested that the people
had right to say that the money they
pay the companies for this purpose shall
not be diverted to any other purpose.
He holds that this being the case the
people have an interest in every rail-
road, and that every mortgage put on
road, the interest on which the peo-
pie are compelled to pay in rates, Is a
mortgage on every piece Of producing
land, or producing property of any kind,
adjacent to 1t. He showed the people of
Valley Falls that when one of the roads
running through that town was ap-
praised at 100000 for sale an appIica-
tion was made for a reduction, and no
sooner had the road been sold for $780,
600 than q mortgage Of $3,500,000 was
put upon it. Thus q fictitious value of
81, 300, 900 was added, and the people, by
excessive freight rates, were compelled
to pay interest on that sum. He recited
many instances Of a similar character,
especially that of the Union Pacific,
which was Immediately mortgaged for
$13, 600, 900 more than the sum paid for
II. He believed in a railroad law that
would provide that no mortgage could
! he recorded until II was shown fo the