The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-10-19
APPS. what will the railroads do with

1
us?
Are there still larger combinations
and larger trusts which shall extend
from ocean to ocean and from the great
lakes to the gulf?
AS railroads increase in capital and
power and have still larger armies of
laborers in their employ and enlarge
still more the already vast power Of the
few men who manage them, will they
become menace to our people, build
ing up trusts, debating to state legis-
latures, influencing courts; and, in fact,
becoming "a power behind the throne
greater than the throne itself?"
Will very few men in this country
have a power and exercise sway equal
or even larger than that existing in the
days Of slavery or under the feudal sys-
tenn?
To meet all these ove.-awlng in
fuences ought we to give greater power
to states and congress than they now
possess, to control and regulate rail-
roads and all transportation companies.
or is municipal and governmental own
ership of all transportation companies
the better remedy?
But l leave these questions for the
club to determine, and I close with a
single sentence:
Despite all the difficult problems and
some evils, which we must admit have
grown out Of railroad and transporta-
t1on operations, we must, nevertheless,
remember that railroads and transport
alton companies have been and still are
among the greatest blessings and civili-
zers of this wonderful age They have
given cheaper transportation than exists
In any other country in the world:
through improved methods like the
Bessemer steel process, and modern in
genuity aided by modern capital, they
have made it possible for more human
beings to live in comfort than ever be-
fore In the worlds history; they have
taken away the terrors and inhumanity
OF the Malthusian theory; they have
furnished speedy and luxurious connec-
tion between remote points; developed
agriculture, mining, manufacturing and
commerce; destroyed provincialsms and
made Americans cosmopolitan and a
nation OF Travellers; cheapened the
necessaries of life; made famine i'm
possible; settled the Indian question;
created employment for thousands:
marketed products which were not
worth the former cost of transporta-
ton; lessened the cost of living every-
where; transformed uninhabited wilder
nesses into rich and intelligent COM
munities; made possible the growth of
cities larger than the world ever before
saw, and perhaps larger than we even
now dream of, into which they easily
pour all the necessities and luxuries of
life; found lands worth nothing and
made them worth millions, and brought
about an interchange of the necessaries
OF life as well as the luxuries, the liter
ature. arts. sciences and thoughts of
which century ago kings and queens
did not possess, and given a stimulus
to agriculture and manufacture where
by millions of people have been and are
enabled to live in comfort where hun
dreds barely lived in misery and pov-
erty. Even more, they have settled and
developed this new world, which the
Almighty seems to have purposely re-
served during all the centuries for the
final roundup" of humanity, with peo-
pie from all over the globe and brought
together from every cline the elements
OF the future great American race which
will rightly settle the questions and
problems which now perplex the Mon
day club.