Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1899-10-20

| teacher against whom no man can
stands driving many conservative,
easy-going, Observation-Disclosures peo-
pie into the ranks of the advocates OF
government ownership Of railroads. 1t
is quite the fashion now to lay the
formation of trusts to the operation CT
the protective tariff. In some cases
this may be a factor, but three OF the
most gigantic, relentless and corrupt
ing trusts in the country are entirely
Independent of the tariff. They are
the sugar trust, Standard OIL company
and the beef combine. The history OF
these combinations reveal the true
cause Of the growth Of trusts, and that
is railroad discrimination in rates.
Putting every article on the free list
will be useless as long as the railroads
are permitted to make lower rate on
trust goods from the seaports to the
interior than would be granted to the
shippers of imported articles.
Antitrust legislation can be enacted
by every congress and legislature for
the next hundred years, and as long
as one company or individual can ship
his goods cheaper than any one else
Just so long will they have an advan-
tage in the sale of their line of goods.
That railroads do so discriminate none
can deny. 1t is matter of public rec
ord. The recent testimony of L. M.
Lockwood, Pennsylvania oil produc-
er. before the industrial commission,
reveals the situation in its horrible
rottenness. He quoted A. ]. Cassatt,
the new president of the Pennsylvania
railroad, as testifying before the inter-
state railway commission to the effect
that, while the open rate to the public
was $3.50 per barrel, the rate to the
Standard company was 80 cents.
Further investigation, said Mr.. Lock-
wood, had developed the fact that the
railroad companies actually received
only 35 cents. This condition Of af-
fairs had resulted for time, according
to the witness, in giving the Standard
company a profit of 400 per cent, while
the independent refineries were being
rapidly driven into bankruptcy.
He said that men who had carefully
analysed the testimony taken before
the Hepburn committee estimated that
in 1856 months time the five trunk lines
of Pennsylvania had paid the Standard
compt ~ $11,O00,000 in rebates. The
railroad companies had, he said, COM
pletely ignored the order Of the indus
trial state commission to stop their
discrimination in favor Of the Stand
ard company, resorting to the system
of false billing.
Speaking of the remedy for the evil,
Mr.. Lockwood said it was in public
ownership of the railroads and 1t was
not to be found in the courts-the
courts were too slow and expensive.
1.-THE railroads and the oil company
can razoo a man up and down in the
courts for ten years." he said, until
he is ruined financially, and then go on
with their work, leaving their victims
stranded. AS reward, the combines
elevate their instruments to higher
places politically. Thus it is that the
thought of the common people is grad
ually becoming fixed to the effect that
the great railway combines are grad
ually packing the supreme courts with
men in sympathy with their monopo-
listic tendencies and who will do their
bidding. Thus the interstate COM
merce law Is rendered ineffective"
The only safe plan, said Mr.. Lock-
wood, was to take the railroads out Of
the hands of the corporations and place
them under the control of the govern
ment so that every man could go to
market as cheaply as every other RAN,
He considered all the railroads of the
country as practically one gigantic
trust, and asserted that they were in
control of our politics, contributing
millions to elect legislators, senators
and judges, and to punish those not
willing to do their bidding With alb
solute equality ovsy the roads. the in