People's voice., 1899-09-14

again in excursion trains for S2 head.
And if the nation had been in possession
of the roads a sufficient length of time to
consolidate and systematic the railway
business, the cost would have been re-
drced to 81 for the round trip. Think Of
going from New York to San Francisco
and back again for a fve-dollar bill!
Does it sound too much like Arabian
Nights' Well; take this little fact and
digest it; the German State railway at
Berlin sells yearly tickets good for five
mile ride in and out of the city as many
times day as you please, and on any
train, for the sum of $3.50. This means
$3.50 miles for $3.50 if you live five miles
out and go in and out once each day; if
YOU go home to dinner, or 90 back to the
city after supper it means over 1000
miles for s. so; and # you do both it
means more than 10000 miles for less
than a fve-dollar bill; now it doesn't
look so much like Arabia, does it? And
what an incalculable benefit it would be
to this country to have cheap transporta-
ton, especially for workman and the
children in our schools! Communication
tickets at an average of ten miles for
cent, like the German yearly tickets,
would enable the poor of the city to live
in the fresh, wholesome atmosphere of
the country, would tend to depopulate
the slums, expand the city, and would 90
very far toward solving some of the most
difficult problems of municipal life. 1t
ought to be the aim of every statesman
to facilitate in every possible way the
movement of the people; the policy of
the railways is to narrow the margin of
freight, but to make heavy profits on
passenger traffc-a policy exactly the
opposite the true one.
Great as will be the benefits arising
| from the economies and low rates incl
dent to national ownership, there are
Others even greater. Justice demands
public ownership quite as emphatically
as economy. Let us follow the trail of
typical railway scheme. A few men,
who like to make money by rigging
press that will squeeze ii out of their
brothers. plan a new road. They issue
stock, and talk it up until they sell four
or five thousand dollars worth. Then
they make oath that twenty to 90 times
as much stock has been paid as is really
the case-the report of the United States
Pacific Railway Commission of 1888 shows
that the Central Pacific made affidavit
that S54,5S3,oOo of stock was paid in,
when only 500, 900 had been really paid;
and the Union Pacific swore that S36,S62,
600 was paid in, when only 500, 1000 had
been actually paid, etc. They do this to
make good appearance in asking for
government aid, which is the next step.
A little lobbying and promiscuous pres
ents of stock are generally sufficient with
congress, legislature and council. Town
meetings are easily coerced into gifts by
threats of running the road on another
route and leaving the town out in the
cold.
Over two hundred million acres of land
and hundreds of millions of money have
been obtained gratis by the railroads in
this way from nation, state and municipal
ity-gifts amounting in value to over
four billion of dollars, or nearly the act
ual wealth Of the whole railway system,
and every atom of them utterly void and
beyond the authority of congress, legis-
lature, or municipality, according to re-
peated decisionsof our ablest Judges and ,
the clearest principles of the law because
they were gifts of public property to pri,
vate parties.
If the original projectors still owned
the roads, the people would not need
to pay for them-their gifts and over
charges they have paid would more than
settle the bill, but unfortunately innocent
third persons have largely invested in
stocks and bonds.
Well our projectors next form a con-
suuction company (which they control)
make contract with the railroad COM
pany (the projectors for the building of
the road, at prices ranging from two to
FIVE times the actual cost of the work.
They put the money they have obtained i
from the stock sold and from public gifts Il
into their pockets as the construction =
company, mortgage the road for all it is {,
worth, and take the proceeds of the bonds
70 run the road and pay dividends on .
stock, the majority of which they hold s
out have never paid a cent for. They a
orm alliances with sh-ewd business men, u
yive them secret rebates on beef, oil, 7
wheat, dry goods, etc., so they can ruin
heir competitors, monopolize the mar n
,et, and make enormous profits, which n
hey share with their railroad allies. I
The railroad managers next give their !
ttentiOn to the coal mines. They give