The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-10-19
fNTERCOMMUNICATION.
TRAVEL AND
TRANSPORTATION
Paper Read Before Monday Club. of
Minneapolis, by Frank H. Carle-
ton, March 18, 1890.
Concluded from last week.

Concluded from last week.
Did time permit, one of the most in
teresting chapters of American COM
merce would be that relating to those
powerful trusts and combinations which
have been fostered by and very largely
grown out Of the determinations, re-
bates and secret rates given by the
transportation companies to certain
favored sets of men, oftentimes being
the railroad men themselves disguised
under another corporate name, a
wheel within Wheel" as, for in
stance, the operations carried on in
the coal regions Such chapter would
include history of such trusts as the
Standard Oil trust, the Cattle trust, the
Fuel trust the Cotton Seed OIL trust,
the Sugar trust, the Rubber trust and
other trusts and combinations which
readily occur to you, by which railroads
which have derived their powers and
franchises from the state, have secretly
built up the interests and industries of
one class upon the failures and bank
ruptcies of another class. We know
how completely these trusts and COM
binations paralyze competition. con-
trolling prices and the markets and
made kings and Croesuses out of Ar
mours and Rockefellers and Have
meyers. Take, for instance, one single
fact that leaked out of an investigation,
namely: that the Standard Oil company
received $10,000,000 in rebates in 18
months. Can we wonder that it's COM
petitors were ruined?
Nor have we time to dwell upon the
companion chapter relating to the vast
private fortunes which have been built
up by divers and sundry kinds of rail-
road manipulation, by the various meth
ods of wrecking railroads through the
operations of the stock market De-
preciating the stock and then buying
1t in, freezing out the smaller stock
holders, reOrganizations of different
sorts which are often only legalized
and refined methods of robbery, water
ing of stocks and bonds, combinations,
ETC., nor of the vast powers of railroads
through the free pass system, and the
subtitle influence which they often exert
upon legislatures and the hall of con-
gress, upon jurors and even upon the
bench itself. But we cannot forego
quoting a sentence from Mr.. Bryce, who
fully knows what European royalty is,
when, in his American Commonwealth,
he speaks thus Of railway magnates in
the United States. Mr.. Bryce says:
These railway kings are among the
greatest men; prehaps l may say the
greatest men in America. They have
wealth, else they could not hold the
position. They have fame, for everyone
has heard of their achievements, every
newspaper chronicles their movements.
They have power, more power-that is
more opportunity for making their per-
sonal will prevail-than perhaps any
one in political life, except the president
and the speaker, who, after all, hold
theirs for only four years and two years,
while the railroad monarch may keep
his for life. When the master of one
Of the greatest Western lines travels
towards the Pacific on his palace car,
his journey is like royal progress.
Governors Of states and territories
bow before him; legislatures receive
him in solemn session, cities and towns
seek to propitiate him; for has he not
the means Of making or marring city
fortunes? Probably no career
draws to it, or enfolds and develops,
so much of the characteristic ability of
the nation; and 1 doubt whether any
congressional legislation will greatly
reduce the commanding positions which
these potentates hold. as the masters
Of enterprises whose wealth, Geographi-
cal extension and influence upon the
growth of the country and the fortunes
of individuals, find no parallel in the
old world" ss<sss
We cannot, dwell in this. paper upon
the economic and social problems grow |
ing out of these questionable transport
alton operations, Interesting as they
are, but we return to the results which |
grew out tNof the unrestricted building |
of railroads commencing with, say the |
year 1869. The building of so many |
new roads produced such a competition
among them for business that the strain |
was broken, and the effects were soon
seen in the many bankrupt roads which |
began to appear. Then it was that the |
rival managements, which before had
been SO bitterly competing with each |
other, even to the extent of refusing !
joint traffic, and which had denounced |
each other as cut throats, after swallow |
ing or wrecking as many of the rival !
roads as possible, devised a new remedy |
to overcome competition, ana that rem
edy was combination. Railroads which |
SO recently had been rivals and foes,
suddenly became friends. The locali- |
ties and individuals which had been
benefited by the former fierce competi-
tion between different railroads were
loud n their protests at the new