The Globe-republican., 1900-08-16
Republican Party and the Rail-


. roads
It has always been part OF the stoc,S
IN trade of the populist party to abuse
the railroads and to charge that they
helped the republican party with con
tributions to the campaign fund
Every time a republican board of rail-
road assessors has had the subject be-
fore them, IT has increased the assess
ment of the railroad property There
upon the popuIisfs would set up a cry
that this increase was a punishment
Injected out TO the railroads because
they had in the campaign before re
fused TO contribute TO the republican
treasury When the next campaign
ulist organs, forgetting their state
nent Of few months before, would
again insist that the railroad coFpor-
ations were contributing large sums
of money for the republican cause
An illustration OF how this Is done
viii be found in the following special
dispatch, which appeared in the Kan
sas City Times. May 1899, just after
the republican board of assessors had
raised the railroad assessments
Special, Kansas city Times. Topeka
Kansas. May nth. IsS9--SeveraI railroads
paid the penalty to-day of refusing to
contribute TO the republican campaign
fund The missouri Pacific. which put up
nothing. had its assessment raised S2-s7--
80, ana the Santa re sShlcfa also STOOD
alooE suffered an increase OF Sz=lo-es0 ne
Frisco. Memphis Grand Island Pitts
burg Gulf and the Great Western
also suffered smaller increases but the
two roads just named must stand the
brunt of the total increase Of s594.1 s9 in
the railroad assessment announced to-day
by the State Board of EQUALIZATION
The first point to suggest itself in
considering this demo-POP statement
is that the railroads refused to CON
tribute to the republican campaign
fund 1t Is n notorious fact that they
had contributed TO the populist cam
paign fund, not because they loved
the pcpulists, but because they feared
them and knew the only way to get
them was to buy them. The evidence
taken by the populist investigation
committee, concerning railroad Iegis-
1ation in the Populist Legislature of
1897, showed that the railroad eomPa-
mics went into business of buying re-
formed statesmen large scale
While the prices varied-sOme secur-
ing as high as $1,000, others were on
the bargain counter as low as $3.50
the general proposition remained that
PopuIIst Legislators could be bought
and We're bought. The same rule APP
piled to the same men. when they
were IN charge of the campaign as d
state central committee
The corporations of Kansas have
never suffered much from the popu-
list party except what they lost by be-
icg held up and forced to contribute
cash for Legislative votes The popu-
trumphets that they proposed to
knock corporations silly but when the
test came the corporations either
quietly bought up the head trumpet
ers- the POpulist Legislators made
the law silly that the knocking
was done by the supreme court
The only party the corporations have
TO fear in Kansas Is the republican
party. and they have fear of 1t, ex-
cept for wrong practices or unfair
charges. The republican party gave
the state a practical railroad law,
which should have been strengthened
The populist party gave the state a
court of visitation, which has fraz-
zeled out like a cotton string
In the campaign just beginning the
Populists Will probably again renew
their worCiy attacks upon railroad cor
pOrations, and viii denounce the re
pubIicans as the friends of railroads,
but out of their own mouths the pop
uIists are themselves condemned for
they have said that the railroads re
fused to help the republicans. and
they have sworn that the railroads
contributed literally to the populists,
and they have shown by their works
that the populist party were not IN
grateful to the railroads The attempt
of the pOPulist party to pose or cham
pion party against railroads corpora
ton is Just as consistent as for the
democrats in congress to pretend to
be the friend of Mckinley, OF Agui-
naldo's followers to be American sol
dIers-
The railroad assessment under the
Stanley administration speaks for it
self And the people of Kansas remena-
Der the scandal over the railroad ques-
ton during Leedy-s special session