The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1900-03-30
Chronic Trouble and Its Cure.

are forced 10 make show of doing some
thing to shut them up. Before the
raids" however, the proprietors are
given tips and when the raid is made
nearly all the places of evil are closed and
everything is orderly, and no bad places
found open.
In the meantime asteady flow of popu-
lation from the country to the large towns
and cities goes steadily on and the con-
gested cities grow in misery, poverty, vice
and crime; in wealth, splendor and dis
sipatiou; in luxury and want. The gulf
steadily widens between wealth aud abject
poverty. Society grows weaker at the
bottom and more and more rotten and
corrupt at the top.
There is cause for this unnatural con-
dition Of society and that cause should be
not hard to find out. Why do people
leave the country for the city? Because
work grows scarce in the country as pop
ulation increases. 1t flows to the cities i'll
search of employment, and not finding
enough for all, the evil weeds of society
spring up and flourish in neglected, out
of the way spots, as their prototypes of
the vegetable kingdom find harboring
places in the neglected spots in the
farmers fields.
Large cities have become the centers of
industry, which has made them the
ceniers Of population. The great trades
and manufactures are set up in the large
cities and have left the country because
they find more conveniences in the city
for carrying on business. The railroads
have conferred in the city and freights are
lower. In lower freights is the spot where
the seat of the social disease is located.
Freight determinations have driven all
manufacturing business from the country
to the city. No business can live if the
railroad discriminates in freight rates
against it. No town or hamlet will i'm
prove il the railroad DEGREES it shall not.
But why should the railroads discriminate
against the country and in favor of the,
city? The millionaire lives in the city.
He owns large real estate in the city. He
also owns large blocks of railroad stock.
If business is drawn to the city by freight
discrimination, the people must follow.
AS population increases rents rise. As
every kind Of business multiplies rents
rise. AS the country losesjts population
and business it grows poorer, while the city
grows richer by absorbing the country's1
wealth, and rents still continue to rise
AS wealth increases and congests in the
hands of the few poverty increases and
congests in the slums, the tenement
houses, sweat shops and cellars. Every
dark, dismal nook and corner becomes
den of poverty diseased with vice. inn
morality, degradation, want, despair and
crime.
All this army of evils whose ranks are
steadily filling up and increasing, can be
traced to discriminating in freights by the
railroads. Were the railroads conducted
on the same system as the post Office,
there would be even and exact justice to
all. The small shop or factory in the
country would be placed on equal footing
with the large establishment in the city.
and the country small factory would soon
grow to be the larger establishment of the
two. Rents in the country being lower
would draw away from the high rented
locations in the great city. Population
would follow the work shops and factories
TO the country. Country air and country
life would make healthy people and the
moral disease of vice would begin to
mend as conditions improved. All local.
tiles would be treated alike by railroad
service, as they are by the mail service.
Living in the country would be cheaped.
Farmers would serve the populations OF
these distributions of labor and produc-
ton with vegetables and fruit fresh from
the farms without the middle men, who
pay the farmer less and charge the con-
sumner more for all they sell and buy.
Wealth and population would increase in
the country. the cougestei conditions
would improve and become more healthy
in the city and prosperity again visit the
farm. Poverty would forsake its dismal
dens in the city and the great rents come
down as population and business scattered
i'll the country.
All can readily understand that such
would be the changed conditions If the
railroads, like the post Office, treated all,
great and small. the rich and poor. alike.
Then why do not railroads introduce such
benifceut reforms They cannot under
present conditions. The several lines
compete for business. The history Of
railroads is history of constant battle.
Every strategic point is occupied by con-
tending parties. The railroad kings like
the crowned kings of the old world are all
for themselves.
Before the present deplorable state Of
society and business can be reformed, the |
government will have to take possession |
Of the railroads. There is no other pos
sible remedy. The men who perform the |
work in every branch of business would |
continue TO perform it. Only the 'kings"
would step down and out as the govern
ment stepped in. When the people per-
foru their whole duty at the polls and
government its duty to the people, con-
ditious will begin TO mend bat not till
then. The preacher may thunder from