Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-05-30
PROLIFIC TRUST BREEDERS.
Ae Ii Not the Profits Railroads Make, But
the Trusts They Breed, That the
People Object to.

| That the question OF government
ownership of railroads is becoming a
hvlng issue is evidenced by the fact
that the leading journals of the coun-
try are beginning to devote consider
able space to its discussion. OF
course they presume upon the igno-
rance of their readers and advance
all sorts of ridiculous arguments In
antagonism to the demand, but in
spite of this much is gained when
they deign to discuss the question at
all.
That populist principles are begin
nlng to commend themselves to the
sober second thought of the business
| community may be opined from the
following excerpt from "Gath's"
weekly letter. Says he:
I sat down with a banking man lately
| to discuss the populist national conyen-
ton at Sioux Falls The financler said to
me:
Il have read that platform at Sioux
rails, and it seems to me to be coherent
ana Well stated. As to government owner
snip or railroads, that Is what exists in
Germany. Russia and France. Besides.
our railroads are rapidly concentrating
INTO one government that will require
the general government to come in some
time. In fact the present railroad sys-
tenn Is being prepared, insensibly, for
government supervision, and the rail-
| roads themselves will presently ioin the
populists in that request.
BUSINESS men are beginning to rec
oglze the dangerous tendencies of the
railroad consolidation now going on,
while the wrecking, receivership, re-
| organization and freezing-out process
is rapidly converting the small hold
ers of railroad securities into advo-
Gates OF government ownership.
Some of the pleas made by the jour.
nalistic apologists for corporate spoil
alton are so glaringly absurd and So
phistical as to cause one to blush for
the ignorant credulity of a-constitu-
ency that can believe such rot Thus,
the Chicago Times-Herald, comment
ing upon the Sioux Falls platform,
says:
1t might be asked: How is the gov
ernment to acquire all these railway
propertfeS? The answer is plain in the
nsht of the populist platform. Simply
print greenbacks or paper money and
coin silver dollars until enough money is
manufactured to buy the railroads. The
whole thing is very simple. Government
ownership of everything is not a difficult
problem for the populist mind. Once
started the government printing presses
need not stop until enough money has
been turned out to buy everything that
is now controlled by individual or cor
porate enterprise and ownership The
Populist plan does not contemplate con-
fscation. Not at all. 1t proposes to pay
as II goes and expects the regular dis
count for cash. -.
Ronlvinr fo <1,;e ,L.,,.sl
it may be said there would be no ne
cessity for printing or coming any ad-
diflonal money to pay for the railroads.
The people are now paying for rail-
road facilities about four per cent. on
railroad bonds, equal in amount to the
cost of the railroads and about two
per cent. on an equal sum represented
by railroad stock shares. That is to
say, they are paying about three per
cent. upon double the cost of the
railroads. All that would be neces-
sary. then, in order for the govern
ment to acquire the ownership of the
railroads would be to exchange Unit
ed States three per cent. bonds, dol
lar for dollar, for the outstanding
railroad securities. Or, to be more
exact, exchange four per cent. Unit
ed States bonds for outstanding
railroad bonds and two per cent.
bonds for stock shares. But it is like
ly that, on account of greater security
of United States bonds, the govern
ment could refund the railroads in
debtedness at three, or even two per
cent. Then the present holders of
railroad securities would have not
only the railroads but all the prop
erty in the United States behind
their securities, while the people
would save in interest sufficient
amount to form a sinking fund to
entirely pay for the railroads in so
years, income and expenses remaining
as now. The Times-Herald man
should do little thinking.
John J. Ingalls, has recently pub
lished an article in the New York
Journal in which he attempts to
show the fallacies and errors in the
theory of socialism. 1t largely con-
sists of the usual platitudes, all as
sertive that socialism takes away
every cause and incentive which
makes some individuals more capa-
BILE than Others" That is to say
that the struggle for existence and
for the means of subsistence are the
nob!est, best and strongest incen-
tives to individual effort and that If
every individual had a positive assur-
ance of comfortable living through
life, at the cost of three or four
hours daily toll there would no
longer be any inventions and i'm
provements, nor intellectual and ar
tistic triumphs, nor heroism, virtue or
self-sacrifice. But space will not adj
init of an extended criticism of Mr..
ingalls, nonsensical assertions, so in
sulting to the human race, or an ex-
posure of his fallacious and sophis-
tical arguments.
But the Kansas City Journal, no.
ticing Mr.. ingalls, article, says:
But there are practical questions con-
nected with the cause of socialism of
more interest than its organic errors. At
Sioux Falls the populist convention de-
ciared for government ownership of rail-
roads. In Kansas the populist and DEM
ocratic conventions alike have declared
Tor the same thing. The argument used
In favor of this experiment in socialism
Is simple and STRAIGHTFORWARD. 1t Is held
tnat the private owners of these great
properties make enormous profits from
their operation. They are conceived to
10 rrrrI t.