Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-30
BEyEvoLENr ASSIMILATION.

i DIVE FObANI AoGAMALd lIbNs
The air of b~enevolence with which
President Hill surrounds his great rail
road corporation in the process Of assim-
Hating their substance is well calculated
to bewitch the farmers, provided there is
to be no going behind the returns, no
looking under the surface. To a large con-
course of North Dakota farmers Mr..
Hill proclaimed the other day, no doubt
with sonorous oratory, that the supreme
object Of his road was to secure pros
perity for the northwest. He had ex-
patiated upon the glories Of agriculture
at great length and In a strain implying
that his own corporation was not in
tended to be selfshly g%ainful, but that
1t was an institution conceived solely In
benevolence and enthusiastically operated
for the behoof Of the farmers who are
absolutely dependent upon it for trans
portation.
Mr.. Hill, however, was significantly
silent upon the history Of the vast
monopoly he has built up and especially
upon the manipulations, operative and
financial, by which this has been ac-
complished. He was especially silent
upon those methods by which lately
competition throughout a dozen states
has been slaughtered by the merger of
the three mammoth systems Of the
Great Northern, the Northern Pacific
and the Burlington and at the anne time
their capitalization has been enormously
inflated. The northwestern farmers pay
the freight, Notwithstanding the benevo-
lence of Mr.. Hills intentions. 1t
might have married the unalloyed bliss
of the occasion If they bad inquired Of
Mr.. Hill how his paramount yearning
for their prosperity was to be gratiied
by doubling the fixed charges of the
Burlington as he has done. upon which
they must pay dividends. He voluu-
teered no explanation of any such in
congruous element in his ele~emosynary
plan.
But Mr.. Hill did incidentally confde
to his hearers the circumstance that as
the case stands his road does pay, In adj
dition to fixed charges, Z per cent on it's
stock capitalization. He might have
added that 1t pays profits of enormously
more than Z per cent, for the official re-
port of his company, just made public.
shows that during the past fiscal year
it made a special contribution Of $1,000
900 to the fund for permanent improve
ments, a special allowance Of 5 ,7OO,OOO
under the head of maintenance and that
the income account does not disclose
the full income of the various properties
owned and controlled, which Is far
greater, leaving a further sum of $780,
600. In short, after paying this Rggre-
gate sum of $1,000, 000, after in addition
paying operating expenses and Z per
cent dividend, there remained a surplus
OF 81, 116,9 800 for the last fiscal year
verify a big benevolent enterprise of
Mr., Hills, but for one thing, viz: that
the farmers pay the whole bill out of
their W pockets.
The b~enevolence of that portion of
Mr.. Hills scheme represented by the
2,416 miles of Burlington system In Ne
braska was during the same time ex-
emplifed by Beating the state out of
more than one-half of the taxes justly
due, thus compelling the great body of
the taxpayers to bear this burden. The
full facts show that Mr.. Hills corpora
ton is benevolent, indeed. but benevo-
lent chiefly to itself.