Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-19
LLMIrAr1oN OF PuBLIo cIRRlERs.

LIMITATION OF PUBLIC CARRIERS.
The anthracite coal strike has forcibly
impressed upon the American people
public carriers to their Legitimate func-
lions. The only legitimate business Of
a railroad is transportation, and to that
business all railroads should be re-
stricted by law. The great coal strike
in Pennsylvania might have been
averted had not the railroads owned
the coal mines in violation of the stat
utes Of Pennsylvania.
The experience with the arrogant coal
barons who operate the railroads as well
as the coal mines I'm the anthracite coal
regions of Pennsylvania, is only a repe-
titiOn Of the experience of the people
Of Wyoming with the Credit Mobilier
management Of the Union Pacific years
ago. The charter of the Union Pacific
restricts that company to the mining
Of coal for its own use, bu the pro-
moters of the Pacific railroad. in de-
fiance Of charter limitations, did not
confine their operations in the Wyoming
and Utah coal region to their own re-
quirements, but deliberately ventured
into coal mining on a large scale and
monopolized the coal mining industry
in the region adjacent to their road
by a policy of determination in freight
rates and resort to downright force.
Like the robber barons Of the feudal
ages, they planted themselves on the
national highway and by a force of
armed ~mercenaries drove competing
mine owners and operatives out Of the
field, took possession Of their mines,
and froze them out through subservient
corporation judges. Having monopo-
lied the mines they levied arbitrary
tolls upon the Of coal from
one end Of the road to the other. The
appropriation Of the Wyoming coal
fields created a scandal of national d.
mansions and was continued on the
boards until the Union Pacific passed
out of the hands of receivers into the
possession of the present owners.
Inc mdulDuldllOu VI lhC COdi ihuuoNty
is, however, not the only exercise of
1llegitimate functions on the part OF
public carriers. Years before the Penn
sylvania railroads absorbed the coal
mines their pernicious activity was felt
in ariou industrial fields, notably in
the building up of the Standard OIL
trust. which was able to destroy all
competition through silent partnerships
and secret compacts with the railroad
corporations. In the west, notably in
the great wheat and corn belt, the grain
elevator ~mOnOpolies were primarily the
Outgrowth of similar compacts and
partnerships. With the coal traffic and
the grain traffic in the hands of public
carriers the producers were placed at
their mercy, just as are the jobbers In
commercial distributing centers like
Omaha, making it possible for the man.
ayers of corporations to assume the
role of Divine Providence in making
and unmaking towns and men by en-
riching the one and wrecking the other.
WDen the country dWdhOhS W 10
peril the railroads will be confined to
their proper functions as public high
ways, on which every man who pays
has the same privileges that are con-
coded to every other man who pays
Just as it is now in the postofice, which
cannot reward friends or punish enc
mics. The American people are now
fully aroused to existing conditions.
They will insist either upon the control
of public carriers and their Limitation
within their legitimate sphere as such
or their acquisition and operation under
government ownership.