The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1905-02-08
WEDNESDAY, FEB. s, 1906.
THE RAILROAD POWER.

The influence exercised by railroa,
interests in many western states is tn
subject of review by a writer in tn
Boston Transcript, who undertakes t.
prove that the railroad power is il
virtual possession of states populated
by millions of people. Using the
state of Nebraska as an example, he
says:
Nebraska's admission to statehood,
In 1867, was practically identical in
time with completion of the Union
Pacific railway across the continent,
its line dissecting the state along the
valley Of the Platte, while the Burling-
ton and the Northwestern systems,
eager rivals of the Union Pacific for
the ad antages of the e field, were
entering the state from the eastward,
through Iowa. Roughly speaking,
these three roads formed a triple belt
from east to west, paralleling one
another and apportioning the state
amongst them in three fairly equal di-
visions. Competition in traffic has
never been more than an empty name.
BY tacit consent, if not by a more de.
finite understanding, each has re-
tanned its particular and exclusive
field of operations. Rate wars within
the state have been all but unknown.
About the first fast hold which the
roads got upon the state was through
the land grants-immense gratuities
conferred from the public domain by
congress, upon a fast and loose
theory of ''promotion." Through
these great grants the railroads be.
came absolute owners of twenty square
miles Of land along their rights of
way for each mile of line constructed.
BY their terms the acts Of congress
conferred every alternate section
upon either side of the road through
q strip forty miles in width, ungranted
alternate sections being left for the
hOmesteader. 1t is, of course, too
late to question the wisdom Of this
policy, beyond stating the bare fact
that the lands have returned vastly
more than the cost of construction of
the roads. What is of much greater
Significance is that, because Of the
c~heckerboard arrangement of the Sec
ton, the roads were enabled to con-
troll settlement and development as
they Notwithstanding progress in
one section, r%etarding it in another,
keeping q complete mastery of the
situation SO long as title to the lands
was not transferred.
Following the occupation of the
lands, which in general was helped
along by the railroads by every
means, throughout the prairie and
plains regions, the next care was TO
make these lands yield to their utmost
capacity. Agriculture, in so far as it
was concerned with the production of
great crops of the worlds chief staples
received substantial encouragement:
stock grazing, too, on the higher
plains, was looked upon with extreme
favor. There the railroad plan of
development stopped short. The use
OF the raw products near to their
source, in manufacture, has been dis.
countenanced from the first, and all
means have been employed to prevent
the establishment of markets close at
hand. The logic of industrial health
dict otos tho b,il1;nr IF Aou,;rr orJ
cereal mills in the heart of the grain
country, of shoe and glove factories
in the centers of hide aud leather pro-
duction, and cf packing houses near
to the cattle lands. In every particu'
lar these plans have been blocked by
the railroads, or at least greatly i'm
peded, because of its effect in a re-
duction Of The long out
ward haul Of raw materials and thu
long return haul of finished products
makes the working theory OF the rail
roads. The dollars gotten out of thi.
traffic is u "sure thing dollar, wha
might accrue under the other indus
trial order, with mills and factories
is conjectural. This is the golden az
of the western railroads; of cours
they will fight for its continuation.
But look at the result from the PEG
ple's side. Nebraska's annual whea
crop OF &c. 00O. 900 to 10, 1000, 900 bush
els goes to Minneapolis, or to point
even remote, for milling; and Nebras
ka's 10000 600 people must then bu,
back practically every pound Of tou
consumed. OF course, they pay tn
freight both ways. Her annual mil
lions of hides go to New York ant
New England, there to be made int
shoes and other wares, and the sup
ply for 1000, 0O0 people must then b
brought back again, at the cost of
double freight charge. There is not
&onAnuv ~ thic eawt IN tho ototo Nos