The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-19
somr monr ExAMPLrs.

Recently The Advertiser had some comments on the losses to the straw berry growers of North Carolina aris- ing from the lack of refrigerator cars. The Charlotte Observer. which had been keeping up with the situation. suggest ed that "the building of freight cars might be made a profitable business in North Carolina" This Is remedy for car shortage which would occur to most of us, and under normal condi- tions 1t would be a good one. but The Monroe (N. C) Journal thus disposes of the idea that 1t would remove the troubles of fruit growers:
 Freight cars might be built to ad- vantage in North Carolina. put the re- the berry and truck-growers. are an- other proposition. The man who built one of these in North Carolina would fnd himself in the fix that with much work built a great boat in the interior of his island where the timber was handy, found that It was his labor for his pains, because ne mac naa The refrigerator cars of the country, with trifiing exceptions. belong to the beef trust, and if there were thousand such cars idle in North North Cssohnai ss Aiiantfo pe, Coast Line wouldn't give ten cents apiece for them. for the simple reason that 1t would sooner put lighted torch to the finest depot on its me of them"
 Is not that a lamentable, not to say disgraceful, condition to exist in a supposedly free and independent coun- try7 The greatest complaints on ac- count of lack of transportation that We have noticed come from North Carolina. That compliant is founded on the alleged scarcity of refrigerator cars, for want of which many thou- sands dollars have been lost to the strawberry growers of North Carolina Yet when it is proposed that this scar- future. by building those cars in North Carolina we are informed that such cars would be dead weight because certain corporate authorities would not allow them used on the railroads! And that is not all for The Journal adds:
 Not only do the allied packing houses of the West. led by Armour. and known as the beef trust, own the refrigerator cars, but they compel the roads that them an to contya gSS out ns then sands of dollars every day, which goes into the treasury of the trust 3H@ not to the railroads, Since the beef Mast got control of the the rerrigera.aS sgdsrsa aTs srx other concern that dared touch them, but have quickly sand-bagged every railroad that refused to rob the public for them.
 Then The Journal goes further into the work of the great system which has its hands on the throat of railway trafic and continues:
 Most people think of the Standard oil Company as the manufacturer and sel- Ter of the kerosene that goes into their controls the railroad. banking, insur- ance and kindred lines of business of the country and is every day getting stronger hold upon them all. Like wise, when the beef trust Is mentioned, there is a vague idea of something that butchers meat and sells bacon, and no thought of the fact that 1t not only controls. the meat market of the coun-
  the grain, fruit and other food pro- duets, and the average man would laugh If told that the same institution comes to North Carolina and lays its greedy hands upon the poor huckleberry pick CTS of the sand hills. But some time the people will know all these things, and the mere cry of Socialism" will not side-track the matter.
 As we have before remarked, 1t is just such a condition of affairs as this that has robbed the cry of Socialism" of much of It's terrors in some quar- ters. The exactions of certain oor- porate interests have almost strained the patience and forbearance of the people to the breaking point. There must be a peaceful and legal remedy, otherwise there may come time when the sufferers will settle 1t in their own way.