The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-08-16
OPPOSED TO THE
PRESIDENTS PLAN
DAVENPORT CoMBATs GOVERN
MENTAL r. r. SUPERVISION.
Declares that the Investments Of the
Morgans and the Goulds Are Insige
nificant Compared to Those Which
Have Been Made by the Toiling
Masses.
Special to The Journal.

Special to The Journal.
Clarinda, Iowa., Aug 16.-Daniel
Davenport of Bridgeport, Conn.,, rep
resenting the Association for Maintain
ing the Rights of Property, an associa-
ton of investors in railroad securities,
spoke here today in answer to Cover
nor Cummins and in opposition to the
president policy of governmental SUI
pervision of railroads.
In opening, Mr.. Davenport an
nounced the opposition of his associa-
gram to confer upon a political board
the power and duty Of fixing the prices
which the railway companies shall re-
ceive for the only commodity which
they have to sell-namely, their SER
vices in transporting persons and prop
erty from one state to another.
HListen now,'' he continued, ''to
one who speaks for that innumerable
host whose money built the railroads
invested in them to degree hardly
conceivable without an actual knowl-
edge of the fgures.''
Mr.. Davenport then briefly outlined
the extent to which the common people
are holders of railway securities, tax
ing Connecticut as an example. In
Bridgeport, his home, a city Of $4,000
persons, there are four savings banks
with $4,000 depositors, and the banks
hold $6,00O,000 of these stocks and
bonds.
In Connecticut, with less than a. "a q mill
ion inhabitants, there are 475,000 de-
positors in the savings banks, which hold
$S2, 100000 worth of these securities.
In the states of Maine, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts,, Connecticut, New York
and New Jersey, there are 100000 de-
positors in savings banks, "nearly
twice the voting population he en-
phasized, calling attention to the fact
that half the depositors were women
and children. ........
Collectively these depositors own thru
the savings banks the vast sum Of $780,
100000 of railroad securities, ''nota-
bly, those of Iowa railroads. t.-..
- The speaker then took up the life
insurance companies, with 100000
policy holders,' which own $SOO,OOO,OO0
Of railway bonds. to say nothing Of
those held by fire insurance companies,
on the stability Of whose investments
$28, 000,000,000 of fire insurance rests.
eff you will take the trouble to in
vestigate for yourselves,'' ne said,
"you will find it is not the Rockefel-
lers, the Morgans, the Goulds or the
Harrimans who own the railroads of
the country. Their investments are
comparatively insignificant. It is the
toiling millions who own the principal
part and their savings have been in
vested in them, relying upon existing
statutory and constitutional guards for
the protection of property rights.
'You may well believe,' continued
Mr.. Davenport, "that a proposition
from the president of the United States,
to take from the owners of these prop
critics the only thing. they have which
is of value and give it over to a politi-
cal board, is a startling one to those
millions of persons, and but for their
confidence in the ultimate good sense
and conservatism of congress, it would
long SINCE have Brought on a panic.'
TO make; his poiht clearer he cited the
fact that a general reduction in freight
| rates Of one mill . ton mile "would
wipe out all the dividends on the stock,
and a reduction of another mill and a
half would wipe out all the interest on
the bonds Of all the railroads in the
country.'