Omaha daily bee., 1905-11-04
A CONSPICUOUS EXCEPTION.
One Railroad Man who is with the
President.

Springfield CMass) Republican.
President A B. Stickney Of the Chicago
Great Western railway declines to join in
the combined effort being made to defeat
the plan OF government rate control and
establish the transportation industry in
the free and irresponsible exercise of the
power to tax the people at win. He is
said to have startled his hearers at the
banquet of the original Roosevelt club
at St. Paul Friday night, when he said:
1.-THE railway companies have an abso-
Lutte monopoly and, under the law, Ak the
price upon that which they alone can pro-
duce and which every living man must
consume-railway transportation-and the
law makes 1t a misdemeanor for the con-
sumer to kick. Is that a square deal?
Theodore Roosevelt says II is not a square
deal, and every fair minded man will say
IL is not square deal. In twenty years
possibly in ten years-there will be few,
II any, competitive railways, and it there
fore becomes important, while we can, to
establish the correct principle in the law"
He said he did not know President Roose-
welt personally-he is not among the rail-
road men who have been lobbying around
Washington OF late but he claims to
know a square dear' when he sees it, and
finds that what his brethren OF the rail-
road monopoly propose is not a square
deal. And he is right. It is nothing less
than preposterous this contention of a
vast monopoly dealing In something essen
tial to the life and Industrial progress of
the people. that it shall be left free to
impose upon the country what terms 1t
pleases
Mr.. Stickney did not stop here He went
on to declare that the roads are still fall
ing to observe the legal principle of nom
! discriminating rates as between individual
! shippers, and are resorting TO peculiar
/ practices In defeating the law and build
! ing up the fortunes of one set OF mer-
chants and manufacturers at the expense
Of their competitors. He gave this amaz-
ing Illustrations;
THE ingenuity which is now exercised
| by both railways and their customers TO
maintain the secrecy Of rebates can be
! illustrated better than described. Since
the inJunctions were issued I have been
told Of cases where young men from so
called routing agencies in New York make
periodical trips through the western cities,
! leaving packages OF actual money, without
note or comment, upon certain merchants
desks, taking no voucher nor receipt Curl
ously. when these packages are counted
they are found to be exactly a certain
percentage, supposed TO be Is per cent, OF
the amount OF freight which such mer-
, chants have paid a certain railway com.
pany since the last previous visit of the
young man. who thus distributes hundreds
Of thousands Of dollars annually"
The railroads claim TO favor the prin-
ciple of equal or uniform rates; the Law
has undertaken to help them enforce the
principle, and there has been much boast
ing OF late regarding the observance OF the
law in this particular. Still the evil seems
TO flourish, and the railroads resort TO al
kinds OF subterfuges 10 keep alive an in,
tolerable conspiracy between the trans.
portation industry and a favored set Of
industrial patrons.
And these are the roads which demand
that they be let alone TO do as they please
in the matter of charges. so long al
charges are uniform as 20 persons. II they
cannot be trusted to maintain uniform
charges, they certainly cannot be trusted
TO maintain reasonably low charges. They
may not know II, but both in the matter
of rebates and resistance OF government
regulation of uniform charges, they are
doing all they can to strengthen popular
sentiment in favor OF government owner
ship and operation.