The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1905-10-05
WARNS OF RAILROAD
WAR ON IA T|EE LAW
William H. Chandler Asserts
Vast Power Is Used to
Defeat President.
CRY OF CORRUPTION
Try OF
Former Senator Says Illegal Devices
Are Relied on to Sway Leaders
of Peopie-Violating Law
Constantly.

~ Tx IllICISlule- COl1llllciCe COlIlillSSlOl1
ex-senator William E. Chandler of New
Hampshire charges the railroads with
trying to seduce the president of the
United States from his sworn duty and
with buying legislators, the press, min
listers lawyers, and, in fact, almost
everyone who can assist them in their
fight against government control of
rates.
After showing how the railroads
hung up the Esch-Townsend bill and
made the Elkins law devoi of terror
by eliminating the penitentiary clause,
Mr.. Chandler declares:
And so again next winter faithless
republicans and timid democrats will
combine to mak any bill which may
pass congress give more to the rail-
roads tina to the people. The simple
proposition of the president will be so
oVerlaid with qualifications as to be
worthless or the bill will be. so crowded
With additions justly Objectionable or
OF doubtful utility as to make its pas
sage through both houses impossible"
Ready for the Struggle.
The issues have been squarely Joined,
Chandler insists, and now the time for
trial has come, with a president of the
United States for the first time on the
side of the people. In the president,
IO"SFcl, Tie people ldNS llelf Only
hope of success, and the railroads real
ize this. After telling Of the glorious
achievements of the president in other
lines. he Declares:
That the railroad managers believe
that they can seduce a president like
this fror1 a duty to which he has con
SeCreted himself seems Incredible,
but such is the case. There are now no
more threats and d~enunications. Their
words are soft and tempting and might
mean much in the not very distant
future. Nc doubt the railroad nan
ayers wish to take this marvellous
president up into an exceeding high
mountain. where they can show him in
q moment of time all the kingdoms of
the world and the glory Of them. That
through their persuasion he might fall
ter in his efforts to perform with all the
characteristic force of his nature any
announced duty, even the least in his
high office, will not be believed by the
American people"
Defiance by Railroads.
Samuel Spencer, president of the
Southern railway and spokesman for
the railroads, is said to have declared
that he will not permit a commission
TO have the " to substitute a rate
OF price for one which in it's Judgment
is unjust or unreasonable, or HI a
rate once fixed by an authority shall
remain in force until changed by a
commission or q competent court. Mr..
spencer prevailed in the last congress-.
and, according TO Mr.. Chandler, UNI
doubredly will prevail the next con-
greSS.
The principal reason for this he
asserts, rs because the money power
OF the country is on one side. thorough
~ awake and organized, while only the
consumers and users of transportation
are on the other side; without money
and unorganized, with their only hope
in the president. Consider the enor-
nous amount of capital which has ar
rayed itself against the president
SIS, O00, 000, 900, representing 10000
miles OF railroad; $4,000, 0oo, 900 of
earnings each year. 100000 s%tockhold-
ers, 100000 Workmen with $1,000, 900
inhabitants behind them.
Vast Power at Command.
Bear in mind that the railroads can
not only use unlimited money to
achieve their ends, but they are the
only combination which can use di-
rectly their one product everywhere
and with everybody, that product be-
ing transportation over 100000 miles
Of railroad, in order to corrupt legisla-
lures, congress and the whole state
and national governments.
Ihe other trusts cannot buy men
nor officials directly with their oil, beef,
grain or coal. These commodities must
be converted into money and that must
NNpSii'Cu Will uiIiScI OIL ueleCIlOI.
But transportation is a universal COM
modify which everybody wants, and
Tree mileage books and passes are as
good as cash, and many times are bet
ter, and their corrupt use is easily con-
cealed."
After showing how the various
classes are corrupted by means of free
transportation, Mr.. Chandler declares
that OF all the railroad people Paul
Morton is the one ardent advocate of
the great work which the president has
undertaken.
And it seems he says, that he
Is the original Apostle Paul who first
preached repentance to the railroad
sinners, having seen a great light him
self while on his railroad"
Violators Of the law.
The railroads. he insists, have been
gross violators Of the laws against dis
ordinations and have evaded their en-
forcement until at last they succeeded
in having the imprisonment penalty re-
pealed.
Speaking Of the methods which the
railroads will pursue in their efforts to
prevent legislation, Mr.. Chandler says:
The most dangerous method to be
adopted by the railroads in their deter
mination to defeat the one needful rem
edy for existing evils is the encourage
ment of national remedies which will
arouse opposition as encroachments
on state rights, and send the southern
senators and representatives into oppo-
Sition to all congressional legislation.
These federal methods naturally appeal
to President Roosevelt, a national re-
publican, and even Mr.. Bryan, a state
rights democrat, has proposed that
every state corporation shall be re-
CURED to obtain u national license be-
fore doing business in another state.
The inception of all such schemes is to
be aided by the Notwithstanding the
federal control Of state insurance COM
panies-ahd when the country is once
alarmed by their magnitude and revo-
%lutionary tendencies they are all-rail
road legislation and all other similar
bills for ~aggrandizing federal power to
be all together hurled to destruction.
However well intended by their pos
;sibly innocent authors, all propositions
which are designed or can be made use
of to defeat or weaken the presidents
proposition that the commission shall
fix remedial rates and that the execu-
tive shall enforce them till reversed by
"a court, will be most unwisely and
~,harnfully put forth.
EaNors iJsed 70 Corrunf