The Cairo bulletin., 1905-04-22
RATE BILL IS
PROBLEMAT|CAL
Outcome OF Investigation Can't
be Guessed
REBATES WILL STOP
RAILROAD MEN MORE THAN
WILLING TO HAVE THEM
DONE AWAY WITH-THE
PR ESi DENTS
SPEECHES.


again actively before the public be-
cause of the senate committee hearing.
What the outcome will be is too prob.
lematical for me. But | feel sure it
will neither be the proposition for gov
eminent ownership nor Senator New
lands plan for national Incorporation,
national taxation and national control.
which is his idea of what the Demo
cratic policy should be.
/ Up to the Democrats.
The Democrats should get together
quickly on some scheme. if they don't
intend to let the Republicans steal
their thunder and effect some sort of
a compromise that will be more OF
less satisfactory to the railroad corpo-
rations. Railroad men say they are
more than willing, in fact, are anxious
to have rebates done away with; dis
examinations by way of excessive al
lowances to short terminal tracks that
connect factories or warehouses with
main lines wiped out and the private
car lines, with their exorbitant charges
eliminated forever from the roalroad
problem. All these are evils that have
forced railroads to give up part or
their legitimate earnings, by system
of mercantile brigandage and jui-jitsu
games, that even the shrowdest rail
road managers cannot beat
The Shippers Position.
| Shippers will tell the committee that
they do not ask for reduction in
rates. ;that rates are low enough now
as the interstate commerce commits
| sion has said a half dozen times in
| their reports; that all they want Is II
uniform rate for everybody, every
where and at all times, and that they
railroads would give them that now,
il the interstate commerce commits
sion would only enforce the laws
against the favored shippers who have
the railroads by the throats, instead of
bowling for power to fix future rates
Ia power they do not need to elimin-
ate present troubles, and one they
would not know how to exercise il
they possessed it. They admit that
neither the producer nor the consum.
er would benefit penny by any rate
reduction, this side Of bankruptcy for
the carrier, but that the broker and
middleman would get it ALL
Suppose you could ship hats from
Danbury, Conn, TO Louisville, for 3
cents less hat, or shoes from Lynn
to Omaha for 2cents pair less, or
coffee for a tenth of cent a pouna
less from New York to Chicago said
one of them 10 me in the lobby of the
New Willard Hotel here. THAT would
be a huge reduction in freight rates
over Is per cent And would the
consumer benefit any by it? Not on
your life"
AS am not a puzzle editor, gave
it up.
! Workingmen, labor unions, railroad
employees are coming here to protest
against rate reduction because they
think it is going to hurt them. Perhaps
Il viii. | can't tell just now But the
Democrats ought to have some one
here to answer these questions and
take front seat on the band wagon.
The Presidents Speeches.
Everybody has been reading the
presidents speeches on his trip
through the great state of Texas and
the southwest. Some of them have
been good and some have been indif
ferent. but nearly all of them have
been inconsistent. The only consist
ent thing he has done or said is that
he sticks to the text of war and the
war spirit. In nearly every one of his
spirit as the only thing in this coun.
SPIRIT as the only thing in this coun-
try worth while. The big stick" has
been in evidence ever since he left
Washington. He talks one way and
writes an other. You can't figure
whether man is honest or stating his
honest opinions or not when he writes
one way in the quiet of his library with
thought and conviction to sway him.
and talks another before an audience
that he is attempting to please. For
instance, in Louisville. Ky, in his
first speech after he left Washington,
the president said, pointing to statue
of Jefferson: Il am glad of the spirit
that makes you wish to dedicate stat
ues like this OF Jefferson and like the
great statue of Clay inside that court
house. There Is one statue that wish
members of the national congress
from Kentucky to see put up by the
national government. and that is a ma
tional statue OF Andrew Jackson and
the victors of the battle Of New Or
leans
His Opinion of jefferson.
Yet Mr.. Roosevelt has written down
in his historical essays that Jefferson
was the most incapable executive
that ever filled the executive chair, -
|. and that his influence was ION the
whole. distinctly evil And of Jack
sons administration. he says that the
public service then took its first and
greatest step in that downward career
of progressive debasement and deteri-
era ten which has only been checked
in our days" What does he find 10
admire in the spirit which dedicates
monuments 20 men Of whom he holds