East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1906-01-03

| to further incumbrance of the road
in some $1OO,OOO,OOO or more, which
helped materially to pay the wine bills
and swell the profits of the construc-
tion companies,
Poor Uncle Sam was relegated to
the position of despised and neglect
ed second mortgage, and for many
years the evident scheme was in some
way to get rid of this "old man of the
sea" without paying the claim.
Successive mismanagements of the
private enterprise however, resulted
in loading it down with more debt,
and finally, with the advent of the
panic of 1898, the overloaded hulk
collapsed.
The Southern Pacific was the crea e.
tion of the late Coils p. Huntington,
who in his day was the prince of lob
bylsts and corrupters of public Off
cials. 1t goes without saying that
this road claimed and received it's full
share of state and government boun
ty.
While basklng in the sunlight of the
peoples favors and gratuitles 1t was
fastening its transportation monopoly
upon its territory, and wherever IT
obtained control it merciessly drove
its advantage home. Thus California
for many years was helpless in the
grasp of this octopus. Her public
life was corrupted and her trade and
industry shackled while the Southern
Pacific was draining its very life
blood.
The Northern Pacific was conceived
on a somewhat more elevated plane
and its record is not so replete with
damning features as that of its sister
enterprises of the south. But II also
was the recipient of magnificent gov
ernment bounty, exercised a subtle
influence in national and state halls of
legislation, developed in its construc-
ton and subsequent manipulation a
deplcrable record of wastefulness and
overreaching, was likewise an en-
barge on enterprise and the free de-
Velopment of its tributary terri
tory, and, like its rival to the south.
bit the dust" in the panic of 1898.
One and all of these roads while
they exercised monopoly of the ter
ritory through which they passed, ex-
plotted it to the full at the peoples
cost. Thousands of honest farmers
and tradesmen have fallen by the
wayside, the victims of extortionate
transportation charges.
Public life, local and national. was
corrupted and made to serve the sell
fish ends of these corporate monstros-
tiles. The richest of lands and the
most promising opportunities were
seized and exploited for the benefit
of the controlling spirits of these ag-
gregations. For many years stock
Joobing instead of transportation was
10 all intents and purposes the main
object of their existence.
In short, during the period in oues-
ton, the management of the several
systems was infamous and the public
came into account only as the long
suffering and apparently helpless vic
tim.
AS other systems came into CONNIE
ution and with the development of the
more practical and responsive modern
methods, the conditions, in many
respects, were materially alleyiated.
The present tendency, however, is
toward community OF interest" in all
Pacific roads, and, as a final result,
toward one vast aggregated monopoly.
What this will mean to the people
directly affected, and to all the people
OF the country indirectly, 1t needs no
vivid imagination to divine, particu-
larly If the demand of the people for
more effective railroad rate regulation
and governmental supervision and |
control is circumvented by the ma
chinations of these several systems
which the people created and placed |
on their feet and then foolishly allow |
ed to become their masters.-Tom |
Watson's Magazine.