Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1906-01-24
Minnesota and the Railroads
GOVERNOR JOHN A. JOHNSON DECLARES CRAVE
IRREGULARITIES EXIST IN RAILROAD
- RATES IN THE STATE
Shows Freight Charges Are Approximately Fifty Per Cent
Higher Than in Iowa or Canada.

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all the property of the country. Own
ing one-third of the property of the
country today they positively control
the affairs of the country. They fix
the price of transportation, they arbi-
trarily fix the price of things that we
buy and they arbitrarily fix the price
Of the things we produce and sell.
Mr.. Rockefeller of Standard Oil
fame is the most potential force in
transportation affairs the world has
ever known. Mr.. Morgan, of equal no.
toriety, is the most potential force in
industrials the world has ever known
The country is at the mercy of this
class Of people. We live today In a
paper age. where fiat property has be-
come an established fact.
The great curse of the country to.
day is in the fictitious valuations
placed upon property and the fact
that the American people must by
their energy and economy pay tribute
to this kind of genius by paying a rate
OF interest and profit on property
which has no existence
Illustrations have been numerous
where a man or syndicate of men
have taken a million dollars worth of
property and, by writing new certif-
Gates, have converted it into five mil
lions of dollars worth of property;
where one hundred million dollars
worth of industrials have been COM
bined into one enterprise and by the
issuance of certificates have been en-
HANGED in value 400 per cent And the
American people pay a reasonable
rate of interest and profit on the
stocks and bonds of the watered stock
Of the corporation
What has been true in the indus
trial world has been equally true in
the world of transportation. Com.
btnations have been made and new
shares of stock have been issued far
In excess of the actual value of the
property. I believe in corporations. I
believe the American people ought to
pay reasonable rate of interest and
fair profit on all legitimate classes
of property. believe, however, that
the American people ought to pay only
upon the actual value of the property
and not upon the imitation.
RooseveIt's Great Fight.
During the past decade we have
been shown by illustration after Illus
tration that the American people. alb
solutely within the power of a few
individuals, have been compelled to
pay. both in the matter of transporta-
ton and upon industrial products, a
rate of profit altogether out of har-
mony with natural and just conditions.
And this condition has become so ex-
aggerated and the financial autocrat
has exercised his tyranny to such an
extent that those in authority have
been forced to undertake the cause of
the people and today the president of
the United States, disregarding all
other issues, is concentrating his ener-
gies to secure the power for the peo-
pie to fix and establish just rates of
transportation upon all common car.
riers.
We are told that these things are
Impossible under the law. A half cen.
tury ago the people were told that tho
sovereign right of a state could not
be interfered with. They were also
told that human chattels were prop.
erty, the right to hold which could not
be interfered with. And yet, by the
single stroke of his pen a man de.
stroyed three thousand million dollars
worth OF PROPERTY and created three
millions of free citizens of this repub-
lie.
believe in the obligation of con-
tract. believe that it should not and
ought not to be impaired. But l be-
lieve that when the chartered corpora
ton, going beyond its chartered rights,
refuses to- abide by the laws under
which it has it's existence and receives
protection, can be regulated and, if
necessary, can be secured to the peo-
pie who have given it life.
People May Rise in Their Wrath.
There are vast numbers of people In
this country today who believe that
the government of the country should
own and operate its common carriers.
Certainly the time is not ripe today
for government ownership, but want
to say now that if the right of the
government to regulate and control
common carriers in the exercise of
their functions is too stubbornly re-.
sisted by those who control the cor
porations the pendulum will finally be-
come 1oosed and when it swings it is
apt to pass by the central point and
fly as far to the other side.
l cannot believe that the chartered
right Of corporation is greater than
the constitutional right of the citizen
and I do not think it is American in
policy to tax the American people
into poverty in order that great divi-
dends can be paid to the English and
German capitalists who have invested
In the stocks and bonds of the securi.
ties of this country. It is a settled
principle of the common law of the
country that all railroad rates shall be
just and reasonable.
No uniform rule has yet been adopt
ed and in my Judgment no rule will
be adopted until the power is given
the government to itself fix rates that
are reasonable and to establish those
rates and maintain them until a court
of justice has declared that the rate
is unreasonable.
Railroad operators claim that in the
operation of railways railroad men