Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-01-12
rur a.tLRoAp 1Np THE Farm

MT. "A. -. SUCknegs pIeShuShe Va S~
Chicago Great Western. is one OF the
few railroad magnates who have pun
licly admitted the Justice and propriety
of national and state railway regula-
ton. Last spring Mr.. Stickney volun-
tarily appeared before the senate COM
mittee on interstate commerce to con-
trovert other railroad presidents who OPP
posed the enlargement of the powers OF
the Interstate Commerce commission on
the specious plea that rate-making could
not safely be entrusted to that body be-
cause It was not composed of railway
experts and that the exercise of the
power of rate regulation would prove
ruinous to railway investors and put
stop to railroad extension.
Mr.. Stickney seems to have undergone
a change of heart on the fundamental
principles of government railway regu-
lation. In the speech delivered by him
in st. Paul Wednesday on the relations
of the people to the railroads Mr.. Stick
ney is reported to have taken the posi-
ton that the public is no more affected
by the excessive capitalization of rail-
roads than it is by the over-capitaliZa-
ton of farms, which are now earning
incomes on a valuation ten times greater
than their original cost.
Apparently Mr.. Stickney is oblivious
of the fact that an American farmer has
no monopoly on his products and can
sell them only at the price which they
command in the worlds markets, gagged
by the law of supply and demand. The
consumer of breadstEfs is not compelled
to pay the farmer an arbitrary price
based on the value of his land, but the
| farmer is compelled to part with his
products at the price which they will
sell for in competition with the pro-
ducers of all other countries in the
worlds markets.
The American farmer. for example,
must sell his grain in competition with
the farmers of Argentina, Russia. India
and other grain-exporting countries. Big
wheat crops in any one of these coun-
tries reduce the price of wheat on the
railroads In foreign countries does not
in the least affect railway transporta-
ton charges in America In the worlds
market the price of bushel of wheat
or corn raised on $1O0-an-acre farm is
precisely the same as the price of a
bushel of wheat or corn raised on $40.
an-acre farm Railroads, on the other
hand. are operated to produce incomes
on arbitrary and fictitious capitalization
out Of all proportion to their actual cost
or the cost Of service.
In a nutshell, the generalization OF
the farm does not affect the price OF
farm products. capitalization OF
railroads affords not merely an excuse
for high rates, but actually compels the
exaction of excessive rates in order tc
enable railroads TO pay fixed charges aut
dividends to stockholders.
Last. but not least, Mr. Stickney ig
nores the fundamental principle thai
railroads are public highways exercisin.
sovereign powers delegated to them by
the state to levy and collect tolls from
their users-the general public-whil,
the farmer enjoys no special privilege
except the privilege to till the soil ant
get what he can out of it in competition
with millions of other farmers In ever!
|. other part of the world and compelled I,
, accept for his products the price the!
will sell for in the worlds markets
minus the cost of transportation
Another very striking difference be
tween the railroads and the farmers |
. that the more grain there is raised Il
the world the less the farmer gets 70
his grain. while the more grain there |
raised in America the greater the In
come of the railroads.