The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1906-09-06
The Nebraska Independent

UefeI assured tnaJ 1T is legitimate MN TO vote
Tor congressman who, whatever their opinions on
other subjects may be- will legislate larger divi-
bends into his pockets: sheep growers have been
encouraged to believe that they should have no
higher aim in voting than to raise the price of
wool; and laboring men have been urged to make
their wages their only concern.
For a generation the fat has been fried
out OF the manufacturers by the republican cam
paign committee, and then the manufacture
ers have been reimbursed by legislation. With
the public conscience educated to believe that this
open purchase of legislation was entirely proper
wonder that insurance companies have used
the money of their policyholders to carry cleo
uons-nO wonder that trusts have fastened to
purchase immunity from punishment with liberal
donatlons How can we draw moral distinction
between the man who sells his vote for five dol
lars on election day and the manufacturer who
sells his political influence for fifty hundred
Thousand dollars, payable in dividends? How
can we draw a moral line between the senator
or congressman elected by the trusts to prevent
hostile legislation and the senator or congress
man kept in congress by the manufacturers to
secure friendly legislation? The party that
Justlfles the one form of bribery not be relied
upon to condemn the other.
There never was time when tariff reform
could be more easily entered upon, for the man
ufacturers by selling abroad cheaper than at
home as many of them do have not only shown
their lngratitude toward those who built the tariff
wall for them, but they have demonstrated their
ability to sell in competition with the world The
high tariff has long been a burden to the con-
sumers in the United States and it is growing
more and more a menace to our foreign commerce
because it arouses resentment and provokes
taliation.
The railroad question is also interviewer
with the trust question Nearly all the private
monopolies have received rebates or secured other
advantages over competitors Absolute equality
of treatment at the hands of the railroads would
go far toward Gripping the trusts, and rejoice
that the president has had the courage to press
the question upon congress. While the law as it
was finally distorted by the senate is not all that
could be wished, it deserves fair trial
Rate regulation was absolutely necessary
and it furnishes some relief from the unbearable
condition which previously existed but we must
not forget that the vesting of this enormous pow
er in the hands of a commission appointed by
the president introduces a new danger If an
appointive board has the power to fix rates and
can, by the exercise of that power, increase or
decrease by hundreds of millions of dollars the
annual revenues of the railroads will not the
railroads feel that they have a large pecuniary
interest in the election of president friendly
to the railroads? Experience has demonstrated
that municipal corruption is largely traceable to
the fact that franchised corporations desire to con-
troll of the city council and thus increase div
dends of the franchsed corporations. If the
railroad managers adopt the same policy
the sentiment in favor of the ownership of the
railroads by the government is likely to increase
as rapidly throughout the country as the senti-
nent in favor of municipal ownership has in
creased in the cities.
Il have already reached the conclusion that
railroads partake so much of the nature of a
monopoly that they must ultimately become pub
lie property and be managed by public officials
in the interest of the whole community in ac
cordance with the we'll defined theory that public
ownership is necessary where competition is i'm
possible. do not know that the country is ready
for this change; | do not know that majority
of my own party favor it, but I believe that an
increasing number of the members of all parties
see in public ownership the only sure remedy for
discrimination between persons and places and
for extortonate rates for the carrying of freight
and passengers.
Believing however, that the operation of all
the railroads by the federal government would
so centralize the government as to almost oblit-
crate state lines, prefer to see only the trunk