The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-01-10

of representative citizens is in hearty
accord.
Combinations of Capital Essential
Gentlemen. we are fronting some
tremendous problems, chief among
which is the industrial problem. Vast
changes have occurred in the COM
merclal world in the last half century.
Ola thlngs have passed away and be-
Fifty years ago the business of. the
country was chiefly done with local
labor and with local capital Nearly
everything IA common use was made
IN the community where it was used.
Local mechanics made the vehicles;
local shoemakers the footwear; local
hatters the hats; local seamstresses
the clothing; local smoke houses cured
the bacon; and local capital furnished
the monetary sineWS for all these ac-
tivlties- But today all this is changed.
All these articles are made in indus
trial centers with large aggregatiOns
OF capital and strong combinations of
talent FIFTY years ago the freightage
of the country was chiefly done in
wagons. Now all this is done chiefly
by our magnificent network of rail-
roads. The change from the old to
the new is good, not bad. We would
not If we could, and we could not If
we would, go back to the old way of
doing things. Large aggregationS of
capital and strong combinations of
talent are absolutely essential to this
of which we justly complain result
from the abuse and not the use of
these modern methods. Fifty years
ago it would have been thought
Tldlcuious to propose. any sort of pub
lie control of the passenger coaches
and freight caravans of these primi-
tive times The reason is obvious.
The people We're not a the mercy of
those coaches and caravans as they
are now at the mercy of the great
common carriers. There is a neces-
sity for government interference now
which did not at all exist then
Must Protect the People.
mot only because these transporta-
tutiOns deriving their corporate ex-
istence from the state and exercising
the right of eminent domain as a
bounty of government, are they Fegiti-
mate subjects for governmental super
vision, but for the larger and better
reason that governments are instituted
primarily for the protection of the
people, protection which includes in
its sweep not only life and liberty, but
a protection which has to do as we'll
with all the interests of humanity. It
is not only the right but the duty of
government to protect the people so
far as possible, from corporate cupid
lily and organized greed. No good
citizen wishes to do violence to our
great railroad system. We are all
proud of these concerns and gladly
cOncede to them all the latitude of
personal management and monetary
emolument consistent with public
good. But the right of these common
carriers TO make it possible for one
man to crush his competitor under the
infamous rebate system, and paralyze
one city or town by discriminating
against it in favor of another city or
town, never existed and never should
have been tolerated a moment. The
mystery is how fneh big enough to
4
consented to the Preparation of these
wrongs. But the cases where these
wrongs have been perpetrated are not
isolated or few. Ihey are many very
mapy- So fiagrants and numerous have
been these 0fenSeS against business
integrity that patience has ceased to.
be a virtue, and th6aghtfu3 people are
everywhere crying out against them.
A railroad company sUstains a sacred
and vital relation to business interests.
1t can make and u11malze business
men; it can bring prosperity or dis
aster to a town; it-derives its right to
be from the public; its corporate eX-
istence is conferred upon it by the
state; it is given the right TO run it's
line through private property, no mat
ter what cherished memories cluster
about it; all men must stand aside
when its surveyors come along; and it
legal and moral, to treat every man
and every community fairly and to
treat All alike. Strange that it should
ever ignore this fact and fail to per-
form its obligation
How the Beef Trust Works.
"But I need not say to this COM
paEy of shippers who have had prac-
teal experience in these matters how
common are the wrongs to which I
allude. By the rebate system and
other carrier favors Rockefeller has
crushed competition and made it pos
eihla for n cI7hnFdi0afnS 0hoU his
injunction, Pay no man a profit I'm
der this infamous system the beef
trust has grown fatter than the corn
fed steers Kansas farmers have been
compelled to sell it for a song. Under
this system the coal barOns have
grown rich while the smaller com
petitOrs have grown poor. Under this
system individual business men have
been bankrupted while less worthy
ones across the street have been made
to prosper. No less wrongs have been
committed by discrimination, by fav-
Oring one town or city with a rate not
given to another town or city; or by
| carrying one commodity at a rate
vastly less than another commodity
with no sufficient reason for the diff
ference; or by carrying goods for one
man under a different schedule than
that under which the same class OF
goods of another man is listed. Let
me give you a recent illustration of
this latter class of determinations.
/ have a friend, an extensive business
man. enga ged in several lines of bush
ness, among them that of shipping
poultry, eggs and butter. Now the
rate on this class of shipm emit is very
much greater than on beef products
Recently a freight train was wrecked
/ ostensibly bearing a burden of beef
! products under the comparatively low
/ beef rate. But the wreck disclosed
the fact that the cars really contained
/ poultry, eggs and butter. How can
NJ of end of the line
said my friend, under these circum-
stances2' Can you conceive of q
meaner thing in business than this?
''But, having faith in my fellow
men generally, which includes those
managing these great corporations, ]
believe these gentlemen, most of them
/ will welcome a governmental remedy
! that viii make it impossible for them