The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1907-04-18
THE oT.1ER sinr.

While there is undoubtedly vast
eel of very necessary regulation to
!! which the railroads should be subjected,
they are suffering from the assaults OF
] Hvery cheap. noisy fellow who wants
'ome'hing 10 say to attract attention
% him. He joins in the crusade against
the railroads not necessarily hacaosa
/ he knows anything about the subJse.
or has anything Of value To- offer. INIT
he is like the darby. who just wanted
chance to holler. These men are a nut
| sance. because they obscure the real
| questions of reform with their inteTn-
perate vociferation. The railroads are
! not, as these fellows would have as be-
lieve. wholly bad: they are not great
agents of oppression. on the other hand.
| they are Of the greatest possible benefit
20 the country; they are absolutely in
| iispensable. and all that the situation
requires is pruning Of the noxious fe.4-
lures which have developed in theis
| building and management. Il is vel.
therefore,, to have this cyclone of de-
lunciation occasionally tempered by a
| reminder of the benefits that the rail-
roads have conferred An interesting
contribution of this nature is furnished
by j. c. Rowland, of Rice Lake. Wis.
TO the st. Paul Press. Mr. Rowland i5
quite skeptical as to the good that the
Wisconsin Railway Commission has
done. and Is no. satisfied that it mad.
the passenger tariff two and one-haif
cents mile, when it should have been
| two cents. Mr.. Rowland says that he
has been in Wisconsin IS years and has
seen this County change from will
derness to a country with an assessed
valuation of over $1,000, 900 and al
most 10000 inhabitants, with flour
mills. saw mills, stone mills, canning
factories. creameries and cheese factor
les and lots of other industries, and
farms with the best of buildings all over
the County. lots of them on land he has
cut over himself He is naturally a
friend of the railroads. for they made i,
all these improvements possible, and ne
need them just as badly now as ever.
He says the bowling did not originate
with the men who actually pay the
freight. AS rule the freight rates
have not been exorbitant and he gives
examples:
II shipped potatoes east on the 500
line to Erie, Pa, almost 1000 miles. in
car lots at 25 cents per 100. and that
was before the Wisconsin Rate Com
mission was heard Of I sold horses
Ch
N Oak, 1000 miles. at rate of $50
per car, or in all So per head. l have
also shipped freight on the Omaha road
10 ana from Chicago at IS cents per
hundred. Our creamery at Barron ship
ped S1iS,S84-43 worth of butter to Buff
falo, N Y. the past year at So cents
per hundred. On the 500 / have ship
ped cheese to New York and California
at 80 cents per hundred. Could give
lots more rates if necessary"
1t is wen enough to read such CON-
tributions as these, as they will help
arrive at a decision as to what is actual.
iy just and fair to the railroads
john Temple Graves, of Atlanta, is a
very tiresome and at times dangerous
demagog. He showed himself dangerous
at the time of the Atlanta race riots
and incurred the severe and public de-
of the business men of his
city. He is one of those 'pestfferou.
takers whose main object in life is te
attract attention by startling utterancess
1t is not at all important for him to be-
heve what he says. The main thing ia
to startle his hearers and set the lighter
headed to yelling. His speech at At
lanta, urging Bryan to nominate Roose-
Welt at the next Democratic Convention.
was of this nature. He knew that not
one man in 100 of those who heard hin,
gave a moments consideration to such
an absurd proposition. but they We're
all startled, and some of them laughed
and yelled He was satisfied especially
as, for want of something better,
number of papers have discussed tha
proposition While. undoubtedly. the
mass of Southern Democrats have been
Ilienated from Bryan by his constant
hercsieS and his proposed deliberations
of States Rights. and while they would
like to vote for candidate of the
Roosevelt stamp, they do not propose
for an instant that the Democratic Par
ty shall commit suicide. The memory
Of the Greeley campaign is too fresh