The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-06-18

an eastern democrat to
mead me, he said, There is no
to him from a friend of his, he was
pleased to receive the letter, a1d tol
me he would be glad to do anything
he could for me, and so I told hin
1 wanted a place on that committee.
He said .1that is impossible" 1 asked
manufacturing states on that commit
tee" / said, What about the con-
sumers 2" He said, I'VE don't put
them on that committee When the
protectio1ists are in power, they make
up the committee from the men who
represent the tax eater and not the
tax payer; and these men make the
laws in their own interest. and the
manufacturers collect from the people
not only as much as goes Into the trea
Sury, but sometimes ten times as much
as goes into the treaSurey Why,
if a man proposed to your city coun-
Gil that he be allowed to collect a
CCTIdI1 dl1OuAL III yOuI CITY, anu llldl
he would charge ten times as much
for collecting that amount as the
amount he turned in, would you think
of employing him? And yet we ave
instances when the amount paid by
the people on account of the tariff is
ten times the amount turned into the
treasury. This is not only farming
out the taxes, but it is paying a large
commission for the collection of the
taxes.
And so we are farming out the taxes
when we charter a corporation which
is not regulated by competition. There
are only two ways of regulating cor
porations, n is by law and the other
is by competition, and when competi-
ton is not possible, the people are
taxed withou representation and with
out mercy unless there is efficient reg
ulation.
All over this Ian we have seen this
struggle between the people and the
corporations, and we see it in this
country today on the railroad question
In 1896 the democratic platform de
clared for railroad regulation, in 1900
it did SO and again in 1904. After ten
years of effort on our part, a republi-
can president took the lead on the
subject, and he had the fight of his
life to get this bill through the senate
Ten years of effort to get regulation.
and when the time came it took the
president and all his influence, and the
influence Of all the democrats to get
the bill through the senate. and at
last the president, in order to make it
a republican measure, compromised
with the representatives of the rail-
roads in the United States senate. If
I am to tall OF taxation, l must be al
lowed to refer to the taxation this
country is bearing to-day. because
we do not regulate the corporations
as we ought to regulate them. Some
constantly talk against the govern
'ment ownership of railroads, but say
nothing against railroad eXtortion and
discrimination. Well we have not
reached that question, but we have
reached the question of our railroad
regulation, and l have sometimes felt
tempted to suggest that the man who
spends his time talking about the dan
gers of government ownership could
better serve the public by protecting
the masses from the greed of the cor
porations of today.
Seventeen years ago this fall | vent
down into the southeast corner of my
state to make a political speech. AT
ter speaking in the afternoon at the
county seat, l went out several miles
into the country to speak at a school
house. l don't remember what I said
that night, but l remember what a far
mer salt who also made a speech.
He said he rented his land from the
railroad. He added that the company
let him hold the title and pay the tax
es, but hat he was really a tenant,
for he got what was left after the com
pany got what it wanted; and today
our railroads are doing much the same
and the people who patronize them
are simply getting for their crops what
is left after the railroads take what
they want. The only regulation we
have thus far e not go to the roo
of the matter.
What is the effect of our new rate
law, which was so hard to get? There
are two effects so far. One is, it STOP
ped rebates; that is good, but what
vas the pecuniary effect? Why, the
railroads keep the money they former
l. aid -, avyO-oI -h;rnnr, 49, Il,
the railroads get more money. What
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