The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1907-03-02

They know likewise that under pr1-
vate ownership Of railroads one cons
En1nity is built up at the expense Of |
another. We know that one mans /
business IS built up and another mans
business is torn down by railroad /
favoritism. We want to stop all this.
The railroads arc mere public high
ways the same as the wagon roads,
the canals, the lakes and the rivers
They all ought to be owned by the
people themselves. There should be
no favoritism given to one man or
one community over another. Near
ly all the great fortunes in the
United States have been built up by
reason of the private ownership of
railroads. Mr. aRockefellcr's great
fortune was built up by millions and
millions made in watercd stocks and
watered bonds and millions made in
industry by favors given him and
denied to others.
+ The public ownership people make
no assault upon any legitimate bust
ness. They know that public own
ership will offer greater individual
incentive than the present conditions
afford. In the Northwest the grain
business is in the hands of few
cliques. None of these men live in
the communities where the grain is
produced. The grain business is the
most profitable we have. Yet the
great profits made from it are all
sent out of the communities where
the grain is grown and distributed
at distant points among favored
few. We want to drive all these dis
honest corporations out of business
and let the citizens in each commune
ty own and control the grain bust
ness. What is true of grain is like
wise true of commodities produced
in the South The only way to solve
the question is by public ownership.
The talk of regulation is nonsense.
In Mr.. Cleveland's first term we we're
given the original Interstate Com
merce law. Great things were claim
ed for it. 1t fooled the people for
a good many years. But it did no
permanent good. The bill passed un-
der Mr.. Roosevelt's administration is
the Cleveland law patched over. It
| is practically no better than the
| Cleveland law and experience with
it will prove this to be true There
| is no such thing as regulation and
every student OF the railroad ques-
ton that l have met has agreed on
that proposition. That is not only
| the judgment of the public owner
ship people but if you can have
| heart to heart talk with any railroad
traffic manager he will tell you the
same thing.
The South and the West are the
| wealthy agricultural portions of the
| nation. 1t is from these wealthy Sec
tons that many enormous fortunes
| have been made by the owners of
| watered stocks and watered bonds.
They compel the people to pay
freight and passenger rates high
enough to pay dividends on these
| dishonest securities. We, in the
rife effort to end these wicked prac-
tees. We don't want socialism. We
| don't want the public to take up priv
reasons we don't want private men
transacting the public business in
| their own way. We are about the
| last powerful civilized country, ex-
cept England, to permit private men
to exercise a despotic power in the
matter of transportation. Even
| Mexico has already seen that it was
| necessary to take over her railroads
or they would be taken control of by
| the American railroad trust and that
as soon as the railways were taken
| over, the men who control the rail-
| roads, would control the industries
| of Mexico. The Canadian Minister
| of finance has just declared that Can
ada must have a railroad, extending
from ocean to ocean. He points out
that such railway will do more
to reduce freight rates than all the
laws the Canadian parliament could
pass
l sincerely hope we may have your
cooperation in this great movement
| | recognize that the railroads will
make a desperate effort to control de-
mocratic conventions and democratic
politicians in the south. These rail-
roads have no politics. ]. P Morgan
is republican in the north and a
democrat in the south At the very
time when he was using his influence
| to try to defeat the nomination of
Hoke Smith for governor of Geor-
gia, his political lieutenants in Ne
braska were trying to control the
Republican nomination for governor
in this state. It was the railroads
and the owners of watered stocks
who furnished the money to beat Mr..
Bryan tor the presldenr-- in 1896.
You people living in the South,
where you have no hard political con-
tests, have but little idea of what
we had to meet in that campaign. In
the most thickly populated county in
this state, it was proved in the Leg
islature that winter, that 100000 of
corruption funds had been expended.
am satisfied that twice that amount
was spent there. But to the extent
of 100000 of corruption money, the
evidence was SO clear that every Re-
publican member of the committee of
investigation certified that fact to be
true. In the same campaign any
man in the North who would take a
trip to Canton, Ohio, the home of
Mckinley, was furnished free ride,
a free berth, free meals and free
| drunk. I knew 1t from the very in
side that month before election the
| Republican national leaders were con
vInoed that Bryan had Mckinley beat
III Ohio. Then the money was pour
ed in and the railroads and the other
/ various interests connected with them
| furnished it. BY the corrupt use of
money they carried the states of
4 atrx T,,Ita.,o o.