The weekly herald. [volume] (Amarillo, Tex.) 1906-19??, 1907-06-20

lie highways should be used 10 enable
q few men TO destroy their business
rivals is the basest crime Of our day
and generation.
III | give an illustration, II is not
for holding any one man up for re-
preach above others. In 1870 went
through the oil regions OF Pennsyl-
yania and saw a wilderness OF der
ricks spread out over the country
over engines pumping oil from wells
Hundreds OF people owned such wells
apd were producing oil. Five years
later all these wells had passed into
the control OF one man, or set OF
men All the other producers had
failed and Joined those unlortunates
who fall by the wayslde in the strug-
gle for existence, And why and
how? Because this one man and
his fow companions went to the few
powerful individuals who controlled
the railroads and conspired with
them to carry their oil to market
for say 81 a barrel, while everyone
else was charged So and more bar
rel OF course, this iayorltlsm In
freight rates enabled them to under
sell by that much, and destroy all
their rivals.
Just think OF debate being got
up, even by ministers Of the gospel,
whether money thus acquired Is
tainted! This same thing has been
done In all our principal products.
! And let no one be underline delusion
that It is to cease. You can't stop
an evil by merely passing a law
against It. Every week, even now,
reveals a new case of this railroad
favoritism and discrimination. Some
have come to the cont:ution that the
government should take the railroads
and run them, in order to end the
abuse, For my part, ] would not
see the government do It. Private
enterprise is too yaluabi, to be elm
mated from railroad bailding and
management, II It can beavoided.
MY own view is thai 1t is only
necessary for the government to APP
point the general freight agent OF
every railroad, for he could stop all
rate favoritism at once. 1t would
not be for his office to fix the sched-
ule OF rates, but only to see that ev-
eryone paid the schedule rate, no
more no less. The actual payments
Of rebates back to shippers is now
seldom done. but favorltism is done
in many ways. one way Is to give
favorltism in freight rates by billing
goods at one-half their weight. An
other way is by means of the private
switches or tracks which connect
many business places with the rail-
roads. one OF these little railroads
quarter OF a mile long may get
rs or even so per cent Of the freight
money charged by the srailroad 1t
connects and which carries the
freight hundreds Of thousands of
miles. Private freight cars leased
to the Wailroad at exorbitant rates
are another means, and still another
is the giving OF large commissions to
a go-between for getting the freight
This favoritism in ferlght rates Is
also used to defeat the national tar
Iiff by giving foreign goods freight
rate low enough to enable them to
come in and be sold at profit, In
spite of the protective tariff. Goods
are carried from England and Ger
many to Denver, for example, for
less rate than the same domestic
goods have to pay from Chicago tC
Denver. This Is also wrong to thu
railroad stockholders. There are
roads now paying three or four pei
cent dividends which would be pay
ing nearer ten per cent II the favor
itism in freight rates was stopped.
mo wonder a growing number o
people want the government to taxi
the railroads "a u,aA.