Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1907-12-11
BARBER COUNTY INDEX.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. IL, 1907.
RAILROAD OWNERSHIP QUESTION.


forth between The Farmers Mail
and Breeze, T. A. McNeaPs paper,
and the Medicine Lodge Cresset, is
still unsettled, but the Mail &
Breeze seems to have produced all
the argument. The following re-
cent article in the NJ. & B. appears
to us to be especially strong.
"Our cid partner, Luther NJ. AK.
line, devotes the entire editorial
page of the Medicine Lodge Cres-
set to a criticism of what we have
said on the question of government
ownership. Each article written
by our old time partner grows more
illogical and unfair than the one
preceding it. Abandoning one
line of argument after another he
finally lands where we hardly sup
posed he would land,viz: as oppos-
ed to all government and state in
reference with the management OF
the railroads. He says:
"Mr. McNeal asks: Are the railroads to
be allowed TO run their own businessT We
say, most emphaticaly. yes. the railroads
when left alone and unhampered kept ahead
OF demand and did more than all other agen-
eies combined except the homestead law TO
open up and make this the great country it
is.
eff Luther is correct then the Re-
publican party, about which he eX-
presses SO much solicitation, has
been wrong for many a year. 1t
was a Republican congress that
placed the interstate commerce law
on the statute books of the United
States and provided for the appoint
ment of an interstate commerce
commission with the avowed pur-
pose of regulating the management
of the railroads of the country. 1t
was Republican congress that
passed the present law about which
Luther complains and which he
says is making it nearly impossible
for the railroads to borrow money.
This law was supported by every
member of congress from Kansas
and by Senator Long.
Luther should no longer worry
himself for fear his old boss as he
is pleased to call US, will get out
side Of the party lines. He has al
ready gotten clear outside of the
party lines himself, which seems
like remarkable thing for post.
master to do, but then it goes to
prove what we said in a previous
article, that it would not follow
that government employees would
invariably support the party in
power to which they owed their
jobs. We really did not expect,
however, that our old pupil would
within week furnish a living
proof of. the correctness of our
statement.
Originally, Luther started out
with the statement that the con.
sumner paid the freight, therefore it
made no difference to the shipper
or producer what the freight rate
might be. He actually stated that
utterly absurd proposition with a
coCksurenesS that astonished US.
We answered that such statement
was absurd, that sometimes the
consumer paid the freight and
sometimes the producer paid it.
AS a matter of fact the consumer
in any event pays the freight only
from the nearest point of produc-
tlon. Here comes in one of the
principal grounds of complaint. 1t
has been charged and we think
very clearly shown that discrimi-
nations have been wide spread.
One locality has been favored in
the matter of freight rates as
against other localities. The ship
PerS and producers in the localities
Disseminated against have been
obliged to pay the extra charges in
order to get into the market. This
observation-disclosures of course had
the effect to build up great cities
at the expense of the small towns.
"On this question Luther backs
and fills and absolutely fails to
answer at all. He tries to dodge
the plain question: If it costs more
to haul Car load of wheat to the
Gulf from Medicine Lodge than
from Kansas City, although the
distance is nearly geo miles less,
who pays the difference, the Barber
county producer or the exporter
who buys the wheat at Galveston;
OF course, any man who has suffi,
Gent gumption to come in out oil
the wet, understands that the pro.
ducer has to stand the difference
Has the bread root that Luther
refers to so frequently been exhaust
ed or have the foundations of Bitter
creek gone dry that the brain O
our old time partner has become
muddled so that he cannot see thai