Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1907-07-11
We Pay Too Much.

not 50 plan either II means lhaI lhe
railroads and express companies are
unjustly extortionate: that they man
age to sponge from the people millions
upon millions OF their earnings every
year. more than the square deal would
allow them. But read the clipping:
'sThe Adams express melon Of 80,
oo9. 900 cut the other day is on top of
si2, 900, 600 distribution some years ago.
Between these two cuttings the stock
holders Of the express company receiy-
Cd regularly S per cent upon sl2, 900, 900
Of stock. How, the New York Press
asks, are these tremendous profits
earned by express companies which car
ry only part Of the railroads lighter
freight. when the stockholders Of the
railroads are averaging only 3 per cent
on their investment and il answers
that they are not earned at ali: that the
whole business is graft. The stock
holders Of the railroads are robbed OF
the profits which would 20 TO them if
the railroads carried their own small
freight as they carry their own large
freight. The Adams express company
has the monopoly Of the business on the
Pennsylvania and other big lines The
! American runs the business on the Van
derbiit lines. The country is farmed
out to express companies, and it is sus-
pected that they have huge profit-pay-
| ing contracts with the railroads because
the big men in the railroads own the
stock Of the express companies. II is a
graft similar to the sleeping ear graft,
the terminal graft and the private car
line graft. Railroads should do their
own business, and public commissions
may wisely turn their attention 10 the
/ doctrine that they must do Sc.
The common people" scarcely know
what an express company is. They are
always connected with the railroads,
and the common supposition is that
they are one and the same thing. This
after all is pretty nearly the truth. But
the actors do not 50 pretend. What
they mean 10 have the people believe is
that the railroad carries the express
company the same as it carries pas
senger, or as freight. They do 90
through this form. The railroad COM
pany has contract with the express
company to carry all the express it has
to carry at 50 much pound or ton. Or
| il contracts with the express company
70 draw the express cars over the road
at stated price Now it is represent
ed, as above, that the railroads only
make per cent on the value they have
in the road The express company, all
Of whose business is done over the road,
pays dividends Of per cent. Put these
two together and we have it plain that
eleven per cent is made out Of the peo-
pie who patronize the express compan-
les. Now, as the railroads did all of it,
is il not clear that three per cent is
enough to pay for doing this work
And that the eight per cent is extor-
ton
But you see in the clipping that this
is only little of it. The Adams Ex-
press company is only one Of several of
these big companies. 1t tells US that
besides the regular eight per cent the
members of the company divided among
themselves sl2, 600 600 few years ago.
And they have since been accommodating
until now they are making another d.
vision of S24, 600, 000l You who are cad.
ing this, what are you thinking about ?
1t is nothing to you, is it, what they
make? But you wish it was you, don't
YOU? We don't blame you a bit. Only
if you would think little you would
see that you are not getting your share
of the worlds wealth because you are
letting those fellows and others like
them get it.
But the point that sticks US 10 the
quick more than any other in this con
nection is, the way our officials allow
impositions of this class You see what
the express companies make. But the
railroads get from Uncle Sam a consid-
erably greater extortion than the ex-
press companies get out of the people.
Uncle Sam pays the railroads for draw
ing the postal cars not simply as much
as the express companies pay the roads
for drawing their cars, but he pays
more than the express companies charge
the people, out of whom they make
their regular eight per cent and the
frequent SIP, eco and $4,000. 600
melons. This is the way our officials
have been treating us. They have con
tracted away to the roads many mill
ions Of dollars every year more than
they should. The people are robbed by
this process.