The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-10-20

factory is no longer favored over INT
product Of another factory; one town
or city IS not given advantages which
are denied another town or city. The
railways have really become. common
carriers, and are willing, I believe, t.
obey the laws of Congress, preferring
Legislation by the Nation before legis
lation in the States.
''What more is needed" [ inquired
Il think we should have laws pre-
venting railways from increasing their
freight rates and from excessively
Watering their securities.
"why not prohibit water alto
/ gethers" 1 asked
"Men who build railways" Colonel
Hepburn answered, "and thereby take
great financial risks, are as much emit
tied to the unearned increment, so
| called, as are the owners of lots and
lands. I bought a farm many years
ago for SO an acre. 1t has paid very
| little, if anything, as an investment,
but could get 800 an acre for it to-
| day, were | to put it in the market.
The increased value will be my profit,
when l choose to sell. So [ believe
the increased value of railways should
go to the owners of their shares and
| bonds. Many roads have had long
and discouragfng struggle. Part of
the Burlington system, for instance,
didn't pay a dividend for seventeen
years. Ho ever, an undue expansion
of securities should be prohibited
81 suppose many pioneer families in
the West are rich because of prudent
purchases of land?" I said.
So few are rich, large number are
in comfortable circumstances, but hun
dreds of our first settlers are poor be-
cause they believed the prairies were
good for grass, and nothing else. Ny
father took up seventy acres of forest
at far greater cost in time and toll
than would have been required on
thousand acres of prairie. Farmers
from wooded countries argued that
land without trees was worthless. Our
farm was only a mile or two from
thousands of acres of rich land ready
for the breaking plough, but we
chopped and sawed and grubbed and
wore our lives out in improbable and
almost hopeless labor. A man in our
neighborhood moved few miles away
to the prairie. 1t was predicted that
he would starve and finally die of cold.
/ remember that he went on Monday
and that meeting was held in our
log cabin on Thursday, at which
PRAYERS were made for his safety.
Wheat could be sold at Muscatine,
fOrty-one miles over the country, for
% cents bushel in money. Corn was
9 cents bushel in goods We traded
cur surplus near at home for actual
neeessaries. A 200-pound pig was
worth as much as $50. Blue calico,
with a white dot-Merrimac cloth, we
called it-cost 3115 cents a yard. We
remained on the farm for three years,
and then went to live in Iowa City. =
"Were there schools in Iowa at that
time?"
"Not in the country districts. II
got no schooling while on the farm.
At Iowa City I attended the Mechan-
ics' Academy for three years. Ny
mother was one of the teachers. James
Harlan, afterward a United States
Senator and also the father-in-law of
Robert Todd Lincoln, had come from
Indiana and started an educational
movement, which was really the be-
ginning of the public school system in
Iowa. He was one of the greatest
men in American history, and one of
the real builders of the West I re-
member that he told me he lived on |
y cents a week while going to college |
in Indiana, his diet, day in and day |
out, being limited to cornmeal mush |
and potatoes. But in those days one |
could buy lot of mush and potatoes |
for a shilling. The first time I ever !
saw Harlan I was in the act of put |
ting on my trousers, having Just ford |
ed a river. I had been planting sod |
corn for a farmer-chopping holes in |
the upturned sod with an axe, then
dropping in the seed and covering it |
Overland felt rather important In |
my pocket was the equivalent of $175, |
the wages of seven long days in the |
sun, but it was decidedly mixed, there |
being silver coins, as I recollect, of |
three nations-Spain, France and the
United States. Harlan was riding in |
buggy with a doctor At their in
yitation I climbed in behind, and sat |
where the doctor usually carries his |
pill bag. Then I began to count and |
jingle nv money. Harlan looked back |
and said, MY boy, you will never
again feel so rich as you do this min |
ute. He was right about it. The |
acquaintance thus begun grew into an |
intimate friendship that lasted as long
as he lived.
CT have been thinking of Harlan |!
many times lately" Colonel Hepburn |
continued, Especially since the death |
of Allison. He had served in the |
United States Senate with distinction, |
but was beaten by Allison in 1873. |!
The most effective argument against |
him concerned his advanced age. He |
was fifty-two years old! A few months |
ago Mr. Allison was a candidate be- |
fore the people of Iowa for his sew
enth senatorial term. He was sue
cessful. though twenty-seven years
ol3er fhou was Harlan whom Pnfired |