The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-26

cry railroad means just SO many new villages and towns. fixed home mar ket for farm products and an abso iuts increase In the proits of farming and in the price per acre Of farmins
 Would you favor allowing one rail- road to buy stock in another and the consolidation of competing lines?
 sCensellaate Reaasf Yea" --
 "()f course should. What the farm CT wants 10 to ship his stun through from the farm to the market over one line. dealing with one get of people, setting quick movsment avoiding de- lays and losses. In the old days, be-. fore the Interstate Commerce Conmis' sion and the state Railroad commis. sions, 1t was thought the only way to protect the people in tho matter Of rates was to forbid the purchase by one railroad of another. This Is no longer true. Federal and State Rail- roda Commissions now protect that. Ii there were 10000 miles of railroad m oklahoma. all owned by one railroad. the Raiiroad Commission of the State would have the power to fix the rates and regulate the practices of such railroad, so that there could not pos sibly be any abuse Of power.
 If you were an Oklahoma farmer, would you vote for the proposed amendment of its Constitution gtving the right of consolidation to railroadsF
 What I have said answers this, but let me add that the amendment. If carried, would put oklahona anesa ten years. You must remember, that there IS a whole lot of the earths sur face in the United. States that remains to be developed. No one State has monopoly of 1t. Should Oklahoma step to the front of the procession and say, Bring on your railroads. we want them; we will encourage you to build them, and after they are finished we will impose only reasonable resula, tion,' the world would be amazed at the strides Oklahoma would make Tn the next ten years. Most certainly l should vote for the amendment
 "One other question, MT. Yoakum. What is there in the frequent news paper assertion that Oklahoma fs tax ing her corporations out or exist- ence?"
 "Nothing. We have paid our taxes and are still able to do business. For a few years in the new State. which has taken over all the old Indian Ter ritory. where taxes never were im- posed, the tax rate will probably be high. but l believe this will adjust It. self. without the slightest criticism of administrative officers of the State, they must realize that four times the railroad mileage in Oklahoma, at hair the present tax rate. would. produce twice the present revenue. l mean by this that the people--especialiy the farmers--of Oklahoma ought to first get the railroads they mead; the taSes will then take care of themselves"
 Have you any definite plan in nina to bring about the closer cooperation between the farmers and the railroads which you have so strongly adyocat-, Ad7"
 Interests Are Mutual.
 sNone, except that I can only see the farmers and railroads interests as mutual The farmers own the soil. the railroads the transportation. To work together as I have suggestedsis an ad- vance step in the right direction. and if the producers in each county would organize for cooperation to work with the railroads we are ready not only Jt0s CO., operate. but would put in the State whose bus mess it should be to attend their State Or local meetings to talk over matters and find where the interest of both might be advanced"
 "Is the Rock lsiand-Frisco system intending to make important exten- sions in Oklahoma?"
 "That depends; but am surry that I have not time to take you into my confidence about that" he replied with an enigmatical smile.
 Yoakum's friends say that as e young railroad man he was possessed of the-unalterabie conviction that tha Southwest's future promised more glorious destiny than any other por- ton of the civilized globe. In the era of the cattle baron and the days of the long horn in Texas and Oklaho- ma he drew vivid pictures for his as- sociates of a land beautiful, interlaeed with railroads. dotted with industrial towns and manufacturing centres ana the surrounding country alive with & highly educated farming population