The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-09

to greatly increase the net income Of
all the people in order to enable
them to secure the improvements and
meet the requirements of ar un-to-
date civilization. Any race better
ment to be Of paramount value must
be. a betterment of the masses. All
true civilization must be the worL
of the people. 1t can not be made
for them and donated to them. The
present net annual gains of the masses
are not sufficient to meet the expen-
ditures involved in the demands an
enlightened public opinion is forcing
to an immediate issue.
Eat no period in our history have
we faced so many great problems re-
curing immediate solution. Each
of them has advanced with the i'm
portance of billions, knocked at the
door Of public opinion and demanded
immediate recognition.
list. There is our Banking system.
never upon a sound, practical, or
even a sensible basis, expanding when
it ought to contract and contracting
when it ought to expand, always re-
garding the peoples money as it's own
and using it for private gains instead
of promoting the public veal. The
people have long demanded a sane
banking system under which the COM
mOnWealth would be the greatest
gamer. We hear much of the con-
Servation of natural resources. is 1T
not also important that there should
be such a conservation of monetary
resources. hat all the peoples money
shall be equitably and justly used to
conduct all the peoples business? Our
present dangerous system of banking
should not be a charge against bank
ers. Simply q false system took root
upon q fertile soil and grew without
attention. 1t is a case where the
pruning knife should be used and
not a stick of dynamite.
"2nd. Another great problem is the
reimbursement of both railroads ard
their freight charges. 1t is admit
ted that our present railway system
is better suited to long hauls and
great centers than to rural traffic.
Even now readjusting influences are
at work to abl the less cumher-
some electric railway for collecting
rural freights and concentrating them
in the larger centers to be then ia
ken up by the transcontinental lines.
1T was hoped at one time that
the lower grades, better road-beds,
heavier rails. and larger engines would
greatly reduce freight rates, but for
some reason they have not.
THE enormous growth of cities in
the last half century is largely
chargeable to the policy Of the rail
roads. The lower freight rates en-
joyed by the cities nave concentrated
the manufactures, and determined
the centers of distribution.
1.-THE railroads are largely the vic
TINS of conditions that have created
them and controlled them. There is
tt. fiction of a water rate which fire.
quently forces freights between
coastal cities below a living rate. and
the loss is made good by placing a
higher tariff upon shipments to the
defense1ess interior.
"This fiction is the cause Of many
shipping paradoxes. One very COM
mon is to have carload lots pass
their destination, frequently two hum
dred miles, and return them at local
rates for a less total charge than
they would switch the car at its real
destination as the train passes. rms
is only one of thousands of
encies which have been forced into
railway policies during its marvellous
development and which railroads are
as eager as the people to correct. The
transportation problem by rail is yet
In it's infancy, and Notwithstanding
the enormous sums already expended
in construction and equipment we
have been awakened to the fact hat
the present lines are totally made
quate to meet the demands Of our
growing commerce, and that vast
sums must be borrowed to construct
new lines.
1.-The intricacy of dealing with q
readjustment of the railways lies IN
the fact tina it is of vital Importance
to the general public that railroads
should not be damaged nor even their
credit injured in effecting reforms.
"3rd. Another great problem be-
fore the people is the construction or
a system Of inland waterways de-
quate to meet the demands OF COM
merce present and prospectiye-no
Daltry bitches s, 9 or IL feet deep,