Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-27

In the grip of the great power of
the Southern Pacific railroad, the
people of California learned that they
had small advantage from those Won
! derful gifts of nautre wherewith their
state ran over. One resource after an
| other was discovered and developed,
gave forth it's promise of prosperity
and was incorporated into the money
| making machine OF the railroad mo-
nopoly, or asphyXiated by its high
| rates.
This rich adobe soil, surprisingly
! fertile, was found to produce such
wheat as never before had been seen;
stalks six feet high with l-rge, firm
berries. a prodigious yield: but when
vast acres had been sown in wheat,
the farmers discovered that at the
| freight rates exacted by the railroad
monopoly no profit lay in wheat grow
| ing. All the world was eager for
| California wheat; vessels came from
Liverpool around Cape Horn to get it.,
| and for the carriage of a few miles
from the farms to the seaport the
railroad charged so much that nothing
remained to the farmer.
The true garden spot of the world
| and after forty years of railroad DOM
| ination it has about 100000 inhabit-
ants in an area greater than Ohio, In
diana, Illinois, Massachusetts and New
! Jersey together; at least 40 per cent
| larger than Italy with less than one
twentieth of Italy's population! So that
| today. after the traN nler has appre-
| hended something of the unmatched
| resources of the country, the greatest
| of all it's wonders is the sparseness OF
! its population.
The same lawless power that per-
verted the government and seized the
/ gN.Ns &C., 10 III
velopment and deprived its people of
the products of their industry Men
have sown and this power cunningly
adjusting its rates for that purpose,
has year after year taken the harvest.
CONTROL OF BOTH PARTIES
You say: For this abnormal condi-
ton there must have been a remedy.
| This nation of ours is ruled by law and
| maiorities 1t must have been possible
to subdue or regulate this railroad.
The fault must have been with the
people.
Mono fault with the people. The
people were all right. The fault lay
| in the system. The choice offered to
| the pc Jple was between nominal rule
by the Republican party and nominal
rule by the Democratic party When
| they wearied of railroad tyranny under
the name of a Republican admlnistra-
! ton they revolted and introduced rail-
road tyranny under the name of a
! Democratic administration. The mo-
! nopoly controlled the Democratic ad-
ministration as easily as it had con-
trolled the Republican. 1t was pow
er too great to be withstood and made
great by the money of the community
| that it now oppressed.
But how about the law? How about
the blessed thing called regulation?
How about the government super
vision of corporations?
That is the very thing I want most
| to tell you about. Come, now, you
that think you can deal with this prob
lem by regulation. Come and have a
good look at this exhibit 1t will not
give you cheer, but it ought to furnish
unlimited instruction. Law? There was
nothing but law; and constitutions;
and provisions; and orders; and
| amendments; and fresh statutes; and
| then more law; all aimed and shaped
! to regulate, restrict and control this
monster: and the monster never gave
a hoot for all of them. Every step of
it's progress has been marked by the
| violation of some law or some article
of the holy constitution, and 1t strobe