The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-08-18
LIGHT is BREAKING

long persisted IN, can not always con-
tinue. In the course of years common
sense will obtrude and wrong will he
righted
THIS paper is led to this conclusion
from the following item which II
finds in the Dallas (Texas) News.
According to an edict of the inter.
state commerce commission it will be
/unlawful after October * for The
transcontinental railroads to charge
more for hauling freight from Nov
York to the Rocky mountains than
from New York to the Pacific ocean
Heretofore the carriers have uniform.
~ charged less for the long haul than
for the short, and if they had followed
the rule to its logical end the rate
from Boston to Hong Kong would
have been less than from Boston to
Bunker Hill.
1t does seem to this paper that so
fragrant and outrageous a wrong as
is indicated in the above item would
have long since been righted. But
there are so many ways of getting
around wrong, especially a fragrant
wrong. The Ocala Demands. the
Omaha platform, and anything that
is thought unpopular, is wrung in to
create false impression, befuddle the
subject under discussion, and refer
ence is also made to the law of eco
Monies as pretense and show of
logic and wisdom.
1t does seem to this paper that anv
ordinary school boy, the boy that by
common consent has been awarded
the right to wear the ounces can,
ought to know and does know that it
costs less to travel one hundred miles
than it does two hundred miles, and
the permission from those in author
ity to charge more for the lesser than
the greater distance, can not be justi-
fed upon any law of science, econom-
les, fact or fiction
Yet up to this blessed hour. in this
great and enlightened country, the
men that we have deliberately chosen
to regulate our freight rates, have
pursued this sort of a policy and have
sought to justify it on the theory that
our rivers and harbors have been the
especial pets of the government-like
the negroes and Indians are the espec-
ial wards of the nation-and should be
given extraordinary privileges.
The interior cities-those remote
from rivers and harbors-are depend
ent solely upon the railroads for
transportation facilities and because,
forsooth, we are so dependent and
the seapoart cities are not so situated
that this text of scripture is quoted:
For he that hath, to him shall be
given: and he that hath not, from him
shall be taken even that which he
hath
When this text of scripture was
formulated steam if discovered had
not yet been utilized, there were no
railroad nor steamship lines and COM
merce rested on an equality. The
application of the text was along
moral and intellectual lines.
The people of the interior are wax
ing up to the fact that they ought no
j, longer pay out their good and hard
: earned money to place an anaconda
along the paths of commerce that
will squeeze them to the point of
strangulation.
The idea of any newspaper upon
any theory of economics pretending
that there is an excuse for hauling a
car load of freight from the Atlantic
to the Pacific ocean at a less rate
not proportionate but for the entire
trip-than for half that distance to
the Rocky mountains; that there is
any justification, palliatiOn or excuse
in the science of economics, equity,
law or common sense for carrying
goods cheaper from Jacksonville to
Tampa or St. Petersburg than for
carrying the same goods half the dis
lance to Ocala, is amazing
For any one to attempt justifica-
tion of it is enough to freeze the mar
row in ones bones.
But light is breaking. Even those
who occupy seats upon our state anu
interstate commissions are finding
out that they can not longer fool the
people and after October Is we are
told that one of these fragrant, pal
pable wrongs is to be corrected.
If the newspapers of the interior
will join hands with the Ocala Ban
ner and demand at the hands of the
railroad commissioners of this state
that these other wrongs that cannot
be justified upon any theory of JUS
tice or common sense, shall be righted
it will be done and these outrageous
and fragrant determinations against
the interior will be a thing of the past.
Let's get together and wage