Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1912-09-05

What l want to know is why shout
the people, whose labor built ali the
railroads, be compelled to pay trib
ute to lot of parasites who never
did an honest days labor in their
lives? Labor produces everything,
while so-called capital produces moth
ling; but the capitalists manage to ex
plot the produceis out of four flfths
of their product without performing
any labor themselves. Now as to the
actual cost of transportation, | am
not able to give figures, but the Inter
state Commerce Commission gave
out some over II years ago, and l
presume the cost of railroad service
has not gone up since then.
They then said that it cost ship
per $4S00.00 to transport 1900 tons
of freight FROM Chicago to New
York but that the actual cost of that
service was about $500. In comment
ing on this one of the Commission
ers said: Bearing in mind the in
credile cheapness with which trans
portation can be conducted, and the
enormous cost which the pople have
to pay to get it done we have the
astonishing result that 60 per cent
of the mileage of this country has
never paid dividends on its COM
mon stock, and % per cent are in
the hands. OF receivers. l find it
difficult to reconcile these three gen
eral facts
Now win Mr.. Priest, or any other
railroad official, tell us producers
what went with the other $4,000 in
the above case?
And furthermore, if railroad rates
are reasonable, how did Mr.. E. H.
Hartman, commencing comparatively
poor, bequeath at his death, some
thing like s25O,O00,OOO to his widow? |
Who produced that wealth, Mr.. !,
Priest? Was it not "a Farmer
and all other boneheads like him
who haven 0 better sense than to
put up with damnable system that
exploits them out of the
results of their hard labor / know
IS well as Mr. Priest that we have
he lowest average" freight rates
n the world l have never denied
hat but how is that average made
lp? The average is only about S1.0S
: ton, but does Mr.. Priest know of
my producer in this neck of woods
Who gets his freight for even $1.06
yer hundred? Hardly. How is that
lyerage obtained? Simply by the
zig corporations who ship the big end
f the freight, paying the little end
4 the freight bill. We the producers
he real boneheads of this glorious
country of equal opportunity, pay the
zig end. We have Mr.. Priests bare
ire reasonable but we are left to
-onstrue that word reasonable" pref
y much as the Supreme Court left
he people in the Standard Oil Case.
The people have paid about $780,
100, 900, extra already for that one
word and it looks like the 0. S. L.
lad appropriated the word for the
anne purpose. Better ask the farm
RS what they consider reasonable
{ you want to find out whether there
re many Of my class" in this
community l may have something to
ay later on about the coalition be-
ween the railroads and the ex- |
ress companies. That has much to 6
o with the rates to small pro-
ucers in Idaho. ie
In the meantime viii Mr. Priest I
ell us boneheads just why we should
ave TO pay enough on freight to in
ure interest on bonds and dividends Q
q stock greatly in excess of the {
ctual cost of the road he represents. u
presume that MIR. Priest knows that >
lie stock of his road, as well as of Is
i other roads. has been copiously (
rigated and that we, the producers, y
e expected to pay rates sufficient
insure dividends on the surplus
otoxide Of hydrogen.
A FARMER