The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-03-24
RAILROAD RATES

from the railroad rate meetings in
Ocala and Kissimmee except pub
licity Of the rights Of the people and
the wrongs inflicted upon them.
If the railroad commission orders
the roads to obey the law, they will
almost certainly resist, take the mat
ter into the courts, and try TO wear
the commission and the people out
by delay and technicality. The roads
can do this at little expense They
keep their legal advisers on salary,
and may just as well make them
earn their money in this work as not.
When the next legislature meets.
railroad men will be on hand with a
big lobby and lots of money, and try
to have the law repealed or so
amended that it will make no differ
ence to them or the people whether
it is enforced or not.
And yet the railroads are short
sighted in this policy. In everything
of this sort they do, they hasten the
day of government ownership. Only
two things prevent it now One is
the opposition of the railroad men
themselves and the mercenary people
whom they can buy. With all the
numbers, money and influence this
class can muster, it will prove a
weak dam against the flood OF the
| peoples will.
The other is the once very large
but steadily diminishing element
F! that opposes government control OF
any business. This class opposes
municipal, state and federal owner
ship on principle. 1t believes that
the government should do nothing
! but govern, and that all business
should be in the hands of private in
| dividuals and corporations. 1t be-
lieves that government ownership
| would be tyranny; that it would in
crease graft and inefficiency in all
work
| This element was once large and
powerful, and as impregnable to as
sault as the rock of Gibraltar. That
it has weakened and diminished of
late years is due somewhat to the eff
| ficiency shown in many instances by
| government control and municipal
ownership; but is far more owing to
the short sight and bad policy of the
railroads themselves. The tyranny
of government rule can be no worse
than the tyranny Of technicality con-
stantly invoked against the people.
We run against partially and ineffi-
cheney every way We turn. Every
where do the railroads slight or OPP
press those who support them in fav-
or of those they expect something
from. The graft of the lobby is a
local, state and national menace.
) The Star was one of those that in
years past opposed government own
ership because of the evils it feared
1t has seen those evils come to pass
and worse, at the hands of the cor
| porations. So 1t takes its stand
among the advocates of government,
Ownership. 1t is better to fly to the
evils that we may avoid than endure
these we are now oppressed with.
Personally, the Star has no quar-
rels with railroads or railroad men
The men we meet every day are hon
est, efficient and obliging. They are
of the people themselves, and they
are inclined to do all they can fol
their friends and neighbors. They
do all they can, and they would dc
more if it wasn't for the men higher
up; very far up. 1t isn't the men il
Ocala or Gainesville, or even the mel
in Jacksonville or Tampa that make
the trouble. It's the men in New
York, clear out of touch with thu
people, holding the men in charge o
! the divisions responsible for ever,
J dollar, and caring not copper wha
dends are paid, that have made thu
breach between the public and th'
&? roads, and will keep it widening til
corporation ownership crumbles I'm
der their feet and goes down int
the gap. The men who lay the lines
and run the trains, sell the ticket
and handle the freight, as we'll as tn
people who travel, ship and receiv
goods, will all be better off when tn
day comes that they and not the cor
porations will own the rails tina
should link them together instead OF
|. as now, hold them apart.