Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1915-01-26

city on january .. 1915. by Benjamin f..
Yoakum.)
want to impress upon You the close re-
lation~hip between government ownership.
railroads aud the unemployed, and | will
try Ia state this a. concI>cly a ! can.
There i, enough land in this country TO
furnish every family with loo acres ont of
the approximately : billion acre> that con
stitute our land domain.
Government statistics show that in the
west and southwest there j. les than II
IL per cent Of the available land under
cultivation.
These are interesting Stati,tic-, and are
of vital Importance to the unemployed,
which matter | shall refer Ia later.
Ii does not much matter who owns the
railroads because the government will ex-
erciSe the same regulative control over
them n If il really owned them. II the
show Town should come. | predict that
those who own the railroads will BE- more
willing 10 sell them Ht q fair valuation.
than those representing thr government
will be to buy.
| suggest a few reasons why the govern
ment will not buy the railroads:
The people will he slow 10 add / mil
lion 700 thousand railroad employees. whose
aggregate compensation j. now twice a.
much a. the total income of the government
exclusive of postal receipts.
There would be u storm Of opposition on
the part Of the people who have fixed and
old fashioned notions about a large public
debt.
Railroads now pay l43 million dollars
taxes annually. The government j. not
taxed on its property. In my opinion. the
states and municipalities would not stand
for being deprived of this income.
II the government owned the railroads II
would become the purchaser under normal
conditions. of one-third Of al the steel and
iron products of the country; onc-quarter
of the timber products Of the country, and
would become one of the largest purcha-
sers of coal and oil. Their the government
would 10 fix prices for IT. own
use, and 1t would automatically mean fix
ing the prices of the same product, sold
10 the public.
II l. conceded that one OF the great evils
that may result from government owner
ship will be- the destruction Of individual
iniativc and individual force that ha~ char
actcrized the success ~ the American pco-
Pile since the foundation Of this country.
1t l. true the government i preparing
10 construct and own the Alaskan railways.
This. no doubt. i Il wise conclusion. That
country shoold be developed. and the GOV
eminent has adopted the best way Of do
ing II.
The government also owns and operates
the Panama Canal. The Canal IL Y great
thing for the Americas. But even the DOW
crful government could not have engaged
IN these vast enterprises without cheap
money. II they had to pay Tor the money
the same price a. private corporations. nci-
Their the Panama Canal nor the Alaskan
railway would have been undertaken.
Let IL consider for Il moment the pres
ent threatened food famine. which i %
closely related Ia the cessation of railroad
construction and unemployment.
This j. the first time in 900 Ai~tory when
We are commencing To- face a food scarcity.
Inns l. the HI~i lllt RilAl lfAllNi~ HNNf
gone Ia Washington asking that the cxpor-
tation of food stuff be discontinued. The
countries nj war are burying our provisions
nj m unprecedented rate. and ii i plain
that We are about 10 sell more than We
have To spare.
We face this food emergency M 4 time
when We are in nm era of arrested dcvcl-
opment. I'm 1912 the last Of the big rail-
road construction contracts were compile
ted. Think Of this. there has been no new
railroad construction for , wears, and the
prospects are we will see another ? wears
without any additional railroad building.
This i the first period since the Civil War
that not Il sngle railroad construction con-
tract j. under way. We have had panic~
and hard times nj intervals. but never for
SO long 4 stretch. Heretofore We have had
railroad construction. expansion of the
country's development. opening up Of new
territory along new railroads. furnishing
labor with employment. 10 pull II through
each time. The reverse i the ease nj pre-
sent. There J. no work Of this kind under
way.
For 30 years prior 10 1912. our average
railroad construction has bcer q thousand
miles a year. Following the laying Of the
rails of these new railroads. many mill
hons OF acres of new land were made
available and put under cultivation. Ia
addition. thousands of industries for the
manufacture of raw material. such n min
erll- flmhap aud .slnr Tor fha