Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-02-25
RaIIroadn nnd the PeonIe.


SILVER CREEK, Neb, Feb. 22.-To
the Editor OF The Bee I.wish publicly
to express my unqualified approval OF
your editorial in The Bee of this date
on The Railroads and the Public" and
In so doing am sure that / am quite in
accord with public sentiment generally
at least in the state of Nebraska.
You say: 'If the railroads had always
pursued the policy which is now being
adopted and had treated the public with
the frankness that has finally been forced
upon them, there is no doubt they would
have been met with equal frankness and
fair treatment"
That is true. The people would alvays
have been fair to the railroads, il the
railroads had been fair to the people;
but, as you say, they took an opposite
course. Their purpose was ito exact all
the traffic would bear" /. e., to skin the
people to the limit. and for more than a
generation they hav1 been doing IL 10
the Queens taste. About a year before
our legislature reduced passenger fares
to two cents per mile. as now remember.
wrote Gen. Charles f. Henderson, then
general solicitor of the b. g. NJ. railroad
company, proposing to him that he should
use his influence TO have the railroads
agree together on an anti-pass bill to
present to tho next legislature. and OF
their own accord to reduce fares to two
ana one-half cents per mile, assuring
MIN that II the railroads would do so.
and trust the people to do the right
thing by them, they would have no
further cause of complaint: but that n
they would not they might expect fares
TO be reduced to two cents per mile. Cen
era Henderson wrote me back a nice
letter, which have today. but there was
nothing doing" and the war went on.
And now when they find themselves de-
feated and crushed throughout the whole
United states, they come TO us (the
'people') with soft pleading words and
winning smiles, streaked with croco-
ale tears, and ask us TO now give them
OF our substance since they are no longer
able to rob us OF il. Wen. maybe the
people will consent to do it. but, In my
opinion, the railroads viii not find them
so complacent as a dozen railroad pres
idents lately found the president OF the
United States. who. notwithstanding his
pre-eleetion utterances against trusts.
ana all that, had not been long In office
before he went over to Wall Street and
the corporations body and brooches"
1 spoke of crocodile tears" Take no
uee then that at this very minute, while
the railroads are spending some hundreds
\ OF thousands OF dollars, they have
wrongfully taken from the pockets OF
the farmers. in paying for newspaper
/ articles to make the farmers see that
! they ought to consent TO still further
robbery. the Union Pacific railroad COM
pany is resorting to every means
In it's power TO take from farmers
In Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado ana
| Wyoming millions OF acres OF lands
worth perhaps on an average. 500 per
acre. that they have been farming Tor
more than geneTation. and which the
company claims as part OF its right-of-
way but which Il has not used ana from
the nature OF the case. never could use
In the legitimate operation OF its road
II the people OF Nebraska were per-
mitted to vete on the question. outside
OF those under the immediate control OF
the railroads. not one in one hundred
would vota TO give the railroads an in
crease in rates.
The people can easily see through this
thin railroad veneering OF honesty ana
fair dealing, which would instantly peel
off II they should succeed In their present
purpose OF securing an increase in rates.
CHARLES WOOSTER.