The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1917-07-05
Corruption taused by the Private
Ownership of Railroads.

ownership of railroads, we mean the
methods the railroads use when they
crowd out the smaller railroads, and
the underhand policies of corruptine
our courts and Legislature, that these
great corporations make possible
This corruption falls under three
great heads; corruption to the individ-
ual; corruption in the courts and cor.
ruption in the legislature.
If there is a powerful railroad COM
.pany passing through some choice ter.
nitory, and some men decide to put
another road through the same terri.
tory, they organize company, and
build their road. AS soon as they
start traffic on the new line, the pow
erful railroad company starts cutting
its rates and the weaker company IS
obliged to do the same thing in order
to get any of the trade. But, soon, the
smaller company's capital is expend-
ed; and the officials are forced to sell
for less than cost or continue to let
their road run at loss.
A good example of this is shown,
when a small company put road
through the San Joaquin valley in
California. There was already road
through there called the San Joaquin
railroad. Just as soon as the small
company had started running trains
over their line, the San Joaquin Com
pany began reducing their rates, both
-, fxa;cL% 'opJ nocconoorc. and aS a
result, the smaller company became
bankrupt. This shows the corruption
caused to groups of individuals by the
large and powerful companies.
Then there is corruption caused to
private individuals. For instance, if a
person has a large assignment OF
goods sent to him, and some of them
are missing; he puts in his claim to
the company and they ignore it or else
wait two or three months before they
do anything about it. The private
individual realizing his lack OF money
and therefore his helplessness RACES
inwardly, but is unable to collect for
his lost goods. Then, take the case OF
of the Chicago & Alton Railroad. Mr..
Hartman and several other men with
large capitals started this railroad
company and sold great many
shares of watered stock to individuals.
Then they forced these men to sell
out for less than par value; and as
result they made an immense amount
of money.
Another way to see this corruption
is to look at it from the side OF a per-
son who has been injured by train.
He sues the company and either gets
beaten in the suit or gets very small
amount of money because he hasn't
enough money to push his suit to a
successful end.
Now, take up the corruption in our
courts. Privately owned railroads are
causing a great deal of corruption In
our courts by bribing our judges to
vote in their favor with passes and
money. Each year the railroad hands
out to all the promiennt attorneys a
free pass over their railroads. In this
way they gain the favor Of the courts.
The following is the case of a man
newly elected to the bench. Just as
esoon as one of the railroad companies
found out that he was good judge
the president sent him pass. 1t was
the first one he had ever received and
he resolved that it would not make any
difference in his work. A short tine
afterwards he was called against tn.
railroad. A few days later man came
into his office and told him that he
represented that company. Then ne
said :"Judge, you decided case
against us the other day, didn't you e.
The Judge replied that he had. The
representative of the company got up
and said, "Well, don't do it again" and
walked out. A few months later, II
became this judges unpleasant duty
to decided another case for or against
the railroad company. He decided
against them again. The next time
he had occasion to travel on this line,
the conductor took up his pass and
made him pay his fare. This incident
shows how private ownership OF rail-
roads could corrupt our courts.
Private ownership of railroads even
.corrupts our legislatures because
these companies spend large amounts
of money to get candidates elected
that will legislate for then. They give
these men and others in the leglsla-
ture, that the ythink they can SWING
over votes in their favor, passes and
brides. In this way, they generally
win favor of enough men in the legls-
lature so that any bill they want to
pass will be passed, and that tney
want killed, will be killed.
Therefore, we can see that some
thing should be done to stop the aw-
full corruption that the private owner
ship of railroads causes.
Arthur L. Barry, 1913.
The Growth of Dairy Cattle
Dairying has advanced greatly in
the last fifty years in this country.
Many years ago a cow was just COW
and nothing else, but not so with TO-
day. A cow Of a dairy type is a great
factory which produces as much mix
81 =. .~ol1, of oud ar the SANE: