Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1917-09-14
A POPULAR INJUSTICE

The cheapest commodity in the United
States proportioned to the cost of pro-
duction. is railroad transportation. A
gainst no other industry or business Is
prejudice so manifest. When the far
mer prospers from his bumper crops
when the merchant Is gaining wealth
from the result of wise enterprise, when
the banker announces vast capital and
reserve, when the wage Garner is stead
lily raising the per capita of his savings
when everybody is happy the COM
munity rejoices with exceeding great
JOY. But as soon as it gets abroad that
a railroad corporation has declared
dividend somebody is sure to object,
and there is a loud cry against the
"rapacity" of this phase of predatory
wealth." Only the railroads are sub
are cutting another melon"
jected to the popular sneer that "they
1t is apparently usless for the rail-
road to urge that their business is
sourced in the same economic neces-
high cost of living effects them as
II does every other business and indivi-
dual. that they pay the market price
for material and labor: that they are
handicapped by regulations, restric-
tions and determinations which are i'm
posed on nobody else; and that all they
ask is a square deal based on a just
opportunity to earn a fair. reasonable
and legitimate profit on their invest
ment.
The reason for this popuar attitude
of antagonism to the railroad corpora
tions is probably melted by fear of the
power which might be exercised by
the corporations if allowed the same
latitude of action freely granted to ev-
cry other industry and Enterprise. The
politicians have taken advantage of this
psychological condition. not so much,
perhaps, for the purpose of hampering
and destroying the railroad business as !
own ends by arraying the voters in an
antagonism that may be utilized for the |
political aggrandizment of the dema
gogues. The railroads are helpless to
retaliate in kind They are debarred |
from the common right of manipulating |
the political machinery of the state, al |
though that right is never denied to
the "lobby" of any other interest en-
deavoring to influence state or national
legislation Railroad politics. is an
athena.
Consequently when the largest en-
ployer of labor in the nation, the heav-
lest taxpayer, the most important in
dustrial interest, comes before the tri-
bunals of the country asking for rate
sufficient to carry on it's business, it is
denied on the general principal that if
the railroad charges are increased the
"melon" will be too big. The shippers
may sustain the railroads in their pc
may be offered that the railroads them
selves are paying the highest rates for
everything they use; it may be made
perfectly clear that extentions, better
ments, new roads for opening new ter
ritory, will be impossible unless the
earning capacity of the railroads is
nothing of all this serves
to secure relief for the railroad corpor-
ations. The fear of railroad domina-
tion" is too firmly grounded in the
public mind; the politicians have sue
ceeded only too well in beguiling popu
lar prejudice. And the railroads have
no other recourse than to submit to
the injustice. The condition thus mn
posed however, works its own revenge
in public inconvenience when a great e.
mergency arises and the railroad equip
ment of the nation is found inadequate.
But even in that contingency the poll
ticians have no difficulty in convincing
the credulous public that the railroads
ire entirely to blame for the deficiency.