The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1920-01-02
new RAIL BILL
BLOW TO FARMER
Wall Street Millions Massed
to Gust Public From Road
Operation.

The Farmers National council has
/ issued the following statement from
it's headquarters i'm Washington:
There has never been a better fl
nanced, more strongly organized drive
upon congress to secure big subsidy
than the railroads are now making
through the Cummins and Esch bills.
Farmers should remember the essen
tial facts about the railroads They
. received land grants of over lo3VO,-
GOO acres, besides valuable terminals.
and Il cash subsidy of over three quar-
tiers of Il billion dollars, in order to
keep down rates for the benefit of the
American people. Instead of doing
| this the railroads have been looted by
! the big financial interests and heavily
over-capitalized, with the result that
| freight rates were constantly increas-
ing, and service becoming poorer he
fore we entered the war. When we en-
tered the war the roads were i'm such
IL demoralized condition that the gov
/ eminent had to take them over i'm
order to win the war.
OF the total present capitalization of
the railroads of about twenty billion
dollars, about eight billion is wateretl
stock. Fifty per cent of the stock is
owned by one and one-tlird per cent
of the stockholders. The government
has been paying the railroads about
$3.50. coo 600 IA year more than they are
morally entitled to, while the whole
Wall Street crowd which has remained
in control of the railroads under gov
eminent operation, has been continu-
ously hampering operation. lniuring
service. and wasting the peoples
money in an effort to discredit govern
ment ownership. In spite of all this
unpatriotic effort by Wall Street. rates
have increased less on the railroads
than in any other important utility In
private ownership or in public, less
than wages, and less than the made
Quate increase In prices for farm prod
ucts. Even under these hard cOndi-
lions government operation is showing
Il net profit at the rate of over $685.
100000 IL year.
The director general of the railroads
and Interstate Commerce Commissions
GA WVOltCJ, u0NG 0uOWu ll1dkk VIG SJuIU-
Minis and Esch bills which Wall Street
is now attempting to drive through
congress, will require that freight
rates be increased about one-third,
compelling the public to pay the rail-
roads Il subsidy of about billion dol
lars year, which will be reflected in
an increase In the cost of living, OF
well over four billions. These bills
will compel farmers to pay mt least
$2OO,OOO,OOO a year more for merely
carrying their products, and on most
conservative estimate, $1,0O.ODNOOO "a
year more for what they buy, than
they would II the roads continued un-
der government operation.
In order to drive these bills through,
Wall Street has perfected Its plans to
spend ten million dollars on the cam
paign Of advertising, to return the
roads to private operation with bill
lion dollar subsidy.
The return of the railroads under
pending legislation will be "a serious
blow to agriculture. Not only will 1t
compel farmers to accept less for what
they sell, but because OF the tremen-
dous increase in the cost Of living
which will result, the farmers wheat
will be greatly restricted. The city
consumer will be unable to buy so
much farm produce.
Farmers should ut once write or tele-
graph Senator A. b. Cummins and
Congressman John J. Esch, in charge
Of these bills, opposing them, and also
wire their own senator's and congress
men, asking them to work to defeat
both bills.
FARMERS MUST ACT AT ONCE
FOR WALL STREET is WORKING
OVERTIME TO PUT THOSE BILLS
THROUGH.