The L'Anse sentinel., 1921-07-01

a
Ing to be both yours and the railroad
through with II. Marrow. here; rep
resents Marshall, and represent
Henckel and myself. What are you
going to do about those ground leases?"
Nothing Mt all. except to insist upon
the condition under which they were
granted by the railroad company"
Meaning that you are going to try
to hold us to the fixed percentage
charge for handling. packing, loading,
and transferringf"
Meaning just that. If you raise the
proportional market-price charge on
the producers and merchants, the
leases will terminate"
81 thought that was about where
you'd land. Now listen: we're It
Marshall and Henckel and land
what we say, goes as 1t lies. We are
going to use the present G. 8. & w.
plants and equipment, charging our
own storage and handling percentages,
based on anything we see fit. II you
pull that ground-lease business on us
and try to drive us out, we'll fight you
all the way up to the Supreme court.
If you beat us there. well merely
move over TO the other side of your
tracks to our old Red Tower houses
and yards and go on doing business
at the old stand"
The boss sat back in his chair. and
I could tell by the set Of his jaw that
he was refusing to be panic-stricken.
"You are taking altogether too much
for granted. aren't your" he put in
mildly. "You are assuming that the
courts will eventually nullify the terms
not, that the railroad company will
| do nothing to save its patrons from
| falling into this new graft trap"
Hatch snapped his fingers. "Now
| you are coming to the milk In the
coconut" he raped out. THAT is
exactly what we're assuming. You
are going to let go, once for all, Nor
cross. You are not going to fight us
In the courts, and neither are you GO
| ing to harass us out of existence with
short cars, over-charges, and the thou
sand and one petty prosecutions that
| you railroad buccaneers make use of
to line yonr own pockets
| "But If we refuse to lie down and
let you walk over us and our patrons
what then?" the boss inquired.
| That brought the explosion. Hatch's
eyes blazed and he smacked fist into
palm.
"Then well knife you, and we'll do
II to a velvet finish! After so long
a time, we've got you where you can't
sidestep, Norcross."
The boss refused to be panic
stricken; or, anyhow. he looked that
way.
"We have heard that kind Of talk
many times In the past" he said. "The
way to make It effective is to produce
the goods"
"That's just what we're here to do T.
snapped the Red Tower president vim
dictively. "You, and the Big Fellows
in New York, want lot of the state
railroad laws repealed or amended.
If you can't get that string united.
you can't gamble any more with your
stock. Well and good. You came
here six months ago and set out to
manufacture public sentiment In favor
of the railroad. You ran up your
'public-be-pleased flag and beat the
tom-tom and blew the hewgag until
you got lot Of dolts and chuckle-
heads and easy marks to believe that
you really meant It."
SWELL go on"
"With all this humbug and hula
balloo you still couldn't be quite GER
tain that you had made your point !;
that your measures would carry
through the incoming legislature.
After the primaries you counted noses
among the candidates and found II
was going to be tight squeak-a
id tight squeak. Then you did what
you railroad people always do; you
slipped out quietly and bought a few
men--Just to be on the safe side"
So IL was sprung at last. Hatch
was accusing us of the one thing that
we hadn't done; that the boss knew
we hadn't done.
| "I'm afraid you'll have to try again,
Mr.. Hatch" he said, with a sour little
smile. Then he added: Anybody can
make charges, you know"
Hatch Jumped to his feet and he
was almost foaming at the mouth.
"Right there Is where we've got
you'll" he shouted. "You were too eau
tious to put one Of your own men In
the field. so you sept outside for your
briber. He was a stranger, and he
had to have help in finding the right
men to buy. Dedmon. here. was ont
Of job-thanks to you and your
meddlIng-and the steering stunt Of
fered good pay. Do you want any
more7'
The boss shook his head.
'It Is a matter Of complete indiffer-
ence to me. l don't know In the least
what you are talking about. and you'll
pardon me. hope. II say that II
doesn't greatly interest me-"
sBy heavens--rll make II interest
youi The easy-mark candidates. were
found and bought and paid for--and
maybe they'll stay bought and maybe