The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-11-14
BY MoRD WILGus.
PART IL.

of profit and the total profits for
any given year, it is imperative to
know exactly how much capitaEnot
watered capital but real cold capital
has been put into the enterprise.
The railroad magnates claim that 22,-
900, 900 ,000s dollars have been Gin
vested. Nj Astronomical figures of that
kind may be necessary when one
studies the celestial bodies but GER
tainly when dealing in cold cash, 1t
is horse of another color. What do
they mean by % billion dollars Elm
vested? Have these capitalists for
gotten the enormous grants Of 1885,
273,560 acres of public lands which
they bribed the congress and the state
legislatures to vote" them? Have
these captains of industry lost their
memory about the extension of state
credit to them-a direct violation of
the stitution-enabling them t0I
build the roads with the states money
as in the case of the Union Pacific
which received $23,213,OOO in govern
ment bonds? And have the railroad
kings lost sight of the fact that what
ever original investments" we're
made have been repaid in interest and
dividends many times over?
TINE imagination is staggered when
4 confronted by the unheard Of cor
Tuption, bribery and trickery which
marked the construction of the rail-
roads The M'Cormacks, the Macys,
the Mortons, the PuIlmans, whose des-
cendants today are looked upon as
honest" and respectable" million
aires, we're directly involved in enorm-
GUS embezzlements of public property.
The records of this gentry as given
in detail by Gustsvus Myers in his
work History of American Fortunes"
are unparalleled for shameless corrup-
ton, so far as we can make out, in
all history 1t makes the old Roman
aristocracy look like pikers in com
parison-
Let us take one example, The
Northerhs PGGhess fafroad was granted
200 feet of public land on each side
of its tracks along the entire road in
1864. AS the road was in the process
Of construction, numerous villages and
towns grew up alongside without the
slightest protest by the railroad Of
icials. Naturally this caused the value
of the fand to increase many times
Suddenly in 1877, the railroad brings
suit to eject all the so-caIled tres
passers and the supreme court, faith
full to the interests of the capitalists,
upholds its contention The result
was that the towns and cities had to
pay millions of dollars in tribute to
the railroad magnates or be sum-
marily evicted- What was this but
trickery by the railroad owners to en-
rich themselves at the expense Of the
public?
A MOTHER important fact to re-
"A member is that practically all Of
the railroad stock now outstanding
represents no capital at all. The
method Of financing railroad construc-
ton consisted of public Offering of
bonds with stock generally given
away free. According to the o. S. de-
partment Of commerce, the stock"
both common and perferred, Of the
railroad for the year 1922 was valued
at over $9,OOO,OOO,OOO- For this imag-
mary investment" the investors re-
ceived for the year 1922. $275,721, SIS
all velvet on fictitious or watered
stock. To give the reader an idea Of
what an enormous tribute the capital
lists are forcing from the public-that
is to say the working classes-we Will
give the dividends as paid year by
year starting wiz 1908:
Dividends
Year.6ssat ra7 nr Declared
June 80, 1908 1929, 062 PSI