Year: 1874

/ am not here, sir, as an advocate o.


railroad companies by any means, GER
tainly not to speak in their favor where
any wrong has been committed by those
having them in control especially such
WRONGS to which have already adverted


but having listened to the discussion on
this Article and on many other subjects
that have been before this Convention


where the question of railroad manage


ment was involved, where the most seri


Gus charges have been made by gentle


men, without stint or hindranee, that
would lead the unwary and unsuspecting
to believe that any man that enters into
the employment of a railroad, or takes
an interest of any kind in such company
at once turns rascal and becomes mem
Der of ring whose sole business and in
tent is to cheat and defraud in every
way and manner that ingenuity corrup-
ton and depravity can suggest and de
| Ylse. Now that many wrongs have been
! done by these companies to individuals
do not pretend to deny; but yet at the
same time l have abundant reasons to
| know that there is no interest of such
magnitude doing such vast business
| transactions as the railroads of the State
but that there is an equal amount of
wrongs committed and fraud done as is
done by these corporations. The differ
ence consists in this, that these compa-
nies do such business with the public,
and every act of wrong done and fraud
committed is easily detected and can be
made known, and is carefully published
and trumpeted abroad, and talked of
again and again in public places, so that
the public ear can hear and the public
tongue repeat; and any such wrong when
once discovered is rolled under the tongue
of some who speak for the ear of jeal-
GUS public as a sweet morsel, without
once intimating that wrongs are con-
stantly done to these companies by the
/ very persons and communities that are
so constantly complaining of them.


If the gentleman from Pickaway rep
resents the sentiment of the people of
his county, 1 will here venture the asser-
ton that no railroad company can go
into the courts of his county and submit
controversy of any kind between it and
citizen of the county and receive that
measure of justice that is meted out even
there, as in case where the controversy
| is between two private citizens of the
county and this is more or less the case
in every county of the State, as every
lawyer in active practice must have OBJ
served in all sections and parts of the
! State. ...r


| Mr.. PAGE l will ask the gentleman
| if he will permit me, what said to justify
! such statement?


Mr.. TRIPP. / will not now undertake
| to answer the gentlemans question only
as it will be answered in the course of my
argument; for the present l will only say
| gentlemen have heard his remarks, and
as to whether am justified in what ! say
am willing to leave that question to be
decided by an examination of the speech
he made as reported


Why is this? Is it because the railroad
companies are corrupt and the people
with whom they deal are all pure and
honest and ready to do as they would be
done by or does it not rather show that
there is something rotten in Denmark,
as we'll as among railroad men? and L
now on this subject say to the gentleman
! from Pickaway and the-Grangers of his
| county what was once said when charges
of elimination were being made, Let
| him that is free from sin among you cast
the first stone" and if that rule is ad
hered to the railroad companies and men
will have nothing to fear from their ac-
cusers more than their accusers will have
| to fear from each other. But enough of
this for the present. When this State
was organized our fathers had a wide
domain, covered with primeval forests,
| growing on as good soil as could be found
| on the Continent The hardy woodsman
with his ak soon fell the forests, cleared
up the land, and literally caused the will
| derness to bloom and blossom like the
rose. Seedtime and harvest came in their
season and God in his kindness rewarded
| his labor and turned the horn of plenty
big end downwards over the rich valleys
and plains of the State, and filed the
land with corn in supplies even greater
than that of Egypt in the days of Joseph,
but there were no seven years of plenty,
| then seven years of famine, as In that
! land, but all were years of plenty, and
the cribs and bins throughout the State
were flied to overfowing. 1t was soon
| discovered, however, that it was all com
paratively worthless, because of the want
| of a mode of transportation to carry the
vast surplus to a market where they could
realize Something for the labor expended
in raising and gathering their crops. All
being on an equality, they could see their
way out of the dilemma, and the State with
almost one universal voice of her people
embarked in digging canals and con-
structing turnpikes to accomplish the
one thing needed-avenues through and
over which the productions of the farm
could more readily reach a market


Now great lines of canals were built at
a cost to the State of $22,O00000 which
was to be collected by levy on all parts of
the State and expended so as to be an
advantaget to onl y portion of her people,
and became debt on which interest has
been paid until it is safe to say that the
taxpayers of the whole State have ex-
pended and are liable for as State debt
up to this time 500, 100000.


Now an examination of the map will
show that southeastern Ohio or q large
section of it was in no way reached by
the State improvements, and is now des-
titute of any benefits accruing therefrom
unless it is in the fact that the grand
duplicate of the State was increased
thereby Take as examples the counties
of P1ckaway and Jackson. l take those
counties partly because of the uncompro-


missing and bitter manner in which the


gentleman from Pickaway Mr.. Page
, expressed himself few days ago, when


speaking on this subject, that gentlemen
if possible can be brought "to see them


selves as others see them," but l take


them mainly because the counties will
answer to show the true situation as it is
and the reason that the friends of this


provision have for asking the Convention
| to concede to that part of the State thi:
, small privilege of taxing themselves a.
their fathers did, or loaning their credi


to the extent of per cent of their du
I plicate, which as ever one knows is no
more than 3 per cent. of the real value 0
, the property.


) Pickaway county has a soil probabl,
t taken as whole, as good as any count,
s in the State, with the Scioto River flow
0 ing through her center from north t.
i south, and along this stream the Stat
Al L. L l.