Year: 1873

OuAAiS OhS-AietAA lLO ySAA INV y
producers of the country are complete
ly at the mercy of the railways. The
great trunk lines from the West to the
East exercise a despotic power over
the fortunes of that agricultural empire
known as the Northwest, embracing
ten millions of people, and producing
81 ,OOO, 900, ,0O0a year. This power, far
greater and more arbitrary than is
known in any political organization of
Western Europe, rests substantially
without check in the hands of three
men, and in the hands of those they
choose to associate with them. This
tyranny, oppressive and offensive as it
is, is exercised with relentless severity.
The farmer who raises his wheat or
corn in the Northwest, is taxed by it
from fifty to sevent-five per cent. of his
gross earnings. Of every four bushels
he gathers, he is obliged to pay from
two to three as tribute to this little
band of rulers, who have almost i'm
perceptibly been for years strengthen
ing their hold upon him. Corn which
sold for seventy-three cents last month
in Boston, netted the Illinois farmer
only twenty-three cents last month in
Boston, netted the Illinois farmer only
twenty-three. These eXactions, ruin
Gus in extent, are enforced with all the
adjuncts that render taxation cdious
and intolerable. They are variable in
form, uncertain in presentation, uu-
equal in distribution, and collected
often with insolence, and always with
rigor. So CALLING are they in all their
features, and so disastrous in their con-
sequences, that no government could
impose them to oone-fourth the amount,
or with one-half their aggravating in
cidents, without being surely and
swiftly, and probably violently over
thrown.


Though it is not the amount of the
taxes which the railways levy that is
their only oppressive feature, yet that
is something which few people in the
East realize. We are SO largely en-
gagged in the work of effecting ex-
changes only, and our transactions are
made for the most part over an area
relatively so small, that is difficult for
us to understand the weight of the
burden borne by the producers of the


West in the expense of getting their
products to market. We sell often at a
loss, but never find it more profitable
to destroy our property than to try to
sell it all. But for months farmers in
Iowa and Minnesota have been burn
ing their corn for fuel, and many thou
sand bushels were allowed to rot on
the ground rather than incur the ex-
pense Of harvesting. When we re-
member the uneXampled facilities the
West enjoys for rOduction-fertile
soil, improved methods and machinery,
and intelligent labor-this picture is
nothing less than startling.


But it is not the enormous cost of
freight alone which makes the lot of
the farmers hard one. 1t is the man
ner in which this cost is imposed.
Freights vary from month to month,
and one-half the year are from one
third to double what they are during
the other half. Corn, which can be
sent from Chicago TO New York for
sixten cents in June, by water, and
which the railways will carry for
twenty-five cents in August, the same
railways charge thirty-six cents for
carrying in January, and this is be-
lieved to be in one case twice, and in
the other three times, what would
fairly compensate the roads for car
riage. Freights vary, too, with local
ity. Distances shorter by 200 miles are
charged for at higher rates than longer
ones. Between New York City and
the State of Indiana, 100 pounds of
| freight can be carried for twenty-five
cents, and doubtless money is made by
the operation. But between Roci-
ester New York, and the same point in
Indiana, distance less by 400 miles,
the charge is 81 % for 100 pounds.
Plainly more than four-6fths of this
charge is profit. In other words, the
profit is more than 400 per cent. These
are but examples of facts, which the
business community can furnish plenty
of others to match.


Nor are these the only offensive char
acteristics of the present condition of
affairs. The extortion, which every
one can see are intolerably heavy and
aggravating, are the work of Il conbi-
nation of men whose sole title to their
profits comes from the free gift of the
people. The public feel that they are
being bound with bonds of their own
forging. 1t is from the people that all
railway franchises proceed. Moreover,
in large number of eases the people
have actually taxed themselves to build
the roads whose managers are now
pressing them SO sorely. This adds
indignation to sense of suffering and
loss. Privileges which were given for
public as well as private gain are per-
verted solely to private ends. The
process partakes of robbery, Or, at least,
of swindling.


The secret of the course of the rail-
ways is not far to seek. Most of them
are making apparently moderate divi-
dends; but these dividends are the
profits on an investment far smaller
than their apparent capital; which is
swollen by continual watering. This