BBPTHMBBR Villi j.
The Commoner.
r
Shall the Railroads Run Virginia?
GJ
"SHAUJ THE RAILROADS OONTROIi 0
0 VIRGINIA" 0
0
0 Democratic primaries will bo held in 0
Virginia September 7. Every democrat Q
should go to tlie polls.
0 0
00000
Senator A. F. Thomas, speaking under the
auspices of the Virginia Democratic league,
addressed the voters of Bedford City, Va.
Mr, Thomas plunged into an analysis of the
political situation. He said that our difficulties
were largely economic, and at no time in the
world's history had anything analogous to the
present situation been seen. "We are traveling
untrodden paths," said ho, "along which no
people have ever gone before. Business, especi
ally here in the United States, is going under
full steam toward a' condition of private
monopoly the result of which none can safely
foretell. Tho immense profits of railroads, steel,
oil, tobacco, beef, leather, power and other
trusts, conservatively stated, would perhaps
amount to two billions per year. This Immense
sum must Beek re-investment and each new
trust acquired but Increases the momentum of
the movement. It looks now," said the speaker,
"as though ina short period every avenue of
human effort susceptible of organization, will
be owned and controlled by private monopoly.
Private monopoly has the power to name the
price for its services, thus imposing upon the
masses whatever tax it may please. This must
mean, in the last analysis, control for the few
who own the instruments of manufacture and
distribution and servitude for the masses, unless
some method of curbing greed is found.
"This unbridled power in the hands of the
few is now manifesting Itself in the control and
corruption of government. It is known that it
pays hundreds of thousands to put its Lorimers
across, but how much of its villainy is hidden,
God alone can tell.
"Government under such conditions ceases to
be the servant of the people, but becomes the
instrumentality by which special privilege takes
from the people an unjust share of the products
of their labors. This dangerous power, dorived
from Its ability to levy tribute, now dominates
commerce, makes times good or bad as its in
terests may dictate, gives the people work or
turns them out to starve as it pleases, gives
prosperity or panic as It chooses, makes and un
makes parties and presidents and shapes legis
lation. So far-reaching has its control of indus
try become, that even the courts are compelled
to change laws, lest the effect of enforcement of
such laws as congress has made be too destruc
tive to the Industrial fabric.
"We seem rapidly approaching the time when
the world will become so dependent upon the
money power owning the instrumentalities of
manufacture and distribution, that a radical
departure in public policy, whether wise or un
wise,' If it seriously affects monopoly, will pro
duce great public distress. We have been forg
ing ahead under a, policy that sought by special
privilege to build up the few at the expense
of the many, and have raised a brood of octopi
which now threaten to swallow us all.
"Never before was there greater need for wise
leadership. Not even in the formative period
of this government were there such tremendous
problems as these to solve, requiring, as they
do, the highest order of constructive statesman
ship, and the most profound devotion to the
common weal.
"On every side some interest is seeking to put
Its hand in the pockets of the people, to get by
unjust and discriminating laws some pecuniary
advantage of the toilers of the land. The world
seems to have gone daft in the mad rush to
acquire wealth. Sense of public duty, social
obligation, and even the public conscience, seem
to be dormant. What a terrible reckoning there
must be some time! When I think that there
is a just God, I shudder at the consequences
that must come to us, if our course is not
changed.
"We elect men to office, and, in. a few years'
working for the public at small salaries,, they
accumulate fortunes. I do not charge, or even
Insinuate personal dishonesty, but I do mean to
say that; this type of man Is attending to busi
ness, but not your business. I do wish to be
understood as expressing the opinion that it
would be wise In the people to have such public
servants tell them where and how thoy got it,
In order that the voters might judge whether tho
interests of the peoplo and those of tho public
servant were sufficiently identical to warrant
continuing him in the capacity of a' trusted rep
resentative. "I charge that tho most of our woes today are
attributable to the doctrine that government had
a moral right to take from the mass and bestow
upon the individual. It always was and always
will bo robbery This damnable doctrine has
eaten like a cancer into our body politic, it has
permeated into our social existonce and has
poisoned and beclouded tho consciences of our
peoplo. It has spread beyond tho republican
party, where it started, and contaminated tho
democratic party. It is the curse of tho age,
and wo can never hope to restore our country to
its place as a land of equal right and opportunity,
until we utterly destroy this immoral premise.
Like a thief in the night, special privilege creeps
into everything and manifests itself in a thous
and ways. Even in old Virginia, it is safely
enthroned, and you are made to pay tribute.
"Party government is necessary in a democ
racy; party organization is indispensable, but
its true function is to carry out In a fair and
impartial way, the mandates of the party as ex
pressed by the party convention. When this
organization is seized by the ambitious and
selfish, and used to accomplish special purposes,
it becomes a machine.
"It is generally charged that there Is a politi
cal machine in Virginia. After a faithful study
and careful analysis of tho situation, I wish to
enter a general denial and assert that tho charge
is untrue. The state democratic executive com
mittee has been composed of Thomas F. Ryan,
democrat in Virginia, and reputed contributor to
republican campaign funds in New York; Alfred
Thom, counsel general of tho Southern railroads;
Henry T. Wickham, vice-president of tho Chesa
peake & Ohio railroad, and other lesser railroad
lights. The organl7ation which they dominate,
is a railroad machine masquerading under the
name of a democratic party machine. The same
money power which is laying tribute on tho
peoplo through the monopolies and trusts is
the owner of the railroads, and through them
special privilege seeks to take from you an undue
share of the products of your labor.
"In answer to the Keezell resolution, the state
corporation commission reported that the mil
roads of the state were capitalized at something
more than four hundred and twenty millions
they were assessed for taxation at about ninety
six millions, something like twenty-two and a
half per cent. Assuming tho other property of
the state to have been assessed at 50 per cent
of its value, the people were paying double the
taxes on the actual value that the railroads were
paying. In this case, tho railroads were escap
ing taxation on more than one hundred millions,
which, at an average tax on one and a half per
cent, state and local, would amount to one mil
lion and a half dollars per year that the rail
roads of this state are taking from you and me.
"The state owes about twenty-five millions of
dollars spent in building railroads and canals.
We have the debt the corporations have the
Improvements, with the exception that the state
still owns a small minority interest in the Rich
mond, Fredericksburg & Potomac railroad. So
far as I am advised, the state received nothing
for this vast expenditure.
"The auditor's report shows that the state
paid interest on this debt last year amounting
to eight hundred and fory-five thousand dollars.
Tho total sum paid into the state treasury last
year by the railroads amounted to 1821,997.74.
In other words, the entire state tax of tho rail
roads Is not enough to pay Interest on the im
provements for which the debt was contracted,
and which these roads got for nothing.
"To illustrate: Virginia taxes tho Norfolk &
Western Railroad company on twenty and thirty
thousand dollars per mile for its single and
double tracks respectively. When this road
crosses into West Virginia, its side tracks are
assessed at thirty-six thousand dollars, per mile,
and its main line at seventy-six thousand dollars
per mile.
"In Virginia the Chesapeake & Ohio is assessed
twenty and thirty thousand dollars per mile
on single and double tracks respectively. When
it crosses into West Virginia, it is assessed
thirty-six thousand per mile on side tracks, and
sixty-four thousand per mile on its main line.
This enormous difference is not due to differences
of value in tho roads in tho two statos, but it in
duo to the high efficiency of tho Virginia rail
road machino now disguised as tho democratic
party machine, whose titular hoad and bom Is
Senator Thomas S. Martin.
Tho pockoting each year of a million and a
half dollars of the people's roonoy by the rail
roads on account of failuro to fairly assess tholr
property, is not all of the shameful story. Years
ago, railroad attorneys whom tho peoplo un
wisely elected to tho general assembly engrafted
on our systom of taxation license taxes which
were against tho spirit, if not actually against
the letter of tho constitution. Constantly theso
privilege taxes havo been increased, until last
year thoro was collected $1,200,000 in this way.
Every conceivable thing, from keeping storo to
keeping a jackass, was brought in and mado to
pay. Tho lawyer, tho doctor, tho barber and
tho undertaker aro made to pay. Whother you
aro being born or burled, you must pay tho arbi
trary exaction in order that tho railroads may
cscapo the greater share of the public burden,
for every dollar raised In this way comes out of
the peoplo and not out of tho railroads.
"Whatever one may think of Governor Swan
son's administration, this fact stands out that
he found a full treasury and left an empty one.
Ho left tho finances of the state in a condition
that necessitated the Increase of tho amount
levied upon tho pooplo at least a million and a
half dollars per yoar to meet tho demand for
public needs. It is true that the tax rato was
not raised, but It is equally truo that tho
assessments were raised on the personal and
real property, $93,071,576.00; and on tlmbor
lands, $2,885,574.00; on railroads, $8,528,814,
making a total of $104,485, 964. 00.
"This sum, at an average rato for state and
local tax of one and one half per cent, will yield
something more than one and a half million
dollars taxes per year. If tho general assembly
had honestly and frankly raised the tax rate, it
would havo been fairer, because all interests
would have been compolled to pay their share,
but the assessments were not equitably raised.
The railroads wore raised something over 8 por
cent, while other property was raised over 14
per cent thus compelling tho peoplo to pay
about double tho proportion of the additional
tax that the railroads aro required to pay.
"It has been generally known that tho rail
roads have been paying tho campaign expenses
of tho democratic party, and thoy could well
afford to do so, since they have robbed us each
year of taxes enough to pay tho campaign ex
penses of the party for fifty years.
"The great mass of tho supporters of this
railroad machine, called the democratic party
organization, havo no conception of what it
actually means. They are under the Impression
that it is a political alliance between the 'ins'
to keep out the 'outs.' Thoy find it the easy
way to. get along In a political way they little
dream that they are being used as tools by a
remorseless money power to maintain control
of tho public policies of the state, by manipula
tion of which it is putting its hand in the pocket
of every person In the state and extracting at
least one and a half million dollars each year.
"This machine needs a boss and all the minor
offices, as far as possible, .are filled with those
who will follow his lead. When theso follow
ers como to realize the real purposes behind it
all, It is inconceivable to me that they will con
tinue to follow. I believe, as patriotic citizens,
they will desert this pirate ship and help rescue
our state from the hands of the spoilers.
"Do Senators Martin and Swanson know about
these things? Is it possible to believe that they
hayo been the leading spirits in the democratic
party machine so long, and the beneficiaries of
Its favors in such marked degree, and yet are
still ignorant of these things? If they know,
they have never penned a line or spoken a word,
so far as I know, to correct these things. If they
don't know, they are entirely too innocent to be
out by themselves, and should be recalled as
watchmen on the tower, and sent to some political
foundling asylum, where they might be kept
out of harm's way. I must conclude that they do
know, and that they are willing that special
privilege may prey upon you and me.
"Believing Senator Martin to bo in sympathy
with the special interests in Virginia, I am not
surprised that he should vote with stand-pat
republicans who represent these interests in the
senate, I am not surprised that Bailey, the
Standard Oil senator, should head the list in
making Senator Martin the minority leader.
I am not even surprised that Senator Martin
was made the minority leader in the democratic
caucus by practically the same votes which gave
a majority in favor of the bribe-giving Republl-
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