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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1905)
mil t ft " 0 ' J UviPI Uul ilpiU lyllMy 4PiU lil'li) LINCOLN, NEB., APRIL 13, 1905. No. 47 h J POSTAL FREIGHT RATES A Five Cent Rate Per Hundred Pounds for Any, Distance Would More han Equal Present Receipts RAILROAD CRIMES SINCE 1893 Forgeries Have Been Committed to the Amount of $1,465,490,000 and the Vile Work Still Goes On ' (Copyrighted by A. J. Gustin, April ' ..7, 1905.) ' If no discrimination be made to any shipper, any commodity, or to any lo- cality, a 5 cent rate per 100 pounds could be made and the roads of the United States obtain a greater net revenue than they now get. We will . now give the facts to prove what a . "square deal" will mean. It will mean a 5 cent freight stamp transporting 100 pounds of freight-exactly as does ; a 2 cent stamp the transporting of a letter. We will get our facts from the reports of the roads which have been made annually to the interstate com merce' commission for the past seven teen years. .These reports are the most carefully compiled ' data in the possession of the government. The statistical report of 1903 is the last one compiled and we will in this let ter give comparative facts each "year from 1893 to 1903 inclusive. In 1893 the number of tons of freight carried was, 745,119,482; the gross 'revenue on which was, $829,053,861; average or postal' rate per ton, $1.10. -In 1894 the tonnage carried was 638, 186,553; gross revenue, $699,490,913; average or postal rate per ton, $1.10. In 1895 the tonnage carried was, 696,761,171; gross revenue, $729,993, 462; average or postal rate per ton, $1.05. ' In 1896 the tonnage carried was 765,891,395 ; gross revenue, $786,615 837 ; average or postal rate per ton, $103. ; ' In 1897 the tonnage carried was 741, 705,846; gross revenue, $772,849,314; " average" or postal rate per ton, $1.04. In 1898 the tonnage carried was 879, 006,307; ' gross " revenue, $786,727,917 ; average or ; postal rate per ton, 98 cents. ' ' ' ! n In 1899 the tonnage carried was 959,- - 763,583;. gross, revenue, $913,737,155; . average or postal rate per ton,; 97 , cents. .. V ' ; , ' - In 1900 the tonnage earned was 1, . 101.6S0.238; gross revenue, $1,049,256, 323; average or postal rate person, 97 cents. A Y ' ' - In 1901 the tonnage carried was 1, 089,226,440; gross revenue, $1,118,543, S14; average or postal rate per ton, 1 si.oj. . ;- - In 1902 the tonnage earned -was 1, 200,315,387; gross revenue, $1,207,228, ' S45; average or postal rate per ton, $1.03. : ' .' ! , : In 1903 the tonnage camedjvas 1, 304,394,323; 'gross revenue, $1,338,020, 026; average or postal rate per ton, $1.05. . - ; ' ' ' The average or postal rate received during the years 1893 to 1903 inclu sive, is one dollar three , and three quarters cents per ton, or five cents and two mills per 100 pounds, includ- - ing the lean years and fat years, and all other contingencies. ' ' -.: This includes years in which rates were made higher than the roads at that tinle considered reasonable, that the revenue might afford surplus from vihich to pay -rebates, which was a common practice towards large ship- pers. ' - 9 i This fact was shown in the Standard Oil investigations and is cited by some of the apologists for- Mr.i John D. Rockefeller. At this writing the Union Pacific is issuing $100,000,000 of stock in addition to its present vastly in flated paper values, and this fraudu lent policy is being persued generally by other lines in order, to justify in creased and unnecessary rates which were formerly paid out in rebates. The railway mileage since 1892 has increased 31,516 miles and railway capital has increased $2,409,000,000. Al lowing $30,000 per mile for value of increased mileage we find that in eleven years, 1893 to 1904, inclusive, "water" or forgeries have been floated to the tune of $1,465,490,000, for which no value has been placed in public use. . It is well known that the public will be expected to redeem or make good these forgeries when the . roads are ' taken over by the government. : And . at the present and for the future the roads expect a freight rate to be ex ' acted which will make these forgeries good. The question is will public opinion grow wise enough to detect the shell game In such financiering before the railways are purchased by the nation. The average rate received for a term of year3 show that the veins and ar teries in the body of a healthy child do not carry the blood of life with more regularity, nor adapt itself to the growth of the body of manhood, with more certainty than does modern transit over iron tramway carry the merchandise or blood of commerce. It is the writer's contention that trans portation is as yet in its childhood, and that its untutored mother, like the squaw, has tied the child to a board, on the ton per mile basis. He be lieves that a broadminded national pol icy known as the "square deal" must pow do justice by making . a postal rate and recognize everyone's rights under eminent domain. We mustdis abuse the mind of the brutal savage, who thinks railroading is a private business, and teach him that it Is a public business and that society has rights he must respect. We must take away from him the power to strangle at pleasure or congect at a few trade centers the possibility of production and distribution to or from any acre of our broad domain. The writer has been told by emi nent traffic men who have given years of conscientious study to their work, hat the average rate is all right If the government owned and operated the roads, but that so long as different corporations owned the lines under di vergent conditions, requiring rates more for one road than for another, that his contention was an Utopian dream, impossible of realization. - First, we would enact a national law that rail transportation be made na tional in its scope as is the postal sys tem and for the same reason that we regulate the postal service. We would enact that freight stamps be sold by the postal agencies as . arep ostage stamps and in like manner obtainable only from the federal government. The millions of revenue will thus go Into the hands of the government and the government' then? fepay ' to the indi vidual lines under their local or per centage agreements, the average earn ings such lines showed to be their due. The cancelled stamp accom panied by voucher of service be pre sented by individual lines to the na tional clearing house for payment, based on rate percentages similar to percentage divisions now made be tween lines or local rates, as the case may be, giving each line the average rate shown to have been received. : In 1903 the average revenue from Group III was 70 cents 4 83-100 mills per ton. The number of tons carried, 302,297,816. In Group II the average rate received was 82 cents" 3 1-3 mills per ton and there were 404,236,945, tons carried. That i3 upwards of 700)00, 000 tons, or more than half the ton nage moved that year, at a rate under the average. In Group X (Pacific coast states) the average rate was $2.2944 but the tonnage was but 38,629,926 and in Group VII, in which Nebraska is lo cated, the average rate was $2.1837 per ton and tons carried were 26,486, 545. In other words the average rate for the nation of $1.05 per ton would for that year, if applied on our plan to all tonnage, create a level gross reve nue equal and exact to that paid in to and paid out by the nation. The reve nues will accrue to the owners of the railways and no confiscation of rail way property will result, nor to the shipper will confiscation result as now cften done under the chaotic rate mak ing in force. If a 6 cent rate per 100 pounds be made the lawful one, a sinking fund of two hundred twenty-five millions will be created and placed into the hands of Uncle Sam, which will en able him to condemn and pay cash within a few years for all the roads at their present inflated values. Magna Charta never had greater bearing in possibilities for future personal liberty than have these suggestions for future industrial growth. If the writer owned every mile of the roads in fee simple, he would put Into effect this, plan of postal rates from a practical standpoint. , He be lieves this plan will make It possible to load the 4,346,790,165 mileage of empty freight cars which now results In one-third of the car mileage being a dead loss instead of a source of revenue. A. J. GUSTIN. Kearney, Neb. TALES OUT OF SCHOOL Massachusetts Legislators Bought and Sold Like Fish and Sausage in the Market HOW "FIXERS" DO THEIR WORK Tom Lawson's Exposures Make Very Interesting Reading for All Those Who Vote Er Straight The following extracts are taken from Lawson's article in Everybody's Magazine. Tom has been on the in side and not only knows what he is talking about, but evidently tells the truth: . At this period I knew nothing what ever of the workings or the wire-pullings of state legislatures. My business life had been engaged at the stock end of corporate transactions, and I had not troubled myself about franchises or how they were obtained, being con tent to play my part with the manu factured product with which we delt on the market. In a general way 1 knew political corruption existed. That Rogers had obtained favors for his Brookline company through brib ing officials I had good grounds to be lieve; I had read of strange doings In connection with H. M.' Whitney's West End railway franchise obtained from the Massachusetts legislature amid an accompaniment of much public scan dal; but being quite without personal experience I had no clear conception of how things were done and, inno cently enough, I asked Whitney before we parted: "How is it possible f6r you to get this valuable charter from the legisla ture, particularly with such a strong and honest man as Roger Wolcott Jn the governor's chair, ' when Addicks has been trying continuously for four or five years, regardless of expense, to secure : an ordinary one under which he can; combine our gas companies?" George Towle answered for Whit ney: .;, .;, ; ; . ' ' ;. "Lawson, that part -is no affair of yours. .. Mr. Whitney will .absolutely, guarantee to deliver all those goods, and if it is necessary to override the governor in getting them, he will also guarantee to do that too. You can call all that done -the minute we sign pa pers." ; ; . s ( We, the Boston companies, were to "go snags" with Whitney in the re sults of a legislative gam'e in which he was to bear the expense of getting a charter,-and as Whitney and Towle said it was to cost them, to get it, $250,000 to $300,000, it loked as if there would be some nasty business done at the state house. - . . -- I do not set up for a saint, nor to possessing exclusive virtues which dis tinguish me from the ordinary Ameri can citizen who dees business for gain. A man who writes the history of af fairs in which he bore a leading part is bound to be accused of egotisin however he deals with himself, especi ally if he admits a strong prejudice in favor of honesty and fair-dealing in his relations with his friends and the public. In reiterating that the bribery end of our "hitch-up" with Whitney; did not appeal to me, I am neither pluming nor crowning myself, but merely stating a fact. But this was an emergency I could not meet as a mere personal concern.' It was my duty to care for the Interests of a great property which must not be en dangered by my scruples, and I was willing to be advised by my business friends in the matter. So I went round among my most conservative banking, business and newspaper con nections and put hypothetical ques tions to them bearing on my difficulty. In nearly all instances the replies were the same, and the subject seemed to be regarded as a joke what were legislatures for, anyway, but to be "fixed"? All who did business with legislatures "fixed" them, and Whit ney was certainly the star "fixer." I frankly stated that I considered brib ing a legislator as a low-down crime and that I did not believe it was done in our strait-laced old commonwealth as freely as they all seemed to think. Thereupon I was sarcastically referred to my Bell telephone, New Haven, and Boston & Maine railroad friends, the organizers of trust companies and many other respesentative pillars of social and business society, who had had occasion to deal with the state. I began at once a round of investiga tion among men who would talk frank ly to me, and discovered that a most iniquitous condition existed. Massa chusctts senators and representatives were not only bought and sold as sau sages or fish are in the market, but tl.ere existed ,a regular quotation schedule for their votes. Many of the prominent lawyers of the state were traffickers in legislation, and earned large fees engineering the repeal of old laws and the passage of new ones. Agents of corporations nominated can didates for office, and paid the ex penses of their election in return for votes for a favorite measure and prom- - lses to "do business." The legislature was organized on the same basis; its executive officers were chosen because . of their subservience to certain cor poration leaders; committees were rigged to do a given thing and pre vent other' things from being done. Above all, I learned that the chance of a citizen of Massachusetts obtaining a charter from the legislature of his state, unless he had money to put up for It, was about as good as a hobo's of securing a diamond and ruby stud ded crown at Tiffany's by explaining that he wanted It. In fact, the citi zen's request would be regarded by senators and representatives very much as Tiffany's would take the ho bo'sas a joke first, then as an imper tinence. The Massachusetts legislature Is bought and sold as are sausages and f sh at the markets and wharves. That the largest,' wealthiest, and most prom inent corporations in New England, whose affairs are conducted by our most representative citizens, habitual ly corrupt the Massachusetts legisla ture, and the man of wealth among them who would enter protest against the iniquity would be looked on as a "class anarchist." I will go further and say that If in New England a man of the type of Folk of Missouri can be found who will give over six months to turning up the legislative and Boston municipal sod of the past ten years, who does not expose to the world a condition of rottenness more rctten than was ever before exhibited in any community in the civilized world, It, will be, because he has been suffocated by the stench of what he" exhumes. The Whitney machine for the manu facture and moulding of legislation was complex but efficient. It achieved its wonders in broad daylight. Consid ering what it did and how it was done, the astonishing fact Is that no outcry to speak of was ever raised at its per formances. I was vastly bolder than Tammany and made fewer excuses for what it grabbed. But its chief engi neer was -a leading citizen, and his as sistants all gentlemen of great respect ability and admirable antecedents, and in Boston, social and civic dictions are shields behind which much may bo concealed.' ' Corrupting a legislature is not some thing a man may do with a fillip of his finger and thumb. However bold the operations, the convenances must be observed.' When really large designs are entertained, the manipulator be gins before the preceding election and has had his "lawyers" at work throughout the country, seeing candi dates and ascertaining their feelings. So a certain percentage of votes are signed and sealed in advance, ready for delivery at thep roper time. But " there is always a crowd of new men ' who must be taken care of on the spot, and these must be approached with tact. Some amateurs have fanati cal notions of honor which interfere with both their own and the Interests of the franchise-grabbers. To deal with all these contingencies, to take care of captured votes ; and to shape legisla- , tive proceeding along safe lines, re quire the services of almost an army of men. - ' At the head of Whitney's forces was his lawyer, George H. Towle, big of brain, ponderous of frame, and with the strength of an ox. A man .of ter rific temper, he knew not the meaning of the word fear. Nothing aroused him to such frenzy as to have to do witn a legislator who unnecessarily haggled over the price of his vote or , influence. On such occasions, when a lieutenant had reported that Senator This or. Representative That would not come Into camp, Towle, with an oath, would simply say: "Take me to him, and I'll have his vote in ten mln- V utes or there'll be occasion for a new 1, election in his district tomorrow!" Second in command was Mr. Patch, Towle's secretary and factotum, his exact opposite in every way. Whero r