MAY 25. '1905
Uf;o TJcbrccIia. Endcpcndcnft
PAG3
crease, according to its own will, the taxes on every home and on every
horse, ox, cow, sheep or pig. If this state board of five men were really
' selected by the people, and if the board under these conditions was abso
lutely responsible to the people, then the people, if they wanted to, could
oppress the railroads, could have their own property taxed low and the
railroad property taxed high. But if, as is actually the case, this board of
five at the state house is really selected by the railroads, with this tax
question in view, and if, as is the fact, they are under the controlling influ
ence of the railroads, then, with this taxing power all in their own hands,
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people, and there is no power in any citizen or citizens to check their
unbridled sway. ,,r .
Is this right?' Will any" fair man maintain that this centralization of
the taxing power is just and safe? Especially is it unjust in view of
the ten tmes greater direct tax burden put upon the people by means
of extortionate freight rates. And especially is it unsafe in view of the
inalign influence exerted by the railroads over this taxing board and
over the whole government machinery of the state. In the centralization
of power, the danger is always to the people rather thui to the corpora-
tions. There is no danger to the corporations, and there never will.be
: when the people have the control. As a mass, the people want to be just
and they want their officials and courts and assessing boards to be just
r oil rtfM.Troi-mc! . an1 onrnnrafinn rrritv Hut it la when tho nonnlo
distrust their officials, when they have good reason to believe that a sinister
influence is between them and their public servants, when they are baffled
year after year and elbowed away from the control of their government
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defense, are apt to harm the corporations and themselves at the same time.
What do the Nebraska people see when they look for the taxing power
in their state government?' They see five men at the state house meeting
as an assessment board, meeting and adjourning day after day and week
after week, advertising , always through the newspaper reports the honest
intentions of each individual member, advertising the particular plan of
this member and that member of the board, advertising many different
plans but having no certain or central plan for the assessment of rail
road property, although the question has been pending as a business propo
sition before the, state government for a quarter of a century. It is not
injustice nor partisan abuse of the board to say that long ago it should
have adopted a definite plan and one that would bear the closest scrutiny.
Why does it shuffle the question from one member of the board to the
other, from one meeting time to another and from one year to the other,
holding the question of railroad assessment always in suspense, nagging and
fretting the people, who have come at last to believe that all this shuffling
is intended finally to shuffle upon the people several hundred thousand
dollars of the tax burden that the , corporations ought to bear. And the
railroad attorneys confidently believe that the people will bear the burden
without ever finding out their predicament.'
If the free rides which the board members and their thousands of
political friends receive were being paid for in cash by the people, the rail
roads would have reason to be jealous, and to distrust the board on the
tax question. If on the other hand these thousands of annual passes are
given out on the sly by the railroads, and if this official taxing board is
a part of this free-pass machine, the people have a right to be jealous and
to distrust the board, and they do distrust it.
The present revenue law looks very much like a new railroad machine.
If these various railroad political machines that dovetail into each other
to form the Nebraska state government continue to multiply, the people
of Nebraska will soon have as little of representative government as had
the people of Massachusetts when they threw the tea into Boston harbor.
RAILWAY FALLACIES
Relying on a threadbare argument, the officials of Nebraska railroads
still insist that inasmuch as they are conducting private business enter
prises they have a right to disregard the interests of the public whenever
and wherever it suits them. A Union Pacific official a few months ago
used this argument to defend the rate on coal from Rock Springs, to. Kear
ney, Neb. The rate was fixed at $4.75 a ton, but the reduction of 25 cents
for the summer months has now brought the rate down to $4.50 a ton. The
rate on Rock Springs coal to Omaha, a much greater distance, is only
$3.75 a ton.
When this glaring discrepancy was pronounced unjust, the Union Pa
cific official said:
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"A railway is a private business corporation. If I am a banker and
have $100,000 to loan and can loan only $50,000 in my home town at 8 per
cent I will not allow the other $50,000 to lie idle, but will send it to some
other town where I may be able to get-only 4 per cent, because of the brisk
competition. When we sell our coal in Kearney we meet with little com
petition and can charge the higher rate. When we sell in Omaha we meet
strong competition and must make a lower rate on our coal. Remember,
the rate to Omaha applies only on carload lots and the Interstate Com
merce Commission has decided that a lower rate can be applied to the
carload than to the hundredweight or ton."
This statement contains several false assumptions. The quasi-public
character of railways has been affirmed in so many court decisions, and
notably in a decision by Mr. Justice Bradley, that it would seem unneces
sary at this late date to demonstrate the proposition. In his decision Justico
Bradley held that the railway corporations are creatures of legislation, that
they are granted their charters to serve the public and that the right of
eminent domain by which the state takes property from the individual and
gives it to the railway corporation denotes the public character of that
corporation. The state would have no right to take such property If it
were not intended for public purposes. ,
The second false assumption appears to be that the bank is a private
corporation. It may be that the Union Pacific . official did not wish to
convey this idea, but it was implied in his remarks. And it would be
pertinent to ask this official why the government should not regulate the
railways as stringently as it regulates the banks? The national banking
law provides elaborate precautions to protect the public finances, and why
should not the railway laws afford equal protection to the public?
The higher coal rate from the Rock Springs mine to Kearney Is de
fended on the ground that a railway, corporation has a right to manage its
own business affairs without considering the special favor it is granting
to the people of Omaha as against the people of Kearney. And by the
same token the Union Pacific traffic officials might, and in fact do, consider
it proper to make an even lower rate to points cast of Omaha where the
Rock Springs coal comes into competition with the cheap coals of Illinois
and Iowa. It will be seen that the character of the railway as a public
servant is here wholly ignored, and the officials of this particular road
would strenuously protest if a commission should decide to so adjust the
rates on Rock Springs coal that the rate to Kearney would be less than
the rate to Omaha.
. The last argument used in this case is that the road has a right to
make lower rates on carload lots, and if this argument is sound no other
argument need be offered. But it would seem to the layman that the
. railway is doing by indirection that which it could not do directly and
abide by the law.
But the time has come in this state when the people must cease merely
to bandy arguments with railway officials and tax commissioners. The
state must enforce a law that will reduce rates and it must have a com
mission that will possess power to prevent discriminations. And
when the people find that railway regulation fails to prevent effectually
all the crying injustices that now result from private ownership they will
raise their voices in an-insistent and overwhelming demand for government
ownership. 1
PHILADELPHIA'S GAS GRAB V;
Philadelphia, which was recently- described as "corrupt and content,"
has been aroused by a gas steal of unusual magnitude. Tho city: councils
voted to the United Gas Improvement company a seventy-five years lease
of the municipal gas works, the consideration being $25,000,000, to be paid
in various amounts before the end of 1907. So much opposition was aroused
at the last minute that the .councils made a few minor cdncesslons in the
matter of rates. . , .
As if to disprove the "corrupt and content" description of civic un
righteousness, the indignant citizens began preparations for waging a
campaign against the infamous grab. . Although the lease was granted by a
vote of seventy-four to nine In common council and thirty-seven to four In
select council, the people refused to despair. Public wrath seems to have
coalesced into a grim determination that the steal shall not succeed. The
newspapers announce that the 'fight has just begun. Mayor Weaver has
welcomed and thanked the men who voted ; against the grab, and their
names have been emblazoned In vivid type on rolls of honor. Evidently
the Quakers are awake at last.
The members of the gang, who are also members of the council, know
that the mayor will veto the ordinance, but they intend to defy all clamor
and protestation by passing it over the veto. Meantime the Committee
of Nine and the Committee of Seventy have heartily commended the mayor
for his opposition to the grab and are planning to open legal assault upon
the ordinance as soon as it is repassed. Interviews with leading citizens
are said" to show virtual unanimity on two points "that the steal shall
be fought to a finish, and that, whether it is finally upheld or defeated,
the doom of the gang is certain." ,
This is, indeed, "a consummation devoutly to be wished," but the
outsider is apt to point at Philadelphia the finger of scorn and declare that .
the action of the councils was altogether to be expected in a city where
the people were content so long to live, unprotesting and apparently in
different, under the rule and ruin of a gang more notoriously corrupt than "
even that gang which Folk crushed in St. Louis. At the same time every
honest American will extend to the Philadelphians the hope that their
awakening has not come too late. . "
r 'TJ,e JHiner" of 0maha says that if afly railroad has a string on
Judge E. P. Holmes, it is so slender that no one has been able to tell which,
read holds it. It may be difficult, but the republicans of the First district
should foow that thread, if it exists, through any labyrinth to find who is
Taft tossed a shimose shell into the camp of the protectionists and"
they scattered to the hills, leaving much' plunder and many scalps.
c !?natS Erak?r andihe other "stand-patters" would like to sentence
Secretary Taft to six months on the canal at hard labor.
, nfn5?h(LareTotTKng t0 evade the clgaret law in Indlana and the trust
Is helping them. Is there any law a trust will not break?