Indopondont
PAGE 8
arUNE St 1905
Nebraska.
injustice which extortion puts upon the whole public. Students of the
rate question must bear in mind that rate regulation is one thing, and
rate reduction another of much more importance. To regulate rates as
between" shippers, so that each will have the same equal chance in busi
ness competition, is rendering Justice between the shippers, but is no relief
Whatever to the freight-robbed public which must bear the whole burden of
rate extortion after the discrimination has been adjusted between the ship
pers. The shippers want regulation. The public wants reduction.
The whole trend of discussion which the senate committee has brought
out has been to the effect that if the secret rebates between shippers and
the discrimination between shipping points could be abolished, the whole
rate question would be solved. Behind all this manipulation of the rate
question the railroad hand is plainly visible. This is the view of the case
which the railroad managers are trying to impress upon the public mind. If
they can persuade the public to see the railroad question in that light,
they can easily arrange with congress for a law that will appear to abolish
discriminations k between the. shippers, bui the public will .continue to bear
its burden of extortion, which in Nebraska amounts to over $7 per capita
annually. , .
Not regulation alone, but regulation and reduction, is the battle cry that
must be shouted from neighbor to neighbor, from town to town, and from
state to state. "
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP COMING ; . .
It is well for the people of the United States that they have declared
in no uncertain terms for government regulation of railways. Government
regulation of a. satisfactory character they will never obtain, but it seems
certain at this j time that government ownership is to be established only
after government regulation has been tried and found wanting. Not that
government regulation is to bring the people absolutely no relief. In the
beginning the people will probably feel much encouraged by the good
accomplished. .
When the interstate commerce commission was instituted it fixed rates
in a number of instances and the railways acquiesced, but soon the powers
of the commission were tested and It was found that it merely had the right
to propose a rate. But even this power had a corrective effect for a num
ber of years and is still not wholly useless. .
The same kind of evolution will probably be observed when a railway
commission is given the power to fix maximum and minimum rates. At first
the rulings of the commission will be obeyed. Then clever methods of
evasion will be discovered. Some of these will be failures and others will
succeed. In the long run, however, the great railway trust will shake off
government control and will control the government. In those days the
power of money will be demonstrated more plainly than ever. Concentrated
wealth will be wielded with greater effect in national elections. It has
been possible in the past to place in the presidential chair men who
have not been elected, and it will be not impossible in the future. The
railways will employ every plan that cunning can devise and money can
execute to control the rate-making commission. In the gigantic struggle
that will follow, the triumphs will not always be on the side of the trusts,
but the conditions produced will become insufferable and government own
ership will be the result.
It has been argued that popular government must be deemed a failure
if it cannot control the corporations it has created. But here the word
control is evidently used in the sense of regulate. As a matter of fact the
people can and will control the railways, but this will be achieved only
by public ownership. And when the people own the railways -the problem
of regulating private corporations will be greatly simplified. ,
The evolution which is now going on in the business world will give
possession of the railways to three or four financial interests. At the pres
ent time less than a dozen financial interests own three-fourths of the rail
ways in the United States. When the number hasldiminished to three or four
the time will be ripe for government ownership and the task of acquiring
the roads will not be as stupendous as many people now imagine. The
statement that the government will be required to pay $10,000,000,000 or
$12,000,000,000 for the railways of the country is apt to dismay the ordinary
man. But when the government buys it will not pay a cent for the water in
the stocks. Moreover, it will acquire the roads gradually. At first the
trunk lines will be acquired and the profit made by the government will be
used to buy the local and connecting lines. "
While not abating a jot in their demand for government regulation, the
. peope should realize that it is ittle more than a means to an end. It will, no
doubt, correct some abuses and remove some discriminations. If regula
tion could be made to work satisfactorily government ownership would'
not be necessary. But there is little faith among the reform element in
this country that the nation will be abe to stop short of government owner
ship. The date at which government ownership will become an accom
plished fact will depend largely upon the measure of success attained by
government regulation. sNsxs
CIVIC AWAKENING NEEDED
That a railway can obtain as a gift what the ordinary citizen would
be expected to pay for was again attested when the Lincoln city council
' gave to the Burlington about . 2,500 square feet of Q street. The reason
' assigned for this action is said to have been that the Burlington wants
more space in that particular locality because it is to build a larger passen
ger station. This excuse has not even the merit of the excuse offered by
the hotelkeeper who explained his extortionate charges by saying that he
"needed the money." If the street was valuable to the Burlington, that
road was able, and should have been required, to pay a fair price.
Undoubtedly there are men in Lincoln who would have paid gladly
$3,500 or $4,000 for the land the city gave away. A warehouse on this strip
would be of great benefit to any one of a dozen wholesale or manufacturing
firms in Lincoln. If any of these firms had asked the council for "the land as
a gift the city fathers would have been amazed at such presumption.
When the city gave to the Burlington that strip of Q street it gave away
a portion of the people's money. If it had sold the land for $4,000 the taxes
of the people would have been reduced by that amount.. And now that the
Burlington has secured the land the citizens must pay $4,000 additional
Everywhere in the United States the railways show the same disposi
tion to secure free of cost valuable lands and franchises, and in fivery
state of the union they refuse to bear their just share of taxation. The
citizens of Lincoln and of many hundred other cities in the United States
need an awakening that will make it impossibe for the railways to take the
people's property without paying for it. - ' '
CRIMINAL INDIFFERENCE :
Many men are enthusiastic advocates of reforms that have no local
application. They are willing -to give good advice to them that dwell
in darkest New York or Pennsylvania. They take a deep interest in the
purification of the slums and the building of model tenements in London,
but when they are urged to raise their voices in protest against abuses
at home they shackle themselves to silence. They may be dissatisfied
with railway domination In Nebraska, but they never display enough inter
est in the matter to join hands with those who are fighting to free the
state from, this iron tyranny. Dr. Washington Gladden, speaking of this
fatal indifference a few yearsago, said:
"I am afraid there are some of us who really feel that we could not
afford to have good government. Some of us are Interested in franchises
which could never have been obtained from an' honest. government at the
price we paid for them. - Some of us would be a good deal troubled in our
minds by the thought of the election of an honest assessor in our ward.
A great many of those who are spoken of as belonging to the best class are
not, at the bottom of their hearts, hungering and thirsting for good gov
ernment." But there is another view of the question which probably strikes nearer
the truth. The kind of government is merely a surface indication. The
trouble lies much deeper. In a great measure our government has ceased
" to be representative. The people do not see to it that they retain control of
their legislatures and common councils. They permit the corporations and
the corporation-ruled bosses to select their councilmen and legislators, for
getting that they, have the remedy in their own hands. If they find that
they can not secure honest councilmen by present methods of election ia
cities, they can adopt better methods. If they find that they can not keep
the bosses from gaining control, of conventions they can nominate at the
the primaries. These powers the people possess, but they must not permit
them to go to waste. They must understand that if, they would secure
reforms they must be strenuous and untiring in the pursuit of them.
CAUSES OF THE POSTAL DEFICIT
It is reported from Washington that the postal deficit for the current
year will be about $15,000,000, the largest in the country's history. "To
the extension of rural free delivery and other branches, but particularly th
former, is the Increased deficit attributed," adds the dispatch.
Apparently it has not occurred to the postmaster general that extor
tionate freight rates should be assigned as the principal cause of the deficit
It is to be expected in a rapidly growing nation that there will be many
improvements of the postal service. The people, therefore, will.be Bur
prised to hear that the government is too poor to keep the service up to
date.
Should the postmaster general find it necessary to economize, he will
doubtless strike his first blow at rural free, delivery. No attempt will to
made to secure lower rates from the railways, which, by combination, are
able to carry the mails at their own prices. ,
. Here is another case where an interstate commerce commission with
power to fix maximum rates will be of advantage to the country. If the com
mission is successful in enforcing its schedulesthe efficiency of the postal
service will not be limited by the ability of the government to meet the ex
tortion of the railways.
The railways have decided to establish two literary bureaus to conduct
a campaign of education against government regulation, rate reduction and
.other popular reforms. The motto of these bureaus will doubtless be,
. "Truth for truth's sake."
The Japanese have attributed every victory on land and sea to "the
illustrious virtue of the emperor." . Americans will give considerable credit
to the "illustrious" marksmanship of "the man behind the gun."
As soon as a treasury deficit appeared the government dodged the
tariff, but the plain citizen who is afflicted with a deficit can only dodge hia
creditors. - . . ;
John D. Rockefeller, jr., does not approve of Standard Oil methods.
He will probably decide, however, not to refuse the "tainted income."
We have heard no rumors lately that the Black Sea fleet would pasa
through the Dardanelles en route to the Orient.
Out of respect for historical tradition the president should have placed
Bonaparte at the head of the army.
