SEPTEMBER 74 1905
PAGE 5
XJho Ncbracho. Independent
which our fathers founded the government. -Figs
are not gathered from thistles, nor are
happy results to be obtained from unjust ;
laws. If ever this republic Is to be again
blessed with general prosperity it must go
back to the system which once made it
prosperous; and to do that the creed of Pop-
ulism must find place upon the statute book.
AFTER QUANTRELL'S MEN
A demand for the trial of a man on a charge
for murder forty-two years after the murder has
been committed is an oddity, but something of
that sort is just now agitating certain people in
Kansas and Missouri. The Chicago Tribune thus
explains the case:
August 21, 1863, when 300 or 400 guer- r
rillas, led by the notorious Missouri Bush- -whacker
and cutthroat, Quantrell, looted and
j it - j. t nn,nw. Vna Tho Tioru
Duraeu me iuwu ui mnicuc,
pie of Lawrence were unarmed, the mayor, 3
for purposes of safety, having caused all the s
weapons in town to be locked up. Never- .
theless, no quarter was shown to men or
boys, and 150 some accounts say 183 were t
left dead when the raiders rode away. Some
of Quantrell's party were recognized and in
dictments were returned by a Kansas grand
state of things existing then and for years -afterward
it was impossible to make any
arrests. Several years ago tne survivors of 1
Quantrell's band began to hold annual re- -unions
at their old rendezvous, Independence,
Mo. At the last reunion one aged "border 1
ruffian" expressed in highly emphatic lang- -uage
the wish that the whole of Lawrence had
been wiped out Persons who were in Law- ,
rence at the time of the raid, and the
widows and orphans of many who were killed,
are still living in Kansas. They were en
raged by this talk. The indictments returned
forty-two years ago have been dug up, and
Governor Hoch says that, if asked to, he will
request Governor Folk of Missouri to deliver -the
accused to the Kansas authorities. Such -a
request would put Governor Folk in an em- -barrassing
position. While the people of -Kansas
regard the venerable former guer
rillas as murderers, in the border counties of
Missouri they are looked upon by a large
part of the population as heroes, and if the
Missouri executive attempted to deliver any
of them into the hands of the angry Kaa
sans he would wreck his popularity. It is .
not likely that any of the men would be
convicted if tried. Practically their crimes
are outlawed. But they are not anxious to
go back to Kansas and face a Jury. . If they ,
"are extradited, tried, and convicted, it will .
be due to their bragging of their crimes. -The
bloodthirsty guerrillas of Quantrell's
band should have kept their mouths shut
after the war. was over.
RAILWAYS PLANNING A COUP
In the Columbus Teiegram Edgar Howard in
dicates what, in his opinion, is the scheme of
the Nebraska railways in relation to lower freight
and passenger rates:
What the Nebraska railroads most fear
is agitation in favor of lower freight and
" passenger rates. In the rural districts there
is a growing demand for a specific and cer
tain roHnrHnn nf such rates. That demand
will be given voice in the republican state
convention. There will be in that conven
tion certain free men free from the railroad
collar. These men will try to have their con
vention declare in favor of reducing passen
ger fares to two cents per mile, also in favor
of a maximum freight law. Then the pro
fessional pass-distributors of the Harrison
stripe will champion an anti-pass platform -vigorously,
all the while trying to smother
every plank dealing with a .reduction of
freight and passenger rates. Having adopt- -ed
an anti-pass platform the railroad ma
nipulators will call upon the republicans of
the state to rally round the old flag and
come up to the aid of the party which has
the courage to bid defiance to railroad rul
ers. There will be no defiance about it.
It will be simply a carrying out of the rail
road program. It will be well for Nebras
kans who are opposed to railroad rule to
keep an eye on the Harrisons. All of them
are not confined to the republican party. Wo
have some of ' them in democratic circles.
They will try to work the same game in the
democratic convention. In that convention
will be delegates who will demand a plat
form which will ... declare specifically for a
reduction of passenger fares and freight ;
-" rates. The democratic railroad politicians -
men who have heretofore scoffed at the coun- mr
"Z try delegates who favored an anti-pass plank
in the platforms will this year be loudest in
" advocacy of such a plank, hoping thereby to
satisfy the demand of the country delegates
for a strong declaration in favor of reduced
J passenger and freight charges. The real -
friends of the movement for railroad regu-
- lation should be on guard against the machin-
- ations of the cunning railroad politicians. !
Advocates of railroad regulation in the va
rious counties should demand that both re
publican and democratic county conventions
instruct their state delegates to favor a plat
form which will specifically declare for pas
senger fares at two cents per mile, and
- freight rates at a fair maximum. Of course
they should also favor an anti-pass plank.
' Let no friend of railroad regulation under
estimate the power of the railroad hand in
; Nebraska politics. The railroads always em
, ploy the ablest servants they can find. W. .
H. Harrison is one of the strong men in Ne
braska. He will be aide.d in the work of .
pulling the wool over the eyes of the coun
try delegates by many others of almost
equal ability. The country delegates should -go
to both the state conventions prepared
to see the railroad manipulators shed tears
While championing an anti-pass platform, but
they should also go there prepared to see
those same watery-eyed patriots doing all in
their power to keep the conventions from
plain speaking regarding freight and pas
senger rates.
FREE PASS BRIBERY
At Mason City, la., Governor La Follette
gave his views on the pass question and inci
dentally paid his respects to the hired statesmen
of congress:
With increase in shipments rates should
go down. But railroads are absolutely run
ning the congress of the United States. At
tempts to pass a bit of legislation that is fair
and honest, but which will reduce the net
income of the railroads and see what you will
run up against. United States senators trav
eling here and there and everywhere on
passes. Lobbyists in hamlet, village, town --and
city with passes in their pockets. Lob
byists who run caucuses and fix up slates
for you to vote. Managers of railroads class
men as safe and unsafe. They know a safe
man in the common city caucus and they
fight sending an honest man as a delegate
to even a county convention. It Is organized
corruption of politics in both parties that we
raise our voice against. But recently, while
in Missouri, on the platform I counseled the
republicans to stand by Governor Folk. I
meant it And at the same time I pointed
them across the boundaries of the state, over
into Illinois, where the nation has a true and
conscientious man, and asked them to coun
sel with their friends there to stand by De
neen. Men, help purify politics in the great
parties engaged in this struggle. When that
is done go back to your party if you want to.
Let principles rule and not party.
: Judge who now accepts a railroad pass,
places himself under a just suspicion of hold
ing corrupt confidential relations with rail
road corporations.
The Chicago Public describes the change
which has come over public sentiment in the
last few years with reference to the pass
system:
Opposition to railroad pass bribery has
become so prevalent that It is difficult to rea
lize today how heartily the press of two
years ago laughed at Congressman Robert
Baker for refusing one of these bribes. "It
will be a cause of wonder to the future his
torian," observes the Chicago Tribune of the
21st, That a self-respecting people should
have allowed this pass evil to persist year
after year and decade after decade, when
its corrupting purpose and effect were recog
nized and admitted." A more insidious .
species of bribery was never Invented. If
an official takes the bribe, a channel" of cor
rupt communication is thereoy opened, t
which may or may not be utilized, as circum
stances dictate; if he refuses this overture
quiety, he is "spotted" by corporation tools
as probably unapproachable and certainly not
friendly, and secretly he is suppressed. The
only way in which the pass bribery system
could have been exposed and broken up was
that which Congressman Baker adopted. By
making as notorious as possible his refusal
to accept a pass which most congressmen did
accept, and the others refused quietly, he
called public attention the country over to
the abuse; and when public attention was
centered upon it its doom was sealed. The
i imblic' official legislator, ' administrator or
THE RAILWAY QUESTION
The terrible increase in the number of rail
way casualties and the criminal and heartless
indifference of the railway managers, Is far from
edifying to the American people. The Chicago
Tribune points out where the fault lies:
Time and the enormous growth or railway
i traffic have changed all this. There are. now.
trains which average sixty miles an hour
over runs hundreds of miles long and which
occasionally make spurts of speed greatly
exceeding this. On- tracks where, thirty
years ago, there ran a half dozen trains, there
now run dozens of them, and the engineer,
before he enters hisrcab, is handed a great
bundle of train orders, not one of which he
can overlook or forget without imperiling
valuable property and hundreds of lives. In
stead of having regular periods of rest, as
formerly, he Is frequently required, during
seasons of heavy traffic, to work extra time,
and sometimes he is at the throttle incessant
ly for from eighteen to twenty-four hours.
The speed he must make, the mental strain
he is always under when making a run, and
ine mental ana physical exhaustion from
which he suffers these, the "old timer" de
clares, are the true causes -of a great ma
jority of the mistakes engineers make. They
are not careless or reckless, but like other
men, they sometimes forget Trains prob
ably will continue to be run faster and fast
er. Traffic will grow heavier' Engineers
cannot be depended upon to become less for
getful or able to stand a greater strain.
Wrecks may, nevertheless, be rendered less
frequent and terrible. Air brakes, double
tracks, and the block system, if generally
adopted, would prevent many probably a ma
jority of wrecks. The engineers hand and
mind would be less fallible if railway man
agers recognized the fact that he is a hu
man being, not a part of his locomotive, and
that there are limits to his endurance.
Thousands of people are injured and killed in
wrecks in the United States every year, not
because there are no known means of pre
venting them, but because the railways do not
adopt means that are well known.
The Pittsburg Kansan advocates a "flat rate
of $1 per passenger and $1 per ton of freight
as a desirable method on the railways of the
country. For the year ending June 30, 1905, the
gross earnings of all the roads were $1,975,174,(119,
and the operating expenses $1,338,896,253. The
roads carried 715,419,622 passengers and hauled
1,309,899,165 tons of freight. The Kansan says:
Suppose that all the railroads belonged,
say to John D. Rockefeller, or John P. Mor-
gan, or even to Uncle Sam, and were oper-
ated as a unit, It Is clear that a flat rate of $1
per passenger, and $1 per ton of freight would
have yielded a bigger gross revenue than the
multitude of classifications and rates actually -used
did. Let us call each .passenger a dollar T
and eaeh ton a dollar, and here is what we -
AIM TO.
Passengers!.'....,.,. ,....$ 715,419,682
Freight ......... 1,309,899,165
Total 2,025,318,847
Actual receipts ........... 1,972,174,019
T5i n - L a 1 1 1 a net '
HiACCSS UU liiAL ia.LH. ...... . DU.lft.OlO
If we deduct the actual 'operating ex-
penses from the supposed flat rate the bal- "
ance In its favor would be $686,412,594 in
stead of 663,277,776, a gain of $50,134,828.
But that 'Is not all. Each of the 4,104 rail
ways has a full corps of shoulder-strapped,
kid-gloved and silk-stockinged presidents,
vice presidents and officers to oe salaried and
pensioned to the limit, which Rockefeller, or.
Morgan, or Hill, or Uncle Sam would dis
pense with and thus increase the profits
and the efficiency of the service. The read
er must decide whom he would prefer te
see owning the railway systems of the coun
try as a unit, Rockefeller, Morgan, Hill, or
Uncle Sam, but he must concede that any
one of them as owner would be an infinite
improvement on the present heterogenous and
expensive system. A flat rate for passen
gers and freight, as we have for letters, but
without the outrageous and abominable
franking , system that prevails in the post
office, would reduce the rates of transporta
tion and travel and doubtless increase, the
revenues.