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“Public Opinion Throughout the Union
Greater Protection for Travelers.
(From Collier’s Weekly.)
Here is a question from the attorney
general of Missouri: “When the true
obligations on the part of these men
who are In chrage of these great
enterprises are considered, is it not
clear that instead of using the money
of the road to gamble with and to se
cure the control of competing lines, con
trary to the principles of our common
law and our statute law, such money
should be used to improve the road
bed, to straighten the line, to strength
en the bridges, to increase the number
and the safety of the cars in order that
business may be promptly and proper
ly conducted, in order that human life
may be made more secure?” Agita
tion for the introduction of moral
methods, such as the dropping of re
bates and of passes, has already ac
complished something. The agitation
that is most called for now is one for
the Introduction of every safety ap
pliance known to the much less mur
derous trains of Europe.
Many things which are harmful or
perilous we can avoid using if we
have adequate intelligence. Trains
we are compelled to take. If riding
in France or England can be less dan
gerous than war, its perils can be de
creased by us. Tinder-box cars can
be abolished. Highly developed elec
tric signals, including those made pos
sible by electricity, can be introduced.
Too long hours by employes can be
ended. A much higher standard of
personal efficacy can be brought about.
M
The People as Monopoly Owners.
(From the N. Y. Evening Journal.)
When the people own a monopoly—
such as the post office —the entire na
tion is made more prosperous. Ab
sence of competition makes it pos
sible to concentrate all effort on GOOD
SERVICE, instead of using up effort
in chicanery and overreaching.
When private individuals own a mo
nopoly, such as the railroads, the en
tire nation is disturbed and robbed.
Absence of competition makes it pos
sible to concentrate all effort on more
thorough exploitation of the people,
on shameful watering of stocks upon
which business, labor and population
must pay dividends.
In a monopoly owned by the people
and honestly managed all effort is
aimed at serving the people. Is not
that clear?
In a monopoly privately owned and
selfishly managed all effort is direct
ed toward exploiting the people. That
has been made quite plain in recent
railroad and trust exposures.
Monopolies today are private con
cerns, and their managers are called
successful and are highly rewarded ac
cording to their ability to enrich pri
vate individuals at the public expense.
The monopolies of the future —and
there will be many of them —owned by
the people, managed for the people,
will enrich the nation, facilitate legit
imate, private business and enterprise,
add to life’s comfort, increase the pur
chasing power of the honestly earned
dollar.
It
Parties Must Obey the People.
(From the Louisville Herald.)
Never must the party set itself above
or apart from the people. Gov. Hughes
tells the Republicans of New York
candidly and without qualification,
that the party is on state issues doom
'd to defeat unless it gives the people
new assurances of its capacity to gov
ern in their interest. Mr. Hughes
defines party duty:
“No one can convince me that he is
a loyal Republican, with the interests
of the party at heart, who will misuse
official position or will be content with
anything short of the best service
to the people.
“No man is a friend of the Repub
lican party who asks me or any one
in authority to appoint a man or to
retain a man who is not equal to his
job.
“The Republican party should take
advantage of its opportunity to con
vince the people that it can be trusted
to meet their demand in furnishing
competent administration of every de
partment of government, and in the
enforcement of the laws and in the
enactment of the legislation that is
required to protect the people against
the misuse of the privileges they have
bestowed.”
The Pullman Car Trust.
(From the Lincoln Independent.)
Representative Harrison’s bill to re
duce sleeping car fares gives Nebraska
an opportunity to shake its fist at the
Pullman company. Since most of the
sleeping car patronage in Nebraska
is interstate business an intra-state
reduction of charges would not make
a great difference either to Nebraska
or to the Pullman monopoly; but it
would be some satisfaction to go
through the motions nevertheless. In
the last eight years this public ser
vice corporation has made in divi
dends and unearned increase in the
value of its stocks an average of 54
per cent per annum. In 1898 the com
pany was capitalized at 136,000,000. At
that time the stock was watered by
$18,000,000 more. This first paper is
now quoted at two and a half times
par value, and has paid 64 per cent
dividends in eight years. Last year
$26,000,000 more water was poured
in, and at once rose above par. In
addition the concern had accumulat
ed a surplus of $26,000,000 which it
did not know what to do with, so it
paid it over to the stockholders in a
lump. Meanwhile, the company is
unable to pay its porters living wages,
and the public is held up for tips in
addition to regular charges. Resent
ment at such prosperity may be mere
enviousness, as some of our college
presidents intimate. Whatever the mo
tive, to permit this concern longer to
levy so heavily upon our prosperity
is unjustifiable benevolence and wan
ton waste.
An Ermined Anarchist.
(From Donham’s Doings.)
Whenever a judicial anarchist ex
presses contempt for the Constitution
of the United States, as did an Idaho
judge recently, he should have his
insolent comments jammed down his
ornery throat with a bayonet as a
tamping stick. He might possibly
awaken to the danger a few mill
ionaire thieves in this country will
encounter whenever they undertake
to permanently trample that treasured
document into the dust.
Remove the Causes.
(From the New York Tribune.)
Almost daily the newspapers quote
Rome railroad president as deploring
the public hostility to railways. On
Tuesday President Truesdale, of the
Delaware, Lackawanna & Wes
tern, and President Stickney, of the
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
Great Western Railroad, pointed out
the peril ahead for railroads in what
Mr. Stickney called “railroad baiting.”
Mr. Stickney said it was bound to
bring on disaster to the country at
large, and Mr. Truesdale predicted that
it would “work great wrong and in
justice to the railroad interests of the
country, and in so doing injure its
general business interests.” Mr.
Truesdale confessed that “no doubt
there is some justification for this
feeling” of hostility.
If the railroads recognize, as their
presidents say they do, any justifica
tion for public antipathy they should
make all haste to end the justifying
cause. Merely to deplore in annual
reports, in speeches, and in public
interviews the antagonistic sentiment
and to point out its dangers can do
no good. It is attempting to sweep
back the sea. To say, as Mr. Trues
dale does, that much of it is unjust,
exaggerated, unreasonable, will not
cure the trouble; for though that state
ment is perfectly true it is perfectly
commonplace. Whenever just hostility
exists, prejudice and unreason inevit
ably multiply it. The railroads should
do their utmost to remove this justi
fication for the hostility whose exist
ence Mr. Truesdale confesses.
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Railroads and the 2-Cent Rate.
(From the Phila. Ledger.)
The rumors to the effect that the
railroads are considering the advis
ability of sharply curtailing the pas
senger service in Pennsylvania be
cause the legislature holds up ths
threat of passing the ridiculous 2-cent
rate law are, it is to be hoped, noth
ing more than rumors. We can prove
to any enlightened man in the most
fundamentally tiresome manner, if
need be, that this would be a foolish
policy, but it is only necessary to say
that the policy of retaliation or the
threat by corporations at this time to
punish the public will only result in
useless irritation.
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The Old Statute Invoked.
(From the New York World.)
President Roosevelt and the inter
state commerce commission deserve
unqualified praise for the Harriman
investigation—Mr. Roosevelt for or
dering it and the commission for
making so searching an Inquiry into
Mr. Harriman’s methods of exploit
ation. The beneficial results of this
pitiless publicity will be felt for years
to come.
But it may be worth while to re
mark that this fruitful investigation
of the Harriman system of frenzied
finance was not made under the so
called railroad rate law of June 29,
1906, but under the amendments of
March 2, 1889, and February 26, 1891,
to section 12 of the original interstate
commerce law.
During all the years that Mr. Harri
man was thimblerigging the stock mar
ket thil old law was in force.
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Disappearance of the Billionaire.
(From the Brooklyn Eagle.)
The word billionaire came into our
professed fiction about twenty years
ago, and from there It quickly crept
into another branch of Imaginative
literature, our political sociology. And
now it seems there ain’t no sich per
son, as Betsy Prigg might say. If
Mr. Rockefeller is worth only a paltry
third of a billion, where shall we look
for billionaires? It is sad to lose
such an interesting type, such a corner
stone of the social moralities, and
such a fruitful source of profitable
magazine copy. One of Mrs. Whit
ney’s shrewd Yankee women some
where says: “Good looks are a snare,
especially to those as hasn’t got em.”
So are billions.
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Roars of Mouth Warriors.
(From the San Francisco Call.)
Wars and rumors of wars. Os com
fort let no man speak. Capt. Rich
mond Pearson Hobson is talking
through his belligerent hat. Senator
Perkins has nailed his colors to ths
mast that once he sailed before. He
hurls the loud defiance and is ready
drinks. Cuba threatens to declare war
to sign articles. Honduras has start
ed in to whip Nicaragua between
on the United States if we don’t pro
vide offices for every blessed horse
thief on the much-vexed island. Th®
hurly burly roars terribly.
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Noble Order of Quitters.
(From the Detroit Free Press.)
The ranks of the order of “Panama
Canal Quitters” Increases monthly
Soon it will be necessary to establish
a special zone for them at home.
Congress Dodged the Canal Job.
(From the Courier-Journal.)
Congress has largely refused to exer
cise its right, and to perform its duty,
in determining how the canal shall
be ouilt, and has left the work main
ly to the executive. No continuous
plan for doing the work has been
adopted, but, instead, we have had a
series of experiments, which must b®
said to have been failures, for they
have been repeatedly renounced or
changed. That is not the way in which
a great enterprise like this should be
managed.
•t
Roosevelt in 1908.
(From the Washington Herald.)
The article printed in the Sunday is
sue of The Washington Herald, under
the heading “Four Years More for
Roosevelt,” showing the widespread
sentiment in favor of another term
for the present occupant of the white
house, was much commented upon at
the capitol. The existence of such a
sentiment is freely admitted by pub
lic men, but many if not most of them
believe that Mr. Roosevelt will adhere
determinedly to the statement he made
the night of the last presidential elec
tion, and will checkmate any organized
effort to force another nomination upon
him. No one doubts the sincerity of his
purpose, though all readily concede the
strong hold he has upon the confidence
of the people.
The Thaw Trial.-
Nobody has to read it. —Chicago
Tribune.
Increased Cost of Oil.
No doubt Mr. Rockefeller needs the
money.—-Baltimore Sun.
Doesn’t Often Happen.
There are days even now when the
papers come out without a report of
a big railroad accident.—Kansas City
World.
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Castro.
1 resident Castro is never so much
alive as when his enemies are wonder
ing what sort of flowers they ought to
•end to hi* funeral.—New York Even,
inf Sun.