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The News and Observer. VOL.XLYI. NO. 133. IMS ILL NORTH CAROLINA HOLIES II NEWS 111 CIRCUL//'iON. THE LIFE ARTERIES OF THE REPUBLIC Address to the Convention of Railroad Commissioners JUSTICE WALTER CLARK THE CLEAR RIGHT OF TJ PUBLIC TO CONTROL RATES. CRIPPLING DISCRIMINATIONS AGAINST The South. Why Raiload Officials Have Pre ferred to Keep Rates High Even at a Comparative Loss. Usurpation by the Federal Judiciary. The following is the speech of Justice Walter Clark, of the Supreme Court, de livered by invitation before the national convention of railroad commissioners at Denver, Colorado, on Thursday last: Gentlemen of the Convention: I appreciate the compliment of being requested to address this Eleventh An nual convention of your honorable body, composed of the inter-St ate Commission and the Railroad Commissioners of thirty-four States. There are few men to whom more important interests are confided than you, upon whom rest a people’s hoi>es for the regulation of the great transportation business of this country. Upon your success in the dis charge of that duty awaits the public decision whether we shall rest content with this form of regulation, or whether, slowly it may be, or suddenly it may be. but in either event reluctantly, the people shall be forced to take over the JUSTICE WALTER CLARK. ownership of railroads as the sole solu tion of one of the greatest problems which now vex the public mind. Your conventions have, I believe, with one exception, been held in the city of Washington. Appropriate, as for many reasons that city is for your gath ering and pleasant as it is for any as semblage, you are to be congratulated that for this occasion you have selected the capital of the Centennial State, the centre of the wild and breezy west. Here the air is purer. You are at a higher elevation and can take a broader and more comprehensive view of men and affairs. It would look as if you were at the very centre and hub of the uni verse, for as Proctor Knott said of the “zenith city of the unsalted seas,” the sky fits down at the same distance all around us. At any rate you are at the centre of the gmit country which stretches from the Mississippi to the Pacific —a section which embraces two thirds of thistl’nion, though many men east of the Mississippi have never sus pected it. Political parties are so little alive to it that all our Presidents save one have come from the one-third of the Union that lies east of the Mississip x pi, 'and that one lived on the very bank of the river at Baton Rouge. Two of the three great parties in 1 Si>t» combined in the nomination of a candidate from west of the great river, and the proba bilities are that he will be nominated again next year. The mountain barriers which once di vided this immediate section from the Golden Slope of the Pacific are like Louis XIV said of the Pyrenees—they exist no longer—for we “Have ridden our iron stallions down to drink, “Through the canyons to the waters of the West.” The steel rails of commerce have rivet ed State to State by bands that can never he burst asunder. Beneath tin* tread of the iron horse mountains haw vanished and rivers ceased to exist. A LESSON FROM ROME. From the golden mile stone in tie Roman Forum radiated those magnifi cent roads which to this day tell how Rome built for the ages. Along them poured the tide of the Republic's and the Empire's commerce; over them tramped her legions, and as the God Terminus successively removed further and further the limits of her domains, tlu>se magnificent viaducts carried to the remotest verges the arts, the litera ture, the laws, the civilization that was Roman. Indeed her roads made poss> hie the vast extent of her dominion and bound, together for so many centuries so many countries in that Roman Peace which created uml maintained the civili- zation and the learning without which .humanity wofild not occupy the ad vanced stage that it does today. Suppose for a moment that those Rn man roads, the arteries of the empire, had been owned by private companies of millionaries; that not a wheel could roll nor a man move along them, nor even the legions except on terms dictated by the corporations; would not those cor porations have had the empire by the throat? Would they not have appointed consuls and pro-consuls, every Senator, every general and every judge? They would have been the government. A greater than Rome is before you. In these United States the 190,000 miles of iron way are no less the life arteries of the Republic. Along them pours a tide of travel, of freight, of wealth far beyond what the Roman ways, even those nearest the capital, ever witnessed. Indeed, though our railway system dates back only seventy years, over any one of our many great through lines, the volume of freight and travel exceeds that of the entire world a century ago. It is needless to say that the control of this immense power must be in the gov ernment, that is in the people, for with us the government is still in theory at least, tin' people. RAILROADS AND TIIE PUBLIC. The Supreme court of the United States held in the Granger eases (Munn vs. Illinois, 94 U. S.) and has reiterated in many a ease since that time out of mind the control of common carriers and their regulation ns to rates and in all other matters, rested in the government. “Though in this country transportation by railroad is carried on by private cor porations,” said the Inter-State Com merce Commission in their last report (1899) to Congress-, "it is essentially a government function, 'this appears from the necessary conditions of railroad con struction. It is a universal maxim that private property can not be taken for private uses, but only for the public use. Yet no railroad can be built without the ■appropriation of private property. It equally appears from the relation of the carriers’ business to the community. A merchant may sell to one customer for one price and to another customer tot another price, as best subserves his in terest, without violating any sense of right and wrong, but it is universally felt that the rates of public transpor tation should bo uniform to all.. Ihe railway is, from its very nature in re spect to the greater part of it* business, a virtual monopoly. If the business of transportation is essentially a government function, then the govern ment must see that it is proper!;- dis charged. If it is in essence a monopoly, then it must be regulated. rite two things, of necessity, go band in hat* I.’ THS I’UBLIC IS SOVEREIGN This is a very clear statement of the proposition. Railroads can only no con structed by reason of having rights of way condemned for them is a public use, and being a public use, they are necessarily subject to public vegu.ni ion. Indeed, the fact that yon sit neve, that we have an Inter-State Commission and that thirty-four States or more have their Railroad Commissions, is con. -u --sive that the sovereign, of whom the Supreme Court of tin* Union and of every State*, is merely an agency— the sovereign people—have decided once for all that these iron horses shall be bitted and bridled. The sun will not. cannot, go back a single degree an ihe dial at Ahoz. Mr. Ingalls, President of two great systems, in bis address to you last year, frankly said: “Regula tion by the people has conn* to stay and a railroad manager who does, mu recognize that fact is a back number." lie further said that tin* mass of rail way managers fully recognized the perm anence of public control and regulation and were* earnestly seeking a solution of the difficulties attendant upon it. No one can doubt that if all railway managers loyally accepted the yoke of the law, all questions of differences be tween railways and people would la* fairly settled by these boards provided by the law for that purpose. It is be cause many managers do not accept it but resort to injunctions (often issued by their former attorneys, promoted to the bench) to set aside rates, regula tions and tax assessments made by your commissions that the present unsatis factory condition of affairs exists. OWNERSHIP VS. CONTROL. it results that the real question—and we are fact to face with' it —is whether it is practicable to control these great forces, these immense aggregations of capital, by Commission* and by statutis, or shall it he necessary to take the abso lute ownership of them over in the gov ernment. In all the countries of the world save Great Britain and the United States, the answer has been that government ownership is'indispensable to a safe and just control. Accordingly in almost all other countries, including even the Aus tralian and other British colonies, the railroads, or at least the controlling lines arc owned by their respective govern ments. Iu the United Mates qud the contracted territory embraced in the British Isles, the experiment of govern ment control, without government own ership, is oil trial. There are evils in government owner ship. There are difficulties in govern ment control, unless it has ownership. It is those difficulties which yon have Tool to face since the creation of your respective Commissions. You know their magnitude. The history of your various bodies, and the published pro ceedings of your meetings in these joint sessions for ten years past, show how fully you have grasped the situation and with what ability you have discussed ihe problems it presents. ASPECTS OF THE PROBLEM. There are many aspects in which the railroad problem presents itself: 1. The relation of common carriers to their stockholders. 2. To one another. 3. To their employees. ' RALEIGII, NORTH CAROLINA, SUNDAY MORNING. AUGUST 1:!, 1899. 4. To the government. 5. Their relation to the humble indi viduals who are often treated as if-they had no right to express their opmiens on such serious and intricate matters as railroad management, yet without whom not a ear wheel would roll, not a magnate would draw his salary—in short the men upon whose broad shoulders rest the entire support of this immense system—the patrons of the roads. In looking over your proceedings last session. I see that the invitation was extended to me upon the ground that the investors, the great railroad presi dents and their attorneys, the employees, the representatives of the government had been heard by you, and it was sug gested that it would not la* amiss if tin* people, “the Joneses who paid the freight,” they who supported the rail roads instead of being supported by them, s-hould be heard from also, and a friend of mine proposed that 1 should la* selected to represent this "Forgot 9 l Man.” Your convention did me the very high honor to ask me to represent him and I am before you. This forgotten man elects no president, superintendent oy board of directors but lie a.is to bear whatever burdens they see iit to place upon him. He has no voice in living the salaries, many of them as l.’gh as or higher than that of the President of the United States, but he pays them to the last cent. He rarely rides in a palace car or upon a fret* pass hut In* pays the fare of those who do. He has no hearing as to the tax which shall he levied for the movement of himself, his produce or bis purchases, but he pays it more surely than he does the taxes for the support of bis city. State of Federal Government, for tin* Station Agent, like that other lax col lector, the Custom House officer, »x --tendis no credit or delay but requires cash in hand. OWNERSHIP NOT DESIRED. Speaking for this client you have as signed me, I shall not say that he de sires government ownership. On the contrary I think he docs not—as yet. He is patient, lie is conservative. He has government control, without ownership, on trial. ll<* is watching it closely; I may even say, doubtfully, but he will give it a fair trial. If it succeeds so much the better. If it shall fail, he will be heard from further. Let it not be thought that there are limitations upon bis power, for from ocean to ocean and from earth to sky, this land and all that in it is, are his. Ho conquered it with his blood, He created it with His labor and has defended it with llis life. As to Constitutions, He made them and He can make others when He deems that justice to Himself and to those dependent irjxm Him. shall require it. Justice has ever been the attribute of the race to which lie be longs, and conservatism His companion, but He can move.* He moved at Bunk er lI'Hl and an historic flag, the flag of his fathers for long centuries, disap peared from his shores forever. lie moved at Philadelphia and a new form of government, alien to tile traditions of tin* race, took its place among the na tions to a hide forevermore. I shall therefore, as far as I ant able, point out to you a few of» the views of this client, some of the causes of com plaint which he has told me lit* has under the present system of government con trol and which possibly may be remedied without calling in government ownership; and I take it this is what you wish to hea r. THE MASSES ARE JUST. The masses of our fellow citizens arc intelligent and just. They have no hos tility to railroads as such, but only to their abuses. They recognize the im mense value of railroads, their indispen sable assistance in the development of tliis country. By individual, city, coun ty. State and National subscriptions they have aided tin* construction of tin* rail road system of this country. They have seen individual stockholders "frozen out; they have seen city, county aid Stale holdings displaced that great manipula tors may become tin* owners of these properties. They have seen the more than $500,000,900 of National aid given in lands and bonds, disappear "like tin* baseless fabric of a vision” and leave scarce a wrack behind. These things they have endured and would even forgive if the present management of these sys tems were fair and just. It was a Frenchman who maliciously defined a lawyer as a “gentleman who rescues your property from the enemy and appropriates it himself.” It will la* small advantage to the public if the rail roads develop the country merely to own its profits themselves, for the value <>l land depends upon tin* amount of pro fits taken out of its produce for trans portation. RAILROAD EARNIN’!IS. Inc returns to tin* Inter-State Com merce Commission for tin* year ending ,*o of June. 189!*. are not yet in but tak ing the returns for 30 of June, 1898 and making an allowance for increase at the same ratio which they showed over the previous year, it may be roughly esti mated that there were 190,000 miles of railway in the United States on June 30, 1809, and that the railroad receipts for the year ending on that day were I.lno millions dollars, of which 500 millions were net profit. It may also be said that two sevenths of the receipts were from passengers (of whom more than 900 mil lions were carried) and that the total of bonds and stocks upon which these cor porations were paying or endeavoring 1o pay dividends and interest is (according | to Poor’s Manual arid other good author ities) something more than double what it would cost to replace all Ihe rail- j roads with tlreir equipment and proper ty of (»vcry description. The HHI per cent, or more of bonds and stm-ks above actual value is due largely, but not al together to watering, for to some extent is represents extravagance in construc tion and shrinkage in values. The immense volume of this business, whose receipts aggregate nearly three times, and whose net revenues about equal, the total receipts of the National Government, shows that it must be reg ulated by public control in some form. It touches the public welfare at too many points to be left uncontrolled by no con siderations sujierior to the profits of the con stations or the caprices of their managers. At the same time the im mense hulk shows also the difficulty of wise or effective supervision and the in calculable harm alike to the carriers and the public if that supervision were done by unskilful] or hostile hands. MEDDLING IN POLITICS. One of the greatest evils of the present system is the proneness of these corpor ations to intervene in politics. Realizing that a government by the people is only possible when the government is kept untouched by the power of -great money ed combinations, then* is nothing which arouses public indignation more than the almost unconcealed interference of these corporations in the nomination and elec tion of* legislators, congressmen, Gov ernors and United States Senators, Their contributions to Presidential campaign funds is a National scandal. Worse than all is their influence in the appointment of tin* life judiciary of the Federal Gov ernment and recent evidence given before the Industrial Commission shows that they are not above tamperiiiig with the nomination and election of State judges chosen by the people. It is not for such purposes as these that corporations are chartered. Their interference in such matters is not to ad vance lmt to thwart the public interest. Su< h expenditures of effort stand of money are not made without expectation of most adequate returns. They are not necessarily made in behalf of either polit ical party, for the late Jay Gould cyni cally expressed the truth when he said that "in a Democratic district We was a iOMiiocrat and in a Republican district a Republican, but in every one a railroad man.” Tliis interference in the nomina tion and (‘lection of public officials fati gues popular indignation event more than the lobbies maintained in Congress and State legislatures, to affect legislation and is a great lever towards forcing a demand for government ownership of railroads. DISCRIMINATION IN RATES. Tin* greatest of evils attendant upon the present system, viewed from a fi nancial standpoint, .greater than exces sive rates, and more difficult to repress, because st*cret, is discrimination in rates. By this means individuals and even cities can be destroyed and others built up by their destruction. The Standard Oil Co. which forced the railways to carry its products at 30 cents per barrel while compelling them not only to charge all others 80 c-ernts per barrel, but even to ;or tin* extra 50 cents paid by its rivals into the Standard Oil Treasury, is a sample of the methods of these modern highwaymen, the trusts. The Standard Oil Company is shown to have received from the railroads $10,000,000 bonus by this means in 18 .months. Other corpor ations have followed the same methods until small manufacturers have been crushed out and equality of opportunity which was the boast of our institutions lias become non-existent. The crucial question for solution is whether tin* interference of great cor porations in politics and their secret dis crimination in rates, whereby trusts are created and sustained, can In* suppressed without resort to government ownership, These evils must be eliminated. The loqx* of America lies in the very fact that our people will not submit to such abuses much longer. How shall you suppress these dis criminations? Mr, Depew recently stat ed that certain large establishments could ship goods from Chicago to New York at 35 cents in*r 100 pounds while others had to pay 75 cents — a difference of SBO tier ear load, or on a shipment of ten cat loads per day a discrimination of «i quar ter of a million dollars per year; and \Y. 11. Vanderbilt testified before the Hep burn Commission that all large shippers got rebates if they asked for them. How can any individual or any town stand up against the destructive power of such discriminations? Can they be stopped by voluntary agreements, however solemn lietwecn railroad managers? Hear what Presi dent Ingalls told you at yOur last conven tion. He said: "Men managing large corporations, who would trust their op ponent with their pocket books with, un told thousands in it, will hardy trust his agreement for the maintenance of tan itls while they are in the room together. Good faith seems to have departed from tin* railroad world so far as traffic agreements are concerned.” If these managers will not trust one another lvow can the public be expected to have much faith in them? CRUSHING OUT THE WEAK. The Inter-State Commerce Commission seems to agree entirely with. President Ingalls for they say in their 1899 report "The situation has become intolerable, 'noth from the standpoint of the public and of the carriers. Tariffs are disre garded, discriminations constantly occur, the price at which transportation can he obtained is fluctuating and uncertain. Railroad managers are distrustful of each other and shippers all the while In doubt as to tin* rates secured by their competitors. The volume of traffic is so unusual as to frequently exceed the ca pacity of equipment, yet the contest for tonnage seems never relaxed. Enormous sums are spent in purchasing business and secret rates accorded far fyelow the standard of public charges.” 'Hiis is unanswerable proof that those charges are too high and that the general public is victimized. The report goes on, "The general public gets little benefit from these reductions, for concessions are mainly continu'd to the heavier shippers. All this augments the advantage of large capital and tends to the injury and often to the ruin of small dealers. These are not only matters of grave consequence to tin* business welfare of the country, but they concern in no less degree the higher interests of public morality." Further on the report says: "The dis criminations are always in favor of the strong and against the weak.” This! condition tin* present law is powerless to control. If it is asked why the criminal remedies are not applied the answer is they have lieen and without success. The business of railroad transportation is car ried on to a very large extent in conced ed violations of law. Men who in every other respect are reputable citizens are guilty of acts which if the statute law of the land were enforced, would sub ject them to time or imprisonment.” THE REMEDY. It would seemi that the remedy is easy anil simple. It is to give the Inter-Slate Commission power to reduce rates. \\ hen a discrimination of this kind has proven the current rate too high, it should be made the duty of tile Commission to re duce the rate to the general public per manently at that figure. A ratchet and pawl arrangement of that kind can alone give the general public justice and stop discriminations. 'Hie bulk of tin* receipts of railroads, five-sevenths on an average .or say one thousand millions dollars i.W round num bers for the year ending 30 join*. 1899. came from the carriage of freights. I have not the time or the knowhdge to point out, if indeed any one can, as yet, tin* most serious defects in the freight rates. So close is the calculation on these points that it is said that % of a cent per bushel on wheat lie tween Chica go and Liverpool, will determine its rate and we know that 1-10 of a cent per ton per mile added on freight would tax over 100 millions more annually out of tin* people. There should he no ]WW(*r to add it except by the people’s consent, given through the Railroad Commissions. I• N RELBA RLE R ETC R NS. Our commissions have dome a great work iu securing improvements in the classification of freights and the publici ty of rates, and towards the accuracy of returns —though the reliability of the re turns made by railroads is, as yet am un known quantity. On some systems they on,n doubtless in* relied upon and on oth ers not at all. Until a uni form and reliable system of returns can In* oompelhd, we shall Im* more or less groping in the dark in our search for that elusive but much desired "reasonable rate,” which the* law allows. When there is no suppression or inten tional misstatement in the returns, there are sometimes such errors as charging the rental of leased lines to operating ex ponses — which is in effect making the public pay the rentals for them —and sums spent for lobbying, subsidising newspapers and sm h purposes are al ways covered up in a lump sum, usually under the bead of terminal expenses. Tile traveller and the shipper has to pay tor debauching his own public servants. It is true that compared with foreign countries, there lias been a decided re duction in freight rates, amd if there were no discriminations, we might think we had approached, in some sections of the country, >a fair rate. The introduction of larger engines, labor-saving devices and other economies, however enable the railroads to haul very much cheaper than formerly. By the introduction of larger engines alone, the Union Pacific Railroad saved $1,040,000, in 1894 over tin* cost of doing the same volume ot work in 1890. EXORBITANT FREIGHT RATES. That we have not yet reached a rea sonable and fair freight rate i's shown not only by the frequent reduction to favored parties, but by tin* large quan tities of freight carried from our eastern and indeed our Dike States, over the Canadian Pacific Railroad and thence down to Ualifrouia points, instead of by tho natural and shorter routes through our own States. Then while freight rates in the greater part of the Northern and Western States are more reasonable tuan formerly, those South of the Poto mac and Ohio were adjudged excessive by the Inter-State Commerce Commis si on in the case of the "Freight Bureau of Cincinnati vs. Cincinnati. New Or leans and Texas Railroad.” It*7 U. S. 4 75>. which was begun by the Freight Bureau of Chicago and Cincinnati for the purpose of reducing rates from those two cities to eight important cities iu the Southern States. No tribunal has ever reversed this finding that these rates were excessive. The United States Su preme Court merely held that tin* Inter- State Commerce commission had no pow er to reduce rates—the more is the pity hut it held that Congress could confer that power nix mi the commissi on. Tin* statement of Mr. Campbell, general freight agent, proven- recently before the Industrial Commission was to the effect that freight rates in tin* Southern States are exorbitant. Indeed it is a matter of common knowledge and can be shown at any time by a comparison of freight charges on the south side of the Ohio with those am the North. CRIPPLING THE SOUTH. In fact the embargo laid on tin* devel opment of the Southern States by the ex tortionate charges for transportation is the chief factor in retarding its growth. If the members of Congress from those States would unite in support of a bib conferring upon the Inter-States Com merce Commission! the right to reduce rates whenever in the opinion of that able and conservative commission rates are excessive, they would do more for the progress and prosperity of that beau tiful section than can be done by any other single measure in the ordinary range of 'legislation. In some sections ot' the South, the charges are so high, esperially in the trucking business, that tin* real owners of the soil are the Lon don and New York bankers who own tin* principal railway systems <if the (South. Their transportation charges take all the porfits. leaving the nominal owners of the soil a mere pittance. Their situation is exactly like that of the jk*o ple of Ireland, a fine country which is in the same manner impoverished by the Bailiffs carrying all the profits of agri culture to lx* spent by non-resident land lords in London, whence it never returns. The railroad system of the South is a duplicate of that which impover ishes Ireland, there by the actual i ownership of the soil, with us by the I ownership of the railroad uys- * SECTION ONE—Pages 1 to 4. PRICE F T S /ENTS. terns whose exorbitant charges (as ad judged by the Inter-State Commerce Commission) is in the practical percep tion of all the profits of ownership of, the soil, without its inconveniences. One large railroad system in North Carolina last year paid its stockholders (by sun dry devices) 159 per cent, dividends, which is ov- r 4<K) per cent, on the price at which tlie syndicate bought out the State’s stock in the road. Though they thus got back in one year’s profits more than four times their investment, they obtained from a Federal judge an in junction against the Railroad Commis sion reducing their passenger fares to 2 1 /a cents per mile or assessing their property for taxation at one-third of the market value of their stocks and fbonds. You gentlemen can say whether there are any instances approaching this in justice or unfairness in your respective States. While freight rates in the Northern States will compare favorably with those in other countries, in passenger rates the charges in this country are, as a rule, excessive and unjustifiable and of course doubly so in the Southern States. HIGH PASSENGER TOLLS. In no particular have the railroad charges been more extortionate nor more unwise than in passenger rates. Upon the liberal estimate of 125 (1-10 of a ton) as the average weight of pas sengers paying full fare (above 12 years of age) the average charge for passen gers per mile is over 30 times, not infre quently 50 times, that charged per pound for freight, notwithstanding pas sengers load and unload themselves—a consideration which far more than com pensate for the carriage of baggage for part of the passengers. This is peculiar ly unfortunate for it not only diminishes the revenues of the roads, which could fill their cars, or carry additional cars, without ail perceptible addition of ex pense, hut it prevents that free circula tion of the population which is so highly educational and which induces new enterprises whereby freight traffic is increased. Wherever reu onable passenger rates have been tried, the result has been not only accommo dation* to the publie, but increased prof its to the railways. In thinly settled Russia, as far back as 1894, passenger rates were reduced to % cent per mile for distances under 100 miles, and lower for longer distances —the fart* for 100 milt's bring 75 cents and for two thou sand males SO.OO. This iwiid so well that since then a further reduction has been made which our Consular agents re ivort profitable. In Belgium, workmen living 42 miles from then* working places buy weekly tickets good to go and return six times a week for 57 cents a week, and shorter distances in propor tion -a good solution of tin* evils of crowded tenement houses and high rents. In India the rates were Va cent [x*r male, which proved so profitable that recently there (has been a reduction to 1-3 cent tier mile. In Great Britain, France. Ger many and Austria, travel, equal an ac commodation to our second class, aver ages % cent per mile. Among many examples of what lower rates will do in this country, in one of the rate wars, passenger rates from San Francisco to Chicago were reduced from $l2O to sls, with the result that the passenger coaches were full, carrying 90 passengers, and bringing in S9OO per ear, when the haul of a load of cattle would have been at usual rates only $220 per ear. There are two reasons possibly why railroad managers prefer higher rates — for it can not lx* on account of the prof it. One is they prefer a smaller -volume of business at approximately the saint* profit—tin* convenience to the public be ing counted nil. The other is that with high rates, the free passes have a great er purchasing power in influence and in votes, and the same is true of the reduc ed rates they giv<* to drummers, preach ers and others who can influence public opinion, thus making the passenger busi ness a leverage of special privileges to some and not of equal rights to all. ADVANTAGES OF LOW RATES. Judge Cooley, that eminent states man and jurist, as long ago as 1892. in his address before your convention, pointed out that the railroads in most unmistakable ways, daily admitted their passenger rates to be too high. First, lie said, by tin* large nuinlier of persona they carrry free; then by the number of those they carry at reduced rates on mileage tickets, the still further re duction to ministers, and the yet furth er reduction on all conceivable occasions. Summer tours, college commencements, political speakings, excursions, and in the occasional rate wars. As that emi nent man pointed out, it will be fairer for the publie if the corporations, in stead of making so many special rates, and crowding the people on excursion and other occasions, would make per manent, all the year round low rates, with exceptional rates to no one and on no occasion. A permanent rate of this kind of one cent a mile first-class, and lt'ss for second-class, would pay the roads better than the present system and would give them a popularity they do not now possess, not only by reason of the moderateness of the charge, but from the absence of that air of favor and con descension which attends the granting of lower rates for special occasions and the favoritism or worse, which marks the free pass and reduced rates given to in dividuals. The greater opportunity given by the reduced rates to laborers to live out of congested cities where their theatre of work lies, and to raise their families amid better surroundings would alone justify the reduction, to say noth ing of the greater Opportunity to seek at points where labor is needed —agaiust which present railroad rates are a Chinese wall. Owing to our higher pas senger fare, only about one-third as many people In proportion to ix>ptilatiou ride on railroads in tliis countrry as iu England. 1 note in your proceedings that in (Continued ou Seeoud Page.)
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