CHAPTER III.

THE RAILROADS THE SERVANTS OF THE TRUSTS.

How They Are Operated to Oppress the People Instead of for the Public Welfare-Astounding

Facts in Their History.

In delving into the secrets and mysteries of trusts, and in studying the subject in all its branches, I was brought face to face with the railroad question. I was surprised to find an intimate connection and relationship between the two. I had not expected my researches to lead me along this path, but as it did, I took it up and thoroughly investigated it also.

And, furthermore, I had been at Washington but a little while before I became impressed with the way the railroad interests are looked after by agents, lawyers and lobbyists in the service of the different roads, who haunt the legislative halls of Congress, and buttonhole Congressmen, Senators and officials who have any influence or power whatever. There at the fountain head and source of power, they flock to advance their own interests, by fair or foul means. One need not search long ere he discovers the interests of the trusts and railroads are identical to an extraordinary degree.

Yet the railroad has been, and is today, a very great factor in modern civilization. Its importance can scarce

ly be overestimated. Through the railroads far away deserts and waste places have been brought into touch with the centers of population, and been made to blossom with civilization. It has brought the world together by annihilating distance. Bringing the people together it has brought an exchange of ideas, a broader conception and greater appreciation of humanity. Its practical and material benefits have been unlimited. With the railroad

in operation famine is no more. At all times the products of remote districts may be sent to market and exchanged, thus enabling man at will to summon the comforts, luxuries and delicacies from the four quarters of the globe. In truth, the railroad plays an important part in all of our lives by being part of our industrial organism. All of our food, clothing, building material, etc., must be transported by rail more or less.

Being, then, such an important factor in our industrial organism, it is no wonder it has assumed proportions of such vast magnitude. According to the census reports, one-fifteenth of the entire population of the United States is dependent upon it. The capital invested is inconcievable, ten billions being a conservative estimate. The railroads own over 215,000,000 acres of land, most of which has been given or granted to them by the people. This area is as large as the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas. Think of it! Six large states, and granted them by the people. Over this territory is operated 181,000 miles of railroad. One can grasp

but a faint idea of the strength and enormity of this agency. And like every other strong force that has great capacity for good, it has also great capacity for evil. And the railroads have been agents for great good and terrible evil both. Its good is advertised, its evil suppressed. In the coming revolution its power and force will be wielded with terrible effect..

This may appear to be a very strong statement, but a little reflection will prove it is not. Already its handiwork is seen in fostering trusts, in supporting a lobby in each legislative body in the country, and in bribing courts and officials all over the land. Finally, when the revolution bursts upon us, a general stoppage of the traffic will bring trouble, misery and starvation to thousands—yes, hundreds of thousands. It is estimated that if the railroads were to cease running entirely, starvation would lay its hand on New York, Philadelphia and all large cities depending on them for provisions, within two weeks.

"And this is what will happen during the coming revolution. Railroads will be more the cause than the victim of this cataclysm. Take the great coal strike of Pennsylvania. The railroads and coal mines are owned by the same capitalists. How was this accomplished? In the beginning the owners of the railroads decided to own the coal fields and mines. They purchased some of the mines and raised the freight rates. But to their own mines they rebated the largest part of the money paid them for freight. In this way they could undersell everybody else.

Soon the weaker ones were forced to sell their mines to the railroads. This war was kept up until all competition. was driven from the field, and the owners of the railroads owned the entire coal fields. All of the terrible strikes are the result of greed and avarice in attempting to rob the poor miners by cutting their wages to a point that barely furnishes them a means of existence. The public is not blind to the greed and avarice of these immense railroad corporations, neither do they blame the poor working men for refusing to work for starvation wages. When the great revolt comes, with its strikes and riots, in railroad, mine and factory, the railroads will cease running, plunging all of the large cities into a wild panic, resulting in chaos, misery and starvation.

The Sugar Trust and many others are favored by the railroads in just the same way as the mines and the Oil Trust.

Thus it may be seen that in addition to the widely-advertised good accomplished by the railroads, a corresponding amount of evil may be laid at their doors, which, of course, they deny and seek to hide. Take even the amount

The least observing

of bribery of which they are guilty. citizen knows they spend millions annually by keeping a lobby, not only at Washington, but at every State Capital in the Union, which corrupts everybody and anybody who will and can assist them to attain their ends, even down to officials and legislative bodies in the cities and towns.

That public morals should thus be contaminated and

lowered is a terrible meanace to the well being of the Commonwealth. With their enormous wealth, bribes, influence and fat positions, they are the making and unmaking of many politicians. They have the power to ruin or promote the interest of thousands of citizens just as they see fit. Can you doubt that the railroad enters into our civil and moral life, as well as into our business and industrial?

The railroads of the country may be likened to the arteries in the human body, a means of healthful circulation when in a healthy condition. When the blood flows easily through the body, life, health, usefulness, happiness, etc., are all promoted. But let the blood cease to flow properly; let some trouble arise and congestion set in. Unless this be corrected, calamity is bound to result. Our great country, with its teeming millions of people, is an organism-a body economic. Heretofore the railroads have run freely to and fro, bringing plenty, peace, happiness and health to society. As long as this continues the body economic will be edified and built up. But suppose all the railroads should be tied up at the same timewhich is more than probable when the Railroad Trust comes-say by an universal strike? The facts stands out plainly that the stoppage would work infinite hardship and suffering upon all the people. In the first place, coal could not be transported, and the direct effect would be to shut down factories, foundries, mills, shops, etc. A taste of this was had when in 1895 the great railroad