Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1906 — BEVERIDGE FOR GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP [ARTICLE]

BEVERIDGE FOR GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP

He JHakes a Strong Attack on the Railroads. When ft comes to talking about the railroads, Senator Beveridge, who stands very close to President Roosevelt, has something to say. In a speech, in Chicago on the night of September 22, Mr. Beveridge took up the question of regulation and control of railroad rates by the government. He said that personally he was opposed to government ownership of the railroads, but in his speech he went as far along that line as Mr. Bryan, whose position has been wilfully misrepresented by a large part of the Republican press. In his Chicago speech Senator Beveridge said: “If railway interference with the people’s government is not stopped, railway ownership by the people’s government may be compelled." Mr. Bryan has gone no further than that. He declares that he does not favor government ownership except as a last resort and says that the people will not want It if regulation shall prove to be effective. But, like Mr. Beveridge, he says that if government ownership ever comes it will be forced by the refusal of the railroads to submit to fair regulation.

Senator Beveridge, after making the statement quoted above, speaking of stock juggling, rebates and discriminations, said: “Therefore it becomes necessary that the people whose savings are invested in these railways; the people from whom the railways derive their revenues; the people whom the railways serve and who serve the railways should have a voice in their management. So it is necessary that the railways whose rates are a tax upon all the people, whose operations directly affect all the people, should be controlled and regulated by the government of all the people. A little further along in the same speech, Senator Beveridge said: "Let the railways attend to their own business, just as every one of you is expected to attend to your own business, and no man will speak of government ownership. And their business is not to nominate and elect any public officer; their business is not to purchase, coerce, or Influence his action.

“Their business is to haul passengers and freight and nothing else. And it is that they shall attend to it as trustees of the people that the railroad rate law was passed, the Sherman act was passed, and generally the foundation of that system of government regulation laid of which these laws are illustrations. "It is better for the government of the people to interfere with the railways than for the railways to inters sere with the government of the people. Railway ownership is an evil so far reaching and profound that no man can foretell its dark results. But railway interference with free government is also an evil which in the end will prove destructive of liberty because it pollutes the ballot when the people’s representatives are chosen and the people’s legislature after their representatives are chosen.” Of the railroad in politics Senator Beveridge said that they “meddled too much,” that when they meddled at all they meddled too much and that "they meddled a great deal,” and then he added:

"Every man who, by railroad influence. is nominated to any office, from constable to president, ought to be defeated, no matter to what party he belongs. The people have already begun to defeat such men and will hereafter defeat them increasingly as time goes on until the absolute uselessness of trying to oontrol politics will dawn on railway managers who see that they have squandered the money paid out to accomplish plans that an aroused and instructed people wreck and destroy. • * • “Criminal laws is the way to stop them. Prison bars for corrupting railroad lobbyists; prison bars for railway agents in primaries and conventions; prison bars for railway representatives who try to influence the nomination and election of senator, congressman, judge, or any other public officer —that is the way to stop them." It will be seen from the above that Senator Beveridge, like President Roosevelt, has given public utterance to views which, to say the least, are as extreme as any charged to Mr. Bryan.

Governor Hanly Is a member of the Columbia club, the big Republican organization of Indlanapblis. Mr. Taggart is a member of the company that owns the French Lick Springs hotel. While Hanly Is holding up to his audiences what he calls a "Pluto" poker chip why does he not at the same time hold up for inspection one of the poker chips used in the Columbia dub? He might also exhibit a sample of the whisky which is sold there without license. The French Lick Springs hotel has no bar and sails no whisky.