People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1895 — State Ownership. [ARTICLE]

State Ownership.

Seventy years ago the state of New York, that is the government of that state, that is the people of that state, built a canal from Albany to Buffalo, the Lake Erie canal. It is nearly 400 miles in length and was built by the state at a cost of $15,000 per mile. The state of New York, that is the government, that is the people of New York, have owned it ever since. The people are proud of it and would never consent that it should be owned and controlled by a corporation. It has been paid for years and years ago. Built and paid for by the state; is owned by the state and controlled by the state. It is a great factor in carrying on the trade and commerce of not only the state of New York, but also that of the whole country. If the state of New York could build and pay for a canal 400 miles long seventy years ago, why could not the state of New York build, pay for and control a railroad? —Ex. We have about reached the conclusion that all laws passed in the interest of labor and the common people are unconstitutional, while on the other hand everything that favors capital is all right. Fifty years ago the Democratic party said congress had no power to charter a national bank, but it ain’t singing that way now. It is now in order to ask the Rothschilds what they want next.