Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1894 — Government Control of Railroads. [ARTICLE]

Government Control of Railroads.

The demand for government ownership or government control of railroads, is the leaut unreasonable and impracticable of all the Populist demands, although the method by which they would go about to secure such ownership, namely the printing of countless millions of irredeemable and eventually worthless fiat money, would amount to a practical confiscation of the railroads, as well as the overthrow of the financial prosperity of the eountry. But in re.ation to this supposed great advantage to the people of government control of railroads, we append here the closing paragraph of the last of a series of long articles which have been appearing in Magazine, on the railroads of the United States and of Great Britain. The author of the articles is H. G. Prout, and ha is a thorough authority on the subject ho writes on. The following is the paragraph.

“It was part of the plan of these articles to say aMnewiing of the control exeroised by the Government .over the railroads of the United Kingdom; but bhe topic is not a simple one, and the editor warns me that space and the patience of the reader have limits. I shall further tax them only to say that of all the great nations of the earth the Englishman and the Americans hare had the most freed 'm in buildingand working their railroads. We have had more freedom than the English; they have had more than anyone else. And no other peoples approach England and the United States in the quality and amount of service that they get from the’r railroads. Nowhere else can}money buy such luxury; nowhere else are the masses moved wilk such speed, comfort, and frequency of trains. In no other country of the earth can the shipper of freight get such combinations of ep. ed, rates, and facilities. The railroad systems

of the United States and the United Kingdom are splendid examples of what an ingenious and energetic race cau do when the Government keeps its hands off. Uncle Joel Spriggi though some what lacking, as we believe, in the alertness of mind and the head for business necessary to the difficult and responsible position of county commissioner, not to speak of the wild and dangerous character of his political opinions, is still a pleasant and worthy old gentleman, and one whom The Refcblican would not wrong, even In the slightest degree. Therefore we hasten to correct the mistake we made in saying that his name appears first on the Iroquois ditch petition. In that, as a literal fact, we were misinformed, as a few names precede his. This ditch case, as it appears in the records—of the- commissioners’ court, is entitled the case of “Joel F. Spriggs et al, and as it i the almost invariable custom to call a ditch case after the name of the first signer, we naturally, as did most other people, supposed that this case was no exception and that Mr. Spriggs’ name was first.

The very fact, however, that Mr. Spriggs was so prominently connected with the earlier proceedings in favor of the ditch, as to have the case called by his name, as well as the farther facts that on the bond, filed with and at the same time as the petition, his name is fust, as the records still show and further, that he was the chairman of the committee that first circulated the petition in Walker township; all prove that this candidate for commissioner on the Demo-Pop ticket is among the very first of those responsible for the inauguration of this ditch movement. And in proving this, the facts also prove the insincerity and dishonesty of the fight being made against the present commissioners, becau°e after Mr. Spriggs and others had started the enterprise, they, the commissioners, obeyed the law in having the surveys made and the benefits and damages estimated, and advanced the

money to cover the expense thus incurred, as the law directs.