Читать книгу Monopolies and the People - D. C. Cloud - Страница 15

In addition to the road from Sioux City to Omaha, and for the purpose of getting all the land and money possible out of the government, the conspirators organized another company, under the laws of Nebraska, to-wit: The Fremont, Elkhorn, & Missouri Valley company, and built a road running from Missouri Valley to Fremont, in Nebraska—about fifty miles—and these two roads, from Sioux City to Missouri Valley, and from Missouri Valley to Fremont, are now called the Sioux City & Pacific. We do not know who were the incorporators of the Fremont, Elkhorn, & Missouri Valley company, but we find among the present directors, John I. Blair, D. C. Blair, and ex-congressman John B. Alley. The two companies are consolidated. The grant of one hundred sections of land, and bonds to the amount of $16,000 per mile, with the privilege of issuing first mortgage bonds to the amount of $16,000 per mile, altogether comprise one of the most remunerative jobs ever conceived and consummated by incorporating, stockholding and "direct"-ing congressmen in the companies receiving the aid. When it is remembered that the actual cost of the construction of the road was less than $30,000 per mile (as shown by the Railroad Manual), and that it is of no value to the government because of its course, save for carrying local mails (its entire earnings for government transportation being less than $1,000 per annum), it will not be uncharitable to conclude that this fat little slice of the Pacific railroad job was put through congress, and nursed and petted by government for the exclusive benefit of congressmen, their friends and relatives.

We do not deny the right to congressmen to become and remain stockholders and directors in railroad corporations, but we do deny their right to vote lands and money to companies in which they are stockholders and directors. They are elected to represent the people, to attend to and protect the public interests. When they form themselves into companies and vote the lands and moneys of the people to themselves, they violate their trust, and instead of protecting the people, plunder them, and divide the spoils. To give these unjust practices some color of right, or in some manner to excuse themselves for thus appropriating the wealth of the country and dividing it with their friends, they assert in the laws thus enacted that it is done to aid in the construction of railroads, and "to secure the safe and speedy transmission of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and government supplies," &c. It is no part of the duties of congressmen to construct railroads, nor are the people under obligations to furnish them the means for that purpose. When members of congress form themselves into private companies, and to procure the means for prosecuting their private enterprises, agree to divide among themselves a part of the money and property belonging to the public, because the position they occupy enables them to do so, they manifest the same disregard for the rights of others, and the same disregard of law that is shown by the class of men who follow theft and robbery for a livelihood.

But let us follow still further the course of this Pacific railroad company. It would occupy too much space, and weary the reader were we to state in detail all the acts of congress passed in aid of this gigantic combination. In speaking of the Pacific railroad we are apt to look upon it as simply a line of road extending from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean; to consider its great length; the character of the country through which it passes; the sparse settlements; the necessity for direct and speedy communication between the Atlantic and Pacific states, and we yield a ready assent to the action of congress in voting lands and subsidy bonds for its construction. But when we find that the charters of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies, and their various amendments, together with the several acts of congress making many other companies branches of the Pacific road, virtually consolidates all the railroads between the cities of St. Louis and St. Paul on the Mississippi river, and all the railroads running west from Chicago, into one vast corporation, uniting all in one track from Fort Kearney to the Pacific ocean, the people will begin to realize that while they thought congress was appropriating lands and moneys solely for the purpose of opening a highway across the territories, it was in fact aiding a combination of men and corporations in their attempt to control the commerce of the great west; and when we further learn that this great railroad interest is already virtually consolidated, and that the whole people are placed at the mercy of this great monopoly, we see at a glance the extent of the power vested in it by act of congress.

Among the railroad companies that are included in this combination are the following: Chicago & Northwestern; Iowa Falls & Sioux City; Cedar Rapids & Missouri River; Leavenworth, Atchinson, & Northwestern; Kansas Pacific; Union Pacific; Burlington & Missouri River; Sioux City & Pacific; Missouri River; Chicago, Iowa, & Nebraska; Hannibal & St. Joseph; and the St. Paul and Sioux City. Most of the above roads received grants of lands; some of them received subsidy bonds, ostensibly for the public benefit, but in reality for the purpose of combining in one the interests of all these combinations. Whatever may have been the intention of congress in granting exclusive privileges to these companies and permitting them to unite, the effect has been to fasten upon the great west a monopoly, that for all time to come will be an instrument of oppression. With its vast power and wealth it can but control the fortune of the laboring and producing classes inhabiting the richest portion of our common country. The further fact that this great corporate power is the particular pet of congressmen, and that among its directors and stockholders are members and ex-members of congress, render the hope of any change in favor of the people remote, if at all attainable. If the reader is desirous of learning who are the directors and managers of the Pacific railroad and branches, he has only to consult Poor's Railroad Manual for 1872–3. He will find among the present directors the men who, in congress, voted the lands and subsidies to the companies in which they are now directors, and also, that some of these directors are now holding the office of congressmen and of United State's senators.

By the acts of congress granting and amending the charters of the Pacific railroad companies and branches, it is made the duty of the president of the United States to appoint five directors, "who shall be denominated directors on the part of the government," and these acts forbid such directors being stockholders in said Pacific railroad companies. It is made the duty of these government directors to exercise a general supervision of the Pacific road and branches, and to report its condition from time to time to the secretary of the interior. In contemplation of law they are to have no pecuniary interest in the companies or in the roads. The present government directors are B. F. Wade, of Ohio; Hiram Price, and J. F. Wilson, of Iowa; J. C. S. Harrison, of Indiana; and D. S. Ruddock, of Connecticut. By act of congress of June 2d, 1864, the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River railroad was authorized to connect with the Iowa branch of the Union Pacific road, and sections fifteen and sixteen of the acts of July 2d, 1864, place all roads connecting with the Union Pacific on an equality as to charges for freights and passengers, and permits them to consolidate if they elect so to do. The Cedar Rapids & Missouri River company has leased its road to the Chicago & Northwestern company, and it is operated in connection with the Union Pacific, uniting with it at Council Bluffs, and it virtually becomes a branch of the Union Pacific road. The reader can look over the list of directors, as shown in the Railroad Manual before referred to, and learn if any of the government directors of the Union Pacific are directors in the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River company. The reports made of the cost, condition, and other matters connected with Pacific railroad enterprises, disclose such utter disregard of the rights and interests of the people, and such a gross betrayal of the public good for the benefit of a ring (in part a congressional ring) as to leave it without precedent.

The fact that the men who formed this ring have become a powerful moneyed aristocracy, able by their votes and influence in congress to convert the public lands and money to their own use, and are now boldly taxing the people with the interest on the money appropriated to build up these oppressive monopolies, should arouse the country to a sense of its imminent peril.