The railroads of Iowa have received as donations from various sources a value of over fifty million dollars. The tracts of land granted to them at various times by the Nation and the State, and by counties, municipalities and private individuals aggregate an area equal to more than one eighth of the total area of the State. The total amount of money actually invested in Iowa roads by stockholders and bondholders probably does not average to exceed fifteen thousand dollars per mile, and the thirteen million dollars of net earnings which are annually distributed among them would be a fair profit upon twice the amount which they have actually invested.

The men who control our railroads labor under a serious delusion, inasmuch as they entertain an exaggerated opinion of the obligations under which they have placed the public. They attribute to themselves the unparalleled material progress which this country has made, and claim the wealth which by their agency has been accumulated as their reward. They reason that they are entitled to the value of the difference between various places in the prices of commodities, because they furnish the means for making the exchange. It appears to me that this argument, if carried to its logical result, would transfer the title to a large share of their income to the heirs of Mr. Watts, the inventor of the steam engine. A similar reasoning would also give to McCormick all the profits of the reaper, and to Whitney those of the cotton gin.

Owners of railroads are no more entitled to a perpetual royalty than inventors. For a certain period of time, perhaps as long as similar privileges are enjoyed by patentees, railroads should be allowed liberal returns for their capital and enterprise; and if at the end of such a period it be found that similar roads could be constructed and equipped at a reduced cost, then their rates of transportation should be proportionately reduced.

But it is urged by railroad managers that a reduction in their rates

would necessitate a reduction in the wages of their employes. Such reasoning might apply if those men were now paid a proper share of the receipts of the roads; this is not the case. Railroad employes receive a smaller percentage of the total earnings of their employers than wage workers of other occupations. They receive little more than one third of the total receipts of the companies, while the farmer, for instance, gives one.half of the products of his farm for its cultivation. It is but natural to suppose that railroads deal as unjustly with their employes as they do with the public, and the correction of one evil would be likely to ultimately result in the correction of the other.

Unreasonable rates are not only prejudicial to the best interests of the public, but to those of the railroad companies as well, since they constantly tempt capitalists to invest in new lines, which must needs acquire their territory at the expense of older roads.

The right of the State to fix rates can certainly not be questioned. Corporations have no rights save such as have been granted to them by the commonwealth. It must also be conceded that in the latter is ultimately lodged the power to create new corporations which would be prepared to accept the altered conditions. Railroad managers argue that if the State should undertake to establish maximum rates, it must also guarantee to their roads a minimum income. This will be found to be a fallacious argument when it is considered that although the State has passed laws prohibiting usury, it neither guarantees a minimum rate nor otherwise secures private loans.

Railroads have in the course of time usurped powers dangerous to the public welfare, and have practiced extortions perhaps less cruel, but in the aggregate more gigantic, than those of the British land

lord.

It has been found necessary to limit the power of public officers to levy taxes for the maintenance of our schools and the support of

State, county and municipal government-notwithstanding the fact that those taxes are used for the benefit of the people. Yet a few railroad managers are free to meet in Chicago and levy an extra tax of one, three or even five million dollars upon the people of Iowa without giving them anything in return.

Thucydides relates how the Grecians, in olden times, engaged in the business of piracy under the command of men of great boldness and ability, and how the men so engaged both enriched themselves and supported their poor by their booty. They ravaged villages and plundered unfortified places. This was not at that time an employment of reproach, but rather exalted those piratical adventurers in the estimation of their kin. It appears that a class of persons has grown up under the refining influence of our modern age with tendencies similar to those of that sturdy race; and, strange as it may seem, some people even on our soil attribute honor to their practices.

While railroad charges should be reasonable, they should also be equitable and certain. It is impossible to conceive how trade can be established upon a sound basis with transportation charges subject to wild fluctuations and countless exceptions.

Propositions for even the smallest reductions in the custom-house tariff are always the subject of much deliberation in Congress, but freight rates are often cut, even without previous notice, to one-half, one-third, or even one-fourth of their former standard, and are again doubled, trebled or quadrupled. It is not uncommon to find that in the same train a car is hauled for one-half the rate charged for hauling another car loaded with the same article, or that one locality is systematically charged twice as much as another for the same kind of service. Railroads thus build up or tear down individuals, towns and cities, as the interests of their managers or those of their favorites may dictate; and to engage in business with any certainty of success, one is compelled to court the favors of railroad companies.

Railroads are the highways of commerce. Having supplanted the turnpikes and public roads, they should, as far as possible, be amenable to the laws that controlled them, and should be maintained by a just, certain and equitable tax levied upon those who use them. Our fathers would never have tolerated a system of collecting highway tolls or taxes, which, besides changing its tariff with every moon, recognizes privileged classes and discriminates in favor of the man who is so fortunately situated as to be able to haul five or ten times as much produce to the market as his less prosperous neighbor. Such a system is neither American nor democratic, and savors too much of the methods of the feudal lord who taxed the wayfaring public as much as his withered conscience in each individual case would permit. Our district roads are maintained by a tax levied equitably upon all the property of the district. We do not accord special privileges to the man who year after year drives a thousand steers to the mar ket. If any discrimination is ever made, it is made in favor of the poor tenant of the Government, who is permitted to apply his small earnings to the improvement of his newly selected and still humble home.

A policy of discrimination in matters pertaining to public business has always been regarded as dangerous to the general welfare, and scarcely a trace of such a policy can be found in the laws and institutions of either the State or the Nation.

State, county and municipal taxes are levied equitably upon all taxable property. The citizen who owns ten houses in the city, or ten farms in the country, is not and should not for that reason be favored with a special rate of taxation. For the purpose of levying taxes it matters little who owns these estates, for taxes are levied upon property and property is held for their payment.

In a similar manner freight charges attach to the commodities transported, or in other words, they are a tax levied upon them.

Hence, tariff discrimination in favor of privileged shippers are as unjust as a system of raising revenue which should prescribe a lower rate of taxation for the rich than for the poor. The exchange of the products of our soil and our factories will and must be effected. If an equitable tariff should dissatisfy such shippers as have heretofore been privileged characters, their enterprise will readily find new fields of labor, and other men, prepared to accept the new condition of things, will promptly fill their places. Neither will the public be the loser by the change nor will the volume of the transportation business be decreased.

It is impossible to compute or even approximate the loss sustained by the people of Iowa in consequence of railroad discrimination.

For years our miners have had just cause to be dissatisfied with their lot. The meager returns for their hazardous toil, decreasing from year to year, naturally led them to look for the cause of their oppression in the methods of their employers and the supposed iniquities of the law. There can be no doubt, however, that the miner simply suffers together with the operator by the discriminating and unreasonable coal tariff of our railroads, which not only confines the output of our mines to local markets, but even enables imported coal to compete with the best products of our own mines in the very heart of Iowa. Our millers fare still worse. The discriminations practiced by the railroads against them have made it impossible for them to manufacture flour for export, or even home consumption, except at a loss. Minnesota flour is often shipped to points in Iowa for less than one third of what is charged for shipments of similar distances within the State. The injustice on the part of the railroads has forced a very large number of our millers to suspend work and has rendered their property almost worthless.

When several years ago the General Assembly in the interest of morality and good order passed a law prohibiting the manufacture of