STATE ORANGE OF ILLINOIS. 103 



Our present railway system is one of most gigantic proportions, amount- 

 ing now to 74,000 miles nearly, with a nominal capital of $4,2U0,()00,UU0 

 —ttoice our national debt. The interest at seven per cent, on this capital, 

 reaches the enormous sum of $294,000,000 annually. And tiie most 

 astonishing fact is, that all of this wealth is manipulated by a very 

 few men; you could count them upon the lingers of }our hands. These 

 railway kings sit in their offices. To-morrow morning, with the telegraph 

 wire running into each office, they can summon each other together, th&t 

 is, each will sit down by his operator, and they can communicate back 

 and forth a few moments, during which time they decide to advance 

 freights ten cents per hundred. It is done and at noon a tribute is laid 

 upon the grain productions of the Western States alone, amounting to six 

 cents upon every bushel of wheat, five cents and six mills upon every 

 bushel of corn in the West (just figure that up on this year's corn crop in 

 the State of Illinois, 5 6-10) and three cents and two mills on every bushel 

 of oats. 



But this is not quite enough : In July, grain from Peoria to Troy, 

 N. Y., and from Chicago to Troy was 20 cents per 100 pounds. 

 About two months since four or five railway kings met in a private 

 parlor of a New York hotel and decided to advance rates, and at this 

 writing they are now, 40 cents per 100 from Peoria to Troy, N. Y., and 

 another advance of 10 cents more expected soon. So, in one stroke, they 

 advanced 100 per cent, or 12 cents per bushel on wheat, eleven cents and 

 two mills on corn and six cents and four mills on oats. Figure this upon 

 your grain crop of this year and then answer whether the President of 

 the United States dare exercise such a power? Should Congress tax your 

 productions so much in so short a time you would trot them out of the 

 Capitol at the point of the bayonet. If any despot on the face of the 

 earth should attempt the exercise of such a power, he would be assassi- 

 nated; and yet the American people tamely submit to it, doubtful 

 whether thej* will attempt to remedy this gigantic and despotic power. 

 The railroads have become so powerful that they control our legislatures. 

 A prominent railroad man recently said "that he could not be troubled 

 nominating and trying to elect men. He preferred to wait until they 

 were elected and then take care of themV In the report of the committee 

 appointed to investigate tlie affairs of the Erie Railroad in 1872, we find 

 the following: "It is further in evidence that it has been the custom of 

 the managers of the Erie Railroad, from year to year in the past, to spend 

 large sums of money to control elections and to influence legislation. In 

 the year 1868, more than a million of dollars was paid for "extra and 

 legal services." Mr. Gould also testified that it would be as impossible 

 to specify the numerous instances as it would to recall to mind the 

 numerous freight cars sent over the Erie road from day to day." (See 

 testimony, P. 566.) As long as the unseen demon of bribery stalks 

 through the lobbies of all our halls of legislation, both State and 

 National, so long will the people's representatives be bought and sold. 



