CONGRESS. (INTER-STATE COMMERCE.) 



215 



who understand the scope of the subject from 

 the beginning to the end, and understand it as 

 men can only understand a subject who have 

 given long study to it, who have practical ex- 

 perience in its workings, and are interested in 

 the business transactions involved. 



44 Would this house hesitate if such a man as 

 ex-Senator Thurman should be selected by the 

 President as railroad commissioner? Would 

 it hesitate if such a distinguished man as Judge 

 Cooley, known all over the country as a man 

 who has investigated the subject ? Would 

 there be an objection to such a man as Mr. Ad- 

 ams, of Massachusetts, and many others that I 

 might mention, as able to-day to take up the 

 question and consider it as any men or set of 

 men in the United States, men who are as clear- 

 minded, as patriotic, and as honorable as any 

 who ever sat upon the Supreme Bench of the 

 United States, or occupied a judicial position in 

 any court in any part of the country ? I think, 

 sir, for one, that what we want is information 

 upon this subject. Of course the House can 

 not but see that what the committee presents 

 and the substitute suggests, at present at least, 

 are very crude. The differences of opinion are 

 so great among us that members must see that 

 it would be better if we waited for a period 

 of time, and then after this information is fur- 

 nished to us adopt some plan which had been 

 recommended upon investigation by the dis- 

 tinguished men selected for their knowledge 

 of this subject. 



u It would not hurt us to postpone final action 

 upon this subject for a few months. A post- 

 ponement of one year would not do harm. On 

 the contrary, it would be a benefit. Every 

 month of every year in the last ten years these 

 great railroad corporations have been reducing 

 rates, and are still considering the ways and 

 means by which they can further make reduc- 

 tions in freight and passenger charges, until in 

 fact to-day such charges are almost infinitesi- 

 mal as regards freight. But that part of the 

 subject was thoroughly explained by the dis- 

 tinguished gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 

 Long), so that I do not now wish to go over it. 

 Why, the reductions in the charges of freight 

 per ton per mile have been so great in the past 

 few years that they can not be any burden upon 

 any one, whether they be for a short or a long 

 haul. 



" What can we look forward to in the next 

 five years? If these reductions go on, we will 

 have freight carried at the rate of one half cent 

 per ton per mile. I think it will be so. Rail- 

 roads are so rapidly extending, capital is being 

 so largely invested in them, that at this mo- 

 ment we have railroads extending to almost 

 every village in all of the States and Territo- 

 ries throughout the whole country, and branch- 

 es running out from main lines in all directions 

 where the population is sufficient to warrant 

 the expense of railroad connection. The com- 

 plaints that come here come from those who 

 are not living upon the railroads. It is the 



expense of getting their goods, their articles, 

 grain, or whatever it may be, to the railroad 

 stations. And yet you are asked to legislate 

 upon a subject that is so extremely sensitive 

 as the vast amount of capital invested in rail- 

 roads. The estimated amount is immense, ab- 

 solutely immense. It is useless to state it here 

 again ; it is well known that it is between seven 

 and eight billions of dollars. The mileage is 

 immense. At the end of 1883, from Poor's* 

 4 Manual,' we find that the railroads have in- 

 creased nearly double in length of miles in a 

 few years. There were 61,000 miles in opera- 

 tion in 1871 and 121,000 up to Jan. 1, 1884. 



'" Capital is extending these means of com- 

 munication to our Territories, however distant 

 they may be. If you look at the census tables, 

 or if you look at this table in Poor's 'Manual,' 

 you will see the wonderful increase of capital 

 finding investment in the railroads in the Ter- 

 ritories. Some of those Territories are increas- 

 ing rapidly in population. Some of them are 

 knocking at our doors here for admission as 

 States. How have they come into that pros- 

 perous position? By the increase of popula- 

 tion, by the easy means of access to them by 

 the railroad systems of the country. In the 

 next ten years, if fairly dealt with, whatever 

 may be the complexion of Congress, Democratic 

 or Republican, we will have probably five Ter- 

 ritories admitted as States in this Union. But 

 that never can be unless you carefully legislate 

 upon the subject of railroad enterprise and ex- 

 tension. 



44 The early pioneers who went to Califor- 

 nia and the commencement of the settlement 

 of California is in the memory of many of us in 

 this house toiled on foot, some of them, across 

 the deserts and through the valleys and over 

 the hills; some of them went in wagons. Do 

 you not suppose that those enlightened Ameri- 

 can men as they sat in their wagons moving 

 slowly or traveling slowly on foot do you not 

 suppose they could see in the future a railroad 

 connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific? Do 

 you not suppose they saw that ; and would you 

 to-day, if you had the power under the law 

 and the Constitution, take up those iron bonds 

 between the East and the West, between the 

 Atlantic and the Pacific, even if you could 

 get back what Congress in its liberality appro- 

 priated in land for the establishment of rapid 

 communication from the Eastern seaboard to 

 the Golden Gate?" 



Mr. Rice, of Massachusetts, criticised the Rea- 

 gan bill : " But this bill claiming to prevent dis- 

 criminations is the source and creator of them 

 to an extent never before existing in this or any 

 other country. It discriminates in favor of 

 every railroad carrier who confines his opera- 

 tions to a single State ; in favor of every one 

 who can receive at the terminus of his road 

 freight brought thus far by water ; in favor of 

 the carrier by water everywhere ; and in favor 

 of the carrier by a foreign road competing for 

 freight with ours. The Dominion of Canada 



