THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 367 



paid for grading and putting down the ties. Then the 

 company has mortgaged the road to raise money to 

 complete it. In a few years it has to be sold for the 

 benefit of the mortgagees ; the stock, which is mostly 

 held by the towns and counties, and for which they 

 issued their bonds, is wiped out, the Burlington Rail- 

 road buys the branch for perhaps one-half or two-thirds 

 its cost, pays the mortgage out of its surplus, issues new 

 stock and divides it among its own stockholders. These 

 men that get the stock never paid a cent for it. In 

 some cases, instead of dividing new stock, they divide 

 the bonds, a dividend of this kind amounting to sixty 

 per cent, of the capital having been recently made. I 

 have been told of a man whose original investment of 

 $100 in the stock of this road has increased to $20,000. 

 I don't believe it, but I do believe that every dollar's 

 worth of stock originally put in has been so much 

 watered as to represent now a good many dollars. 



" ' You say President Walker told you that it required 

 large sums of money to increase the efficiency of the 

 railroads as the country becomes more densely settled. 

 We don't object to that. If a road needs to be extended, 

 let the company issue new stock and get the money for 

 it. No farmer in this State will complain as long as 

 the railroads do not make more than 10 per cent, on 

 the money actually paid in. What we do object to is 

 paying such exorbitant rates for freight; we don't think 

 it right that this Burlington Road should be able, be- 

 side paying a dividend, to lay by a surplus ; then, when 

 they spend that surplus in building a new road, they 

 ought not to expect the farmers to pay them such high 

 rates that they can divide 10 per cent, on their surplus. 

 In other words, they extort from us, unjustly, $1,000,* 



