368 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



000, and then come and expect to realize, out of our 

 crops, 10 per cent, on the money that ought to be in 

 our pockets. That's what we call extortion. 



" ' Judge Beckwith of the Alton Road tells you that 

 millions of dollars have been sunk in the railroads of 

 this State. I have no doubt that is true. He says that 

 if you take the cost of each item that entered into the 

 construction of a road, there is not a road in the State 

 that pays a fair percentage on that amount. Well, 

 what of it? Does Judge Beckwith expect to get 10 

 per cent, interest on all the money that has been sunk 

 in establishing railroads ? Suppose the man who pre- 

 ceded me paid $2000 for this farm and sunk $5000 

 more in improving it ; then suppose I come and buy it 

 for $5000, must I expect that the farm will pay me 

 interest on $12,000 ? Yet this seems to me the reason- 

 ing of the railroad managers. I think I know the 

 farmers of this State pretty well, and I tell you only 

 the truth when I say that we don't ask the railroads to 

 serve us for nothing, nor for any cheaper rates than 

 they can fairly afford. Then, if we are no better off 

 we will look elsewhere for the remedy. But I tell you, 

 eleven cents a bushel is too much for carrying corn 

 from here to Chicago, where it is delivered here in the 

 elevator, is carried over only one road and delivered in 

 the company's own warehouse, and nothing short of 

 the figures showing the exact cost of the service will 

 convince us that we are not robbed by the railroad of- 

 a part of the price of every bushel of corn carried 

 over it. 



" ' We think the leading railroads of this State, besides 

 charging us too high rates for the benefit of the stock- 

 holders, are not managed as economically as they might 



