, 



30 HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



it, and it remains for the people to say how long such a 

 state of affairs shall continue. This power is used against 

 the interests of the people. This despotism in common 

 with that of other monopolies threatens them in every re- 

 lation of their national life. It exacts tribute from them 

 with as much authority as the Jack Shephards who meet 

 you upon the highways with the command u stand and 

 deliver. n And the great wealth made by the represen- 

 tatives of this imperial despotism is made up of the 

 aggregation of the sums wrung from the people through 

 the instrumentality of these grinding monopolies. Such 

 vast power as these men possess would be a never-ceasing 

 source of danger in the hands of disinterested persons. It 

 is doubly so when the insatiate desire to pile up wealth is 

 the incentive to an abuse of that power. The people owe 

 it to themselves to curtail their powers, and to render them 

 harmless by subjecting them to a series of regulations 

 which shall compel them to respect the rights of the com- 

 munity to whom they are indebted for the very existence 

 of the roads. The people have a right to do this and it 

 should be done promptly. There is no necessity for plac- 

 ing burdens on the roads heavier than they can bear. 

 They have a right to a fair return for their investments, 

 but they have no right to plunder the public. A series of 

 wise and liberal regulations will protect the people against 

 railroad tyranny and extortion, and at the same time enable 

 the roads to do a profitable business. The burden of ex- 

 cessive rates is perhaps more keenly felt by the Western 

 and Southern farmers than their brethren in the East. 

 This becomes more apparent when we take into considera- 

 tion the fact that the entire corn crop of the United States 

 for the year 1887 was 1,456,000,000 bushels; and of wheat 

 456,000,000 bushels. Of this the States of Arkansas, 

 Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, 

 Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, 



