MONOPOLY OF TRANSPORTATION. 605 



shift the burden; the consumer may curtail his consump- 

 tion, but the farmer must sell." 



Just where and how the matter will end is hard to 

 foretell. The farmers demand protection, and it seems as 

 though the State Legislatures and Courts are either unable 

 or unwilling to grant it. Congress, yielding to the popu- 

 lar clamor, passed the Inter-State Commerce law. But the 

 provisions of the law are worded so intricately, and its 

 operations are so inadequate to the demands of the existing 

 evils, that it is a question whether the bill was got up and 

 passed in the interests of the people or the railroad corpor- 

 ations. The only clause in the law that could benefit the 

 people to any extent is the one referring to the long and 

 short haul, and it reads as follows: u That they shall not 

 charge more for a short haul than a long haul under sub- 

 stantially similar circumstances and conditions, over the 

 same line running in the same direction." 



Gen. J. B. Weaver, in a speech at Lima, Ohio, refer- 

 ring to this law, said: 



" I do not wish to omit the statement that Congress, 

 at its last session did undertake to regulate commerce 

 among the states and they passed a law known as the 

 Inter-State Commerce Law, and I can't be accused of 

 making a partisan statement here, because all parties sup- 

 ported this measure. But they passed a law, and having 

 been a pretty close student of the Bible, I will state before 

 this audience here to-night that it will be no harm for you 

 to worship it, for it is not like anything in the heavens 

 above, or the earth beneath. That law says, speaking of 

 the long and short haul, and that is about all there is in 

 the law, that they shall not charge more for a short haul 

 than for a long one. Well, this is remarkable, is it not? 

 But, if it stopped there, it would be a very good law, not- 

 withstanding some contradictions of terms. It says they 

 shall not charge more for a short haul than a long one under 



