MONOPOLY OF TRADE TRUSTS- 641 



other obstacles in the way, that no one was able to com- 

 pete with Mr. Cowan ; he had it all his own way. 



The same system has prevailed on the Kansas City, 

 Springfield & Memphis railway. This company has its 

 purchasing agent at Kansas City, who sells, yearly, large 

 quantities of railroad ties, piling and sawed lumber to 

 other railroad companies. But they do not buy direct 

 from the people. The contracts are given to large contract- 

 ors, of whom only the company will buy. Competition is 

 entirely shut out, and permits the most extortionate and 

 unjust exactions on the producer of ties and other material. 



For instance, while it was a well known fact that 

 railroad ties were selling in Kansas City for 60 cents apiece, 

 the people who placed them on the right-of-way only 

 received 24 cents. Another instance of extortion is, that 

 while the company were shipping ties for the Cotton Belt 

 road, from Jonesboro, for 18 cents, they were charging 29 

 cents from all stations north of that for seventy-five miles. 

 This continued until the inter-state commerce law took 

 effect. We naturally supposed then that we would be 

 entitled to the i8-cent -rate from Jonesboro; but, instead 

 of reducing our 29-cent rate to harmonize with the short- 

 haul provision of the law, they raised the Jonesboro i8-cent 

 rate to 29 cents. The inter-state commerce law is a nice 

 scheme for the railroads. 



John A. Martin, the retiring Governor of Kansas, in 

 his message sent to the Legislature, said some pretty good 

 things. Speaking of trusts, he said: 



" Within the last two years', several of the most 

 promising industries of this State, including linseed oil 

 mills, plaster of paris works and cracker factories, have 

 been wantonly strangled by such combinations, to the ser- 

 ious damage of the communities in which they are located 

 and the producer of the materials used by them. Recently 

 the packing houses have made a systematic attempt to 



