The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 42, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 17, 1895 Page: 1 of 16
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THE BEST METHOD OF EDUCATIHO THE PEOPLE 18 THROUGHiTHE JMKVOBM PBE8B. c CIRCULATE THE BODTHERH XEECU&Y
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VOL. XIV., KG. 42.
DALLAS, TEXAS, THURSDAY, OCT. 17, 18i)5.
WHOLE NO. 718.
1
TRACY ON THE HUSTINGS
HE SHOWS UP OLD PARTY TRICK-
ERY AND DISHONESTY.
6peech of Hon. Harry Tracy, In Which He
Hauls Some of the Democratic Lea J.
era In Texas Over the Coals and
Leaves Them Scorched.
[Continued from last week.]
When these free silver stay-in-the-
party fellows are driven from their un-
tenable financial position, they say:
"We would support the populist party
if their transportation plank were
eliminated. We cannot agree to clothe
the government with such immense
powers." "How on earth would the
government be able to buy and pay
for the railroads?" etc. Unfortunate-
ly these people do not realize that
every railroad, telegraph and tele-
phone line is built upon monarchical
principles, and exercise the preroga-
tives of absolute autocrats in the
matter of levying and collecting
taxes from the people. Every one
knows that neither congress nor a
state legislature can exercise juris-
diction over any questions except
governmental, qtlestions; nor can they
transfer powers to individuals or cor-
porations that they do not themselves
possess; hence the granting of powers
to corporations by congress or by state
legislatures is unquestionably cloth-
ing them with governmental prerog-
atives, which is a violation of every
fundamental principle of democratic
government.
To understand the despotic power
exercised by these corporations over
the people I will give you their modus
operandi: 1. They are chartered. 2.
The roads are built and equipped by
issuing first mortgaged bonds on the
property and franchises. When it is
ready for operation the stockholders
meet, elect a board of directors and
adopt • by-laws governing the direc-
tors. These directors elect the offi-
cers and fix their salaries. The result
is, railroad officials and attorneys are
the hignest salaried men in the Unit-
ed States. This results from the fact
that these officials fix their own sal-
aries and force the people to pay
them.
A director says: "I see by the 11th
census that there are 1,000,000 people
i n our territory, and, as we are not
here for our health, I move that we
levy and collect $15,000,000 from
these people by approximating the
annual business of each person, then
apportioning the taxes to each depot
according to population." □ Another
director says: "Our road is 1000 miles
long. It cost only $20,000,000. If we
levy such an enormous tax, the peo-
ple will rebel, elect new lawmakers
and revoke-our charter. Let us be
careful to levy no more taxes than
the people will bear." Another direc-
tor says: "I have gone over the en-
tire ground and find we can levy and
collect the $15,000,000 tax and hoodoo
the people info submission. Let us
issue $45,000 per mile second mortgage
bonds, drawing 7 per cent, interest;
our salaries, the interest on the $65,-
000 per mile and our expenditures for
"betterments" will eat up the fifteen
million dollars annually, and when our
victims complain we will inform them
that the road is barely paying its
running expenses; that the stockhold-
ers are receiving no income on their
stock. This will confuse the people,
and not knowing how or by whom they
are plundered they will submit." Up-
on this principle every one of these
corporations are run. The more they
earn the more they owe. This is why
tfte indebtedness of the railways of
the United States approximate thir-
teen billions of dollars, while they cost
barely four and one half billions. Un-
léss they are dethroned the people
will soon be paying interest on $100,-
000 on every mile of railroad, even in
Texas.
But says one "we have a railway
commission" yes! and you had a "Hogg"
recently! Who owns him now? He
is the attorney for a railroad and a
very little one at that. It did not
take a trunk line to capture him. As
to your railway commission it is little
else than a clerical department for
the i railway traffic association «of
Texas. This is fully proven by the
fact that the commission makes no
rate unless agreed to by the traffic
management.
The cold facts have demonstrated
that "control" to be of any bénefit
must be absolute control, which, under
our form of government, is an impos-
sibility outside of absolute ownership.
But, says the mossback, "we can
appeal to the courts!" That is true.
You have made such appeals time and
again and what were the results?
The courts say the fixing and main-
taining of rates of traffic is a "judi-
cial question" and not "a legislative
question." Therefore all traffic sche-
dules by the commission are futile.
Besides, the courts say railroads shall
be allowed to charge rates that will
pay their running expenses, the in-
terest on their indebtedness and some-
thing to the stockholders. Now they
can fix their own salaries and running
expenses, their indebtedness, the rate
of interest and expenses for better-
ments; hence they are allowed to fix
their their traffic charges to cover
these expenses. These powers make
them complete masters-oLthe-people.
There is no way for the people to de-
throne them except by government
ownership.
[Concluded next week,[
SPEECH OF J.C. KEARBY.
AT THE BELL CO. FAIR GROUNDS,
IN TEHPLE, TEX., OCT. 9, '95-
A Fpcech That Is Full of Meat Front
S'a t to Finish- Logic and Un-
answerable Declarations
That Can't Rc Hi futed.
On motion of the Bell County Fair
association, Hon. J. C. Kearby de-
livered an address, on the fair ground
011 Oct. 5, as follows:
I wish to congratulate Bell county
and all the people of Texas upon this
superb display of the products of in-
dustry, of enterprise, of energy of
the people of this section of Texas.
Peace has her achievement, as
thrilling, as grand, as heroic and
dramatic as do times of war. There
perhaps has been no period of the
world's history characterized by, such
marked advance, such marvellous de-
velopment in agricnlture and other
industrial pursuits as the preceding
twenty-five years. Factories abound
everywhere for industrial porposes,
to subserve organized and unorgan-
ized money, to multiply the product-
ive capacity of individual lafcor and
to diminish the cost of production,
until we are to-day confronted with
the realistic condition* of war by the
machine on man. In the midst of this
panorama of real life, in this revelry
of luxuriant abundance : with these
testimonials of thrift, happiness, con-
tentment and prosperity:- with the
earth around us burdened with its
fruitful yield to the plastic touch of
labor, your granaries filled to their
capacity, yonr larder overflowing,
your stores groaning with their plen-
ty, your warehouses overtaxed with
their reserve, surrounded and envel-
oped as you are with a "wilderness"
of plenty, surfeited with abundance,
think you there are any hungry in this
land? Think you there are any naked
in this land? Think you any lives are
perishing from sheer want of the ab-
solute necessaries of life?* The first
criminal in the world's recorded his-
tory answerd these questions by ex-
claiming : "Am I my brother's keep-
er?" These conditions, their cause
and the remedy for them are some of
the questions I am here by invitation
of your fair association to discuss.
We are in the midst of a revolution.
The most'sacred-;traditions of the
past, institutions hitherto'reveredfor
their antiquity, policies which to here-
fore question was political blasphemy
are to-day challenged with flippancy
and audacity. The spirit of unrest is
epidemic throughout'the land^discon-
tent prevails everywhere, wQre tjjaa
1,000,000 wage^ earners without em-
ployment, the cry of hard times,
scarce money, low prices, commercial
stagnation, bankruptcy, personal dis-
tress, souphouses, organized charities
are heard of every day and every-
where. These are words of new coin-
age in this country. On the other
hand, the very few are luxuriating in
fabulous wealth. Less than 30,000
men own more than 50 per cent of all
the wealth of this nation of 70,000,000
of people. A half dozen land (foreign
and domestic) syndicates own land
enough to make eleven average states
of this union. Four thousand bank-
ing corporations control every dollar
of the money in the nation, not a new
dollar is injected into the channels of
commerce and trade without their
agency or their consent. The circula-
ting volume of money is contracted
or expanded by them, as their own
avaricious will or personal cupidity
may suggest. There is not an indus-
try, not a commodity, not an article
of commerce br trade, whether they
it be raw material or manufactured
product, the purchase and sale of
which is not controlled by a money
trust, created and protected by law.
These are conditions of new birth in
this couutry. It is now an opportune
time to call a halt add take an inven-
tory of our affairs. Government is a
science. Politics is the method by
which government is administered.
There should be as much business and
intelligence in your politics as there
is learning and philosophy in your
government. Combine all sciences,
business methods and intelligence and
you have the nearest approach to
perfected government. All govern-
ments are the products of concession
or force—ours i¡í the result of conces-
sion. Our policies are the product of
selfishness, prejudice or ignorance.
We are living under a constitution,
a bill of rights, a declaration of inde-
pendence which declares: "All men
are born free and equal." This does
not mean all men are born in pala-
ces, or in cottages, or in tents, or in
hovels, or in mangers. It does not
mean all men are born rich, or poor.
It means that in this republic there
is no caste, no class, no divine^prefer-
ence, no government bonus or exclus-
ion. All men have equal opportuni-
ties before the law in the achievement
of the greatest success. It means
none are born here with a millstone
about them, it means that there are
no natural encumbrances, mortgages
or shackels on any in the great race
of life forjthe manly "derby." The
sublime universal and profound truth
propounded is equality of opportunity,
denial of government favoritism.
These were the enchanting lullabies
sung at theacouchmentof this nation.
(Continued on page 8.)
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 42, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 17, 1895, newspaper, October 17, 1895; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185629/m1/1/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .