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terest. In November, 1873, it was promulgated, and was as follows:

In the month of May, 1873, delegates from several States met in New York for the purpose of forming an American Cheap Transportation Association. The organization was effected by the election of a president, secretary, and treasurer, together with vice-presidents from the several States represented. It was voted that a meeting of the officers or delegates of the several State Associations then existing, together with those of any other State Association that might be formed, should be held in Washington in the month of January, 1874. It was also voted that an address should be prepared and published, setting forth the complaints against the management of some of the railroads, together with suggestions of measures that might tend to relieve the people from undue exactions, and facilitate transportation between the different Staies. As the residences of the gentlemen appointed to prepare the address were too distant to permit their personal conference, it was thought best that they should submit their views to the President of the Association, who was authorized to present their general drift to the people, when issuing the call for the January meeting. As the address has not been submitted to the other members of the committee, the chairman is alone responsible for the form it has taken.

The subject should not be approached without a grateful acknowledgment of the blessings which the railroad has conferred upon our country. Of all the mighty powers that are so rapidly changing the face of the world this takes precedence as an educator and civilizer. This mighty interest has absorbed the largest capitalists, the most active minds, and the most gifted projectors of our time. Much money has been made by it, and a great part of that money has been honestly and honorably earned. Enterprising capitalists who took great risks, far-sighted men of business who gave vigorous thought to the internal development of their country, have made large fortunes and have richly deserved them. They have provided the people with a most valuable servant. But the time has come when it is evident that this excellent servant is capable of becoming a most tyrannical master. We are threatened with the curse of special rights, special privileges, special favors, special powers, and the monopolies of cliques and rings. An imperium in imperio, controlled by the ablest execu

tives that money can purchase, acts with peculiar advantages under a popular government. If that eternal vigilance, which has been called the price of liberty, is not exercised; if an aggressive power is not boldly met and restrained by wise and reasonable legislation,—we are inviting those bad and lawless remedies which are too often worse than the injustice they assail.

Among the many charges that have been preferred against the managers of American railroads the mention of a few will be sufficient for the purposes of this address. Mr. Rufus Hatch, in his circular upon "Frauds in Railroad Management," offers statements to show that at the time of his publication the watering of the stock of the Hudson River and the New York Central Railroads amounted to $57,576,700, which exceeded the capital actually paid in by $7,368,400. He likewise asserts that the watering in the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula, the Buffalo and Erie, and the Cleveland and Toledo, together with the excess of new capital over old, amounted to $20,065,870; and this watering of the Lake Shore, added to that of the Hudson River and New York Central, amounted to $77,644,770, equaling $79,000 a mile for the whole distance from Chicago to New York, and paying on every mile an annual dividend of $6,325.

Mr. Geo. O. Jones, at a recent hearing before the Congressional Committee on Transportation, corroborated these statements, and estimates that New York pays $10,000,000 a year on watered stock. It is also charged against some of the managers of the great line of railroad that, while Congress has granted immense tracts of land in order to reduce the cost of roads and the fares for transportation, means have been employed to separate the railroads from these grants for the purpose of dishonestly appropriating these benefits. Railroads thus favored by the government have been constructed at great cost, through the issue of bonds, and then leased to lines of which their managers had the control. Rings have thus obtained possession of land and shares at nominal prices, and have imposed upon the people such taxes as their directors might choose to levy.

It is charged that while our several States have granted charters authorizing railroad corporations to take the land of any citizens, and to issue shares for the construction of their roads, and permitting them to collect a liberal interest for all moneys invested, shares have been issued gratuitously to stockholders, with the view of exacting interest upon fictitious values; and also that officers or influential shareholders who have been interested in express companies, mineral

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land companies, and other associations, have caused peculiar privileges to be given to such bodies, enabling them to gain unjust advantages over all others who depend upon railroad transportation for the transaction of their business. It is also asserted that accommodation has been refused to those who have made themselves obnoxious by exposing the unjust proceedings above specified, and that shippers of merchandise not in favor with inner rings have been denied fair opportunities for competition.

Finally, it is alleged that no action of individuals is capable of resisting corporations wielding the vast power and backed by the immense wealth at the disposal of railroad managers. It is alleged that some of these members have already packed conventions, bribed legislators, and subsidized judges, and have obtained, through corrupt means, an influence subversive of the rights of the people and most perilous to republican institutions.

The Cheap Transportation Association asks that these charges, brought by responsible citizens against the managers of railroads, be thoroughly investigated. We assert that it is the right and duty of Congress to inquire how its liberal grants of land have been appropriated. They were granted to give temporary credit to certain railroad corporations, and to constitute a sinking fund which would ultimately pay off debts contracted in the construction of roads. They were granted, in the interest of the country, to reduce rates of transportation to the cost of maintaining the roads. Should it be found that these grants, covering an area greater than many of our States, have been obtained under false pretenses, and used for private aggrandizement, we ask that they be reclaimed from those who unjustly hold them in possession.

Our several States have surrendered the privilege of righting their own wrongs, upon the understanding that Congress will do it for them. The railroad power of the State of New York, for instance, may levy for the benefit of watered stock the estimated tax of ten cents per bushel upon corn and wheat, and the farmers of the West and citizens of New England have no remedy except through the action of the General Government. For this reason we are forced to ask Congress for a thorough investigation of the measures that have been adopted to effect the interchange of products among our States-measures that are alleged to have destroyed the value of the productions of one section, and to have increased the cost of the necessaries of life in another. We ask for a thorough investigation into

special contracts made for the transportation of freight and passengers that have given the contractors advantages over their fellowcitizens.

We ask Congress to consider whether it be not expedient to make certain laws for the regulation of railroads, in order to meet such wrongs and avert such dangers as an investigation may bring to light; and whether it be not expedient to create a permanent Railroad Commission, with power, upon substantial complaints, to send for persons and papers, to lay injunctions, and to abate violations of the laws. Railroad managers, as common carriers, should be required by law to give no privileges to one customer above another under similar circumstances. All deviations in price from the published schedule made to companies or to individuals should be duly recorded in books, at all times open to the inspection of the Railroad Commission, as well as to citizens who make proper application to examine them.

It is proposed to ask Congress to consider the expediency of establishing national railroads or canals for the purpose of carrying freight between distant States and the seaboard, or to require existing roads to draw cars for individuals or companies at fixed rates.

But it is unnecessary further to anticipate the action of the meeting of the Association, which is hereby called to meet at Washington on Wednesday, the 14th day of January, 1874. At this meeting delegates from all kindred State organizations are invited to appear. JOSIAH QUINCY, President of the American Cheap Transportation Association.

CHAPTER XXVIII

7

THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL CONGRESS OF 1873.

OPENING FORMALITIES, ETC.

Pursuant to adjournment, as mentioned in Chapter XVII, the National Agricultural Congress held its second session at Indianapolis, May 28, 1873, with a large attendance of highly intelligent delegates from twenty-five States. In the absence of the President, Hon. John P. Reynolds, A. M. Garland, Esq., of Illinois, was called to the chair.

Governor Hendricks, of Indiana, delivered an address of welcome, and was followed by Mayor Mitchell, of Indianapolis, and Hon. John Sutherland, of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture, in some pleasant remarks of similar tenor. General W. H. Jackson, of Tennessee, in responding, on be half of the Congress, gave a short history of the gathering and its objects, concluding his remarks as follows:

"I regard it as a matter of great importance to all the interests or the country. The reason that actuated us in the formation of this organization was to have greater unity and concert of action among the agricultural classes, whom, we thought, ought to have a voice in the affairs of the State and nation. There was lack of concert of action, and of that cohesiveness which exists in all other classes. We have combinations of capitalists in mining and in manufacturing, in seafaring, in commerce, and the thousand channels through which