Plundering the Public Domain
In order to develop a militant union policy the very first requisite for railroad workers is a clear understanding of what powerful and unscrupulous crooks are our opponents, the companies. Hence, in the following pages will be cited some of the shady exploits of the transportation magnates:[1]
From its very inception railroading in this country has been a process of brazen thievery. Every means that human ingenuity could devise has been used without stint or limit to prostitute the nation's transportation system to the benefit of a few social parasites. Merciless exploitation of the workers, land-grabbing, stock-watering, rebating, bribing of legislators and judges, embezzlement, perjury—these are some of the criminal methods habitually resorted to in building up the present ownership of the giant railroads. The man who could figure out some new scheme to rob the people was hailed as a great inventor by the railroad crooks; and his fortune was made. The cleverest thief has always been the most successful railroad magnate.
A rich source of plunder for the railroad owners was the Government land. They literally stole an empire of it. Their usual method was to have corrupt lobbyists push bills through the National and State legislatures giving them vast grants of land for building the railroads. Thus the Northern Pacific got 47,000,000 acres, the Southern Pacific 18,000,000, the Union Pacigc 22,000,000, and others accordingly, until 160,000,000 acres in all oi the people's heritage had been stolen. This enormous stretch of land is equal in extent to the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. It fell into the maw of the railroad thieves.
- ↑ A11 railroad workers should read Gustavus Myers' "History of the Great American Fortunes," and C. E. Russell's "Stories of the Great Railroads." Both are full of well-authenticated accounts of the amazing robberies committed upon the American people by the railroad companies. Many of the incidents cited in this chapter are taken from their pages. The books are procurable from Chas. H. Kerr & Co. Chicago.
