Did you know that a private corporation got its clutch upon the Monongahela River generations ago and shut off free navigation?
Did you know that this private monopoly exercised the power of dictating to every dollar’s worth of produce transported upon that highway the terms upon which it should go to market?
Did you know that the people at large, who were robbed by this gigantic and unnatural monopoly, complained vainly during all these long and dreary years of corporation tyranny?
Did you know that as soon as the corporations which are working in coal and iron got tired of said monopoly and began to complain, our great and good Government at once had ears to hear and eyes that could see?
Did you know that patriots of the Carnegie stripe, who had to pay tribute to the Monongahela monopoly, were losing $425,000 per year to said monopoly; and that Carnegie and Company went to our great and good Government and demanded that said Government buy out said Monongahela monopoly?
Did you know that our great and good Government immediately harkened to the wails of Carnegie and his Company and appointed a commission to assess the value of said Monongahela monopoly?
Did you know that said monopoly, being wise in its generation, realized that its hour had come and that its best policy was to sell out at a high price?
Did you know that the Commission appraised the monopoly franchise at more than three and a half million dollars, and that our great and good Government paid the money?
Did you know that your cash was thus lifted out of the Treasury to pay for a free river for Carnegie and his Company; and that nobody thought it worth while to say “Turkey” to you about it?