If the silly claim of railroad men, that Western people do not invest in railroad securities on account of their unprofitableness, needed any answer, the above words would furnish it.
The May, 1893, number of the North American Review contains an article entitled "A Railway Party in Politics," by Mr. H. P. Robinson, editor of the Railway Age. Mr. Robinson belongs to that class of reformers who can see but one side of a question, and only a short-sighted view of that. He is as zealous as a new convert, and is expert, in the ward politician's way, in defense of the worst abuses practiced by railway men. He says:
"That the right to 'regulate' the railways, which is vested in the State, has now been carried in the West to a point not only beyond the bounds of justice, but beyond its constitutional limits, and that it would soon be impossible for any railway company in the West to keep out of bankruptcy unless some vigorous and concerted action were taken to arouse public opinion, and to compel a modification of the present policy.
"It is easy to see how much strength such a party, if formed, would possess. According to the reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission there were in the immediate employ of the railways of the United States a year and a half ago 749,301 men, all or nearly all voters, which number has now, it may be assumed, been increased to about 800,000. There are, in addition, about one million and a quarter shareholders in the railway properties of the country; and in other trades and industries immediately dependent upon the railways for their support there are estimated to be engaged, as principals or employes, over one million voters more. These three classes united would give at once a massed voting strength of some three millions of voters. There are also, in the smaller towns especially, and at points where railway shops are located, all over the country, a number of persons, small tradesmen, boarding-house keepers, etc., who are dependent for their livelihood on the patronage of railway employes, and whose vote could unquestionably be cast in harmony with any concerted employes' movement. Moreover, unlike most new parties, this party would be at no loss for the sinews of war or for the means of organization. The men whom it would include form even now almost a disciplined army. With them co-operation is already a habit. While the financial backing and the commercial and physical strength of which the party would find itself possessed from its birth would be practically unlimited....
"For the present it seems to them better to believe that the people—those people who are not railway men—are acting now only in ignorance, and that as soon as they see the truth they will, by their own instinctive sense of justice, re-mould their opinions and their policy without political coercion.
"At the same time there has already come into existence in some of the Western States a movement which has its significance and its practical influence. This is what is called the Railway Employes' Club movement. It started in Minnesota, at a small meeting of railway employes held in Minneapolis in 1888. From that meeting the movement grew, and made a certain feeble effort, not entirely unsuccessful, to influence the State election in the fall of that year. By the State election of 1890 the movement had grown and was better organized, and the Employes' Club did exercise considerable influence in the election of certain of the State officers and certain members of the State legislature in that year.
"From Minnesota the movement spread to Iowa, and there is no contradiction of the fact that the railway employes' vote was one of the strongest forces in the State election of the fall of 1891. It also overflowed into Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Texas. Had the election of last November been normal it is probable that the effect of the Railway Employes' Club vote would have been as visible in two or three of those States then as it had been in Iowa in the preceding year. But in the deluge which occurred all trace of the smaller streams and currents was obliterated. Had the members of the clubs not taken the precaution to do considerable work in the local nominating conventions of both parties they would be compelled to confess that their campaign of 1892 was a failure....
"So far the clubs have admitted and will admit of no negotiations with the State committees of other parties. They hold their own meetings and decide for themselves that such and such a candidate is inimical to their interests as railway employes, and such and such a man is their friend. Then they go to the polls and vote—voting in the main their normal party ticket, scratching only a man here and a man there, their attention being chiefly centered upon members of the boards of railroad commissioners and of the State legislatures.
"In Minnesota in 1890 their weight was thrown chiefly in favor of Republicans. In Iowa in 1891 it was given to Democrats. In all States the men whom they oppose are those who have made themselves conspicuous as 'Granger' and anti-railway politicians. The keynote of the movement and the one plank in the platform of the clubs is that the extreme anti-railroad legislation of late years has reduced the earnings of the companies to a point at which they are unable any longer to keep full forces on their payrolls or to pay such wages as they should, and that by this legislation the railway employes are necessarily the immediate sufferers....
"A railway party is therefore already in existence.... And moreover, though accidentally only, it is working forcibly in behalf of railway interests as a whole....