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Show H- LOGAN REPUBLICAN'S IDOL. H i The Logan Republican quotes from Elbert Hubbard an artiele H 1 1 on "Tc Follies of La Follette," which the Republican, by print- Hn nS ip black-face type, evidently considers unanswerable. H ' - --ti quote from Hubbard as follows: H i . .'i"jn Follette demands railroall rates based on a physical valu- H ' Dti6n. Tn a recent speech he cited the Great Northern Railway as an BH example of a railroad whose stock -he claims contains more than IH fifty water. IHI "How absurd it is to berate the men .whose enterprise. HH ' prophetic vision, ambition, and undying persistency made the rail- BH r?IKl- possible 1 Arc they not entitled to a goodly return for all they IH 1 a' dnu for the mass of people who are benefited by and through H thitf enterprise? The value of this vast truct of land through which H ' tha railroad goes can never slump or recede. It will be worth more H ' days go H Elbert riubbnrd is in need of a few lessons in political economy H A railroad in itself is a useless thing. No railroad ever prospered H j or ttl- iX sw'fe for humanity that did not have human energy dis- ' tributcd along its line. Population is essential to tho prosperity of tlio railroads, and man, after all, and not iron or steel or even money, is at the bottom of values. When men, women and children take up homes along a railroad, they arcJ entitled to certain consideration con-sideration on the part of the railroad, because hoy make the rail- road a profitable thing. "When the rights of the people are abused, corrective remedies should be applied, one of which is the ba&ing of (rates on physical valuation. Hubbard weeps over the men whoso "enterprise, prophetic visiqn and undying persistency" mado the railroads possible, and he might well shed his tears as tho last one of them is dead. There is Colis P- Huntington and Leland Stanford and Charles Adams, and all the other railroad builders their prophetic eyes long since have been closed in sleep. Today thew'innoccnt holders of stock," who admittedly 'never had anything to do with the "undying persistency" of the original grasping band of railroad schemers, are pleading their innocence whenever confronted in court with a recital of tho past offenses of theBC railroad builders. Jamjes J. Hill is an exception, but no one is so stupid as to offer to pass the hat to further reward tho bold! buccaneer for his "prophetic vision." "What would Elbert Hubbard place as tho limit of gratitude to be conferred in the form of riches by the American people on the1 builders of our railroads? Wo have given them everything they have asked for, including a mortagago on a big percentage of all property in the United States. How much more is necessary tb cancel tho debt and thus prevent Elbert JIubbard from falling into deop melancholia? |