s to the same
town in wagons, as the rates charged them over Mr. Gould's railway are
so high as to absorb the value of the coal at destination.

Not only are individuals thus oppressed, but for reasons which only
the initiated can fathom there are seemingly purposeless
discriminations against localities, as shown in the following extract
from the _Coal Trade Journal_ of March 25, 1891.

"Capt. Thomas H. Bates, before the railroad committee of the
Colorado Senate, said: The Grand River Coal & Coke Company
mine their coal in Garfield County, about fifty miles west
of Leadville, and all they sell in Denver, Colorado Springs,
and Pueblo, has to be hauled through Leadville. At Leadville
the individual consumer has to pay $7.00 per ton for this
coal, while in Denver, with an additional haul of 150 miles,
the coal from the same mines is delivered to the individual
consumer for $5.50 per ton. The Colorado Coal & Iron Company
produce all the anthracite coal sold in Colorado. It is
mined at Crested Butte, which is 150 miles nearer Leadville
than Denver, yet this coal is sold in Leadville for $9.00 to
the individual consumer, while the same coal is hauled 150
miles farther, and sold to the individual consumer for an
advance of twenty-five cents per ton over the Leadville
price, and is sold in Denver for $7.10 per ton in carload
lots."

With the government operating the railways, discriminations would
cease, as would individual and local oppression; and we may be sure
that an instant and absolute divorce would be decreed between railways
and their officials on one side, and commercial enterprises of every
name and kind on the other.

There are but three countries of any importance where the railways are
operated by corporations permitted to fix rates, as in all others the
government is the ultimate rate-making power: these are Great Britain,
Canada, and the United States; and while the British government
exercises a more effective control than we do, there are many and
oppressive discriminations, and complaints are loud and frequent, and
English farmers find it necessary to unite for the purpose of securing
protection from corporate oppression, as is shown by the following
from the Liverpool _Courier_ of January 29, 1891.

LANCASHIRE FARMERS AND RAILWAY RATES.

After the counsel given them yesterday by Mr. A. B. Forwood,
o