Protest and Petition.



It would be an interesting, and to me a congenial task, to further
analyze the Letters; to show what tools the monopolists secured, and how
they worked with them; to set forth how rivalry was met and defeated;
railroads - such as the Santa Monica - absorbed or paralyzed, and many
things were done and undone. But my intention at the outset was simply
to proclaim with irrefrageable proofs some shameful facts, and to
protest against any faltering in enforcing they laws as they exist,
compelling payment to the Government of great debts soon to mature. Of
principal and interest there will be due from these monopolists and
political corruptionists (the first payment, January 16, 1895; the last,
January 1, 1899), $77,049,630.66 - less some few millions now to their
credit. The money can be collected, and it ought to be. In the meantime,
the toleration of a lobby confessedly corrupt argues the existence of a
Congress at best incompetent.

Joseph H. Moore