The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-04

Macaulay once said, that if every man iu Athens
had been Socrates, the Athenians would still
have been mob
And it may generally be said of bodies polite
and corporate, created and organized for the ex-
press purpose of making money and declaring div
idends, that if every individual corporator were
honest man, the corporation itself might still be
open to suspicion on the score of integrity
AS we have before intimated, we are not of those
who regard the Gas Light Company of Baltimore
as one of those holy and immaculate bodies whose
dealings with the community not to be inquired
into impeached, in favor of which every pre-
sumption is to be made, and against whose charac-
ter no evidence however strong, is to be allowed
hearing
Nor we disposed to allow ourselves to be de-
TERED from an expression of what is now the indig-
nant voice of almost the entire community, with
respect to the impositions and extortions which
that company has practiced until they have at last
grown too grievous to be borne, by having held
up before as conclusive answer the private
characters of its individual officers. 1t is wholly
irrelevant and impertinent in this connection to
urge the high and admitted reputation of this, that
or the other gentleman, whose respectable name
figures upon the companys books in some one or
other official capacity, as reply to these grave
and well-substantiated charges. We all under
stand perfectly well how conscientious and strictly
honest men sometimes, with no voluntary or
conscious completely on their part, be made
through the medium of one of those impalpable es-
sences called corporations accessory to substantial
frauds.
When f1lno tba of
the East India Company with rupees, wrung from
the helpless nabobs and begums of Dude and Ben
gal, we have no doubt that among the directors
who sat at the board were many honest and Just
men, who would have repudiated with indignation
and horror the suspicion that the fat dividends
they were so complacently pocketing were the
fruits Of a most cruel and infamous system of
wholesale plumber and extortion. 1t is highly
probable, indeed, that men distinguished for prob
ity, and even piety, might have been among those
from whom emanated the famous order from the
company to its Indian agents, to ''send money; be
liberal and just in your administration, and-send
money; avoid all fraud violence in your dealings
with the natives, and-send money!
When large proportion of the gas consumers of
this city find that their bills steadily increase in
ed price of the article it is certainly time that in
qures should be made to the cause of so singular
a phenomenon And the necessity for an investga-
ton becomes the more obvious when we find that
this whole art and mystery of registering the gas
consumed is under the exclusive control of the COM
pany's agents Whether indeed there be any lust
ground or not for the complaints which are now
made, this very fact alone mnst always, in the
nature of things, be an occasion for suspicion to-
wards the company, and ill-feelng and dissatsfac-
ton among its customers, who are thus so COM
petey and helplessly within its power.
For the peace and comfort of the community,
and for the good name and fame of the corporation
ITSELF if for no other reasons we insist upon the
application of the remedy which we have already
adverted to, and which is now before our Legisia-
ture awaiting its decision. Let the gas-meters al
ready furnished be carefully tested and compared
with an approved standard and let all others
hereafter supplied be subjected to similar ordeal,
and be officially stamped.