Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-05-09
City Railways The Policy Of the Council
aud the C0urta-Its Efects

T City RnIIwnys-Tbe Policy of the Council
aud the Courts-Its Effects
Our course in respect to street railways has
. been directed to the accomplishment Of sin
gle purpose, to-wit; cheap transportation for
he people. In pursuit of this end, we have,
at times, appeared to take the part of the
companies; but this is because, at present,
their policy tends toward the desired object,
while that of the City Council and the Su-
perior Court is in opposition to it. How
much the people are ineonvenienced by their
action seems 10 be nothing to either of these
bodies, so that the operations of the compa-
nies are crippled and retarded. Indeed, it
can be shown most indisputably that, had It
been the deliberate design of both to render
these improvements as inaccessible as posi-
BILE to the people, they could not, consistently
with permitting them to move at all,
have effected more than they have. They
have done just as badly as possible and
in order to do it, have violated every princi-
pie and precedent that stood in their way.
There are times when these gentlemen
profess great love for the people. These
times occur just before days of municipal
election. When they Vant Office, who so
jealous for popular rights-who so enthus-
siastic in favor of popular interests? When
they hare office, who so grasping and thought
less of every thing but their own enmities and
ambitions? There is nothing so utterly hol-
low as the public spirit of petty demagogue.
City Councils are made up of nothing better
than mortal men. They are prone to forget
the rock whence they were hewn, and the
hole in the pit from which they were digged.
They are too apt to think that they otcn the
town. For one and two years they have the
matter in their own hands; and at the end of
that time, what remains to those who put
them into the places they occupy? Why, in
too many cases, merely to choose between
them and certain others as nearly like them
as possible.
If the railways are nuisances, what power
has Court or Council to permit them at all
Has either of those bodies the shadow of
right to allow uisances-obstruction in the
highway-perversion of streets to illegit-
innate uses2 Nobody, Judge or Councilman,
will contend for any such authority.
oiV HOt uuloduCcn,
of the highways, or Derversions of streets to
llegitimate uses, what power has Court or
Council to forbid OF retard their con struction.
or to burden or throw obstacles in the way of
their operations2 None We affirm it with
con6dence-none whatsoever. Everything
that is done in that direction is wrong in
principle, and-as all alterations in princi-
pie are bad in their reffects-injurious in every
practical point of view.
The companies suffer from it, but they are
not alone the sufferers-the aggregate of in
jury done to the people is infinitely greater
than of that which falls upon the corpora
tons. The object of these modes of convey
ance is to supply the means of cheap trans
portation to the people This end is best |
subserved when the means are brought within |
the pecuniary reach of the largest number.
Every tax upon transportation is discour- |
agement to such as are affected by it. The /
largest class, in point of numbers, is the poor
est and consequently the direct effect of |
railway passenger taxation is to forbid the |
use of those facilities to that great class for |
which they were especially designed, and by |
which they are especially needed.
The tax of one cent per passenger
does not look very large to a wealthy gen.
tleman who contemplates it in the light of
single passage; but let us look at it in a diff
ferent way-stating for the purpose existing
facts: Two little girls residing in Newport,
find employment on Freeman-street. The
distance is too great to walk, and they are
obliged to ride, which they do upon the cars
of one of the lines of city railways. They
pay five cents each, morning and evening,
which is twelve cents per week taxes to the
city. In the course of the year, therefore,
each of these little girls, who earn scanty
wages, to support parents reduced to poverty,
pays the handsome aggregate of six dollars
and twenty-four cents, to the corporation of
Cincinnati, simply for permission to ride |
through its streets on railways sum con-
sderably greater than is paid in city taxes |
by the establishment where she is employed. |
And this is called legislative wisdom-polit-
ical economy-knowledge of the arts of gov
ernment-caring for the welfare of the work.
ing classesl Could worse policy than one |
that leads to results such as these have been |
adoptedH Let men try their ingenuity, and |
see if they can devise anything less rational
or more oppressive.
The railway companies understand very |
wel the philosophy of low fares, as increas-
ing the revenue by enlarging the number of
passengers; but by this wretched policy of
the Government, they are unable to put it in
practice. Thus while the people are wronged,
the companies are deprived of their profits,
and cut off from their usefulness and while
this is the case, the men who are doing it,
are actually priding themselves upon their
sagacityl If such are our wise men, what,
in the name of Heaven, are our fools?
One of the Heroea