New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-03-16
RAILROADS I'M QUIZ CITY.

has sent us long letter, IN Whicn no oehios' vi
seems 10 deny that he was interested in the famous
"Gridiron Railroad" bill, which our State Senate
most improperly passed, and tho Assembly most
Justly knocked in the head. quote Mr.. SWANS
precise and carefully chosen language on this dell
cate subject:
"For myself, wish TO put In denial Of the honor
YOU see fit to bestow 1 never spoke TO any Senator
about the omnibus until il had been acted on in the
Senate. j never gave any Senator any advice about
City Railroads. except that did endeayor TO induce
Senator Manierre not to report fayoraby on any
bill"
We presume it to be the fact that Mr. Swain
was "let in" to the Gridiron arrangement at a
very late hour-after the bill had been "acted on
Tnot passedl-in the Senate. 1t is none the less
true, however, that he ,cas in, and the tenor Of
bis letter abundantly proves it, if proof were want
ing. But we cannot print the greater part of it,
since it is made up of charges of virtual corrup-
ton and malfeasance against the Speaker of the
Assembly, the Chairman of its Committee on
Cities and Vilages, &c.-charges which We know
no facts to support, though Mr.. s. says we do know
or might know them. He should recolect that we
have spent very few hours at Albany this Session
few, in fact, for years. His position has been
different, and more favorable to the requirement Of
this sort of knowledge.
But Mr.. Swain proceeds at length to talk Of mat
tiers whereof we hare due cognzance; and here we
quote him in full Hear him
"It is said that among those combined in the five
bills Of the House, the editors Of several leading jour
nails were taken care OF, and that they hnd them-
-. - md hon
selves as the boy says, out IN the wet, ana nenGe
their indignation the action Of the Senate that only
took portions of three of their projects, grouped
them together in bill and with different corpora
tors, passed 1t. IL,
were interested in the five bills is Islander. But
others are not charitable. They reason, from your
indignation at the Senate, and your quiet when IN
fnitely more infamous proceedings were Transporting
control YOU. Assuming that you had interest," they
cannot discover that you not liable to the same OBJ
lection you urge against Senators. What greater
moral wrong is inflicted when this next friend OF a
Senator is named in bill than when the next TREND
of Mr.. Greeley OF The TRIBusE, or Mr.; Raymond OF
The Times, or Gen. Webb of The Courier,
ia named Is not the Senator as capable
of voting right under such circumstances,
as the editors would be of judging fairly This
is the question asked. Can you answer 1t Can
YOU say why, if the five bills were good thing to
have In the House. the omnibus should not have
been driven through the Senate Does the fact that
there different drivers change the character OF Inc
measuresl cannot see that 1t does.
We solemnly assure Mr.. Swain and his half
dozen cronies in Albany who are capable of beev-
ing or suspecDg what he says they do, that no edi-
tor of The TRIBUNE had any shadow or fraction OF
interest in any bill to charter Railroads in our City
OF elsewhere that is now or has been before the
Senate or Assembly, and thstno editor of this paper
IL - nab ipta
How it may be with our contemporaries implicated
by him, we do not know, but wepresume the case is
the same with them as with US. As Mr.. s. is the
Albany correspondent of one of them (The Times)
and was once one of its editors and propretors, he
may know something that justi6es his nsinuatons so
ar as that journal is concerned; but we believe
them utterly groundless.
Mr. Swain asks if-supposing Editors 'oere inter-
ested in some or all of these Railroad projects
that would not be parallel case TO that of Senator'S
being personally interested in such bill as " the
"Gridiron." We answer, Not by any manner of
means. If these Railroads are to be constructed
and owned by money making corporations, we do
not know that Editors are necessarily excluded
from taking stock in such corporations, though we
prefer for our own part not to have any. But
legislators hold very different position from ours
They are the chosen arbiters as TO all such matters
the august judges, elected and paid by the People
to decide all such questions in accordance with the
requirements of the public veal. For them to have
an interest in any such enterprise is exactly like
Judge accepting present of one-eighth or one
fourth interest in q claim sued before him, and on
which he is about to pass Judgment We could
not have supposed any one but Frank Spinola in
capable of perceiving and respecting this broad,
obvious line of demarcatiOn; though possibly the
Senator who opposed the GridirOn till his own
partner in business was named in the bill as one of
the corporatOrs, and thenceforward voted steadily
for it, may be equally obtuse. There cannot well
be another.
One word only on the general subject. Mr..
Swain runs a parallel between the Gridiron"
and the five roads fayorably reported in the AS
sembly, and proves that, if the former be objec-
tionable, the latter are equally So We do not
favor those Assembly bills, unless seriously mOdi-
fed: but the difference between these and " the
{" Gridiron" is vital and palpable. The Assembly
bills propose TO compensate the owners OF Omni-
bus routes and stock which the proposed roads are
to render nearly valueless I" the, Gridiron" made
DO pretense of doing this. Now we hold the claim
of the Omnibus men to be compensated, in case
they are busted by Railroads, to be righteous and
just, and we tIust no bill will pass which ignores it,
If the Stages are to be compelled to evacuate the
streets--as we trust they soon may be-we cannot
sec bow the claim of their owners to equitable
compensation in some form is to be rejected.