Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-01-02

and equitable rights of the companies. will
necessarily be most difficult qline to find
or to follow. This Is generioI difflculty.i
But accidents and special circumstances
greatly enhance 1t. The most important
roads for usefulness, and therefore the most
important for regulation, are, for example,,
the Ohio roads in chain of connection
with those of several other States. Goods
are started at one of the Eastern cities, and
are passed into the custody, for convey
ance, of corporation after corporation, urI-
til they shall reach the delivering company.
It is delivered In bad order. Who shall
pay the owner his damages p IL these com7
panies of the alliance were wise to their
own highest interest they would allow no
question TO be raised as to their separate
liability. They would (as If a single, COM
pany) pay it, and, as they the most truly,
could do, assess among themselves the
proper liability. But, inasmuch as, inpOint
OF fact, they do not, and most of them lie
out of our Jurisdiction. and In default OF
the proper remedy by the national legisla-
tive authority, what Is Ohio TO do with the
company under her pOwer2 MakeniDpRV
all the damages? That would bem0st ace
ceptable to the Eastern company, which is
primarily liable by the law of contracts,
and which (it may bel committed the in
jury. But it would be neither just to our
own company, norgoOd policy for our State.
This example Is of value tor another use.
The railroads, in order to guard themselves
against this frequent danger, have adopted
form of receipts or bills of ladlng. eX-
empting themselves from such liabilities
by the special contract of the consignor.
And they refuse to carry the goods unless
this exemption shall be stipulated. Now
this is all wrong. AS they derive the pro-
fits upon theirllne as the part of a through
line, they should In like manner bear their.
due share of its burdens. 1t may be very
true, that the refusal TO transport is Illegal
and subjects the company to damages by
suit. It Is also true that the receipt signed
is OF no binding force, because against pub
lie policy. Still, the case Is practically a
great wrong committed by the railroads,
and great injury suffered by the commun-
ity. 1t Is one, tho, which needs legislation.
For large majority of men will I'M such
case always suffer, rather than go 20 law
against their own contract, although it.
may have been eXtOrted under a sort of
duress. j. .n-I ..-. 'E"".H rI aEi1
Upon consideration of the whole sub
| juct, it seems to me that with frank ad-
mission of the extraordinary benefits aris-
ing. directly and indirectly. from these in
| stitutions-without over-estimating their
profits (for the best of them will not be
found, in the long run, very proftable),
and without treating this class, or its prop
erty, differently from others-the General
Assembly should undertake system Of
! proper legislation, which should do justice
to them and the people.
The subject has many and intrinsic diff
liculties. The principle of combinations
by all such interests; their unsleeping Wig
lance; their great powers of seducing all
authorities, from the County Auditors
(who tax them) up to the Congress of the
United States (Which ought to regulate
them), by the little thing of free pass to
self and family, are by no means to be over
looked as among them. Perhaps reason
ably severe penalty against the giving oil
receiving free pass in the case of officers
would be good law. / should think il
would be acceptable to the railroad COM
panies, for they are really oppressed and
tyrannized over in this way. Whether il
would so well suit the Auditors and Con-
gressmen, is more doubtful.
AGRICULTURAL LAND-GRANT. ..
The Committee appointed by the late
Governor, under the authority of the Act
passed April 10, 1866, after careful exam
ination and consideration, has made its
report. 1t will be duly submitted to you
in special message. beg leave to say,
that having, in the first instance, a very
different view of the matter. am now
persuaded that, all things considered, this
Committee has decided upon the best course
which the State can now pursue in the
premises. | commend to the General AS
sembly careful consideration of this ex-
eellent document.
The more intimately have known the
l.. L., -
have | seen reason to respect allhis judg-
ments ana to distrust my own, when they
chanced to be different. Nevertheless, up
on the subject of the grant, and the institu-
ton contemplated by it, am bound, If |
understand them, to dissent from certain
parts of his reasonings and their cOnclus-
ion in his last message. j..
He seems to labor under great difficult
ty (Which does not eXist), upon the old
questions of sacrifice, in the educational
establishments, of the practical and the
useful, to the scientific and abstruse parts
and principles of education. 1t does seem
to me that there need be no such conflict,
and consequently can be no such sacrifice.
There can be no proper or successful prac-
tice or utility in anything deserving the
name of an art, which does notas directly
grow out OF science, knowledge of princi-
ples), as simply and directly as limbs,
leaves, flowers and fruit grow from their
proper roots. scientific" and "abstruse'
ere relative terms, and they more fequent.
ly denote our degree of ignorance and un-
familiarity with their subjects than their
own intrinsic difficulty or imptactlcable-
ness. The simple usage of the common
farmer, tor example, we call the
practical and useful. 10 But Ito q
barbarian, who had never seen them
they would seem wonderfully deep and
strange. And, certainly, there Is not, one
Ilof them, If useful, which does not depend
1 upon the principles of strictest science, and
many ofthem upon most abstrtseAd darkest
| lAprinciples, too. So; of every other art In
the catalogue, up to the newest andstrang-
est. 'Telegraphy and the daguerreoty ype, at
first, amased US all as abstr0se seiences.A
But they are fast becoming .honsehold arts,
and, If It be really the purpose Of the Leg
islature to elevate this art of agriculture
by the use of the sciences in a collegiate In
str6ctlon, you may depend upon it that this
end can alone be attained by teaching, to
the few, not the many, the most absttlise oE
all the natural sciences gricultnral chem
istry, for instance. 'The mahyn and @sthe
fewn are also relative terms, but the time
never has been when the many compared
to mankind), have been taught this knowl.
edge Of the principles Of thiigs; 9.imany,n
ia this sense, can never 60 to colleges .
| Nay, more, of the many, In the narrower
sense, who do 60 TO college, it is only the
few-the very elect fewAwho master the
deep abstr1se root of the matter. What
then p Are not the many, thereby, benfit-
ted and blessed " We might as well say