The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1869-07-08
The Western Maryland Railroad.

city at heart will learn with regret the &c
ton of Judge Pinkney in enjoiuing the
Mayor and City Council from hypothecating
the stock of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail
road Company owned by the city. in order
to subscribe that amount to the stock Of the
Western Maryland Railroad.
The power of my discontinued taxpayer,
by the remedy of injunction to stop the com
pletiou Of great works of public usefulness,
should rather be restrained than promoted
by the courts. To permit any grumbling,
dissatisfied individual to hinder and delay
the deliberate and well considered action OF
the municipal authorities in matter Of
grave importance should be well considered
by the Judge. Yet Judge Pinkney was
averse even to hearing arguments en-.
tertained no doubt of the unconstitutionality
of the ordinance" A Judge is generally
supposed to go upon the bench with his
opinion not made up, but open to the law
as presented to him by counsel ct the Bar
But Judge Pinkney was so firmly estab.
lished against the ordinance that ian argu.
ment on the merits of the application"
could not alter bis views. This injunction
is therefore not the well considered action
of Court OF Justice, but the dictum of a
Judge whose opinions were made up, not
from argument and discussion, but from
other reasons and causes. As such it will
not weigh much before the Court of APP.
peais. Perhaps, had argument been heard,
no appeal would have been taken and the
delay now imposed would have been avoid.
ed. Newspaper criticisms Of the opinion of
Judge on legal question are out of place,
but when there has been no discussion, and
the Judge, from the bench, delivers an of.
hand opinion, shutting off discussion and
silencing argument, the mere accident of
the bench gives neither weight nor dignity
to the decision. The very great regard
shown by Judge Pinkney for ax.payers
might have been extended in its application
to the future interest and welfare of the city.
Surely the completion of another outlet
for the coal Of Western Maryland, and the
development Of the counties through which
this road would pass, ought to weigh some.
thing against penuriousness of taxpayers.
1t is hard to get at the motives which inAu.
ence men, but there is another "cat in the
meal tub" besides that of increasing the
axes The are no individual citizens Of
Baltimore so interested in taxation that they
would hazard the payment of fifty thousand
dollars, the amount of the injunction bond,
TO stop this subscription. What power is
behind the throne that thus yields the pro.
cess of injunction Tn stop work upon the
Western Maryland Rairoad2 Is it the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company that
is the real complainant in this bill of injunc.
tionH Though we have no evidence upon
which we can charge that road with thus
manipulating the courts, in common with
thousands of others, we believe that this
whole matter of injunction is a device of that
Company to break down the Western Mary
land Railroad. For years the Baltimore
and Ohio Company has hectored and domi.
neercd over this city, aud sa, an incubus
upon the development Of every portion of
Maryland not Immediately subject to its
own impositions.
The Eastern Shore and the Western
Shore have both suffered from the influence
of that company in the Legislature. until
the one has turned to Philadelphia for re.
lief, and the other sought aid from the
Pennsylvania Central Now it seizes upon
the remedies of the courts to paralyze the
efforts of the Western Maryland railroad.
These are subjects which might have been
presented in argument to persuade and con.
vince the Judge that he was merely aiding
one corporation to injure another, and that
ax'paying' compliments were men of
straw, set up by the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad. s
Why was not the subscription to the vir.
GINA Valley Railroad included in this in.
Junction? Both stand upon the same con.
stitutional objection. The influence of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was with the
Virginia Valley Railroad for two reasons
the one that the Valley road was tributary
to the Baltimore and Ohio, and the other
vas that if the c;tv suhscr;bad n ,,;lI;o, %