New-York tribune., 1869-02-25
THE GREAT RAILROAD WAR

NOT DONE.
Railroad consultations in this country present
most interesting and astounding record Oh ei''e
sagacity and intrgue--a record IN whlch HuVn anu
falsehood are cunnngly blended, ana Where cohiDi-
nations the most intricate, and designs apparently
the most impractcable We're made TO serve common
and to subserve the interests of rival corpor
at;ons New-Yorkers all remember the openlhgO Oh
the Erie Road and the feasting and congratulations
that followed, though few persons could nave pre-
dicted the feuds between Vanderbilt ana DTe",o "a
the contests of the Erie with such great monoPoneS
rs tho PENNSYLVANIA Central and the NeW-lorA Oon,
tral Roads. If the Erie Road had not Deeh ens"eou
in useless ouarrels at home ana pusy WIN
,be "iobs," both in the Legislature anu
the Courts which have made 1t an OBJECT
of constant suspicion and distrust IL not OF
dersion and contempt its combinations In the West
might have been more successful. Jay Gould went
on his mission with the taint of operations In Erie
unon his very BREATH that mission being nothing
less than to cut OFF at single blow all the conneo
tions of the Pennsylvania Central in the Northwest
and odwarf that giant monopoly into mere byway
of local traffic Acute and Uuscrupulous himself, he
forget that he had an enemy acute and unscrupu-
Ions as he and that his enemy had Legislature to
back it which Obeyed its behests as slave obeys the
will of master. His attempt failed, but whether
ultimately the Pennsylvania Central or the EIle
shall control the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne ana Chi
cago Road, or whether the Erie will succumD 10 tne
New-York Central, and the latter company night the
battle with the Pennsylvania monopoly tlme ony
can determine In any event lit IS very pretty
quarrel as it stands" and whatever the result the
people at large quite certain to be benefited
THE PENNSYLVANIA CENTRAL RAILROAD
In Pennsylvania, people were accustomed to look
with wonder, not unmiXed with fear at the SLOW
but certain combinations of the Pennsylvania Cen
trail Railroad corporation, and it was common re-
mark that its officers had more actual power, when
they chose to exercise it, than the Executive OF the
Commonwealth 1t cared little, and still cares little
for Philadelphia in ITSELF and only regards that city
as an outlet to the East as Pittsburgh is to the
West Placed between its two great rivals, the
Erie on the north, and the Baltimore and Ohio on
the SOUTH it first set itself to work to make the
State network of its combinations and consolida-
tions and to hold the Camden and Amboy as its ally
and accomplice. How successfully 1T accomplished
this is shown in its bseeting the NewYork and Enc
road at Erie by means of its northwestern route and
its defiance to the Baltimore and Ohio ut Baltimore,
through its control of the Northern Central.
So far-reaohing and far-Seeing were its plans that
the natural outlet of the Baltimore and Ohio to New
York by way of the Cumberland. Lebanon, and Le-
high valleys was closed long ago by the purchase of
Valley Road, which is soon to extend from Harris
burg to the Potomac. A company so powerful in its
own State, and whose combinations at home had
been made with view to enjoying the traffic IN
iransta from the great West was not likely to yield
that traffic without great struggle, When the
struggle came if the Pennsylvania Central did not
prove completely successful it, at least avoided de-
feat and forever prevented the foreclosure, in the
interest of other parties, of the mortgage 1t holds
upon the gardens of the Plains.
RAILROAD SYSTEM OF THE COUNTRY.
The construction of railroads in this country like
the building of cities. was at first very irregular.
Both were alike the offspring of necessity and took
their shape from the exigences Of the moment; but
as their greatness became manifest from their
growth something like system was introduced into
their expansion. Nowhere is this manifest than
in New-York and the great metropolis, with its
streets and avenues eptOme of the whole coun-
try. Broadway, running through the island, divides
the city into the East and West sides-the one, with
it's busy population bound in by the Sound and the
seas beyond and the other only separated from tn,
regions to the West by the waters of the Hudson-a
the Erie railway picrces the heart of the country
with New-York and New-England as the one lobe
and oil the West and South as the other. Chatham
st.. the Bowery. and Third-ave., like the Harlem an(
NewYOrk Central, contend for the travel and traffic
to the North, while West Broadway. Yarick-st, ant
Sixth-ave. and HudsOn-st and Eighth. ave., like the
Pennsylvania Central and the Baltimore and Ohio
compete for that to the South But the city is ever
an apter illustration of the railroad system
of the country i'll this that the regular
avenues uptown" and the irregular down
town" pathways brought into communication
by means of the few thorOughfares in the middle
ground which divides what was in the city of Oul
fathers from what viii be the city of our children
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois are the middle ground
wherethe downtown" people of New York, Pennsyl
vania, and Maryland are seeking connections with
the uptown" people of the plains and by which
they endeavor to control the avenues that Govern
ment subsidies are building to the Pacific Coast
Whether we shall widen Laurens-st and give the
traffic of the downtown" marts an outlet by the
way of West Broadway intolthe broad avenue paI
excellence, is small question compared with that
which involves the broad gaugeroutes of the Erie in
the West. But how we shall get uptown" to the
Park to Yorkville, to Harlem. to Manhattanville to
the High Bridge no more interesting than how
we shall get to the Plains to Cincinnati to Chicago,
to St. Louis, to Omaha, and to Denver
THE INTERESTS AND OBJECTS OF THE RAILROAD
KINGS"-OPENING or THE WAR;
The philosopher who proclaimed that the price of
liberty is eternal vigilance, had idea of the in
Justice and oppression of railroad corporations any
more than he could predict the usefulness of rail
roads. They are ompbatically the fruits of modern
civilization and of very recent thought Ten years
ago, or about the time road to the Pacific first
talked OF, men were found to preach that there is
e. enjoyment more than IN this march Of mind
In the steamship in the railway, in the thoughts that
shake mankind" ..----
But now railways are the burden of the speeches
in Congress, and the foundation of the rOmances of
to-day The dangers are overlooked in the promises
of profit and convenience, and Wall-s weighs in its
balances the CHANCES of different lines 70 narcinatn