The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-18

tity while the population of our Alpine ter |
ritories is but handful compared with what |
IL soon must be. Whoever lives to see 1880 |
may see hourly trains laden wholly with
peaches, pears, grapes, and figs, leaving Sac
ramento consigned to hundred different
cities eastward, and among them to Dubuque,
st. Paul, Chicago, Detroit cleveland, Buff
falo, Albany, and New York. Let those who
still doubt watch the developments of the two
next years only, and they will be abundantly
satisfied.
THE RAILROADS OF THE UNITED
STATES AND THEIR MANAGEMENT.
From the NJ Y. Herald.
Last year a bill authorizing classification
of the directors of the Erie Railroad--where-
by the management of the road and the con-
troll of the company were practically placed
for an indefinite time in the handSof Messrs.
Gould and Fisk, the president and the comp
troller of the road-was passed by Republi-
can Legislature at Albany and signed by our
present Democratic Governor. Before our
present Democratic Legislature Mr.. Charles
Burt, British barrister, representing num-
ber of English stockholders, has appeared,
asking in behalf of said stockholders repeal
of said classification law, in order that the
stockholders generally may choose a new
board of directors, Mr.. Burt charging that
under the management of Gould and Fisk
and are suffering, and that there is no pros
pect of relief under said management.
Gould and Fisk, thus put upon their de-
! fense, claim that the road under their admin
istration has been well managed; that they
found it in a bad condition every way, and
have put it in good condition. that they
have extended its connections and feeders,
reduced it's expenses, and increased its re-
ceipts; that if there have been no dividends
| 10 Of fha ctc of tbair md
improvements; that in regard to this classi-
fication lawRthe same system exists in Eng
land, and that before it was applied to the
Erie road it was in force in Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Illinois, and elsewhere, and applies
as we'll to the New York Central, Hudson
River, and Harlem lines, and that this classif-
cation system is good in securing experienced
men in the direction of the affairs of every
road concerned.
In general terms such are the two sides of
this controversy. Without taking either side
we undertake to say that the relief sought by
MIR. Burt for the English stockholders he re-
presents will not be found in the repeal of
the bill in question, nor in the New York
Legislature, now or hereafter, nor in our
State courts. The trouble lies deeper, too
deep to be remedied by State Legislatures or
State courts. Nor are the evils complained
of confined to the Erie road They exist
more or less in all the great railroad lines of
the United States, and are beginning to be
felt in the small ones. The great and over
shadowing evil of all is the watering of the
stock The stock of a railway company, for
instance is twenty-five millions of dollars.
But they are hard up, and though new issue
of stock or watering of twenty-five millions
may reduce the shares from seventy to thirty
per cent. or less, the new issue still gives tc
the management the control of millions
whereby State Legislatures and State courts
become the willing servants of the controlling
heads or head of the railway concerned.
Against this formidable evil of stock water
ing the stockholder, as these matters now
stand in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, ant
other States, has no redress; but beyond the
stockholders lie the greater interests of the
masses of the people. And here we find il
our great railway companies growing mono
poles, which threaten in time the absolute
political control of every State concerned un
less they are put under the checks and balances
of some general law of the United States. Th,
Western Union Telegraph Company is be
coming from its stock watering and other pro
, cesses dangerous monopoly in view of tn,
general interests of the people. Hence W,
advocate the merging of the whole telegraph
, system of the United States in the Post Offic
: Department and as properly belonging to tina
| department of the General Government, II
the same view of the paramount interests o.
, the people we hold that there will be no ent
l to these railway corruptions and the graspin,
? ambition of these great railway companies
: and combinations except in q general law o
/ Congress regulating all the railroad busines
{ of the country.
, Among the powers conferred upon Con
: gress are the power ''to regulate commerc
: with foreign nations and among the severa
States, and with the Indian tribes, the powe
to Establish post offices and post roads, " tn
o power to clay and collect taxes" etc., ant
the power ''to make all laws which shall b
o necessary and proper for carrying into execu
f ton the foregoing powers, etc. Now, unde
v these powers in the Constitution, as settled il
settling the late Rebellion, in the establishment
: of the supremacy of the United States and tn
{ subordination of the several States, Congress
/, clearly possesses the authority for a geners
Y law for the regulation of commerce anon
e the States on our railroads.
c The powers recited were granted to Con
Q grss before such things as steamboats,, raj
roads aud telegraphs were dreamed of, at
v time when Washington was practically as ia
q from New York as San Francisco is to-day
3 II the powers then recited were held to
b necessary to Congress in 1887, how much MOI
q necessary are they in 1870? In this new agt
IS in fact, of rapid ntercommunications {
Y thought, passengers and goods from point
i; point, between the two oceans, and betwee
f the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, an
# around the world, all those old notions of tt
d age of horse power on land and sails on I'll
It sea--all these old notions, we say, dlvldln
IS States, provinces and peoples, have becom
N obsolete and absurd We are no longer
Is loose confederacy of different peoples, cut o
from each other by mountains and rivers