The New York herald., 1870-04-16
The Rairoads of the United states ana
Their Management. ~

|
of the company were practically placed for an
indefinite time in the hands Of Messrs. Gould
and Fisk, the president and the comptroller Of
the road-was passed by a Republican Legisla-
ture at Albany and signed by our present dem
! ocratic Governor Before our present demo-
cratic Legislature Mr.. Charles Burt British
barrister, representing number of English
stockholders has appeared, asking in behalf Of
said stockholders repeal Of said classifca-
ton law, in order that the stockholders gene
rally may choose q new board of directors, Mr.
Burt charging that under the management of
Gould and Fisk the interests of the stock
holders have suffered and are suffering, and
that there is no prospect of relief under said
management.
Gould and Fisk, thus put upon their defence,
claim that the road under their administration
has been well managed that they found it in
bad condition every way, and have put it in
good condition; that they have extended its
connections and feeders, reduced its expenses
| and increased its receipts; that if there have
been no dividends II Is because of the costs of
their repairs and improvements /; that in regard
to this classification law the same system ex-
lists in England, aud that before it was applied
to the Erie road it was in force in Pennsyl-
vania, Ohio, Illinois and elsewhere, and ap-
plies as well 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
Mr.. Burt for the English stockholders he
| represents 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
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 overshadowing
evil of all is the watering Of the stock The
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 issne still gives to the manage
ment the control of millions, whereby State
Legislatures and State courts become the will
ing 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 and
other States, has no redress; but beyond the
stockholders lie the greater interests of the
masses of the people. And here we find in
our great railway companies growing monOpo-
lies, which threaten in time the absolute polti-
cal control of every State concerned unless
they are put under the checks and balances of
some general law of the United States. The
Western Union Telegraph Company is be-
coming from its stock watering and other pro-
cesses dangerous monopoly in view of the
general interests of the people. Hence we
advocate the merging of the whole telegraph
system of the United States in the Post Office
Department and as properly belonging to that
department. of the general government. In the
same view of the paramount interests of the
people we hold that there will be no end to
these railway conceptions and the graspng
ambition of these great railway companies ard
combinations except in general law of Con-
gress regulating all the railroad business Of the
country
Among the powers conferred upon Congress
are the power ''to regulate commerce with
foreign nations and among the several States,
and with the Indian tribes" the power to
establish post offices and post roads," the
power to ''lay and collect taxes" &C.,
and the power Ito make all laws which
shall be necessary and proper for carry
ing into execution the foregoing powers"
&C. Now, under these powers in the
constitution, as settled in settling the
late rebellion, in the establishment Of the
supr macy of the United States and the subor-
dina ion of the several States, Congress clearly
poss asses the authority for general law for
the regulation of commerce among the States
Oh orr railroads.
The powers recited were granted to Congress
before such things as steamboats,, railroads and
telegraphs were dreamed of, at a time when
Washington was practically as far from New
York as San Francisco is to-day. If the powers
then recited were held to be necessary to Con-
| gress in 1887, how much more necessary are
they in 1870? n this new age, in fact, Of rapid
intercommunicatons of thought, passengers
| and goods from point to point between the
two oceans, and between the great lakes and
| the Gulf of Mexico, and around the world, all
those old notions Of the age of horse power on
land and sails on the sea--all those old notions,
we say, dividing States, provinces and peoples,
have become obsolete and absurd. We are no
longer loose conGederacy of different peoples,
cut off from zach other by mountains and riv-