The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-06-30
the evasion of the penalties which it pretends

I'd. Section p fixes the limit of passen-
ger charges at a maximum of five cents per
mile, subject TO increase by the Legislature I;
while section IS assumes TO give the Legis-
lrture power TO reduce that charge-subjeet
to the absolute prohibition that the right of
the Legislature in the case shall not apply
until the stock shall have paid dividend
which railroad stock never vet has paid-l5
per cent
Sd. Section 45, supposes that the taxes
paid by a railway com pany on its property
within city, town or county, of this State,
will not only pay the interest on the bonds
that may be issued TO the company by that
city, town or county, but that those taxes
will, furthermore, leave a surplus for the re-
dem ption of the bonds by sinking fund !!
And the same section, as If in ridicule of
itself, make this strange scheme oil finance
take effect " from the date of such subScrip-
ton to the capital stock that is TO say, be-
fore the company shall have acquired a dol
lars worth Of property on which to pay the
tax! In apparent confusion of the want of
reflection shown in this case, section 46 deals
with the actual facts, in providing for the
interest and principal of the bonds, in the
Straightforward Way of ordering tax on
the parties who would, in fact, have to bear
the burden-the general body of the tax
payers of the city, town or county.
4th. Section l assumes to guarantee the
good faith of men entering into an associa-
ton under the Bill, by conditioning that
they shall have subscribed to the proposed
TOdu one InOusan0 collars per out II
gives no assurance that this subscription,
when made, shall be worth more than the
value OF the paper ON which il shall be writ
ten! TTue, il requires that the directors
shall swear that a cash payment has been
made on the subscription TO the amount OF
five per cent. and thus reduce the apparent
guarantee of one thousand dollars mile, to
real guarantee of but fifty dollars per mile
about one quarter of one per cent. on the
capital to be expended!
Il obi |. 6 .
laxity with which it disposes of the rights
of the PROFESSIONALLY of the rights of
the poor. i can never consent to hand over
the public, tied hand and foot to the despotic
temper of great monied corporation, under
any such astounding enactments as this ::
(Seetion "a, ''if any person shall totlUIty do
or 'scause to be done any act or acts what
ever, whereby any building, construction or
or work on any Railcoad Corporation in this
State, or any engine, machine or structure,
or any matter or thing appertaining to the
same shall be stopped, INSTRUCTED, injured,
i'm paired, weakened or destroyed, the per-
sons so offending shall be guilty of a misde-
meanor, and shall forfeit and pay to the said
corporation so njnred, ETC., treble the
amount of damages sustained by means of
such offense and be deemed guilty of felony,
and punished on conviction by imprison-
ment in the Penitentiary not more than
twenty years. Due deliberatiOn is not sup
possible in the enactment of such law of
terrors as this, by body of men charged
with the guardianship of the rights of the
weak and poOrl My approval OF this extra
ordinary conveyance OF power to monied
despotism would make me guilty of hand
ing over to the tender mercies of great cor
pOratiOn, any poor man who had taken a
"Whittle" off a railroad sleeper to be treated
felOn in violation of the principle of law
and justice that felony shall rest on mali
cionS intenti The terrible penalties of this
section "a, apply in full force regardless of any
consideration of malice, provided only, that
the act charged shall have been committed
wilfullyl If L were not confident that the
Bill before me had not received due consid-
Grafton from your honorable body, should
confess myself astounded that Legislature
which has been sent here, pledged to estab-
lish the rights of people who have been
dOwntrodden for ages by capital, should de-
clare, as in this section "a, that powerful
corporation shall be placed in position to
send to the Penitentiary for twenty years,
and to fine in sum three times the amount
of the damage done, any working man who,
in pursuit OF a convenience in piOugh1ng his
furrow up to the edge of a railway EN- bank
ment, shall have taken down temporarily a
board from a railway fence! And this slight
treSSpdSS of the poor man, upon the property
OF the railroad magnate, is to be resented
through the agency of an officer OF the State
Government; for the terrible power given
that magnate over the poor in section "a, is
made enforcible in section SO, through the
agency of the District Attorney 'sin the
name of the people of the State" And as If
IN contemp pit of any tenderness for the masses,
this section is made to apply to all railroads
notc in existence; and by the provisions of
section 81, this fearful invasion of popular
rights is with all its terrors subject TO en-
forcement from and after The passage Of the
6iH! l submit to your hOnorably body, that
IT a SIMPLE tTespdSS upon the property of
great corporations is TO be made felony,
Time be given to acquaint the people of that
extraordinary fact. Inasmuch as they are
made by the bill, the very slaves of railroad
LesDots, the dictates of mercy demand that
they be granted that extension of time, SO
that they may avoid the SHARES set for their
feet in this bill of terrors.
The bill proposes to grant monopolies to
sets of five individuals. Let me ask you to
reflect on the magnitude of the powers you
contemplate thus surrendering. You give
in trust for two years absolutely, and for ten
years Professionally, all the hopes of railroad
development in strips of twenty miles wide
throughout the State, to men whom you hold
subject to no duty, men whom you hold sub
ject TO no test of financial responsibility!
Under the bill before me any party of five
may sketch out a railway system for large
area of the State. 1t may base the lines of
the system on one line which it may term the
Trunk, terming a all the lines based on that
trunk, branches. Even though that trunk
be but five miles long, provided it be COM
menced within two years after the articles
of association for carrying out the whole
system shall have been filed, and provided,
further that 1.-THE five miles-shall have
been finished within ten years, the Company
will have acquired, without any condition
whatever of construction, or OtAnrwise, an
absolute right TO preclude the construction
of any other road, within the scope OF its
network of branches, for the whole term of
its corporate Observation-Disclosures pears
And that, such is the laxity with which
great powers are conveyed in the bill, may
be placed plainly in proof. ! cite here its
fortieth section: "Any railroad incorporated
under the provisions of this act, if there
shall be any branches, it will not be neces-
sary that said branches be completed in or
der to comply with the provisions of this
act"
This is a government of the people. 1t
must proceed jealously in surrenderiug pow
ers to great corporations. The expediency
which justifies such surrenders, in even spe-
cial cases, must be held to operate in the
presence of fear, for the safety of popular
rights. While we must give single Compa-
mics certain privileges, we are bound to do
SO in grudging jealousy; but when we are
asked TO combine two or more of those dan
gerous monopolies into consolidated power,
we should refuse to consent, save under the
pressure of an overwhelming necessity of
the public good. These great aggregations
of wealth are, warn you, aggressive adver-
saries to the rights of the people. On this
ground, if on no other, l should object, en-
phatically, to the measure under which you
would, as In section Al OF the Bill before me,
authorize a system of amalgam atoms, by
sale, lease or conveyance of franchises that
if carried out to the extent possible under
the Bill, would transfer the government of
Mississippi from the hands of the people to
those of railroad oligarehy, made up in
part of sharpers and i'm part Of capitalists.
The authority given to cities, towns and
counties to subscribe to the stock of the COM
panies contemplated in the Bill, is another
head of my objection to it. My objection
in this case does not stop at the fact that
the Bill opens the door TO give sharp ''men
of straw" the power to so shape the gov
eminent of the companies that the bonds of