The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-24
SPIRIT or TIE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPIos-ooMPILED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
THE RAILROADS AND THE PEOPLE.

From the ~ Y. Sun.
When railroads FIRST began to be built in
this country, it was upon the theory that they
were only new variety OF turnpikes. The
laws authorizing their builders to take the
land they required without the consent of its
owners were sustained purely on grounds of
public policy. 1t was said by the courts that
the iron track was as much public convent
ence as one of earth or stone, and that, Just
as any citizen could drive or walk over an
ordinary road, so he could put his own car
on q railroad and travel over it. This was,
however, before the day of steam locomo-
tives. AS soon as these contrlvances were
introduced, the whole railroad system had to
be modified. The railroad companies, from
being mere road owners, became carriers OF
goods and passengers, and crowded other car
riers off their tracks altogether. This was.
indeed, inevitable. No business could be
safely transacted on a railroad unless one
single head regulated the movement of all the
trains; and no man in his senses would now
think of keeping private locomotive and car
for use on the various railroads of the ooun-
try, as he keeps his carriages and horses. 1t
is safer as well as cheaper for him to use the
vehicles provided for the common use of all
travellers.
This change in the theory of building and
operating railroads, while it has yielded un-
expected profits to their owners, has also given
rise 10 quiJo Beueldliy recelVeu opinion IhaV
they are nothing more than private money
making machines, like the business of mer-
chant or manufacturer. During the last
few years especially, our American railroad
companies have gone on consolidating and
extending their lines, and watering their
capitals, with reference solely to their own
interests. Their managers assume that their
only duty is to make all the money they pos
sibly can for themselves and their share
h1Il and hiatt tIA,1 l. L
shorn for sheir advantage.
There are indications at present of O rebel
lion against the tyranny of railroad corpora
tions on the part of the people, Fortunately,
legislative authority is still necessary for
important acts on the part of Ethe railroads
and these reminders to the popular repre-
sentatives of the power they possess
have not been useless BY wise foresight
the rate of way passenger fares on the Cen
trail Railroad of this State has been limited
to two cents per mile and on all other roads
to three cents. In Illinois law has lately
been passed reducing the rates from five
cents per mile to two and one-half cents and
limiting local freights to the lowest prices
charged for through transportation. Similar
laws will doubtless be enacted in all the
other States, and spectators in railroad
stocks who calculate on an unlimited in
crease of dividends will be disappointed.
The people at large have too immediate an
interest in keeping down the cost of passage
and transportation for their representatives
to dare to vote against that interest, and
bribery will be impotent to defeat their will.
Every farmer at the West sees plainly that
it is he who pays the cost of carrying his
wheat to market; since all wheat brings the
same price at Chicago or New York, no mat
ter how far it has had to be brought, and
every cent paid for freight is a cent out of his
pocket. Every maker and consumer of
manufactured goods, or raiser of cattle or
agricultural products, knows that the cheaper
freights are the better it is for him; and the
traveller, more than all, is alive to the diff
ference between one dollar and two in the
price of a railroad ticket. To suppose that
any combination or monopoly can stand
against this universal pressure, is to suppose
that Niagara Falls can be damned up by
human agency, and the river rolled back into
Lake Erie.
The time is coming when no railroad will
be allowed to exact any greater compensa-
ton from its customers than enough to pay
its expenses and the lowest market rate of
interest on Its cost. The watering of capi-
tails, of which we have of late had 80 many
stupendous instances, will not only be
stopped, but undone where already accom-
plished, and railroads will be made to return
to their original condition of instruments for
the benefit of the public, and not for that of
stockholders alone.