Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1871-03-10
RAIL WAY MONoPOLY AND DEs-
POTTSMs

Mr.. CHARLES F. ADAMS, JR., deserves
the thanks of the general public for his
able article in the January number OF
the North .4ADterIcaH Re5FezO, entitled
e The Government and the Railroad
Corporation. In previous numbers Of
the Re1EezU, for some two years past, he
| had already done the country a good
service in calling the attention of the
people to the enormous abuses which
have been gradually creeping into our
railway system, taking the shape Of con-
solicitations. combinations, monopolies,
stock ' waterings, pooling" Passen-
ger and freight receipts, and exhibiting
variety of Vaccinations and expe-
dients by which few rich corporations
are seeking to place the transportation
| business of the country under their own
exclusive control, The theory of these
corporations is one of universal absorp-
ton on the great lines of travel, stretch
fling from the far East to the extreme
West, and giving them such ascendency
and power as no competition can resist
and no State laws effectively regulate
These giant monopolies have already
thrown off the = swaddling clothes of
State boundaries and, if the future shall
follow the regime of the past, the day is
not distant when they will be continent
al in dimensions, and forty millions of
people will have the privilege Of think
ing themselves free, when, in fact, they
are governed by four or FIVE thousand
rich railway monopolists, with perhaps
ten or a dozen Tycoons Of the million
aire class to supply the brains and run
the machinery.
Our readers may be assured that this
is no caricature of the facts as they are
rapidly unfolding themselves. While it
is true that our American railway Sys-
tenn has been a grand success in the
material sense, by adding vastly to the
general wealth of the country, it is also
true that to large extent it has, in the
hands of railroad cliques and sometimes
scoundrels, assumed some of the worst
features of an oppressive and plunder-
ing monopoly. Its tendency iz toward
an enormous Capitalization of power, by
which the rich become richer by an ex-
orbitant taxation of the people. The
system forgets that it is merely a lessee
at the public will, holding franchises
which it is the right of the people to
regulate. or even withdraw altogether,
especially when they are abused. Con-
trolling vast sums of money, it grasps
for power. buys up legislatures and
| Judges, and becomes an fUz6e2zakgE z1t i'm
ber7O, dangerous to public liberty, and
overtaxing the industry, travel, and trade
of the country. A dozen railroad mag
mates put. their wits together. and by COM
bination settle the question of transpor-
tation prices for some forty millions of
people.
This state of things has fully reached
the point at which it is alarming, and
! for which a remedy is imperatively de-
manded. The public mind is fast COM
! ing to the conclusion that something
must be done to protect the rights of the
general public against the intrigues and
grasping avarice of railway managers.
The evil has forced itself upon the
thoughts of men. They have seen it
and felt it. Thinkers have exposed it.
Figures and facts have stated and dem
| onstrated it.
What shall be done7 This is the
question that deserves the consideration
Of the statesman. Shall railways cease
to be private enterprises, and become
matters of governmental ownership or
shall they be left with their corporate
franchises, and be subjected to the strin-
gent and effective regulations of law
1 AC p4dNAl(dD1C AG4ACnyg III A4AAo NoGAAA
at least, lies in the latter of these propO-
sitions. And yet the proposition itself
transcends the power of State authority.
We shall never have a good railway law
One that is fully adequate to the wants
of the case-until it is supplied by Con-
gress and made universal in its applica-
ton. Railways are, to all intents and
purposes, interstate highways-none
the less SO because the creations Of hui
man art and as such they ought to be
regulated by the supreme authority Of
the nation. The man that shall frame
the bill on this subject which Congress
ought to pass, and then the Congress
that shall pass the bill, and the Presi-
dent who shall sign it, viii severally
and jointly bestow upon the people
much needed boon. Sooner or later
land the sooner the better) the National
Government must assume its righttul
Jurisdiction over railroads, and proceed
to exercise it. Short of this point there
is no effective remedy for the evils Of
which the public justly complaints
~ T. TfaebsaaeNk