Litchfield enquirer., 1871-07-20
Consolidation in the House.

We were lucky enough to be present In the House of Representatives, on Wednes- day last, to hear the great speech of the session-that of MT. Bishop on Consolida- tion--a and to witness that most uncommon spectacle of great railway corporation ar- guing its cause in person before legisla- ture, rather than by attorney or by those worse methods of approach still more fre- quently practiced. Having in their presi- dent, an unusually fine speaker, ready de. batter, and adroit manager of men, the great railway company of the State did a wise, an honorable, but very unusual thing in sending him to the popular branch of our legislature, there to allay popular preiadices, meet popular objections, and carry through a notoriously unpopular measure in open parliamentary fight We heartily wish the consolidated corporation which has at last been authorized by the House may always send it's best man to meet the railroad issues that must arise as fairly and frankly as MT. Bishop has done during the present session. a5.
 While listening to Mir. Bishops popular ways of speech. observing the readiness with which he welcomes objections and turns them against the obiectors, and no- ticing the peculiar adroitness with which a small concession is so gracefully and frank lymade as to seem great one. we cannot help wondering that he should have ever left his natural field of politics for the vastly different one of ':railroading." Indeed the appointment of such president seems in itself a concession on the part of the com pany of the fact that they are no mere bu- siness corporation-that they owe it to the public to make their management popular. aslwell as to their stockholders to make it profitable. We should guess, in fact, that Mir. Bishop has been most successful rail road man from his popular faculty rather than from his business faculty, and for the very reason that he is so much more of Q Seward than of Vanderbilt. An incident indicating the predominance of this popular faculty, and what we might almost term stampish tendency, in the president of the New York and New Ha. ven railway, which occurred in Wednes- day's debate. will be remembered by all who heardiit. Referring to the Massachu. setts railway commission which reported in favor of legislative reduction of fares, he mentioned John Quincy Adams as mem. Der. Some one at once made the correc .tion that it was. Charles Francis Adams, Jr sWelI," replied Mir. B. (in substance, .s.make it John Charles Francis Quincy Adams, or whatever theorist you please. lwhereupon the House applauded. The turn was neat one, and finding his friends so much pleased with it, the speaker re turned to his joke some half dozen times during the debate. purposely muddling tho names of the Adams family, and invariabl, bringing down the House, be
 f While, however. the carrying of the con asolidation scheme is great personal tri umph for MT. Bishop. we look upon it a . temporary rather than permanent sue cess. We imagine that in the grand figh for . reduction of fares and freights whicl must come the old companies will fin' that they lose rather than gain strength b, consolidation. That measure so obviousl. places the new corporation above the check of competition that future legislature must feel that the only possible restrain on exorbitant charges rests with ther alone. and they will be much more incline
 to exercise their power than if the appear
 ance of seperate interests, at least. va still kept plby the two leading railroa
 Corporations of our State. So plainly D this fact evident that we cannot help aus
 pecting that the consolidation act was
 necessity, and not mere convenience a
 claimed by Mr. Bishop; that its special val ue 1ay in Salidating past action rather in tb eduere ''permisaion to keep one set of booL -l insfe1d of t@o. .nea eea
 On the vital issue of the necessity of
 reduction of fares and freights by fairet