The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-01
THE INQUIRY INTO THE COAL TROU-
BIES
From the n. Y. World.

From the N. Y. HOrId
The Committee of the Judiciary of the
State Senate of Pennsylvania, who were
charged with the duty of inquiring into the
causes of the trouble in the anthracite coal
regions, have made a preliminary report,
concerning which we are only informed that
it closes with recommendation that an i'm
mediate trial should sbe given to the system
of arbitration as praetised in several of the
industrial regions of England. AS it is rea-
sonable to suppose that any other important
recommendation or information contained in
the report would likewise have been tele-
graphed to US, if there had been any such, it
is safe to assume that this recommendation is
the sum and substance of the report, as the
result of several weeks of laborious, tedious,
and costly inquiry. We are not surprised.
Even if the subject had been less compli-
Gated, even had there been no gigantic inte-
rests involved, offering every inducement to
make matters still more complicated and less
Ineligible, we should not have expected
much information from this Judiciary Com
mittee. Considering the extreme difficulties
of the case, we have even good reason to be
thankful that the committee recognizes the
necessity of arbitration, acknowledges that
there may be rights on both sides, and ad-
mits apparently that the companies are not
quite immaculate. So far the report is ap-
parently gain to the friends of right and a
defeat to the friends of might. But it is
somewhat remarkable that on the chief ques-
tion arising out of this inquiry no opinion
whatever is expressed by the committee.
The practical question before the committee
was this:-Has railroad corporation, char
tered by the State, built under law which
gives it the right of way, and which practi-
cally (whatever it may do Theoretically con-
stitutes it a legalized monopoly-has such a
corporation the right to demand whatever
rates Of fare and freight it chooses for the
people and merchandise that must be con-
Veyed over its road or else be deprived of the
citizens most sacred right of free loeomo-
ton? This is the question now before the
people of the United States, not with regard
to the coal railroads only, but with regard to
all our railroads. 1t is question which de-
mands an answer, and which must speedily
be answered, if we do not intend to deliver
ourselves up, body, soul, and purse, to these
merciless, 1nscrupulons, and irresponsible
tyrants, who are now dividing the country
between them like so many conauering
chiefs, each claiming his right to certain
section of territory, in which no rival chief
tain must interfere.
If the law gives the Reading Railroad Com
pany the right to charge eXorbitant aud ex-
tortionate rates of fare for the conveyance of
property which has absolutely no other outlet
save the Reading Railroad; if the law gives
the Reading Railroad Company the right to
carry freight when it pleases aud TO refuse
when it pleases, TO carry for whom it pleases
and to refuse for whom it pleases, then it is
high time that the law were altered and such
dangerous right Withdrawn from q CORPORA
tion that has shown itself so unfit to be
trusted with it. If the law gives them that
right, il il high time that he Law should tsks