Litchfield enquirer., 1871-06-08
9ats6eIa Gnquirer. Litchfeld. Thursday, June 6, 1871
The Constitution as it Is.

The Constitution as 1t Is W
 The Democracy seem at last to be aban-
 doning Blair and tbe " Constitution as it Wa. !" and to have taken ground with Val.
 landigham and the World for the " Consti-
 tuition as it Is." They pretend no new
 born affection for what is, as distinguished
 from what Was, but they do finally admit
 that what is, is, @ concession nobody ever O expected from the democratic party.
 z~wa0n Thursday the Democratic Convention vpt Ohio took " the new departure" under
 the eye of Vallandigham. himself. This sassi sightabout-face evolution was not accomp- sss ss liahed without unusual confusion, opposi- :ss lion and dennnciation even,-but it was g. accomplished. The October election will show whether the rank and file will follow a1 their leaders heartily in the new direction; SsS ss and on the success or failure of the new movement will depend the program of the EoEDslnpcracy for 1872. 2s
 - The Resolutions passed by this Conven- sastionl ere about the queerest combination lsdsetp discovered. The Democrats of Ohio 2 are afraid to risk their old bottles with en- sad tirely new wine, so they mix with their iadfresh ianti-Ku. Klux, negro-suhrage article some of the old bourbon of Repudiation. " Pendleton holds fast to Pendletonism; and ,eG the banks, Protection, and the Internal ? 2 Revenue are denounced in good, old-fash- <. toned style. In fact. any one reading the .sl resolutions can hardly help suspecting sh. that some printers devil has mixed two a> opposite sets of resolutions, and given us ss. .the first page of Republican and the last bs page of Democratic platform, as the pro- a ductioE of the harmonious" Democracy a of Ohio.
 gef A GENERAL RAILROAD LAw.-On our first e page will be found the draft of the general b railroad law brought forward in the legis-
 lature. last week. We should judge that. sssin its present shape, it is pretty nearly ssaworthless.r In fact we should judge that it is sham measure, proposed by existing =, snonopolies, and 50 framed that it can do them little injury and no one else any good. We are not surprised that the bland . President of the New York and New Haven railroad, blandly assents to its passage, and 9oproceeds to explore the sources of the An '. droscoggin in search of more valuable fish
 than are to be found at Hartford.
 ls= Asuficient criterion of the merits of this .a bin is to be found in the fact that few i've 4. cannot think now of one) of the many ed railroads now constructing in Connecticut, sscould have been built under such an act. Ss In the first place. the matter of town aid is Ignored, Net it is on that basis. and on ob thst alone. that railroads are now built in 'o this State. The right of town subscription es hasinvariably been granted in private acts. a Why is it denied in the public acta
 The next obvious objection is that the proportion of capital required by law is Jaabsurdly regulated at fixed sum (s20, ,0Oo) per mile, not upon fixed proportion of ' the cost per mile--which is vastly differ ent thing. The shepaug railroad, costing la only $12, ,ooO per mile, for construction. could not have been commenced under this Y. act until about three.quarters of the whole s sxpense of the road had been raised by
 stock subscriptions, which would have
 most effectually killed the project. The |. Air Line Railroad might, on the other a hand, have begun with an entirely made. quate basis of stock subscription. The II. true mode is to require stock auhsevz,'i
 raIIroad, not merely in proportion to it's estimated length.
 The provision requiring payment of ten .a per cent. con subscribing is both un.
 usual, unnecessary, and would be. practi. ,. cally, very embarrassing. It is perfectly
 proper that no project should secure pre-.
 cedence over other projects for given
 route. until the stock required for con.
 meneement of construction has been rsiseds and ten per cent. paid in, so that
 its bona .Nde nature is assured; but why
 prescribe that "no subscription shall be
 received" without @ prepayment of ten pel
 cent. in cashf
 There occurs also an important omis.
 sion in the matter of raising money on ~ mortgage and issue of bonds. Our present
 general statutes limit the amount of such
 bonds to one-third the sum which " has
 been actually expended" by railroad com
 pany upon its road. How embarrassing
 that limitation would be in practice, and
 how insufficient the assistance would be
 which it might allow, must be obvious to any one who has paid any attention to the
 matter of building railroads.
 Indeed. with its burdensome require
 ment of stock subscription of $20.OOO to ss the mile, it's omission to authorize town
 aid. and any adequate assistance from s bond and mortgage, this bill. if it becomes
 alaw, would be utterly useless for all the
 purposes for which Q general railroad law sd is most needed. i. e., for the building o
 abort and cheap roads, tributary to tho
 great trunk lines already in existence