Litchfield enquirer., 1871-11-30
From the New Englandsr RAILWAYS AND THE STATE.

From the New Engiandsr
 RAILWAYS AND THE STATE.
 The question, What are the powers and duties of the governments, state and na- tional, in relation to railway corporations?
 has become one of the most important in the legislation both of the several States and of the United States Confning our view at present to the State, and, for the sake of cOnyepience to the State of Gan- ! necticut, we find the question fast com
 ing to this, shall the State control the rail-
 ways, CT shall the railway kings who con- ,trol the corporations own the state?
 Railway corporations are inevitably a monopoly. Their customers are at their mercy. On the short distances, from station to station, there can be no com petition. When the exorbitance of their prices is such that the old methods of con- veyance by muscular power on highways :! become cheaper than conveyance by steam and rail, they find a check on their cupid ity, the only check possible without the intervention of government for the pro- tection of the public. It is only. on the long lines between the seaboard and the interior that the force of competition can operate even for a season; and there con- petition soon ends in combination. Of the three railways which were built in competition for the traffic hetween New York and Albany, two are already the property of one corporation, and the third IS virtually under the same control. The tendency to combination is simply ire sistable. While the process is going for ward, the people suffer; when it is finished, they are at the mercy of consolidated tyranny.
 Tn Connecticut, the Hartford and New Haven railroad was supplemented by a line from Hartford to Springfield in Mas sachusetts under another corporation. Those two corporations were consolidated. Nobody objected. Every consideration of convenience to the public and of econ omy in the management was in favor of the consolidation, and the legislatures of the the two States consented. The New York this line, and the great Massachusetts railway at the other, make continuous line of transit between the metropolis of New England and the chief commercial emporium of the United States What next? Another line was proposed from New Haven to Boston, through Middle town. This would be competition with the Hartford, New Haven, and Springfield corporation, and there was of course a strong opposition to the proposal, osten- sibly on the ground that there must be no bridge over the navigable part of the Con- necticut river. Meanwhile a railway, for local convenience only, was constructed from New Haven to New London, with 8 harmless ferry across the Connecticut. Another link, connecting this with Ston- ington, completed chain of railway from New Haven to Boston by way of Prov idence, broken only by ferries across the Connecticut and the Thames Year after year the state was agitated with the con- flict about bridging the Connecticut by the ''Shore Line" at SaybrOok, and by the ''Air Line" at Middletown. Year after year the legislature was besieged by that formidable power unknown in earlier times, the lobby, and all the mysterious arts of lobby influence were employed on one side and the other V rival corpora tiOns with millions on millions of capital.
 At last, the conflict suddenly ceases; the bridges are conceded; and behold the The NeY York and New Haven railroad has virtually absorbed the Shore Line by @ perpetual lease, and the New Haven and Springfield line by an agreement of perpetual copartnership. Nor Is there any room fol. doubt that as soon as the Air Line shall be completed, if not earlier, that also will be absorbed. Henceforth the idea of competition among railway cor porati9ns for the traffic between New York and Boston is as obsolete as the idea of dividends to stockholders in the Hart ford and New Haven Turnpike company.
 This tendency to combination and ulti- mate consolidation of railway companies is not to be suppressed by Legislation. Considerations of economy and efficiency, of public accommodation, and even of safety, are so urgent in that direction, that such combinations will be made, if not by open contract and stipulation ac- cording to law, at least by some indirect method of mutual understanding and agreement in evasion of whatever statute may have been framed to secure the ben efts of competition or to prevent the in- definite accumulation of capital under one management A wise Legislation will re- cognize the fact that the new force which has already wrought such changes in our civilization cannot be hindered from de- veloping itself into system, and that the true method is not to ebstruct, but rather rather to facilitate, first, the construction of railways whenever and wherever the needful capital can be provided by volun- tary association, secondly, the union of continuous lines under one superintend- ence and administration, and even, third ly, the combination of parallel lines Leg islation should watchfully provide against fraudulent methods of obtaining capital for railway enterprises or of expending it, and against the oppression of the public by exofbitant prices. Under such con- ditions railways will be constructed, one after another, by the voluntary associa- tion of oitizens; and each, in due time, will have fallen into it's place in system. It may be doubted whether, if the lsgisla- ture of Connecticut, forty years ago, had undertaken to construct a system of rail- ways for the purpose of developing the re- sources of the State, and had taken coun- sel of the most sagacious engineers, the system thus cOntrived and constructed could have been better than that which has come into being almost without con- trivallce, and which will soon bring the thunder of it's trains within hearing of al- most eYesy farm- house in what was once, but in these days has ceased to be, ''the land of steady habits
 Meanwhile the policy of the state-as of all the states-has been infected with great error, the error of special legislation. If the first petition for the incorporation of 8 railroad company had been granted in the form of general statute, anthoriz- ing any number of citizens to incorporate themselves for the purpose of constructing railway anywhere within the jurisdiction of the State, under such conditions as should secure the public against abortive or swindling enterprises, and of course re- serving to the State full power for any fu- tufe legislation which experience might | show to he necessary to protect the peo- pie against the fraudulent schemes oi
 speculators or the oppression of great and grasping corporations; and if no special privileges or powers had ever been grant ed to any railway company there would have been to-day i've may venture to af-
 frm) not one mile less of railway than has
 been constructed under the policy oi
 special legislation; nor would the location
 or Hay out of amy line have been less