Litchfield enquirer., 1871-12-07

BOs31Di6 pflcc TOT the feast possible servIce. the sersieeableness being ey- CT subordinate to the productive ness. If railway corporation is to be considered as nothing else than a trading concern, sustaining no higher relations to the commonwealth and responsible for no higher duties, such view of what the directors are to do Is entirely correct. The directors of man. ufacturing company have an undoubted right to obtain for the company as much as possible of money for as little as pos sible of the manufacture, e,-provided al ways that there is no fraud in their trans actions; for, under those laws of nature which regulate the production and dis tribution of wealth, the force of competi- tion, the action and reaction of demand and supply, will determine the price which they can get for the commodity which they offer. The British East India Com pany (apart from its monopoly was first trading company merely, buying in one market and selling in another At that time it's directors had no other duty. than to make large dividends by all commer- cially honest methods But when that corporation had become the possessor and ruler of an empire, its directors had oth- CT and higher duties, and their duty of making profits for the stockholders be- came insignificant in comparison with their duties to the empire which they governed. They did not appreciate those higher duties. How could they? Their chief cencern was, not how to make India, with it's millions of people, prosperous and free, but how to make India yield the greatest possible amount of income to trading company in England
 How does it happen that the standard of honor and uprightness is higher in . bank parlor than in the directors room of railway corporation? How does it hap pen that railway director, of perhaps more than average honesty, will partici- pate without scruple in transactions of a sort which he regards as dishonorable when acting as bank director? That
 he fact is so, will hardly be questioned. How does it happen in so many instances that the business which was undertaken with the one purpose of making money for the stockholders, begins ere long to be pursued in the interest chiefly of the directors and few favored friends That such things do happen in railway compa- nies, more frequently than in any other trading corporations, IS undeniable. Di- rectors, being stockholders. are supposed to represent the interest of the stockhold- CTS. But how often does it happen that the interest which influential directors have in some transportation company, ol in some stock -jobbing operation, or ill contracts for rails or for supplies, is great CT than their interest as stockholders Ill that railroad company; and what Is to be expected of human nature in such case: Of perhaps a majority of the directors have invested largely In the borrtia- of the com. pany. Then 1t may come to pass that II one way or another the stockholder lose the capital they have been induced to put into the enterprise; the company Is bank. rupt; and the bondholders, foreclosina their mortgage, take possession of the property, and ''make good thing of it. The natural consummatioa of the process is when one or two men grasp the entire bus. mess and manage it in their own interes. as individuals.
 VII. The people, then, must remember and must take care to make their legisia tors and other public servants remember that railway, under whatever charter is not piece of merely private property held by associated individuals, and to be managed i'll that way in which they car put the most money into their pockets but is essentially 8 public institution tc be managed for the public, under strict responsibility to the State. As long age as when railways were a novelty in Eng land, the old Duke of Wellington-whost greatest talent was the eminence of his common sense-said in parliament (per haps not these words, but to this effect) My lords, this Is the beginning of a great change, and we must take care that we dc not lose the old English idea of the kings highway" The railroad Is, in the new civilization, and to the American people especially, what the kings highway was il the civilization which our ancestors brought from England. Every highwa, is public institution for the public ben eft. Rich and poor, lord and peasant have equal rights in the use of it. A turn pike road is highway with a tax levied on passing vehicles to .pay the cost ot making 1t and keeping it;-as highway it is nobody's private property. The turn pike company was simply entrusted witt the duty of making it and keeping it in re- pair. It does not own the road; and ever s-ts right of way it holds only in trust fol the public. It cannot shut up the road which 1t has once opened; and if 1t pulls down its gates and ceases to collect its tolls, the right of way remains to the pub
 lie or lapses to the owner of the soil. II may be said that a railway is not high
 way, and that therefore railway compa- ny differs essentially from turnpike com pany. We admit this, for we have already insisted on the fact that railways are : novelty, and railway corporations an in stitution heretofore unknown to states
 manship and altogether unique in its rela tions to government. But what makes the difference? The railroad company differs from the turnpike company in tha' 1t holds not only the right of way but tht vehicle also. It is created by the State for the purpose of making road on whicl only one sort of vehicle can be used, thu road with its iron rail and it's rolling stool being all one great machine constructed for the public. The road itself, as really as turnpike road, is public property helc in trust by corporation for public con venience. The corporation does not ow1 land over which it has laid its track; al that it has acquired from the proprietor is simply the right of way, and it hold. the right of way only in trust for certain uses. Strictly, it's only property in tht institution Is the exclusive right of con veying passengers and merchandise o1 that road-that being the consideration for the capital which it has expended il the construction of the road-bed and tho track, and in the purchase. of the rolling stock which is as much part of the road as the rails are It's tenure. even of that right is conditioned on it's performance O it's duties to the public. It cannot arbi
 trarily shut up the road, nor can it arbi
 trarily refuse to carry any man or an, mans merchandise. Such a corporation
 exists not for its stockholders merely
 still less for it's directors or its president
 but for. the commonwealth. Its road
 with all the needful machinery for tn. conveyance of freight and of passengers
 is as truly the peoples highway as tn, road on which farmer travels to churcl or to mill, or sends his children to school It holds all it's power in trust It wa
 created to be the seruant of the State.
 We do not imply that the charters o railway corporations may be arbitraril, repealed or altered, or that the State ma, at pleasure repudiate it's contract with sucl