The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-01-26
RAILROADS AND THE PEOPLE.

From the N. J. Tribune.
A civil engineer with his assistants pre-
sents himself at your gate, where he was
never seen before, and proceeds to run the
line of a projected railroad right through
your door yard, your garden, your house.
Every stick, every brick, every board of that
house is dear to you: they are all the fruits
of your hard labor; you have spent the
twenty best years of your life in making
that home just what you like; you want to
spend the evening Of your days quietly in it,
and be carried thence to your final rest
You would not exchange it for money; and it
has cost You $4,000 to make it what it is
Three commissioners, in whose appointment
you had no voice, decide that you must get
out-bundle out your duds and be off, aud
either take the $4,000 they award you or get
nothing.
And this is right-nay, 1t is indispensable.
The public good is the paramount law. If
the railroad were mere instrument of pri-
vate gain, the process whereby you are dis
possessed of your beloved roof and freside
would be monstrously unjust. But the rail
road is public highway, which certain per-
sons are authorized to construct and manage
for the convenience and benefit of the COM
munity; and ten millions of people cannot be
sent over an ugly hill because your house
happens to stand in their way through the
adjacent valley. The commissioners are not
at liberty to award you constructive or senti-
mental damages, but only the naked value of
the property taken from you against your
will. We're they allowed to give you what
you might fairly consider that property worth
to you, many railroads could not be built,
and the public would thereby suffer. The
State does not regard the makers of railroads
with more favor than it shows you; it is SIM
ply intent on serving and benehtting the
l.
least possible individual hardship.
Do the managers of railroads always con-
slider this Do they realize that they are
public servants, employed to make a superior
kind of turnpike, and be reimbursed by
equitable tolls levied on those passing
over it,
There is a growing conviction that they do
not-that they regard their highway as
though they had built it across their own
lands to facilitate the hauling of coal, or ore,
or timber, and were thus entitled to let
others use ii or not, and to charge those who
did use it any price that to the mselyes seemed
right. If they do, they mistake very gravely
No turnpike company, so far as we know,
was ever authorized or allowed to charge
travellers or teamsters such rates as its
managers saw fit, and tell them, IF you don't
like our terms, you are welcome to keep off
our road. On the contrary, the State has
always prescribed the rates, and compelled
obedience thereto. turnpike or plank road
that doubled it's charges on the recurrence of
November floods, rendering ordinary high
ways all but impossible, would soon have its
oll-gates lifted of their hinges by the minis
ters of the law, and the public authorized to
traverse its entire length without paying
The public mind seems to be steadily gravi-
tating toward these conclusions
l. As the State fixes, in the public interest,
the price at which a railroad company may
take any ones property which it needs, SO the
same State should fix the rate of travel and
transportation over that oompanys road. In
other words: rs the company is authorized to
take farmers house and ground at an i'm
partial valuation, SO the farmer should be
authorized to use the railroads cars and power
( on similar terms. Hence, the rates Of fare