The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-22


Indiana, and now, as we learn, il is invading
the South. They have dug up an old charter
from Alexandria to Richmond, and, with it
in their hand, are striving to frighten some
completed companies into submission. They
are invaders literally; for, says the same
accredited organ of Philadelphia corporate
| and Individual loyalty, ''the aim of the Penn
sylvsnia Company in their present Southern
campaign is undoubtedly to secure through
connections south to New Orleans" Now,
on this threat, or promise, or whatever it may
be, we pause in all earnestness, and ask, can
such an exertion and extension of local cor
porate power be anything but evil Are
there no State rights which can check such an
intrusion Are there no quo 1oGrrGntoS to ask
by what right foreign corporation invades
distant sovereignty? I? 1t is, too, after all, but
q legal fiction, this giant corporation; for any
one familiar with its financial condition
knows how illusory capital and multitudinous
bonds and leasehold interests and guarantees
are. No one can doubt what the end must
be. There is no instance on record or in
tradition where knot of any provincial men
such as, in no disrespect, Philadelphians
may be said to behave been able to con-
troll or administer a vast and complicated
machine at home or at distance. Mr.. Biddle,
with really statesmanly qualities, tried it and
failed. He bought up Mississippi banks just
as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company is
He owned Pennsylvania, of course, Just as
she now is owned. We find in the legislative
records of a day or two ago that at Harris
burg 'four bills were reported authorizing
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to pur-
chase the property of the Western Pennsylva-
MIA Railroad Company, of the Columbia
Bridge Company, of the Tyrone and Clear
field Railroad Company, and of the Wrights-
vile, York, and Gettysburg Railroad Com
pany, and authorizing these companies to
SELL"
And so the game will go on till the crash
comes, as come it certainly will; and we, who
represent, in q certain sense, q community
where, after all, the substantial capital of
the country contralizes, and on which fnan-
cial disaster more or less reflects, only dis
charge simple duty in uttering word of
warning. Philadelphia had better give more
to charity and less to ramiGed railroads.
FREEZING THE POOR TO DEATH.
From the N. Y. Sun.
The announcement that freight on coal
from the mines to tide water has been sud-
denly raised from 1915 to $40 per ton,
forcibly calls attention to system organized
| and carefully guarded by q combination of
| mine-owners to fleece a credulous people,
and fill their own pockets. But this sudden
increase of toll calls for something more
| effective than newspaper grumbling. The
honor of Pennsylvania is at stake. If her
| Legislature, now in session, does not promptly
repudiate this advance in tolls, and restrict
| the transportation companies to q fair rate,
disgrace, and men will be asking whether the
Legislature runs the railroads, or the railroads
| the Legislature.
This objectionable exaction falls heaviest
upon the workingmen of this city. The
price of coal ten days ago was raised to $40
per ton. Since that time the railroad combi-
nation have added $4'35 per ton to their
freight to this city. This means fifty per
cent. advance in price, bringing coal up to
$15 ton. That it should be in the power of
any combination of men to monopolize
prime necessity of life is disgraceful to civii-
! Zation.
We remember, thirty years ago, dearth of
flour and grain in the western part of New
York. An enterprising capitalist, who, if
living, would doubtlesseDe the honored Presi-
dent of a coai-mining company, undertook to
turn penny by purchasing all the -four and
! wheat In the county. This he did, and as
railroads were almost unknown and naviga-
tion lad closed he thought he had successful
speculation in hand. He advanced the price
of food hundred per cent. The poor paid
for time, but strongly protested. Very soon
the pranks OF this rejoicing monopolist became
known to some influential gentlemen of the
town, who demonstrated with him on his ex-
tortion. He did not listen. The next day
the gentlemen constituted themselves COM
mittee, took possession of his stores, and sold,
to all who applied, his wheat and -four at cost
price. 1he victim appealed to the law, but
there was not a jury in the State that would
| give him verdict.
The people demand from the governments
of Pennsylvania and New Jersey guarantees
for the future. They demand that, as canal
tolls are settled by law coal tolls shall be so
settled. They demand that rich railroad cor
porations shall do their duty to the people
They will insist that no corporation or COM
bination of corporations shall have the power
to play the highwayman and rob the poor by
sheer force under the implied sanction of
law; for that is just what these corporations
are doing in this advance of freights. 1t is
the act of combination of thieves, and it is
high time for some power to come in to pro-
tect the helpless victims of their internal
rapacity.
1t is affirmed, too, by those who ought to
know the facts that the object of the combi-
nation is not SO much extortion from the
public as the breaking down of the miners
unions. If this be so, the workingmen of
this State have an additional reason for being
indignant. Not only they but their brethren
who risk their lives daily in the bowels of
the earth are to be ground down under the
iron heel of a monopoly. Gentlemen capital
lists, beware
SPECIAL NOTICES.