Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-03-09
HAVE WE TOO MANY RAILROADS,

HAVE WE TOO MANY RAILROADS.
we have noticed of late some very clear
and fearless discussions of the reckless and
unreliable manner in which the affairs of
the immense railroad and other corpora
tons of the land are being administered.
The duties of trustee, in their extended
and important interests, are every day
growing to be considered more trivial.
The relation created by trusteeship is one
of the most obligatory and important
| created in the law. Men of public spirit
and large means, realizing the Importance
to the country of enterprisesof great mag
nitude, undertake to aid in carrying them
forward by entrusting their means and
the good to be attained to the hands of
agents and corporate officers. Their ex-
perience of late years tends to shake pub
lie confidence in these enterprises and to
confine them, in too many instances, in
their Inauguration and execution. to adj
venturous, inscriptions men who use the
powers granted for the furtherance of their
own schemes, and too often to the oppres-
sion of the public. These are some of the
fears provoked by the rapid extension, in
crease in influence and abuse of powers of
the great railroad corporations of the land.
They are evils almost necessarily attend
ing, in some degree, at least, such organ
izations. The only question for the public
to consider is, do they outweigh the bene-.
fits which the people derive from them. Can
they not be lessened, and controlled by
honest Legislators and fearless judges, and
cannot these be secured by the people, if
they but decide to have them? We have
heard some such objections as these adj
vanced as reason why railroad charters
should be granted with great care and with
the necessary safeguards, but never knew
even such dangers suggested as an argu-
ment against railroads entirely. 1t has re-
manned for the famous three-star CORES
pendent of the Wing and Register to adj
vance the idea that; in Tennessee, we are
in danger of having too many railroads.
We do not know, but we dare say he is the
same three stars that woke from his Rip
Van Wrinkle sleep last winter to oppose
public schools. Because Tennessee, by
loaning her State credit to railroads, has
become embarrassed, he opposes railroads
that do not ask Tennessee for aid or credit
What sense is there in opposing the Gin
cinnati and Chattanooga Railroad, whose
incorporators are public-spirited and honest
citizens, and assigning as reason for that
opposition facts that have no application
at all to the case? The writer might as
well have been honest, and opposed it upon
the broad ground of enmity to everything
progressive and improving. His opposi-
ton to railroads is perfectly consistent with
a TRADE against free schools, and we are
not at all surprised that the Whig and
Register should chime in and say, "the
views of our correspondent are undoubted-
ly correct" We believe the people of
Tennessee have a proper appreciation of
the abuses they occasionally suffer from
railroads, and the dangers they run from
their falling into the hands of bad men
but we think that they have long since
concluded that the great advantages such
corporations confer far outweigh the evils,
and they are therefore in favor of addition
al railroad facilities. The time may come
when we can properly agitate the question
as to whether or not We have enough rail-
roads, but that time is not yet here. 7 We
want railroad from the North and from
the South ; another from the East and
from the West. These will give us COM
petition andlo freights. We should not,
dog-in-the-manger-like, growl at the Chat
tanooga road because it is not coming
here.