Litchfield enquirer., 1871-11-30

WuilhiHSDF1ueo, KNOWS to Dc inaccurate and eyasiye. No member of the house i could give moment of intelligent thought to the matter without knowing that what IS paid to the Harlem Company for the use of it's track is paid out of the treasury of MT. Bishops Company. and does come out of its receipts. Yet theresolution sim ply calling for information was not passed. but was again laid on the table. NIT. Bish op so willed, and that was enough.
 i On the next day, Mir. Goodwin, not at all discouraged by the accumulating evil dence that the President of the New York and New Haven Railroad Company. own ed the house and had it under his control brought forward three bills for public acts which were, of course, referred to the committee on railroads:-the first. to reg ulates fares and freights on the line of railroads from New York to Springfield;- , the second to prohibit the isue of railway shares for less sum actually paid in cash than the par value of the shares according to the charter of the company, and pro- yiding that when the market value is above par, the shares shall not be issued except to the highest bidder at public auction; and the third, requiring railroad corpora tions in declaring dividends to show how 1 much per cent is on paid up stock and how much on ''watefed capital.
 Meanwhile the remonstrances against the consolidation of the two great comDa- nies were becoming every day more nu- merous; and on the next day after the de bate just referred to, the question arose whether those remonstrancea should lie on the table or be referred for considera- tion and report, and if referred, wheth- CT to the railroad committee or the judi ciary committee. Again the representa- tive of the petitioning corporation de- nounced the remonstrances aa ''emanating | from one source in the interest of cer- tain lobby" and again Mir. Goodwin re- 1 eaN aGdy Tthuy, anu aVowed HIS o@d re- sponsibility for the movement which l brought them. On that occasion the lead, ing representative from Hartford-a man of marked ability and of great experience in political management-'ss 'sspoke at some length. He twas not altogether in fla vor of consolidation" feared it would be an injury to his own city by the removal of shops the workshops of the Hartford and New Haven Company to | New Haven" cared little for the re- monstrances because such things were easily got up. The purport of those ob- l sefvations becomes less obscure when it is remembered that the question of appro- priating half million of dollars for build ing new State hauae at Hartford and i virtually securing to that city the coveted l advantage of being the one seat of legis- lation, was to be considered the next day, and that the member from Bridgeport might naturally be expected to favor the interest of New Haven. The able repre- sentative from Hartford might have said. ''I have some influence in this !eaialation and in the State, l might threw my in Aaehca aga1nat the union of these railway corporations; and really am almost ready to vote against it because it will remove the workshops with the workmen. and their famllles-perhaps an. aggregate of thou sand inhabitants-from Hartford to New Haven. But am open to conviction, and | if, by way of compensation for the loss of the workshops, the member from Bridge port should so far forget hia local preju- dices aa to give us that half million, and virtually settle the question about two capitals, l might on my part forget my promise to vote against all special charters and my old Jackson antipathy to great moneyed corporations He did not say all this. But it is remarkable coinci- dence" that things turned out inst SO. The eloquent representative from Bridge port gave his witole influence to the ap- 1 propriati0n of that half million, offering indeed to do the same thing for New Ha- ven, but somehow not doing it; and in the exuberances of his iberality, he actually pledged himself s'in behif of the railroad 1 corporations of which he is the head, that, | if two new State-houses should be built. | those corporations would take the great est pleasure in transporting all the mate rials free of expense" The gentleman from Hartford, on the other hand. after the appropriation of that half million, saw his way clear to assist the great measure of consolidated railroad company.
 We need not pursue the story in it's de- tails. Let it suffice to say that ''the con- l solidation bill' was the one great moisture of the session, overshadowing every other; that every propoeal to limit the power of the consolidated company was bafiled /; that the bill to regulate railroad fares, 1 (though some eight hundred citizens, one of them former Governor of the State, had petitioned for it; and though the Railroad committee had unanimously re- commended it with modification making 1 it applicable to all the railroads in the ferred to, which were expected
 
 l against that act of special legislation, fell l to the ground, because the legislature as soon as it had done it's work for the great corporation, found itself so wearied out l with it's labors that it must needs adjourn without day; and that the one man who made himself conspicuous by an active and indefatigable opposition to the policy 1 of surrendering the State to the dominion of railroad corporation, found that he had made himself martyr almost in vain
 From first to last there seemed to be, in a majority of the members, a consciousness more or less distinct that they were there to do whatever the great railroad man 1 might require Of them-whether to send him, in the name of the State Of Connec- ticut, on. piscatoYial excursion to the head waters of the Androscoggin, or to create corporation with fifteen millions of capital and with .an indefinite power of levying taxes on traffic and travel whether to snub the the intractable repre- sentative from East Hartford, or to remain and vote when they were eager to go home for their weekly vacation Nor did the reported debates and proceedings give any indication that the distinguished rep resentative from Bridgeport was nncon- scious of his power over that assembly. We do not mean that on his. part there was an offensive ostentation of power, but he seemed to know that he owned the leg islature almost as completely as he was the owner of "our road, and that, though the management of so large team was a task for the most dextrous charioteer, he could direct the General Assembly very much at his pleasure
 What then IS the moral of this story The story itself is only an instance-at the worst no worse than an average specimen E.-of what is going on in every State that knows what It is to have given charter to railway corporation. It is as evident elsewhere as in Connecticut, that in pro portion as a railway becomes necessary to to the commonwealth that is, to the ia- dustrial prosperity ofthe people--the rail
 way corporation becomes a controlling power in the legislature. Nor is the Con. gress of the United States beyond tho the reach of railway rings or railway kings
 A few years hence the owners of the three