The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-03-26
6 TOM SCOTT"

There is now and then phase given to
American Journalism which must measure
bly, disgust every intelligent man in the
community. 1t shows itself in responding
to some local cry of "mad dog" or per-
sonal assault made upon some public man,
originating in the meanest of all the human
passions-envy, and its counterpart, jeal-
ousy. Just now the press of the country
is echoing the howl of this class of persons
against the Hon. Thomas A. Scott, of
Pennsylvania, who has done more towards
developing the material prosperity and
growth of that great State than any other
twenty men in it. Everybody knows
"Tom Scott" as the great Railroad King
Of the country--as the man who runs the
great Pennsylvania Central and its con-
nections, and who has lately ex-
tended his railroad operations so as to
embrace a larger general railroad manage
ment than is now controlled by Wander
bilt or any other single man in the world.
That his management Of the Pennsylvania
NGN'tdi nus iOt UGH sNSli saS W give gen
eral satisfaction to the public, as well as to
devclope the largest possible industry along
its entire line, no one has until recently
ventnred TO assert. His praises have been
on the lips Of the public everywhere, and
it was confessed that his popularity was so
great in Pennsylvania that he had only to
ask the Legislature of that State for any
additional franchise to get it.
But all Of sudden, we find the news
papers of the country aSsailing him in gene
raj terms Of denunciation, in which it is
possible to assail almost any public man
in the country, with no specific charges,
but simply as designing this gigantic fraud
and the other, in exercising the universal
corporate powers at his control. His
Southern Improvement Company" is to
be so welded as to subjugate the entire
South, and bring the people of this section
into a more intolerable yassalage than that
ever endured by the subjects of an eastern
Sheik, while the colossal monopolies that
are everywhere to spring up at his COM
mand are to be SO great as actually to suck
the life blood from the people like some
unseen but monster vampire of the night.
Now, all this blood and thunder accusa-
ton can only sicken and disgust sensible
men everywhere, and we can very easily
see how it originated among some of the
railroad cliques which are seeking to break
the power of Mr.. Scott as heretofore bene-
ficently welded in the interests Of the peo-
pie. We have no fears but that Mr.. Scott
(who is entirely self-made man or one
who has come up from the people, will
run all the roads that may come under his
management in the interests of the sec
tons through which they pass. He
is conceded to be a large-hearted as
well as large-brained man, and give us a
man of heart and brains to run railroad
anywhere and everywhere. The fact that
he has made himself what he is, and served
an apprenticeship in poverty when boy, is
the strongest guarantee the people can have
that he will warmly sympathize with them
in their industrial enterprises throughout
the country. Those who talk about the
''fangs of this railroad monster" may be
blessed with large share of mental image
ry, but they lack the sense to put this and
that together, and draw such sensible con-
illusions as ought only to find place in re-
spectacle journalism.
We may have more to say on this sub
Jeet bye-and-bye, but what we want is some
specific charge against the railroad man
agenent of Mr.. Scott before we join in
general howl from such newspapers as the
New York World, which arc happily silent
In regard to thousand and one other mo-
hopoiles, more oppressive, ten times over,
than the Pennsylvania Central has ever been
or is ever likely to be under the manages
ment of Mr.. Scott.