The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-01-31
Danger Ahead.

Danger Ahead.
We lately called the attention of the United
States Senate to the fact that certain char
tered corporations were and are buying up
the anthracite coal lands of Pennsylvania and
stealthily acquiring monopoly of the coal
traffic. There is no subject more fraught with
danger to the public welfare than the steady
increase of railroad monopoles. We do not
now mean the great combinations which con-
meet under one management the heretofore
separate railroads over the great routes OF
travel In respect to these we wait for fur
Their developments. We mean the absorption
of lines of business into what were intended
only as lines of travel If these railroad COM
panies can buy up and work or not, as they
please-all the coal and other mineral lands
bordering upon or easily reached by their
roads, why not all the wheat aud corn lands
Where is this monopoly encroachment to stops
Not only do the railroad companies buy coal
lands to obtain the control of transportation
for their roads, but q canal company-the
Delaware and Hudson-buy railroad-the
Rensselaer, and Saratoga-under the pretencs
of securing an outlet for their coal trade.
Under this pretext Of the necessities or in
terest of the coal trade, an inroad Is made
upon the public highways of the country
which would not be submitted to for one
moment were the eyes of the people opened to
its real meaning. Who would advocate re-
linquishing the control and use of the 'com-
mon roads" to sets of private individuals or
to corporations to be used and managed by
them as their interest or caprice might die
tate? Yet the public look on with
seeming Indifference while the owners
of railroads, which have become
Of ten times the Importance of common
roads" regulate the movements Of travellers
and the transportation of freight, without re-
gard to anything but the selfish policy of cor
porations. The President of one Of these
anacondas, which had just swallowed mil
lion dollars worth of coal land when asked il
he thought the public would permit his COM
pany to monopolize the coal traffic, replied
cob we shall give the public coal so cheap
that it will never trouble itself about the
monopoly question" This is all very well to
say, and perhaps it may be the intention of the
present owners of the railroad but how will
it be when the road passes into the hands of
owners who may not be satisfied with the
profits of cheap coal? A despotism is I'M
doubtedly the most efficient form of govern
ment, and works admirably as long as the
despot is all right; but the American people
will not be satisfied with either despotism or
monopoly on the ground of expediency.
Railroads are really ''public highways"
| The corporations to which these highways are
entrusted take the property, land or whatever
may come in their way, of private individuals,
under the pretence that it is for the public
good. The owners who give up this property
only relinqush its immediate control to the
corporations. The public also has rights in
this property, these public highways Among
these rights are equal privileges in their use
after they are prepared for travel, and the
regulation of charges for the traffic over them.
1t was never contemplated by those who re-
| linquished any part Of their rights to railroad
| companies, or by those who chartered these
corporations, giving them great advantages
| over private individuals, that these rights and
| advantages should be used to control the pro-
duction and price of one of the necessities Of
| life, like coal. The people have an inherent
right to travel over these public highways
| called railroads with their own cars and To-
comotives if they choose; but this right ia
held in allegiance because public policy and
safety require that the dangerous engines OF
| travel should be under one control.
While the people have been compelled for
the public good to give up their property and
| q part of their right to its free use We find
the recipients of this property, not satisfied
with the advantages granted them, grasping
at monopoly of an important branch Of pro-
duction, to which they have no more natural
right than they would have to the wheat-grow-
ing land traversed by their railroad. Con-
gress should without delay exercise its I'M
doubted right to control and regulate the
channels of commerce. This whole system
of railroad monopoly Of public highways
should be thoroughly investigated, and power
created to govern it which will protect the
rights of both public and railroad companies.
AFFAIRS IN SPAIN.-To judge from the
recent protestations of the Spanish politicians
who crowd about the throne of the young
King of Spain, a person might reasonably
imagine that that peace so long deferred in
the Peninsula was about to be realized. Late