The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-01-12
PR SS,
FRIDAY MORNING, JAN. 1s, 1872.
The "Amalgamahon'sts" ma Month

The railroad cOfpOrdIlOIlS whose passionate
desire to ''amalgamate'' was so strongly ex-
pressed at the conference held in this city last
week, have found an organ in Portland
evening daily. Their first utterance exhibits
the characteristic mingling of disdain and sup
plication that belongs to those who ask a IA
vor of the people whom they regard as guilty
of great impertinence in placing the smallest
curb on the will of their natural masters.
Coriolanus in the white garments OF candi-
date for popular favor, asking for support IN
one breath, and in the next stigmatizing those |
to whom his petition is addressed as a .''com-
mon cry of ours" exactly represents the atti-
tude of our Maine cooperation which shows
every dollar of its thirteen millions in its des-
potic feeling, and every aspiration OF It's am
bilious managers in its humble soncltatlon.
The great body of the people who oppose It's
pretensions were but recently accused Of false
hood; the evening daily speaks of them as
'ssome crazy people,; yet there is a fearful
suggestion that the people of Maine can have
no interest in distressing the corporation,
that its bonds may depreciate, and that it may
even be forced into bankruptcy. The railroad
organ, returning again to its more appropriate
tone of superciliousness, says it finds great
difficulty in characterizing the opinions of the
opponents of consolidation in respectful lam
guage. Its difficulties by no means end here,
for it finds it still more troublesome to state
its own ideas coherently in language of any
kind whatever. al Hsa AI
1t is not worth while to consider at any
length the exultant strain in which the sue
cess of ''two years of consolidation" is chant
ed. Jim Fisk justified the theft of Erie in
the same way. 1t was only the other day
that Portland gentleman, who had occasion
to use the Erie road for the transportation of
articles of unusual weight, declared that it
was the best managed road in the country.
1t is diverting attention from the real point
in issue to talk of the efficiency of the roads
under the new management. The objection
to consolidation springs from altogether anoth-
er source. The people are not afraid prima-
rily that they will not be well served, but they
are very much afraid of the power of great
moneyed corporations, the existence of which,
according to Mr.. Beecher, is the greatest dam
ger that now menaces this Republic. They
do not want to encourage the growth of such
monsters, though they should find dictator
adding temporarily to their material comfort.
They desire to be their own masters. The
3 Maine Central controlling four millions worth
= of property can perhaps be kept subject to
the laws; the Maine Central with the control
of thirteen millions will grasp at supreme
power in the State, like every other similar
monopoly that has been allowed to spring up
in our sister commonwealth. Thirteen mil
lions! Not much relatively, to be sure, but it
is more than six per cent. of the whole valu-
alton of the State! 1t is too large sum to
be safely placed under the control of a single
corporation by any voluntary act of the Leg
islature. i'.a 7ts -ilA LIZ
But the railroad organ shifts at the notion
of danger, as if the traffic in States had not
become one of the commonest branches of
railroad business. Speaking of its own de-
liberately and grossly exaggerated statement
of the language of anti-monopolists in regard
to the peril in which we are placed by money
ed corporations, it says:
This information is conveyed to us at the
close of year which has witnessed the dis
comfture of the Tammany thieves in New
York, and the beginning of the end of the
corruption which has disgraced our national
politics. The power of capital is not to be
moderated, but there are stronger forces
which so long as our society is worth saving
will control and direct its progress. The
soundness of the public conscience, the vigor
of the popular will, have been signally illus
trated by many ways within the last few
years, and the cowardice which shrinks now
from the apparition of thirteen millions in
vested in legitimate enterprise, is untimely
and inexcusable. J97 ai.ea4 big 4ai
What philosophic observer of events the
writer of such a paragraph must be! Tam
many thieves, indeed! 1t is the close of
year that has seen State after State fall before
just such monopolies as we are asked to es-
tablish here! 1t is the close of year that
has seen one giant corporation stretch its
arms from the Atlantic to the Pacific, domi-
nate in the governments of several of our
2 largest States and aim at universal empire!
1t has seen public virtue contaminated and
political independence in one half the coun-
try either entirely subverted or placed in peril
by immense aggregations of capital like the
one contemplated here. 1t has been a year
of all others that has shown the incredible
disasters that follow from surrender to COM
binations of capitalists. tits year in which,
whatever else has been done, nothing has
been found to check the progress of railroad
monopolists in their work of overthrowing
democracy! Is it reasonable to assume that
the people of Maine will preserve their indie
pendence and virtue where the Keystone
and the Empire States have fallen?
~ 1t is impertinent to speak of the alleged i'm
provements in the details of railroad admin
istration when the real subject matter of con-
Louis Napoleon spoke of improved roads, new
public buildings and clean streets, while the
French people were clamoring for liberty.
Some of our American travellers, even, were
captiyated by the good order, cleanliness and
perfect police of Paris, and came home de-
claring that the Empire was preferable to a
Republic. The German war opened their
eyes. Imperialism had not been favorable to
the growth of men. Railroad Imperialism is
dangerous luxury. 1t is fine thing to
have good railroads, but it is horrible thing
to enjoy them at the will of masters who, at
their discretion, may either increase or di-
minish our blessings and enjoyments.
But the Maine Central is not entitled to
claim, in the face of the events of the last
year, that it has conferred upon the people
even those benefits which commonly flow
from unity of management. Never before
has there been SO much complaint of unfair
discrimination against Maine in the freight
and passenger tariffs. Even the running of
trains has not given satisfaction to the citi-
zens of Portland as the frequent, complaints
of our correspondents attest, while the people
of Lewiston are petitioning the Legislature
for charter that will give them another road !
to this city. 1t is singular ground on which
to ask special favor, that there has not been |
for ten years any change in freight tariff |
that is the object of just complaint on the
part of the people of Maine. The passenger
tariff, which has been changed since CONSOLE
dation was effected, offers premium to per-
sons going out of the State. The iniquity of |
this passenger tariff, which is the direct out
growth of consolidation, and which carries a
man to Boston at the rate of little more
than two cents a mile, while it carries him to |
Portland or other points within the State at |
rates varying from three and half to over
five cents per mile, has already been fully ex-
posed In these columns. Nor is it irrelevant |