The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-01-03
THE PRESS.
MORNING, JAN. 3, 1872.


s'My dear Mr.. Jones, we understand that |
you are in favor of our measure now pending
in your house. We shall be glad to have you
afford us all the aid in your power,-to act,
as it were, as our attorney in this matter.
We do not expect our friends to work for us
without pay, and we shall beg of you to ac-
cept as slight token of our esteem the sum
of 500. Corruption and bribery we detest,
and you are not by any means to regard the
present transaction in that light. We merely
pay you for services rendered, and your honor
and selfrespect are not in the smallest degree
compromised"
1t is feared that members of the Fifty-first
Legislature-their names will be found on the
outside of this paper-will be piled with such
solicitations as the above. 1t is the old form
ula-the one unquestionably made use OF by
Satan in tempting Eve and by Tweed in buy
ing Winans. Hitherto it has been mainly un
known in this State There are probably not
half dozen men in Maine who have ever re-
ceived brides while members OF the Leglsla-
ture. Would that this condition OF Arcadlan
innocence might continue! But who can tell
what results may ensue from the ambition,
rivalries and contentious of corpora
tions in the great railroad session?
From present appearances the first
business of the members will be railroads,
the second railroads, and the third rail-
roads. Consolidation, investigation of the
European and North American grant and
score of charters will afford an ample oppor-
tunity for the Development of any latent
capabilities for corruption that there may
chance to be. One year may completely
blacken the singularly pure fame of the State.
One year may transfer it from the list of in
dependent, autonomous American common
wealths to the large and unhappily increas-
ing list of political bodies organized merely
for registering the DEGREES of railroad corpora
tons and other masters. Hereafter, if the
outworks of legislative integrity are carried
this year, there will annually assemble at Au-
gusta body of venal rogues who will put
themselves in the market as matter of
course. Their current price will be quoted
among dealers in legislators with as much
precision as the price of herring or split peas
among merchants. AS chance may direct,
the State will be owned by some great capt.
talist, as Rhode Island is by the Spragues, by
a railroad, as Pennsylvania is owned by the
Central road of that State, or by modern
Hehogabalus like Fisk, or gilded rowdy like
Tweed. The crisis has come. Monopolists,
embryo railroad kings and their tools jeer at
the suggestion of danger, but the people be-
lieve that it exists and are thoroughly alive to
its terrible import. aa ..4..-
The Legislature must be watched. Rea-
sonable men will not ask that the railroad or
any other interest be treated unfairly or I'M
generously. Every person of intelligence
knows how much is due to the railroad sys-
tenn. So long as it is content to exist like all
other interests in subordination to the gener-
al good of the whole, subject to the laws, ev-
cry facility should be offered for its extension
and improvement. But when it becomes an
instrument of plumber, when it aspires to I'M
limited license for robbery and to absolute po-
litical empire, it must be resisted. The duty
of the honest citizens of every town this win
ter will be to see that their representatives do
not betray them. 1t will be the duty of all to
note carefully the composition of the commit
tees of the two houses and see that they have
not been made up in the interest of the mo-
nopolists, no matter who the Speaker of the
House or the President of the Senate may be.
Let it be understood at Augusta that impor-
tant legislative acts will undergo the severest
scrutiny, and that the course of every men,
Der will be carefully watched, and the danger
may be averted for the present at least. No
body likes to take brides in full view of half a
million people. ISL. -.,. -a 4e