The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-01-18
THE PR ESS.
THURSDAY MORNING, JAN. IS, 1872.

Monopolist. .FaIlacies: ssThey Only ASK
Power to Sell their Bonds;'' sEnglish
Roads Have Consolidated" s'Railroads
are Bound to Consolidate" &c. II
The Maine Central railroad will hardly give
up It's imperial ambition for newspaper ar
ticle or two. A corporation worth thirteen
millions isn't likely to renounce its purposes,
good or bad, on anything less than compul-
sion. Accordingly we find that the officers.
and agents of the road are exceedingly active
at Augusta, and that they are confident that
the Legislature will listen to their plausible
requests. Its agents elsewhere are busy in
disseminating through such newspapers as
can be controlled in the interest of monopoly
lspecious fallaeies, calculated to lull to sleep
the grave apprehensions naturally excited by
the steady onward march of the railroad plu-
tocracy. .iBs Gr Ittt
toOne of the fallacies which is at the same
time the most common and most transpar-
ent is this: "Why exhibit such hostility to
us and mankindr' Good sir, who is hostile to
them? You will perceive that you are I'M
thinkingly assuming for fact what, on refiec-
ton, you will acknowledge has not a shadow
of foundation Because the railroad is one of
the greatest factors of our civilization, must
we make Juggernaut of it and throw our
selves beneath its myriad wheels? The rail-.
road, like fire and water, is good servant
but bad master. There is no legitimate,
reasoning from the fact that our happiness is
Il increased by this modern wonder to the con-
clusion that one man or ten must be allowed
the incredible power incident to its sole direc-
ton and the reception of all its direct advan-
tages. The PRESS has no hostility to rail-
roads; but it has very decided objection to
railroad monopoly, to railroad masters and to
railroad kings. Reader, whoever you are, do
not allow yourself to be drawn away from the
main questions blythe scurvy trick of general
defamation on the blessings conferred by
railroads. FE HA i-ta
80 Another fine display of ingenuity on the
part of the monopolists is this, "Go to! It's
of no use to resist. 1t is law of modern
commercial development that connecting
roads should consolidate. See how they have
done it in other parts of the country in spite
y of Legislatures, people and everything else"
This is substantially the ground taken by
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., in a series of re-
markable articles on the railroad question.
This point is made great use of by the monop-
olists+here. But the only proof of the neces-
sity of consolidation which they offer is the
undoubted fact that in some other States
Legislatures have been so corrupt, newspa-
pers so false to their real clients, the people,
and the masses so careless or ignorant that
great railroad corporations have bought,
stolen or bullied their way to the possession
of such power that they are now irresistible.
Suppose we try the experiment in Maine of
seeing whether roads are bound to CONSOLE
date" in defiance of law. Suppose we begin
with the Maine Central, whose prompt recog-
milton of this new commercial law is SO easily
understood. Let it be denied the power to
reap the expected harvest from acts done in
defiance of the law. We have tried some
wholesome experiments in Maine, and this
would be another. Our Yankee ingenuity
has found out way to interrupt and embar-
rass the robbing of banks, so that the State is
infamous among craftsmen everywhere as a
spot to be Stunned by their craft. The Lime
Rock robbers lately assured visitor
that in no other State in the Union
would they have found the slightest
difficulty in procuring their release. We
have tried the experiment of restraining the
sale of liquor, which has also proved partial
success. We have tried the experiment of
having our Legislation done by representa-
tives of the people and not of railroad or 9TH
err corporations. Let us try the expert
ment Of holding corporations chartered
by the State from defying its laws and
usurping its functions. 1t will perhaps
be found that the argument of the monopo-
lists is not based so much on newly discoy-
cred law of commercial development as on
false presumption that by law of human ma
ture all men will yield to corrupt solicitation.
'sBut the English railroads have consolida-
ted" What of that? Why, in England they
keep a whole corps of dentists in ordinary,
paid by heayily-taxed people who also sup.
port three million other paupers, to look after
the teeth of vicious young man of feeble in
tellectual Development of whom they intend
some day to make king with salary civ
il list,'' they call it, in their high-toned way
ofseveral millions Shall we, then, have a
like establishment for Master Grant? There
is no more reason for copying the English
system of railroad administration than for
shutting passengers up in compartments af-
ter the manner in which the reticent, unso-
cial John Bull delights. .1.a5- &, ~
"Jim Fisk wasn't consolidationist." No,
nor was he cannibal that we ever knew.
Shall we infer, then, that authopophogy is
right? Shall we have a man-eating President
forthwith? Consolidation may possibly be
wrong, even if Fisk did keep clear of it.
There were limits to the capabilities of that
wonderful man. He could not exhaust all
the possibilities of personal vice and business
dishonesty in so short career. Fisk has not
been suggested as specimen consolidation
ist, but his case serves to point out the dan
gers springing from the possession by one or
more unprincipled men of the terrific power
that is conferred by the control of so vast a
property as great trunk railroad. He serves
to show how helplessly the people fall into the
clutches of man who is permitted to defy
the laws of the State in laying hands on
great aggregations of capital. a ~
The Biddeford Journal in its zeal for the
''cause" takes the singular ground that there
is no objection to the consolidation of com
petiag roads. 1t is only connecting roads
whose almalgamation is to be dreaded. This
argument is unique and so original that we
are content to let it stand without comment
or criticism
We come now to a bit Of moral suason on
which great reliance is placed. 1t is some
thing like this: CONSOLIDATION is inevitable.
But no. matter. Just keep perfectly quiet,
let the railroads combine as they will without
control or interference Then, when they
have completed their work, and there is but
one corporationrwithin the limits of the State,
let US hold that organization to a strict ac-
count and place upon it all needful restric-
tons. The problem will be very much sim
plified. y How we admire the simple. child
like faith that fondly trusts to see the STRIPPING
that has just treated the Legislature with such
impudent defiance, grown to giant, come a
trembling culprit to bow to the DEGREES of the
same tribunal!-the touching simplicity that