The Portland daily press., 1872-12-11
Concerning Railways and Government.
IF 40 CONTROL of sixtv thoucaod offinorc bv

the appointing power is considered danger
Gus, how would the increase of the official
army to hundred thousand be regarded. The
enlargement of the functions of the executive
branch of the Government has steadily pro-
crossed, until we now seem on the point Oh
transferring to the State the management Of
affairs that have hitherto been regarded as
naturally the care of individuals or assocla-
tions of individuals. The postal telegraph
will ultimately add more than third to the
number of appointees of the Government, and
as we have seen in late number of this pa
per, a purchase by the Government of the
telegraph lines ought to be a thing OF the near
future. And there are those who already go
much further than this. The notion that the
States separately or collectively should assume
the management of at least the trunk line of
railroads is net by any means confined to
Charles Francis Adams Jr. and his Massachu-
sets followers. There are many others who,
rightly or wrongly, hold that this heroic
method is absolutely the only means of saving
the people from the disgraceful tyrrany to
which the great corporations already subject
them.
rney hold that even the immense enlarge
ment of the civil service corps incident to
the transfer, to say nothing of the hundreds
Of millions it would take to effect it, would
b. an evil Of less magnitude than those with
which the present system every day threatens
us. 1t may be safely assumed that these the
orists are yet in decided minority, but it is
nevertheless true that the plan Of running
railroads at the public charge has more advo-
Gates to-day than the postal telegraph scheme,
which is apparently ON the eve of being car
ried into effect, had two or three years ago.
So that if the government control of the
telegraph is attended with good results, it is
not unreasonable to anticipate that boards of
government directors will, at period not
very remote, take the place Of agents of pri-
vac railroad corporations. We are not ar
guing the right or wrong of this tremendous
step, the logical consequence of which would
be the running of seventy-fve thousand
miles of railroad by officers appointed by the
President or his subcrdnates. 1t will re-
quire the pressure of great emergency,
the imminence of a great danger, to
reconcile the people to it. But every
Erie raid, every new acquisition of the
Pennsylvania or New York Central, every
new failure of the Pacific railroad to
keep faith with the government, every di-
version of corporate funds from the contr,
of the stockholders, as in case of the Yer
mont Central, and every rise in the freight
tariff that nrOhihitS tho Hnu Of or
products to the ssaboard, paves the way for
it. To meet this last outrage Senator HAM
lin Of this State has framed bill for building
a through line with steel rails and double
track from this city to the Pacific. In this
way he proposes to break the back of the
great monopolies which make the blessings
of providence curse by the imposition of
prohibitory taxes which throw great crops
of corn and wheat back into the hands OF
the producers. In this way he would de-
throne the new monarchs who levy trib-
ute like the Caesars. But the passage
of such bill and the construction of
such road would be an entering
wedge, making way for that solution
of the railroad problem which seems most
practicable. 1t would accustom the public
mind to the performance of unusual functions
by the government, and, by depriving the
private corporations of the gains which their
monopoly has hitherto given them, would
make them as anxious to surrender their
franchises to the government on favorable
terms, as they now are to avoid the shadow
of government control or restriction.
Many Of the dangers arising from the vast in
crease of appointees of COVE. nment would be
obviated by the necessity of special training
for very large portion OF railway employees
as well as telegraph operators. But the dan
gers of adding control of such immense inter
ests to the already enormous powers of the gem
eral government are great and the people will
not consent to such increase except under
pressure of unbe rabe impositons from rail-
wa corporations and combinations. The
control of the telegraph system by govern
ment involving a comparatively inconsidera-
BILE property interest and being clearly of grea
public convenience will undoubtedly be sus-
taine by general popular approval
Apropos of governmental interference with |
railways we quote in another column short |
article from the Pitsburg Commercial on |
''cheap transportion.''
LAST July the Railroad Commissioners pc |