The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-12-14
SATURDAY EVENING, DEC. IA. 1877
4 GENERAL RAILROAD LAW.

auce of o general railroad law, and propose,
as the General Assembly is now in session,
to press the subject still further upon
the attention of the public, in the hope
that some legislation may be reached better
calculated to meet the demands Of our peo-
pie and the general requirements of capital
seeking investment here in railroad enter
prses than the loose system Of granting
special charters heretofore prevailing in this
State. 1t is safe to say that nine-telths Of
all the railroad charters thus far granted
by the Legislature Of Virginia have been
prepared in advance by the parties seeking
the special franchises granted, and that as
general rule, no obtained consideration has
been given them than q reference to the
proper committee and such hurried legisla-
ton as usually follows an approving report,
coming in, it may be, at the heel of pro-
traeted and tedious session.
In saying this we cast no special reflec-
ton upon our own State Legislature, for
what has been true in regard to its delibe-
rations in the past has been perhaps
more strikingly the case in most of the
other states in which these important
franchises have been sought and obtained.
The les islation has almost uniformly been
in the interests Of those seeking the special
grants named, since the laws have been
passed ia substantially the form 10
which their provisions have come from
the hands of those originally drafting them.
In this way the railroad capitalists Of the
country have become, in effect, the trainers
Of their own laws-have projected their
own lines Of improvement, regulated their
own charges for freight and passage, in-
vented their own schemes for stock water
ing, made patent the virtue of fictitious
dividends, rendered the value Of stock not
a question to be ascertained by calcula-
ton of receipts and expenditures, but de-
termined by the quotations of stock
board, created in the interests Of the gene
raj stockholders, and managed in such
way that gambling, and not industry, Is
recognized as the successful business of
life.
In oil this we have lost sight OF the fun.
damental idea which should obtain smons
our people, that it is not capital thus in
vested that creates wealth, but only n,ores
it; that all the wealth Of the state consists
in that which tho farmer creates by his Ia
Dor, the artisan by his skill, the mechanic by
bis industry, the miner by his pick and spade
and the manufacturer by the impressed
values ne gives to raw material. All 9TH
ers are mere transporters, distributors, and
consumers of wealth, who should be pro.
tected by law, but not made its special
farorites in the legislation secured at the
hands of the state. Railroads are
advantageous when properly built
and operated, but they are useless
without the great adjuncts of industry
which create wealth. and give the condi.
tons which make the development of the
railway possible. What is required at
the hands of legislation, then, is such laws
as will give growth, stability, regularity,
and general thrift to those industrial inter.
ests that create wealth, rather than to those
which supply, transport OF move it.
But such has not been the character Of
the special legislation to which VIC refer,
BOZ is it likely to be so long as the mysts.
ries of the system Of legislative engineer.
ing, almost too complicated and marvellous
to DO within the comprehension of ordinary
legislators, by which the special powers and
privileges of railroad corporations have
been heretofore, IN many instances, secured.
The despotism of feudal privileges, which
depended for their tenure upon the sword,
was not greater in the palmiest days of that
institution, than the despotsm of capital,
now invested under these special or priyi-
legged charters, and welded against the pro-
ductive industry Of the country. As q
proof OF this, we have only to refer to the
fluctuations between the New York Gen.
trail and the Erie, in the charges upon
freight from Chicago to New York city.
During the year 1869, when the COMPETE
ton between these tworival lines was at its
highest pitch, the charges for freight be.
tween the two cities named varied from
fve TO thirty-seven dollars and sixty
cents ton, and between New York and
st. Louis from seven to forty-six dollars a
ton; willis between these great CEN
tiers of commerce, at points where the two
lines failed to compete. the intervening in
dustry had to suffer for the demora,ization
which this species OF gambling necessarily
produced. No fendal barons, controlling
tho highways through their possessions,
ever dominated more absolutely over
the industry Of the country than
did these railroad giants when,
they came to measure, not swords,
but consolidated stock interests, against
each other. The farmer found his profits
consumed by the ruinous charges demand
cd for freighting it to market, while the
manufacturer was forced to suspend his
operations BY reason of this wretchcd war.
fare which trampled all the smaller indus
tries Of the country under it's gigantic feet.
The excitements Of the stock exchange,
the contests and intrigues of speculation.